Fan Mail---March 4, 2000

Just received a very nice piece of fan mail about my books in which the author describes the 'novel' approach of my book

I would just like to say that I enjoy your books on Visual Basic. I have two and am going to buy another soon.

These are the first programming books that I have ever read that aren't extremely boring.

The book is more like an interesting novel because of the way you do the dialogue instead of just spitting out pages and pages of boring, hard-to-follow facts.

I bought the first book in the series about beginning Visual Basic so that I could learn Visual Basic and get a summer job doing programming. I am not even done with the first book, but I still bought the book on objects in Visual Basic.

I used to program in Q-Basic back in the ancient days of un-user-friendly DOS and a year ago, I made an attempt at learning Visual C++, but I now know more in Visual Basic than in both Q-Basic andVisual C++.

Thanks!

Danny

5 Great things today---May 3, 1999

People who say thank you

People who believe in something greater than themselves

People who hope

Meatloaf

The Please Touch Museum. My wife went to the Museum, and the baby's stroller was stolen. The museum offered to pay for a replacement.

Guy Weaver---Hypocrite

I formerly loved watching professional baseball, especially the Philadelphia Phillies.

However, in 1996, I became so fed up with professional athletes, I decided to give up my full season ticket plan for the Phillies.

The Phils worked with me for two years so that I could hold onto my season tickets, but unfortunately, in 1998 we parted, as a partner of mine, Guy Weaver, owner of JetPlate Inc, took over the seats. (Actually, he called the Phillies Season Ticket office and bypassed thousands of people on Full Season Wait List.)

By the way, Guy, you promised to call me every year and sell me some of my home plate tickets.

Haven't heard from you since.

I think you always complained about someone you were involved with doing that to you with Basketball or Hockey tickets.

Hypocrite.

My book is outselling Harry Potter

For one day anyway, my book

Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6

is the number one selling book on Amazon--and Harry Potter is second!

Just published my first book!

I'm happy to announce that I've just published my first book,

Learn to Program With Visual Basic 6
Wrox Publishing
ISBN 1902-745-000

It will be published under Wrox's ActivePath imprint.

You can order copies online at Amazon using this link...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590591518/ref=nosim/professorsmileys

Volunteer Group--what happened to it

Someone just asked what happened to my Volunteer Group?

Question: What happened to your volunteer group---I thought it was a wonderful idea.

Anser. My volunteer group was a great idea

http://www.johnsmiley.com/volunteers.htm

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be able to solve the distance problem---people working on a single project that are geographically dispersed have some big hurdles to surmount.

I've read recently about a similar program, however, and I think they're doing a better job of administering the program than I had the time to spend. Check them out at:

http://www.vbdesignteam.com

Things that bother me...November 4, 1998

Small people who spread tales about my kids...There's a God and you'll have some explaining to do...
People who abort their babies. My wife and I will gladly adopt another baby!!!
Companies who tell me my contract is in the mail when they know it isn't
People who overuse the word "they"
People who don't obey rules
People who hit their kids
People who go over the posted speed limit
People who drink and drive
People who talk in Church
Catholics who leave church before it is over
People who say they're practicing Catholics but don't go to church
Jews who don't go to the synagogue
Protestants who don't go to church
People who don't commit to something
Car mechanics who rip me off
People who love their lawns more than they care for their children
People who love their cars more than their wives
People who love their pets more than people
People who say they "don't know" when they haven't really looked
People who give answers when they're not really sure