And it's time once again for the programme that comes to you once
a week and you can't wait for it because you know, it contains no
commercials, no jingles, no music, no talent, and certainly
no agenda coming to you from the affluent suburb of Surrey, known
as Guilford in the United Kingdom in the curry manner. I'm
Adam curry.
And up here, I'm up here in northern California, and
actually is turned to sunny day again is supposed to rain. I'm
John C. Dvorak. Hey, John,
how you doing? It's raining here in the UK? Of course. Good.
Yeah, we've had. Let me see it'll be if it continues to rain
through tomorrow, it'll be a solid week of rain. It's been
really really good. It's been bad. It's been just crap.
It's good weather for ducks. To say that when I was a kid. Oh,
really? Yeah, good weather. The point of it was,
you know, I, you have I think you've pretty much since
yesterday or the day before yesterday, you've been in a very
foul mood. And I understand why. And why is that because your
computer blew up on you?
Yes, I know. And, of course, I've had nothing but
suggestions, none of which work. And you know, I know what I
think the hard disk just blew up. And you know, but that means
now, here's what's weird. When Vista first came out, the I got
a hold of Microsoft, I said any I need a couple copies of VISTA
because I want to test it. And so they sent me like two copies
of the Ultra. And and then I put them in a in a drawer or
somewhere. And that was almost a year ago. So now I can't find
them.
And now you need it desperately right? To reinstall?
Well, no, not to reinstall stuff. I figure I should put a
VISTA installation on top of the old one that way and get a
feeling for what people are complaining about. And
oh, you're not running this thing? What are you running? XP?
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you were running Vista.
No, no. And but I'm gonna be running Vista. But now I can't
find the disk. So it's if it's not one thing, it's another it's
not. You know,
I was listening to your ranting on on tech five, I think tech
five, actually, three minutes of tech five was about your
computer problems. And I was just listening to it. I'm like,
yeah, man, I remember that. I remember that before I went back
to the Mac. I've never had any of that problem with a Mac ever.
It's, it's it's a slow news week anyway. So I figured, Reva was
and you know, the thing is when the shows only five minutes or
so, you know, it's it doesn't you know, people will listen to
you ranting for a few minutes. And then, you know, if it was a
20 minute show, and I kept doing it, I'm sure I would lose my
whole audience.
Yeah. Hey, listen. I was over in Europe earlier in the week on
the continental Europe that is, and I think I've got a scoop,
some a minor scoop EJ All right. Remember the story that came
out? About the iPhones that half a million iPhones had never
showed up on the AT and T network and they were presumed
that they had been sold to China? Or whatever? Yeah, yeah.
So I'm in Holland. Right. And I kid you not John. Every third
cell phone I saw was an iPhone unlocked working on a local
network. Everybody has one. There's no official deal in in
the Netherlands. And I'm sure that it's the same in in
surrounding countries. Of course, Germany, I think the is
it available in Germany yet? Maybe not even officially? I
don't know. I tell you those 500,000 iPhones. They went to
Europe, man, they didn't go to China. Everybody's walking
around with one all unlocked to slip in their own this sim card.
Did you talk to anybody about where they got one? Did you like
guy and say, Hey, buddy, where'd you get? Yeah,
in fact, I was visiting a friend of mine who has a television
production company. And they were in New York for I don't
know if they were on a on a shoot or a conference or
something. And they bought 50 iPhones for the entire company
and just bring them back. You know, it's really cheap,
obviously, now that the dollar is, you know, it's
$1. Right? Yeah. In other words, they're getting there. In other
words, the Europeans get the phone for essentially half the
price we have to
right half the price and you're not locked into any network
carrier because you just unlock it with what are they using? Sim
Ziff for something, there's some package out there that you buy
once you can unlock any iPhone you want with it. And Dena and I
saw women walking around saying something's wrong. I can't
figure this out. And then you know, some guy would walk up
say, Oh, don't worry, I'll just unlock it again for you. You
know, it's, it's like culturally accepted everyone's unlocking
these iPhones that they buy in the States. Well, in Europe,
of course, most phones are unlocked or you can get them
online pretty easily. And people do buy just a phone and when you
just buy a bear phones unlocked.
Well, that's not entirely true. I mean, carriers still try to
lock you into, you know, into a subsidised phone. The main
difference is, you have the right to buy it unlocked, so
it'll cost you more. And in fact, you can go to the Nokia
store. There's one in Guilford, and you can walk right in, you
can get any of their phones with a contract, which makes the
phone cheaper. Or you can buy it completely unlocked and put any
sim card in it that you wish.
