John: I just returned home to Sedona from a 3-day weekend visit to Phoenix. I gave a presentation on the Y2K problem and its corresponding investing opportunities to the Sun City West Computer Group. Very nice facility, and a real swell bunch of (mostly retired) folks. In keeping with my philosophy of sharing Y2K information with other investors, I didn't charge them for my time.
Too bad I didn't know you were still as skeptical as ever about my offer to perform an objective evaluation of CSHK's product. You could have come out to Sun City West and met me face to face. I understand your skepticism, so don't feel like I'm putting you down.
I just skimmed through 3 days' worth of posts that bordered on impugning my integrity. Let me sum this up in one post, if I can.
FBNA is a spoof. It doesn't exist. The underlying reason for the "company" is to prove how gullible people are when it comes to investing. If you don't read all there is, and verify with at least one other reliable source, then you're very likely to be hoodwinked. This is especially true of Bulletin Board companies. The Mitre listing that everybody has been pointing to is another example of an information source that should be verified. The only requirement to be listed on the Mitre site was to have verifiable contact information, so we used my name and address. "We" could have said that we supply Y2K compliant cat litter and the listing would have been accepted as a Y2K related firm.
I know it's hard to understand that several people would spend as much time as it obviously took (hey, that FBN website is top notch!), just to make a point ... but that's the way it is/was. I have to admit we've had quite a bit of fun doing it, too. The more creatively off the wall we could make it, yet provide just enough morsels of "hmmmm ... maybe so" to it, the more we enjoyed ourselves. We've had many positive comments from other SI members about the whole shebang because people who read it get a kick out of the underlying humor involved.
I retired 18 months ago. I consider myself a Y2K guru, and actually designed and implemented a version of one of the mainframe solutions available in the market today. Since I retired, I have been offered several lucrative consulting gigs to help prior clients with their Y2K projects. I have declined them all. I'm retired. I don't want to work.
So, I spend my time perusing the SI threads, looking for Y2K investing/trading/gambling opportunities, and evaluating Y2K solutions. I've had people contact me and offer to pay me for running an evaluation for their company. I refuse, because I want anything I produce to be unbiased, and I want to feel free to say how pretty or how ugly it is. I'm quite well known as a technical resource on many of the "real" Y2K threads. You're welcome to post a query over on those threads requesting input on my character and reputation if you'd like.
There's no hidden agenda here. I saw "Y2K" in the thread. It tweaked my interest. If whatever it is that CSHK has is a decent product, than maybe I'll invest ... assuming that the Due Diligence efforts of the financial types of the "naysayers" gives CSHK a clean bill of health. I trust their findings.
Incidentally, I still don't have the FEDEX delivery of the demo CD-ROM. I was led to believe I would receive it last Thursday or Friday. If it doesn't show up soon, I'll be outta' here. I suppose that will make all the cheerleaders happy.
Regards,
TED (about as Middle-of-the-road as you can get) |
