Dear Friend,

My name is Tomer.  I am the author of the Food And Exercise Diary for Windows, and many other software packages.  I want to share with you a little about myself so that you will know this more than just a simple business transaction, but a connection between two people.

I have been programming software for 21 years, since I have been 13 years old.  I started by getting hooked on video games.  I played them at the local store because we could not offered to buy our own.  It was an ATARI 64 console.

I became super at Pac Man.  I could play for as long as I wanted without getting caught by those things running after Pac Man.  It was just amazing to me how something like this game could be done.  So one day I decided that I wanted to program myself something like this too.

So, I asked my father to buy a computer.  I just turned 13 and it was my Bar-Mitzvah gift.  I soon learned basic.  Then within a few months learned assembler.  I programmed hundreds of little programs, for many, many years, just for fun.

Eventually, it came time to go to high school, so I decided to go to an engineering high school where you can learn computers.  I got accepted, it was an elite high school in Israel.  It was tough to get in.  The computer classes where very easy for me.  I stayed for hours, upon hours, in the computer lab programming in the main-frame computer Vax.

We were living in Israel back then, and I decided that I wanted, when time comes to serve in the army, to join the computer division of the army.  But God had other plans for me.

We soon had to leave Israel due to financial difficulties, moving to the USA, where I continue to study computer science at Tufts University.  I was registered for a B.A. in computer sciences, but the courses I actual took where Ph.D. level.  So I actually earned a B.A. while really studying graduate level courses.
The computer courses at Tufts where also easy for me.  I graduated with a double major, computer science and math, in two and half years, instead of 4 years.  It took me to program in 2 hours what took other students 2 weeks to complete.  I just had it in my blood since very early age.  And you know, whatever you do when you are a child, like learning to play some instrument, you just end up being really good at.

At the end of the of Tufts University, I opened my software company, and have been with it since.  It has been 13 years now that I run this software company.  I enjoy writing my own software.  Make it prefect.  Beautiful.  Functional, and let other people enjoy it too.

I don't like big software companies which make their money from the stock holdings more than from actual sales.  You see, this way, these companies can convince some investors to invest in them, and hand them some BS and get million of dollars, or more, while their actual software product is difficult to use, not working properly, and very expensive.  But they hyped it some billionaire who then gave them lots of money.

These companies do not make customers happy.  They frustrate the customers.  But the customer can do nothing because the company is not depending on making money from product sales, they make their money from investors.

This is not the case with my company.  I earn my living by actual sales.  And lose money, by software returns.  So if the software is not good, I am lost.  The software must be good.  The customer must be satisfied.  Otherwise, they ask for their money back.  So I am certain to make good software.  This way, the customer enjoys the software, and they keeping using it and we are both happy.

So there is not BS going around like with those million dollar companies.  An example of such a BS company is Symantec.  They have a big tag name.  Even I end up buying software from them.  But their software, like their Anti-Virus, is full of bugs, clumsy, and does not have enough options.  But it has a big corporate-look to it, and they have a big tag name.

Not once, and not twice, did I buy their Norton Anti-Virus, only to disable it because it was just bad.
This, I could not do, since I have a direct relationship with you.  And I also do not want to do such things.  It is true that something there is 1 or 2 bugs in my software that I have not caught.  But as soon as I get an email about it, I fix it, and send a fresh download to the user.  The turn around on this has been a few hours in the past.  Not like big companies, that when you call them with a bug, they firmly try to convince you that it is some other software's fault and their software.

And, they let you talk to some tech-guy who doesn't know anything.  It just wastes lots of peoples time.
I don't work like this.  When you send me an email, you are talking with a guy that has 21 years of programming experience.  Not with someone who complete a 3-month course, and still doesn't remember where the start button is.

Also, I have been programming windows since Windows 3.1 some 10 or more years a go.  I know the inner working of Windows because of that.  So I can diagnose problems fast.  This is not so with new programmers of the last 5 years.

In the last 5 years, Microsoft has developed so many layers of programming that new programmers taught in the last 5 years are so far removed from the inner working of windows, that they really do not have a clue what is going on.  Therefore, they waste a lot of peoples time when troubleshooting.
This is not to their fault.  The programming books for the new Microsoft technology purposely hide the inner working and the technology-behind-the-technology.  So, these programs are just put in the dark by design.  This is an ideology Microsoft has put up in their new programming approach.

Just to give a taste of the layer-on-top-of-layer of programming that Microsoft has done, consider this:  What I can do to day programming in 30 minutes would have taken me 3 months 7 years a go to program, and was impossible to program 15 years a go.

A program that would have taken 3-4 years to program in 1997, can be finished today in about 1 month.
This has been possible by programming advances that Microsoft has done.  The downside is that you have everything ready, you just have to put it together like Lego, but because of this, you also have no idea what is going on in each Lego piece.  You just use the Lego, and forget about it.

So, when something breaks with the Lego piece you have used, new programmers are stuck, they don't where to turn to.  Only old programmers that have programmed before these Lego pieces where invented, can have an idea of what is going on.

To make it short, I do a good job at programming, and I take care of my customers.  I answer emails quickly, within a few hours, and make sure everyone is happy.  Not like a big company where you are talking to a salaried person, who doesn't care if you are happy, upset, or if their software doesn't work for you.  After all, what is a loss of $100 or $40 to a multimillion dollar company.

Realize, I am not trying to sale myself.  I am just opening my thoughts with you so that you will know that I am here.  And you are embarking on small friendly relationship here when you buy, or just even visit my web site, with a true professional computer programmer, and an an honest, friendly small business owner.

Sincerely Yours,
Tomer Guez
TG Enterprises, Inc.