And I think we're okay with, but people I think in Europe are
more aware of the locking thing. I think only the techies in the
United States know anything about it.
Yeah, well, people are aware because most people by now, you
know, in the evolution of cell phones, they they've had
certainly more than one. And so they've already gone through
this, you know, also number portability. You know, that has
to carry over within a set amount of time. And this is
pretty good about that. Here in Europe. That's all dailies
businessman, she worked out all those competition things.
So she's, she's, she's a thorn in our side.
She is not a she's a very smart woman, somewhat aggressive,
perhaps and what she does, but he's on this board.
Anyway, at least the way and the worst part about they're making
these fines in euros, and they should do in dollars when you
get a discount
was at 156. Now $1.56 to the euro, it's
my maths would be $100. It's crazy, John, it's already too
ridiculous to go to Europe. I mean, you had to spend twice as
much money because they have the normal inflation that we have
here. So the prices are comparable, but it's all based
on the euro. So that's we have to pay twice as much for
everything over there. When we used to have a discount, because
used to be 80 cents for a Euro announced a buck 56 Yeah, so
they'll double so you get to one six, so that completely double
within memory, because I was I think it was about three years
ago. For me. It was longer than that maybe five years ago, when
in the first Bush term, that you could get the euro for 80 cents,
and then bake. But then, you know, after GWS sunk the
economy,
yeah, I remember when, when $1 was five guilders. So five
guilders would be to 2.2 like to two and a half euros today. And
that amazing what a reversal.
So I'm fooling around on the Dish Network. I'm going through
all the different channels. And I and there's a channel that
cropped up. I was effective people have the Dish Network. I
think there's the same thing with the all the satellite
systems you use. Sometimes you have to scan through it and you
find sample channels and experimental channels, I found
something buried and they're always buried,
like in when hundreds and then the high numbers.
Yeah, high numbers in this case. 9645. Okay.
What are you doing up there? John? Isn't that where all the
porn is as well, you're sampling something else.
I don't subscribe to the board. And I think it was in the hockey
or something. But anyways, if anyone's got the dish and
everything, go to channel 9645. And there is called the channel
is called lf one. And I have no idea what that means. But what
it is what they're showing is a nonstop it's about a six. I
didn't time it and I should have but it's it's less than 10
minutes long. But it's, it seems feels like about six or seven
minutes, a short movie, that they keep looping over and over
and over again, which actually has interactive features, which
I thought was interesting. You can click on something then you
can interact with it.
On your remote, you mean you can press a collared button.
There's a press actually you press the enter button, even
though it's kind of vague, which button press and it puts you It
loads an application that allows you to order a CD and do some
other things. If you want to copy the CD, and I think you
just get a copy of the CD at the website, but it's it's a movie
by Shell Oil. And what the hell's the name of it? I get the
name. So it's got some stupid names that
a movie or is it a like a like a long form commercial?
It's not a commercial. It's an actual movie. It's a drama. It's
a drama. It starts in 1986 or 1986. It starts in a board
meeting. And then these guys sit around say, Well, I know we can
do better. We don't need and this guy says well we can do we
got this new idea. We got to get the switch down. It's about
swit. And there's a bunch of holes in this story. But anyway,
so they had this meeting and the next thing you know the next
semi romance is a guy and a girl at the beginning and they walk
off and when the guy says I think we can improve our
product. And the girl says I think we need more public
pressure and so she goes and becomes a public person actually
disappears from the store until the very end. And then he goes
on he says I think we can work within the system. This thing
moves really fast by the way because only five minutes you
And so anyway, so then the guy moves along somehow and they
just somebody invented something. They there's this
invention and they're making it in Malaysia called GTL.
Yeah. Was that Gas to Liquids? Yeah. gas liquid. Yeah.
Somebody apparently shell came up with a process to turn
natural gas, which is a commodity that should be used
for it's as natural gas, it seems to me, I don't think they
should process it. To to make gasoline. Well, no,
there's all kinds of advantages. I've actually talked to a buddy
of mine.
Here. Yes, it's propaganda. And,
yeah, my buddy is full of propaganda towards me. Hey, you
know, I'm telling you, it's just it's GT as did that could be
advantages, but it's pointless. You know, if you just do better
refining other other fuels, you'll get the same product. And
there's a thread here. Remember, I used to work at Union oil?
Yeah, well, North back. Yes.
