For the first time in probably 15 years, I've attended an auto show. Although I haven't been purposely avoiding them, over the past decade or so, the auto industry hasn't given me a compelling reason to go.

When you're 15, you're filled with confidence and exuberance, and you have a future full of potential and room for growth. You're ready to take on the world. Gear Technology began publishing exactly 15 year ago, with the May/June 1984 issue, and the magazine has grown in many ways since then.

I'd like to share with you a vision of the future. It takes place in cyberspace, and it's coming soon to a computer near you. Whether you like it or not, and whether you're ready or not, the Internet is changing the way business is conducted.

Have you ever watched the odometer on your car as you approach 100,000 miles? Something about human nature compels us to watch the odometer roll over. It may be just a fascination with numbers: Seeing all those nines line up is rare, and we don't want to miss it. but it may also have to do with the feeling of being on the verge of something that won't come again.

The carnival that is IMTS has come and gone. The aisles have been swept, and all the banners have been taken down. The fanfare of what some call the greatest machine tool show on earth has faded away.

Listen carefully these days and you'll hear a faint rumbling among the economic masses. It's probably nothing to worry about. It'll most likely go away. It's only the naysayers and skeptics who predict that the end is near. They've been doing to far almost all eight years of our current economic boom, and they've been wrong so far.

In the approximately 15 years that I have been writing editorials for Gear Technology, I've purposely avoided certain topics. Sex, religion and my own used gear machinery business are among the subjects that have always been off limits. But with this issue, I'm going to break one of my long-standing taboos by talking politics.

Let's face it. The Internet is still, to many of us, exciting, confusing, terrifying and frustrating by turns. The buzzwords change so fast that even the most high tech companies have a hard time keeping up. Cyberspace. Firewall, Java. E-commerce. The list goes on.

Every once in a while something happens to fundamentally change the nature of your business. Despite the best of intentions and the most careful planning, there's no way we can anticipate every event. What do you do, for example, when your two biggest competitors merge, when the economy collapses in the region that imports your products or when key employees leave your company? Your reactions may make the difference between success and struggling to survive.

Happy days are here again, says the old song, and given the current economic numbers, one can scarcely argue. Productivity is up; unemployment is down; inflation is practically nonexistent; the budget deficit is shrinking fast.