FoxTalk Reborn

Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are re-starting
it under a new title:

http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/

Authors are reporting that they're already reviewing galleys of the first
issue and an ordering process should be in place at www.hentzenwerke.com any
day.

Dan

glene77is
Wed Mar 05 21:39:55 CST 2008

On Mar 5, 7:40 pm, "Dan Freeman" <s...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are re-starting
> it under a new title:
>
> http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>
> Authors are reporting that they're already reviewing galleys of the first
> issue and an ordering process should be in place atwww.hentzenwerke.comany
> day.
>
> Dan

Good News!

Man-wai
Wed Mar 05 22:32:44 CST 2008

Dan Freeman wrote:
> Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are re-starting
> it under a new title:
>
> http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/

How about the price? FoxTalk was not cheap...

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.3
^ ^ 12:32:01 up 7 days 22:20 0 users load average: 0.08 0.06 0.01
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa/

Sergey
Thu Mar 06 07:16:02 CST 2008

Man-wai Chang ToDie wrote:
> Dan Freeman wrote:

>
> How about the price? FoxTalk was not cheap...
>

Check details on FoxRockx at http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxRockX
and http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxRockXIntroduction


--
--sb--

VFP MVP

Gene
Thu Mar 06 16:42:38 CST 2008

"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:

>Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are re-starting
>it under a new title:
>
>http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>
>Authors are reporting that they're already reviewing galleys of the first
>issue and an ordering process should be in place at www.hentzenwerke.com any
>day.

Putting the cat in with the canaries^W^W^W^W^Wfox in with the
chickens, why should I subscribe? What will FoxTalk be like, and how
will it be worth my money? I would like to see some examples.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

Dan
Thu Mar 06 16:57:45 CST 2008

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> "Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>> Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are
>> re-starting it under a new title:
>>
>> http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>>
>> Authors are reporting that they're already reviewing galleys of the
>> first issue and an ordering process should be in place at
>> www.hentzenwerke.com any day.
>
> Putting the cat in with the canaries^W^W^W^W^Wfox in with the
> chickens, why should I subscribe? What will FoxTalk be like, and how
> will it be worth my money? I would like to see some examples.

I'm not involved in any way, but two of us have provided links to
information pages.

This page lists the contents from the first issue:
http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxRockXIssues

I suspect the subscription will be worth it because it includes access to
the full online archive of past FoxTalk articles. Whether or not you find
that valuable probably depends on whether you ever read and/or learned from
a Foxtalk article. <s>

Dan

Gene
Thu Mar 06 20:17:33 CST 2008

"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:

[snip]

>I suspect the subscription will be worth it because it includes access to
>the full online archive of past FoxTalk articles. Whether or not you find
>that valuable probably depends on whether you ever read and/or learned from
>a Foxtalk article. <s>

I have one very old issue (January 1999). I was not impressed
with it. Maybe it was a representative issue, and maybe not. I have
read of complaints about Pinnacle. I certainly got a lot of mail from
them including something about my alleged SUBSCRIPTION just BEFORE I
got my SAMPLE issue. Ah, but the ownership has changed. What will
the new owners do?

Because of this, I have no idea what to expect.

Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?

Some sample articles would help. Is that archive any good? Free
access to, say ten, representative articles of various sorts through
the years would help.

A summary of the issue about to come -- titles are not enough --
would help.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

Paul
Thu Mar 06 20:29:40 CST 2008

I liked it well enough when Pinnacle was publishing. When Eli took over (or
name change?), it got bad. Customer service was atrocious. They were stupid,
too - mailing me 3-4 subscription solicitations every week for many months,
even though I already had a subscription. There goes the profit they made
from me, and from several other people too.

I finally dropped them. If they're back and improved, that's a good thing.



"Gene Wirchenko" <genew@ocis.net> wrote in message
news:up81t3deg8n44qqmppaqd51rcbf62vkjch@4ax.com...
>
> I have one very old issue (January 1999). I was not impressed
> with it. Maybe it was a representative issue, and maybe not. I have
> read of complaints about Pinnacle. I certainly got a lot of mail from
> them including something about my alleged SUBSCRIPTION just BEFORE I
> got my SAMPLE issue. Ah, but the ownership has changed. What will
> the new owners do?
>
> Because of this, I have no idea what to expect.
>
> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>
> Some sample articles would help. Is that archive any good? Free
> access to, say ten, representative articles of various sorts through
> the years would help.
>
> A summary of the issue about to come -- titles are not enough --
> would help.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Gene Wirchenko
>
> Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
> I have preferences.
> You have biases.
> He/She has prejudices.