There's a thread here. I found new channel 9645 lf one
apparently the same. The same movie is showing up on TiVo as
well in some video on demand. So the the thinking here is that
shell is has bought space. In a spammy? Yeah,
who's gonna see this thing? I mean, it was a fluke, that I
haven't found it because not everyone who watches or listens
to us might check it out. But you just laugh at it. Anyway, so
GTL, blah, blah, blah. So anyway, so they they released a
G two guys get started. Here's the story, the story moves on
real quick. Next thing you know, we're in the future that says
something like 15 years later. And the guy says the guy is
giving a lecture, the guy who's working within the system says
we've got this new fuel and produces less soot. And, and
there's a voice in the background says, When will this
product actually be manufactured? And he's done? The
guy says, turn on the lights. I want to see who this is. And
meanwhile, I'm thinking what is this the guy's a KGB? Licence
the girl. And so the guy says all but it's a girly now they're
friends. You know, Friends, again, he wants to take her out
to dinner. So he asked her out for dinner, everyone chuckles in
the audience. And then so next thing, you know, he sees her at
dinner. And then she's on and then before they can even eat,
she does all but the babysitter call, I gotta go. Boom. The guys
you know, goes a limp because the baby says she's married. So
the all those years have passed. And he they've gone in different
directions. And now she's gone one way and he's gone, the other
but shell, and all the scientists at Shell, they saved
the world and it saved the world. But meanwhile, so here's
the big hole is this. At the beginning, they say it's a
synthetic alternative to diesel. And then, in the later part of
the story, I swear to God, there's no way they're using
this in diesel engines because they test where they're testing
it and every thing especially in Los Angeles. They were they kind
of indicated as being used in cars as gasoline, as opposed to
diesel. So there's like, that's kind of confusing. And then
there's a thing. The apparently this the factory that was making
it blew up or some I guess that's a true story. And it
says, and then there's a thing that flashes on the screen that
says the following and tell me what is wrong with this. What,
what stands out in this in this statement that standard, what
stands out like a sore thumb, and here's what it said I wrote
it down, following the new restart. And that's referring to
the refinery, the new bin Toulon, GTL, fuel was trialled
in LA, Shanghai, Delft, Berlin and London. Delft,
Delft Delta.
Wait, wait, let me get to go.
I can answer that one. John, I
can answer that Shanghai, Berlin, London and Delft.
Let me explain. Delft is home to the very famous Technical
University, the T u in Delft, and shell is a big spender on
the university. All the research projects are done there Delft is
quite famous for for his research. Fine. And for his
Dutch, Delft, Dutch blue, of course,
I believe that there's some executive in Delft and he was
getting free gas.
The movies on YouTube, by the way, just clearing the air.
Right? That's the name of it. So anyway, you can also get a DVD
with it on there. And it says based on real events, this
cracks me up. So the anyway, at the end, it says city emissions
and there's another quote on the screen city emissions from cars
fell by 40% towards his by up to 40%. And then there's like a
little disclaimer, like it was a drug commercial at the very
bottom. And it says it's actually if you haven't read 40%
If you
have an erection for over four hours, please contact your
doctor immediately.
Actually, what it says was it's only between 20 and four ad
impressions. And when they say for a joke of it, it is still
says 20 to 40. But the joke of it is you can't read this
disclaimer. I mean, I had to, I had to do actually do some video
manipulation to get to things so it was readable. And
I said, Well, that's like, all the disclaimers on the car
commercials, you know, you get that final screening at the end,
the screen is filled with letters that you can't read.
There's no time read it, no time to read it.
So it's like a minute. So they're building a new GTL plant
in Qatar. They mentioned that. And I don't know, I just thought
the whole thing but you know, but it was what was interesting.
It was a fast moving story, even though it was filled with this
weird hole about the Diesel versus gasoline. And it was a
dumb, dumb story, but it was well produced in terms of a five
minute movie. And I think it's a model. It's a model of short
dramas to be used as propaganda. Well, people should check it out
for the advertising
advertising, propaganda advertising, maybe the same
thing. I'm gonna take a look at it. Maybe we can, can acquire
it, get the rights to it and sell commercials against it.
crazier things have happened then you never know.
And talking about corny like the Delft thing. So I had to load
Skype. I'm using the laptop. Because you know, as you know,
my machine is down. And I had to load Skype. I had to get a
driver for the fast track
got into it took like half an hour just to for you to be able
to hear me.
Yeah, and then when I did hear you, there doesn't seem to be
any explanation as to what changed it fixed itself. Yeah,
when that happens that someone's waiting for this computer to do
that diet. I keep rebooting it saying Come on, you can fix
yourself you you've done it before. