H-P: IMHO, VeriFone Initiative and VerSecure Are Different...
I've been reading up on VeriFone (Secure Electronic Transaction--or SET technology) and VerSecure. And while the two MAY converge--and, as I recall, WAVX does support (if that's the right word) SET technology--it is my impression that the two initiatives are NOT related currently. I'm writing this in response to something I saw posted on RB. It is not unreasonable to assume that H-P is exploring different approaches to the secure online payments problem. In fact, it would be unreasonable to assume that such a large, innovation-centric company would NOT be exploring various approaches, options, and vendors.
As to the comity or lack thereof at RB, I remember a similiar development as SEEK started bolting forward. The Yahoo! board--and even the SEEK mainfloor at SI--got ugly. It's always galling when folks who know next to nothing about a company's history, prospects, and industry start issuing forth proclamations on this or that. I remember some posters at Yahoo! SEEK who said the company would never amount to anything and predicted doom and gloom at every turn. And history proved them to be not only fools but nasty fools. Who's to say that WAVX will enjoy a similar course? I'm not conversant enough in all the attendant issues to make a bold proclamation one way or another. I do feel that some larger players are probably hoping that the well will run dry at WAVX and they can scoop up some patents and technologies at garage-sale prices. But, the tenacity of The Spragues will I think prevail here. I've really got to tip my hat to them. Peter Sprague has been as a voice crying in the wilderness... offering an answer well in advance of the question. Along the way, he's impressed the inventor of Ethernet, Bob Metcalfe; the author of Telecosm, George Gilder; the internet luminary, Esther Dyson, and others.
In the meantime, I feel absolutely confident in the wisdom of devoting at least 25% of my overall portfolio--which isn't huge, but IS huge to me--to WAVX. It's a bet, no matter what anybody says, it IS a bet. No amount of passion or Nostrodamus-style reveries can change the fact that this is the stock market... and unless you're working with insider information... it's all uncertain. But, the quality of information posted at RB and here... and the obvious quality of some of the posters involved... as well as the fruits of my own limited DD... have convinced that me that is, as bets go, a really good bet. In closing, I've NEVER seen this kind of distributed DD done any better anywhere on ANY threads. All my tricks of search-engine searching and employment listing perusals, etc. are old-hat between SI and RB WAVX folks. With this kind of collective effort, it makes it very easy for me to look past any and all misguided and misguiding interlopers.
Best Regards,
c m |
