WHO WE ARE

This site is published by Dave Retz of Comware International, Inc., a web design and software development company located in Solvang.

Dave Retz is the founder of Comware International, and has been a resident of the Valley for 18 years. Dave was one of those guilty of the development of ARPANET, the Defense Department-sponsored network that became "Internet". Dave is not related to Al Gore, but is a software designer and website developer.

OUR SUPPORT

We support Santa Ynez Valley organizations and companies by means of online advertising. These "banner ads" are links to websites or special weekly feature articles on our own site that promote Valley businesses and organizations. (A "banner ad" appears at the top of this page.)

We host a number of Public Service organizations in the Valley, including AYSO Soccer, Pony Baseball, Girls Softball, Humane Society, and others. These sites are listed in the PUBLIC SERVICE section on the left-hand portion of the site.

We regularly take requests for articles, event information, and links to relevant websites in the Valley. Please email us by clicking on the email icon below to submit articles, links, or suggestions to our site.

Links

This section contains an index of known websites that are local to the Valley. (This allows our search engine to find only sites that are Valley-resident, not world-wide.) Links are arranged in a set of categories, and each link contains a description of a company or resource that is an online website. (If you have a Valley website that is not represented or if you have changes to the existing listings, please send us a message by clicking on the email icon shown at the bottom of this page.)

Search Engine

SYV-Online contains its own search engine that searches online sites known in the Santa Ynez Valley. This consists of links in our database, articles that have been posted, or photographs in our photo galleries - based on your selection options.

Photo Gallery

SYV-Online contains galleries of pictures of the Valley, as well as galleries of pictures of special events.

Live Weather

We have a live weather station that monitors temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall, and wind on a 24-hour basis and automatically updates our database. This information can be displayed in a summary format (current weather and highs/lows) or in a "Detailed View", providing the history over the past month.

Quote of the Day

This section contains a (sometimes) elightening quote, and changes daily. (If you have suggestions, please email us to request an additon to our database.)

Who's This?

This is a photograph of "People in the Valley", and it changes daily. These are pictures of business owners, pastors, managers, workers, riders, ranchers, helicopter pilots, ostriches ... and other friendly faces in the Valley. Each photo is a link to a more extensive web page that contains a short description of a person and their company. This is an enjoyable section because you never know who's next! (And, it's usually a face that you've seen in the Valley after you've been here a while.)

Did You Know?

This section contains little-known facts - a daily quiz of trivia or interesting topics that include politics, history, nature, science, and mathematics.

Valley Focus

This section contains articles on up-coming or recent Valley events. This section sometimes includes links to photo galleries of the recent events.

Ideas

This contains articles on technical or other interesting topics - usually on Internet or computer-related issues (and suggestions). We often receive requests for explanation on topics such as: "How to avoid Spam", "What's Spyware", and "Internet Fraud" - and these are often updated in this section.

Business of the Week

We automatically update this section that contains an article promoting a Valley business. (Contact us for information on this).

Recipe of the Week

This section contains interesting recipes that YOU submit. You can also look up past recipes using our Search Engine feature described above by enabling the "Articles" search and keying on the word "recipe".