Man-wai
Thu Mar 06 21:52:58 CST 2008

>
> I finally dropped them. If they're back and improved, that's a good thing.

A bit late for a comeback, isn't it? Most VFP developers have abandoned
ship...


--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.3
^ ^ 11:52:01 up 8 days 21:40 0 users load average: 0.00 0.02 0.00
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa/

Rush
Thu Mar 06 23:32:48 CST 2008

Man-wai Chang ToDie wrote:
>>
>> I finally dropped them. If they're back and improved, that's a good
>> thing.
>
> A bit late for a comeback, isn't it? Most VFP developers have
> abandoned ship...
>
>

"Most" means at least a majority; can you tell us where you get your
numbers? And with over a thousand subscribers so far, it would appear
that they might have more support than you give them credit for . . .

- Rush

Man-wai
Thu Mar 06 23:40:46 CST 2008

> "Most" means at least a majority; can you tell us where you get your
> numbers? And with over a thousand subscribers so far, it would appear
> that they might have more support than you give them credit for . . .

Well not the case in Hong Kong... I don't have numbers, but based on the
job advertisements ... um.... US may be a better place for VFP.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.3
^ ^ 13:39:01 up 8 days 23:27 0 users load average: 0.03 0.03 0.00
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa/

Dan
Fri Mar 07 11:19:59 CST 2008

When Eli bought it, they ruined it. They stopped paying their authors (so
they stopped writing for it), and fired the editor (Rainer Becker, who is
helming the new magazine). Toward the end, they were re-running content from
ages ago (without paying the authors, again), or content completely
unrelated to VFP.

We dropped them when the authors left, but in the process of cancelling our
subscription they STARTED A NEW ONE AND BILLED THE CORPORATE AMEX. Our
bookkeeper, who handled the whole thing, fought with them for about 30
minutes on the phone and then just turned them over to AMEX as a chargeback.

Eli is the target of a class action suit over their unethical subscription
practices.

Dan

Paul Pedersen wrote:
> I liked it well enough when Pinnacle was publishing. When Eli took
> over (or name change?), it got bad. Customer service was atrocious.
> They were stupid, too - mailing me 3-4 subscription solicitations
> every week for many months, even though I already had a subscription.
> There goes the profit they made from me, and from several other
> people too.
> I finally dropped them. If they're back and improved, that's a good
> thing.
>
>
> "Gene Wirchenko" <genew@ocis.net> wrote in message
> news:up81t3deg8n44qqmppaqd51rcbf62vkjch@4ax.com...
>>
>> I have one very old issue (January 1999). I was not impressed
>> with it. Maybe it was a representative issue, and maybe not. I have
>> read of complaints about Pinnacle. I certainly got a lot of mail
>> from them including something about my alleged SUBSCRIPTION just
>> BEFORE I got my SAMPLE issue. Ah, but the ownership has changed. What
>> will the new owners do?
>>
>> Because of this, I have no idea what to expect.
>>
>> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>>
>> Some sample articles would help. Is that archive any good? Free
>> access to, say ten, representative articles of various sorts through
>> the years would help.
>>
>> A summary of the issue about to come -- titles are not enough --
>> would help.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Gene Wirchenko
>>
>> Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
>> I have preferences.
>> You have biases.
>> He/She has prejudices.

Dan
Fri Mar 07 11:21:18 CST 2008

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?

As I said, I have no connection but I did post a direct link to their
portal. Why not ask THEM?

Dan

Paul
Fri Mar 07 12:28:34 CST 2008


"Man-wai Chang ToDie" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:O6xvEXBgIHA.3352@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> "Most" means at least a majority; can you tell us where you get your
>> numbers? And with over a thousand subscribers so far, it would appear
>> that they might have more support than you give them credit for . . .
>
> Well not the case in Hong Kong... I don't have numbers, but based on the
> job advertisements ... um.... US may be a better place for VFP.
>


Not that good, from what I can see.

My timing sucks pretty much. A while back, I jumped on the Java bandwagon -
three years too late. By the time I got certified and started looking for
work, all the Java people were getting laid off and I found myself competing
for work with many programmers who had 3-4 years experience in Java. Not so
good for me.

So I dropped that and went back to FoxPro. Another bad move, looks like.

Paul
Fri Mar 07 12:30:12 CST 2008

Sounds like it's well deserved.


