This is absolutely one of the greatest emails that I have ever read. Jeff Cope from Extensible By Design wrote about a blog post that he found about an email that some employees of Microsoft received from Bill Gates. It shows that we are not the only ones that get frustrated by computer software from time to time, we just don’t have the opportunity to send an email like this to get the developers and programmers attention. If you get a chance you HAVE to read this article.

Do you think that Jeff Ray, the CEO of SolidWorks, feels this way some times when and if he fires up the software. I am picturing Jeff preparing for the CSWA examine that he passed, crashing the software at some point and firing off one of these company wide emails. How funny would that be? But hey, we all know that SolidWorks doesn’t have any bugs that would crash the software, RIGHT???

I returned back home yesterday afternoon from a very, very hot Concord, Massachusetts were I had the opportunity to spend the day Tuesday with a GREAT group of SolidWorks employees looking at some of the new SolidWorks 2009 features and observing what seems to me to be a very fun project (even funner if the air had been working). Jeremy Regnerus, Craig Wilkinson and Darren Henry were great hosts throughout the day and really made me feel as comfortable as I could feel in what felt like 100 degree weather. I am not able to say a whole lot about the rest of my trip there but as soon as I am able to give more details I definitely will.

It was great to be able to take a tour of where ALL the magic happens at SolidWorks headquarters and it was also great to see a bunch of people that I met at SolidWorks World this past year in San Diego. It was fun to see Bill, Patrick, Laura, Nancy and many others that I probably won’t see again until Orlando next February. Let the countdown begin!

If you haven’t already done so I highly suggest downloading SolidWorks 2009 Beta 1 which went live on Tuesday and see for yourself what some of the cool new improvements are for the next major release. The more people that can spend time now with beta will result in a more stable release for EVERYONE when it goes live this fall, so please check it out.

CONGRATULATIONS DETROIT RED WINGS!!!

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the DETROIT RED WINGS on winning their 4th Stanley Cup in 11 years. What a great series this turned out to be against the Pittsburgh Penguins. There is nothing like a world championship for one of your home state teams. After staying up until 1 in the morning on Monday night/Tuesday morning watching the 3 OT loss and then waking up for work at 5:00 am for work on Tuesday makes this win all the more sweet.

I also want to make sure that Anna Wood is wearing her Red Wings apparel proud down in Arizona. GO WINGS!

Are gas prices these days starting to make you look at other forms of transportation? Are you looking to get some great exercise this summer while enjoying the beautiful weather? Have you been thinking about taking the next step in your engineering/design development? Do you want to be a part of a select group of SolidWorks users by becoming a CSWP?

Well you can accomplish ALL of this by participating in the latest SolidWorks contest. The title of it is “Today’s the Day to become a CSWP” and here is how it all works. You need to register and take the CSWP exam between June 1, 2008 and June 30, 2008. You will then be entered to win a Trek Fuel EX 5.5 bike (designed in SolidWorks).

So hurry up, study hard and take this test. If you want an idea of what to study you can check out the Exam Information page for a list of the topics that will be covered. Even if you pass the test and don’t win the bike you will at least be able to attend the CSWP off site event next year at SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, FL.

For more information on this contest click here for the official website.

For the complete set of rules for this contest click here.