Why subscribe?

Don’t be a stranger. I like to know my audience. Do me the courtesy of not being a lurker. Lurkers spew, infiltrate and disrupt civil discourse. That only forces everyone into closed community. I want the option to let members find their own value in subscribing. In lieu of subscribing…

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Just bookmark this site. I hate email lists and I hate the deluge wracked upon the planet exponentially blasting out emails. If you get to the point you’d rather have the posts pushed into your email box, subscribe.

Join the crew

I am not a joiner. There is already a substack community who share your interests. The last “ crew” I put together built things, won stuff and shared mutual friendships.

An early VC before the term existed. I took a ‘76 vintage ComSci degree back to COLUMBIA. They weren’t impressed but after two semesters I had it upgraded it with unix, quantitative maths and UX widget design. I joined SteveJobs’ Next Computer Inc. as a third party software developer in 1990 and proceeded to apply new skills. NeXT was not a thrill ride to success unlike Steve Jobs. At the end of the experience Steve and I were on first name basis but not business. After Apple bought NeXT, my company could not afford to match the pace of Apple revision of its new Mac OSX operating system. So after the third rev, gratis, I took the remainder of working capital and bought AAPL. One tranche at $17 then the rest of all I had at $12. I was out of the software development business. I made far more money owning AAPL than building software for it.

SteveJobs wouldn’t talk to me. After he asked to build a wallet for Apple, I explained there was no difference between a honeypot and a wallet. I had envisioned digital authentication in-lieu of wallet held ownership. Digital cash was emergent. That was going to be an Internet currency of the Digital Age. In hindsight ApplePay was a brilliant answer. I probably should’ve said “ yes” to Steve’s wallet. But a “yes” man I am not. SteveJobs really wanted to partner but too many years in NeXT dev had taken its toll.

I finished a working career managing luxury home construction. It was fun in Santa Fe NM. I’m glad that I returned to a craft I knew so well. I had 12 years developing design build commercial projects in San Diego and Salt Lake City. That was before traipsing off to COLUMBIA. I had crews who believed carpentry was a noble profession as Jesus was a carpenter.

By the time I’d finished software development I had gone from believers in God to programmers that thought they were god. Those were heady times. My developers focused upon online surveys, elections online and digital authentication in payments.

I grew up around cars, By age 17, I had forgotten more about cars than most mechanics knew in a lifetime. My family had pioneered 40 acres of auto salvage. It was the first ATT open long line. We sold parts across 14 states. The company carried insurance contracts with 7 major carriers in 4 states to pickup wrecked cars. It was so busy at one point insurance carriers would helicopter in once a month to settle.

Now I live in Panama. Retired and as always on the lookout for the next opportunity.