"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:uXB25dHgIHA.3780@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> When Eli bought it, they ruined it. They stopped paying their authors (so
> they stopped writing for it), and fired the editor (Rainer Becker, who is
> helming the new magazine). Toward the end, they were re-running content
> from ages ago (without paying the authors, again), or content completely
> unrelated to VFP.
>
> We dropped them when the authors left, but in the process of cancelling
> our subscription they STARTED A NEW ONE AND BILLED THE CORPORATE AMEX. Our
> bookkeeper, who handled the whole thing, fought with them for about 30
> minutes on the phone and then just turned them over to AMEX as a
> chargeback.
>
> Eli is the target of a class action suit over their unethical subscription
> practices.
>
> Dan
>
> Paul Pedersen wrote:
>> I liked it well enough when Pinnacle was publishing. When Eli took
>> over (or name change?), it got bad. Customer service was atrocious.
>> They were stupid, too - mailing me 3-4 subscription solicitations
>> every week for many months, even though I already had a subscription.
>> There goes the profit they made from me, and from several other
>> people too.
>> I finally dropped them. If they're back and improved, that's a good
>> thing.
>>
>>
>> "Gene Wirchenko" <genew@ocis.net> wrote in message
>> news:up81t3deg8n44qqmppaqd51rcbf62vkjch@4ax.com...
>>>
>>> I have one very old issue (January 1999). I was not impressed
>>> with it. Maybe it was a representative issue, and maybe not. I have
>>> read of complaints about Pinnacle. I certainly got a lot of mail
>>> from them including something about my alleged SUBSCRIPTION just
>>> BEFORE I got my SAMPLE issue. Ah, but the ownership has changed. What
>>> will the new owners do?
>>>
>>> Because of this, I have no idea what to expect.
>>>
>>> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>>>
>>> Some sample articles would help. Is that archive any good? Free
>>> access to, say ten, representative articles of various sorts through
>>> the years would help.
>>>
>>> A summary of the issue about to come -- titles are not enough --
>>> would help.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Gene Wirchenko
>>>
>>> Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
>>> I have preferences.
>>> You have biases.
>>> He/She has prejudices.
>
>

Man-wai
Sat Mar 08 01:43:43 CST 2008

> Not that good, from what I can see.
> My timing sucks pretty much. A while back, I jumped on the Java bandwagon -
> three years too late.
> work, all the Java people were getting laid off and I found myself competing
> for work with many programmers who had 3-4 years experience in Java. Not so
> good for me.

Most existing VFP jobs in Hong Kong are from small software companies.
Big corps (mostly in finance and banking sectors) in HK mostly use
dot.net or java.

> So I dropped that and went back to FoxPro. Another bad move, looks like.

It's great you could find a Foxpro job that keeps your house and family. :)

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.3
^ ^ 15:40:01 up 10 days 1:28 0 users load average: 0.31 0.46 0.21
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa/

Paul
Sat Mar 08 14:04:02 CST 2008


"Man-wai Chang ToDie" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23VtOXAPgIHA.5160@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> It's great you could find a Foxpro job that keeps your house and family.
> :)

It doesn't, any more. That's the problem.

Gene
Sat Mar 08 17:41:04 CST 2008

"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>
>As I said, I have no connection but I did post a direct link to their
>portal. Why not ask THEM?

What is the E-mail address? I do not read (is it) German, so the
for the one E-mail address that I did see, I do not know if it is the
one to use.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

Dan
Sat Mar 08 22:07:56 CST 2008

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> "Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>> Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>>> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>>
>> As I said, I have no connection but I did post a direct link to their
>> portal. Why not ask THEM?
>
> What is the E-mail address? I do not read (is it) German, so the
> for the one E-mail address that I did see, I do not know if it is the
> one to use.

How provincial. Fortunately, the Germans involved speak English.

Have you explored ANYTHING on your own?

You'll have to, because I don't have time to explore for you.

Dan

Man-wai
Sat Mar 08 23:06:18 CST 2008

>> It's great you could find a Foxpro job that keeps your house and family.
>> :)
> It doesn't, any more. That's the problem.

If you stayed in a big companies, then you could look for a transfer.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you!
/( _ )\ (Xubuntu 7.04) Linux 2.6.24.3
^ ^ 13:05:01 up 10 days 22:53 0 users load average: 0.39 0.21 0.13
? ? (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa/

Zootal
Sun Mar 09 13:45:00 CDT 2008


"Man-wai Chang ToDie" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:OWdtBNagIHA.4076@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> It's great you could find a Foxpro job that keeps your house and family.
>>> :)
>> It doesn't, any more. That's the problem.
>
> If you stayed in a big companies, then you could look for a transfer.
>

There are still companies hiring FoxPro people to work on project
conversions. Most of them will have a future doing non-FoxPro work in the
same company. My current project is one such, and they are training a half
dozen FoxPro people in dot.net. But...FoxPro work is becoming quite scarce
<sigh>...

