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I was in Altamont Pass last week talking to a rancher about solar.

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The nation’s accountant and head of the Government Accountability Office, David Walker gave a speech at the National Press Club December 17th, 2007. It’s a very good speech. His news isn’t good. Here is the speech. Listen to the whole thing.

Here is the text of this speech.

I had found this speech via a Word for Word podcast. I see that David Walker and the GAO has a large archive of speeches. I’ll get to listening to them!

I was just looking through some old email addresses I had. I recalled Bob Charmoy and his wife Diana. When I was The Computer Guy, I had gone to their house a few times to fix their computers. Bob was recovering from pancreatic cancer, no mean feat owing to the difficulty of treating it. He had gone to the Block Center for treatment. When I spoke to him, he told me how he was put on a very strict diet with no sugar at all… and a few other restrictions. I remember speaking to him in his kitchen. He had been swimming in the pool and he stood there, hairless from the chemo treatments and looking like his skin was hanging off him a little loosely… but he had a smile on his face and his strong muscles were evident. After speaking with me about the computer, he was going back to the pool to play with his young relatives who were still splashing about.

On previous nights, he showed me his restored Wurlitzer jukebox collection, 3 or 4 of them scattered through his large home. Each had original vinyl records that very played well for their 50+ years of use.

They had asked me to put in an outdoor sound system. I tried to figure out exactly how but got stuck on the thought of drilling through an exterior wall into wiring or plumbing. I took longer than I should have to get back to them with an answer but eventually I referred them to someone who could do it in Hackettstown. After that, they didn’t return my phone calls.   Phoey.

But none of that really matters. I googled his name today and found a story on page 6 of the Camphill 2005-06 Annual Report with this at the end.

This is dedicated with appreciation to Dr. Bob Charmoy,
DDS, who lost his battle with cancer on May 25, 2005

I googled a bit more and found this vignette on a couple wedding sites

ON CLOUD NINE

Bob and I were sitting in first class on the way to Seattle, Washington, to meet my family. During the flight, a voice came on over the intercom and said, “This is your pilot speaking. I would like to acknowledge some people in first class.” I looked around for some celebrities. The pilot went on. “They’re sitting in seats 1E and 1F.” I looked at Bob and said, “We’re in seats 1E and 1F.” The pilot continued, “As we’re approaching Niagara Falls, I feel that it’s appropriate to say ‘Diana, Bob has a question for you.’ ” Bob smiled, handed me a box, and asked me to marry him.

Diana Charmoy

Allamuchy, New Jersey

If you have seen this steel raven, please contact me. It belongs to Haideen Anderson. Tom Kennedy‘s container was broken in to at the Box Shop in San Francisco in January of 2008. Many tools were stolen but this is the most important item. This metal bird is far more valuable to Haideen than it will ever be to anyone else in the world.

Apparently there is a new (September 2007) California law that says when a document is translated for a court case, the translator must be either a certified interpreter or a member of the American Translators Association.

That sounds well and good except that very few translators are certified interpreters. Translators do printed words, interpreters do spoken words. Maybe legislators confused the two professions? That leaves us with ATA membership. The trouble is, ATA membership doesn’t bestow skills upon their members via osmosis. Why should translators have to pay the ATA $145/year membership fee and companies the $300/year fee in order to continue to do the job they’ve been doing perfectly adequately for the last hundred years? I think I know the answer: pork.

A local translation company is working to fight this ill-conceived law. They’re looking at going to the Institute for Justice, a legal group that fights for economic liberties.

If you are concerned about this issue as well, contact me directly at .

My very good friend Travis has been running a few independent businesses very successfully for the last 4 years or so. He’s been growing at a tremendous but consistent pace. He started with Smartflix.com. It’s now the world’s largest how-to video rental store. He then expanded to Heavyink.com which is poised to become the Amazon.com of comic books (and then some). Both of these companies are functioning and doing well. At last count, I think he’s got 8 employees or so. HeavyInk is new. He’d like to expand it. To do this, he needs to add stock and man-power to get it rolling. He’s looking to borrow money. I personally think this is an excellent opportunity. I’ve been wanting to invest in this business for a while and I’m going to try now. I’ll let him tell you about it:

—- Start of Snippet —-
Speaking of growth: we’d love to borrow somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000. We pay a nice interest rate. If you or someone you know is interested in loaning us funds (min amount is probably $20k or so; minimum term is probably 2+ years), get in touch. References, spreadsheets, accountant-verified books, etc. would, of course, be displayed.

If you’re not interested in loaning funds, but are looking to invest, that’s not our first choice, but we can talk. Minimum amount is probably $100-200k.
—- End of Snippet —-

Email me directly at for more information.

I just got update:returned a new laptop. It has Windows Vista, mostly because getting Windows XP via Dell would have cost $200 EXTRA. Though I heard last night from Rick L that if you call them on the phone and tell them, “I’m not buying a computer from you if it has Vista”, you can get XP at no additional charge.

I’ve been using Vista for about 1 hr and I’m just about ready to go back to XP. Vista is very pretty. Performance-wise, it makes my 1.9 Ghz dual core processor feel like a 400Mhz PII. It’ll often show you a screen but actually it’s not ready for you to click on it for 3 or 5 or 8 seconds. It’s very frustrating.

And for the security… this is how I feel:

local version:

2-12-08 Followup: I returned the Vista Laptop. Here’s another humorous video on the subject:

“I switched back to XP 3 weeks ago. …So much happier.”

local version:

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2-14-08 Followup: Derek points us to this one (original)

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Ok, this is pretty fun…

I got this in an email from Smartflix.com today

The Top Ten Wackiest DVDs at Smartflix.com

Continue reading ‘The Top Ten Wackiest DVDs at Smartflix.com’ »

My favorite t-shirt is one that I purchased about 15 years ago in Boston. People often ask me about it. They are simply memorized by it! I likely purchased it at a Tufts University on-campus sale. I’ve been meaning for years to try and find more by the same artist, Ken Brown.

I tracked him down via the Mirror Image website. Rick Roth at that site forwarded my message on to Ken and he wrote me back.

He wrote

Rick forwarded this little time capsule today and it gave me a chuckle. I wish I could help you out with a shirt selection, but I’ve been out of the biz for many years. I do miss it though and may yet reconsider. Meanwhile, check out hoopla.org (the ken Brown section at the top o the noggin’) for recent rantings. )

I took a look and… wow, that art brings back memories and gives me a great smile. I’m pretty sure I recognize a few and I -definitely- recognize the style. It reminds me of a card and “stuff” store that was on Mass Ave near Gypsy Moon. Apparently, he’s the guy they bought all their cards from!

Take a look at Ken Brown’s comical commodities!

I saw this really funny set of photos at this site two weeks ago. I made a note to go back and check it out again. This is what I found today:

Grrr. I -used- to run my own server. No, the only way to be totally sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen is if I run my own server ISP internet.