There is a difference between a reporter and a columnist. A report writes the facts. A columnist writes the truth as they see it.

Software News & Views is written by Burt Rosen. Burt is a columnist, and is expressing his personal and professional opinions in these pages. Burt has been a software professional for over 30 years, and a writer and speaker for the last 20 years. Burt was a columnist for CWCE Magazine from June of 1999 thru March of 2005. He is currently a columnist for Universal Thread Magazine and a contributor to the Virtual FoxPro User Group.

Burt's style is to convey technical information about computer software and the computer industry in general with a light and somewhat humorous touch. He specializes in explaining sometimes complex technical issues in language that everyone, technical or non-technical, can understand.

When Burt does a review of a piece of software, he places the product in use in his company Rosen Systems, Inc. Burt then writes his review based on real world experience using the product in question. We never accept payment for writing about any product or company. We do however accept copies of software that we will use, test, and review.

We do sometimes review products and/or services in which we have a financial interest. When we do, that fact will be clearly stated at the beginning of the review. We also sometimes find products that are good enough that we want to become resellers or affiliates for the product. The decision to become a reseller or affiliate is always made after a review is written, and never affects the review itself. If you are interested in the products we resell, they are presented on Burt's personal website www.burtrosen.com.

What types of goods and services do we cover? Our primary coverage is on products for small to mid-size businesses. Our secondary emphasis is on products of interest to Visual FoxPro Developers. We also do periodic book reviews of books that could be of interest to either programmers or the general public.