Claude
Sun Mar 09 13:53:35 CDT 2008

Things have changed significantly with VFP/MS so doing the same thing that
was done with Foxtalk is probably not the right strategy. For example,
considering MS is not the benevolent owner some may have thought, I would
think developers would be more interested in articles not revolving around
making MS more money. For example, coverage of open source VFP projects
would be good as well as less favoriticism towards certain products. In
other words, less spin would probably be appreciated...

"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eM51gKyfIHA.5180@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Our friends in the DFPUG have purchased FoxTalk magazine and are
> re-starting it under a new title:
>
> http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>
> Authors are reporting that they're already reviewing galleys of the first
> issue and an ordering process should be in place at www.hentzenwerke.com
> any day.
>
> Dan
>

Olaf
Sun Mar 09 17:09:31 CDT 2008

Hi Gene,

here you go:
http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/

de is a german domain, as DFPUG is the german foxpro user group.
But the introduction text is english.

You should take a look first, then complain.

And it leads you to www.hentzenwerke.com for further info and
subscription.

Bye, Olaf.

Rush
Sun Mar 09 21:14:17 CDT 2008

Olaf Doschke wrote:
> Hi Gene,
>
> here you go:
> http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>
> de is a german domain, as DFPUG is the german foxpro user group.
> But the introduction text is english.
>
> You should take a look first, then complain.
>
> And it leads you to www.hentzenwerke.com for further info and
> subscription.
>
> Bye, Olaf.

And single issues are available through Hentzenwerke - $19 for an eCopy,
$25 for printed (which includes eCopy).

- Rush

Gene
Sun Mar 09 21:27:09 CDT 2008

"Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> "Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>>>> Do I get to find out, or am I expected to buy a pig in a poke?
>>>
>>> As I said, I have no connection but I did post a direct link to their
>>> portal. Why not ask THEM?
>>
>> What is the E-mail address? I do not read (is it) German, so the
>> for the one E-mail address that I did see, I do not know if it is the
>> one to use.
>
>How provincial. Fortunately, the Germans involved speak English.

Well, I do live in a province (British Columbia). I do admit to
not knowing all of the world's major languages.

>Have you explored ANYTHING on your own?

Yup.

>You'll have to, because I don't have time to explore for you.

Here I thought someone might have an E-mail address that is known
to be correct.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

Gene
Sun Mar 09 21:30:15 CDT 2008

"Olaf Doschke" <olaf.doschke@t-aufderlinie.de> wrote:

>here you go:
>http://portal.dfpug.de/dFPUG/Portal/FoxRockX/
>
>de is a german domain, as DFPUG is the german foxpro user group.
>But the introduction text is english.
>
>You should take a look first, then complain.

I did look.

>And it leads you to www.hentzenwerke.com for further info and
>subscription.

Which, when I looked on Friday, did not have anything that I
could see. I looked again just now, and there is something dated
today (9th).

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko


Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.

Craig
Mon Mar 10 09:31:19 CDT 2008

It's not FoxTalk. FoxTalk is dead. The new magazine is FoxRockx. It has many
of the same authors that have been in both FoxTalk and FoxPro Advisor over
the years and has all new content. It will be published in English.

What else do you want to know?

--

Craig Berntson
Microsoft MVP

-------------
"Gene Wirchenko" <genew@ocis.net> wrote in message
news:cns0t3tffukujtfsqsh648krf51hrbd8og@4ax.com...
> "Dan Freeman" <spam@microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> Putting the cat in with the canaries^W^W^W^W^Wfox in with the
> chickens, why should I subscribe? What will FoxTalk be like, and how
> will it be worth my money? I would like to see some examples.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Gene Wirchenko
>
> Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
> I have preferences.
> You have biases.
> He/She has prejudices.

Craig
Mon Mar 10 09:33:32 CDT 2008

You'll see that, beginning in issue 1 with information on VFPx.

--

Craig Berntson
Microsoft MVP

-------------
"Claude Fox" <claude.fox@activevfp.com> wrote in message
news:OVtokbhgIHA.6092@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Things have changed significantly with VFP/MS so doing the same thing that
> was done with Foxtalk is probably not the right strategy. For example,
> considering MS is not the benevolent owner some may have thought, I would
> think developers would be more interested in articles not revolving around
> making MS more money. For example, coverage of open source VFP projects
> would be good as well as less favoriticism towards certain products. In
> other words, less spin would probably be appreciated...