Poets, politicians, and merchandisers were clearly unaware of the facts behind this situation. They were waxing poetic and selling silly hats to celebrate the eve of the New Millennium on December 31, 1999.

Engineers, on the other hand, knew all along that 2000 was not the first year of the third millennium in the Common Era. As opposed to the rest of the world, engineers understand cardinal numbers and know how to count. Therefore, it was not until the stroke of midnight, December 31, 2000, that the engineers of the world correctly popped open the champagne and drank a toast to the New Millennium. Engineers are always rational and always obey the rules. As a result in this case, however, they may also have missed out on the biggest party in a thousand years-even if it was a year early.

ISD Magazine is staffed with rational and obedient people, but we never miss a party. Instead, we found a way to have a foot in each camp-that of the poet and that of the engineer. We have managed to find a way to celebrate continuously from the last second of 1999 all the way through to the first second of 2001. And, boy, have we celebrated.

We have completed our transition from The Verecom Group to Miller Freeman to CMP Media, Inc. We have kept ourselves alert and alive by occupying three different office locations over the course of the past 12 months. We have honed our business savvy by observing the final stages of the merger/acquisition between Miller Freeman and CMP, and by watching as United News in the U.K. divested itself of the Miller Freeman name and some, but not all, of its properties. We have developed personal relationships with a whole lot of special people in the East Coast offices of CMP who now handle much of our business function-people we have never met in person, but who we have grown to know and like through many, many phone calls and e-mails.

We have assembled a new, dynamic Editorial Board of Advisors that is helping us to shape mature and relevant material for our readers. We have learned to follow the lead of our publisher, Ron Wilson, as he brings his special brand of contemplative wisdom to our frenetic work world. Finally, we have grown stronger and more resilient as Tets Maniwa moved from his leadership role here on this magazine, to his role as Community Leader for EDA on the CMP site, EEdesign.com. There was little-to-nothing that was not changed or altered over the past 12 months for us, and now we complete our year-long ushering in of the New Millennium with the final change-a redesigned layout of the magazine itself.

Conceived and created by Mira Ramji-Stein, award-winning Art Director for EE Times, the magazine now has a cleaner, crisper look that makes it easier to read and more aesthetic as well.

We hope you will enjoy the new feel of the magazine and that you will raise a glass with us as we make this toast to 2001 and beyond:

"May we all continue to live in interesting times."

To voice an opinion on this or any other article in Integrated System Design, please e-mail your comments to sdean@cmp.comd