The year also saw co-founder Alexis Kayhill with another baby, and co-founder Bambi Brannan with a new husband. Both will continue to drop into Mac360 with regular reviews and commentary. Mac360 remains the only long time Mac site running on a Mac, thanks to ServerLogistics and an Intel Xserve.

Our thanks and congratulations go out to Mac360 Forums readers ‘mac_the_mac” and “Danny Boy” as the most recent iPod winners from Mac360.

Ron and I have plans to launch a web site which tracks daily news updates for Apple, iPod, iPhone, Macs, and more. More details to come.

As always, we appreciate your help, participation, and feedback. Thanks to all the Mac360 contributors over the past year: Carol and Jack Miller, Jeffrey Mincey, Wil Gomez, and, of course, Alex, Bam, and Ron.

Our focus will remain the same, and true to Tera’s original desire for Mac360-- Mac reviews and commentary for the rest of us.

We appreciate your loyalty, cooperation, comments, and forums posts. We also appreciate it when you buy from Amazon but use the Mac360 Store first. We don’t make much money on Mac360 but there’s enough to pay for server costs and bandwidth usage.

Every day about 5,000 readers visit Mac360. That’s around 150,000 visits per month, and nearly 250,000 page views.

What additional content would you like to see us develop for you? If you have an idea, click on the Contact Us link above, and drop us a note.

Thanks.

XOXOXOX

If you’re a registered, logged-in Mac360 Forums member, you’ll find some additional changes just for you.

First, there’s the Members Only Private Forums. This gives logged in members access to three special forums and access to the Mac360 staff.

Second, we plan more changes to the home page just for logged in members. Think of it as Home Page Lite; a design from Kate to make browsing the list of articles a little easier.

Finally, more articles. Our focus remains on reviews and commentary, but, as the staff has grown, more features, too.

Tera said, ”Nothing improves without change...”

If you’re a visitor to Mac360, we encourage you to register (it’s mostly anonymous, non-allergenic, and low carb), and join in with your comments and perspectives.

If you’ve already registered, share an opinion or two with the rest of us. It’s fun.

Kate and I go waaaaay back to the early days of advertising in Los Angeles and New York, which is her home. Kate was also friends with Tera; the two used to argue about everything, and both played a great ”good cop, bad cop” to my straight-faced, straight-laced view of the world.

We began using Macs at about the same time (can you say Quadra?) and have long promoted America’s Favorite Computer™ everywhere we’ve worked.

Please welcome Kate to Mac360, treat her with kindness and respect, but expect an argument or two as the lady is full of opinions.

We lost a very good friend today-- Tera Jean Patricks.

Early Saturday afternoon, August 19, I received a phone call from her parents. Tera was staying at their home near Los Angeles. She passed away early Saturday morning following a long bout with cancer.

Tera was 46.

We first met over 20 years ago. Tera taught a business seminar that I attended while still in college. I was attraced to her thoughtful, energetic, no nonsense approach to life and business.

Tera was a teacher, a writer, a business partner, and a kind and gifted friend to many.

She instilled in me a practical view of life, and a desire to learn, examine, and challenge.

Though severely ill for the past few years, even while dying Tera somehow managed to teach me more about living than I could have imagined possible.

I know I speak for all of us at Mac360-- Tera, we’ll miss you.

Mac360 will continue. Give us awhile to collect our thoughts and feelings. Please help us by continuing the Apple tradition of thoughtful consideration and share your Mac knowledge and needs with others at Mac360.

I’m using the same content management system that we use on Mac360 (pMachine’s Expression Engine). Thanks to Bambi for the design and the laborious minutes she poured into the layout and color scheme. 17 minutes? Thanks to Ron for setting it up on a remote Mac mini with Mac OS X. Thanks to Alexis for the inspiration and letting me think, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’ I’m doing the coding myself, but don’t look for TeraTalks Forums. It won’t happen.

TeraTalks is just a different side of me. Click by and enjoy.

Thank all of you so much for the hundreds of ‘get well’ messages, thoughts, personal experiences, and prayers over the past few months. See? It works.

I’m back. Yes, there’s still a long way to go but each day brings a little more improvement; physically, mentally, emotionally. This was my third, the toughest, and by far the most difficult bout with leukemia. For now, it’s over.

I’ve always been considered a strong and active person. You’d never know it by looking at me today. At least I can look back. Still, every day gets better. I’m eating, getting some sun, gaining weight, and looking forward to each day.

First, I need to offer a special ‘thank you’ to the team at Mac360; Bambi, Jack and Carol, Alex, and especially Ron, who kept things going on the site even when everyone else was ready to throw in the towel and call it a day. We’ve all known each other for many years, love Macs, and love the community.

Second, let me thank you again for the many, many comments, words of encouragement, health tips, and heartfelt prayers. It does work.

Third, I admit I feel like a Southern California version of Rip Van Winkle. While I was away (sleeping) for only a few months, it feels as though it were much longer. I’ve spent much of the past few weeks napping, dreaming, talking to old friends and family, and reading. Yes, reading. All kinds of things happened while I was asleep.

Finally, as you might suspect if you’ve read Mac360 for awhile, I’ve got a few things to say about what’s been going on in Macdom. The iPod with video looks especially sweet. Bambi’s promised to bring me one (I’ll assume it’s a gift). The new quad PowerMac G5s look awesome. Apple’s stock price has to make a few folks very happy.

I’ve been working on a couple of articles, one of which I’ll publish later today. Look for it. Let me know what you think. I don’t want to lose my touch.

One more thing, regarding the Mac360 Forums; where’d everybody go? Sorry, I haven’t been around to stir up the dust, so I apologize. I managed to put up a few posts yesterday. It’s free, you know.

Once again, thanks. Thanks for your support, for caring, for sharing. Today’s another day. Let’s do something with it while we can.

All my best…

Tera’s back. We don’t know for how long but the news is good.

Early this morning I received a phone call from Tera’s parents in Los Angeles. It’s the kind of call you know is coming, but your heart stops anyway. Mine did.

When I answered the phone, Tera’s mom said, “Barbara Marie, are you sitting down? I have some news.”

Time just stopped for a moment. This was the call we all knew was coming but hoped it never would. Somehow, I managed to say, “Yes, I’m sitting down. Why?”

Tera’s mom: “Because Tera wants to talk to you.”

What? A cruel joke? Who is this? No, it can’t be a joke. I know her voice. There was a very long, long pause, and then I heard this weak, raspy voice on the other end of the phone, “Bambi? Hey. It’s me. I’m OK. I think.”

It was her. Tera. She was, is still alive, awake, and talking, though more of the former than the latter. We talked for just a few minutes. She sounded very, very tired, and her mom came back on the phone and said she’s weak, but appears to be gaining a bit of strength, and is alert.

I talked to her for only a minute or so this morning, but longer just after lunch. She’s taking liquids but hasn’t sat up or moved around. Her mom says she’s very tired and drifts off to sleep, but alert when she’s awake.

I haven’t talked with her at all for a couple of months so this was a shock, a surprise, and, well, just a good feeling. She asked how things were going, and then asked me for a favor…

Tera: “Bambi, would you mind getting my laptop?”

That was great to hear. That’s Tera!

Apple’s pile of goodies at the ‘One More Thing...’ event was nice. My ‘one more thing...’ is better.

Again, I’ll visit with Tera this weekend and report back. Thanks for your notes and kind words. Tera will be reading email for a month.

We live in times of change where the future is not fully understood and the past is often not appreciated for the value it provided. There are times when we need to pause and reflect on each day, to give thought and feeling to those near to us, those in our care.

For the staff of Mac360, Mac users, new acquaintances, and old friends, this is one of those times.

We regret to say that today begins with sad news regarding Tera. As you may know from previous messages to readers and forum posts on Mac360, Tera’s health steadily deteriorated this spring. By mid summer she had moved to Los Angeles to remain with her family, to begin a new round of treatments and therapy.

Despite an aggressive therapy program, a strong and willing spirit, and many prayers and visits from close friends and family, Tera took a turn for the worse about two weeks ago.

Today, we received word from her family that she has lost consciousness, and now clings to life. We fear the worst, and our hope, once sure and strong, wanes as the days of summer come to an end.

There is so much that Tera wanted to accomplish this summer. A new Mac360 design. Implementation of the Forums. The iPod contest. And Podcasting. She and Ron and Alexis and I started work on a number of new sites (satire, comedy, photography, music), all to reflect her broad interests in people, life, technology. A few old friends stepped in to help moderate the Forums.

We know from recent conversations that Tera was pleased we could keep things going, poke at Microsoft where deserved (’an ample target,’ she said), expose users to new Mac applications, work to get newbies involved in the Forums.

We did our best to keep the ball rolling, but sadly, it hasn’t been the same without her.

Dozens of readers sent Tera their best wishes and encouragement via the site’s Forums and Feedback link. Others logged on and sent Private Messages. Bambi read some of the messages to her during a visit last week. She was encouraged. We were sad.

Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement and enthusiasm.

In yesterday’s article I promised a follow up ‘5 Year Report Card’ article on Microsoft and Apple. That was Tera’s idea and I know she wanted to write it. I have her notes.

Some how, some way, I’ll finish that ‘Report Card’ article today. It may not be pretty, but, like Tera, I’ll give it all I’ve got.

I’ll let you know the latest as soon as we hear.

Thanks again…

Bambi & Alexis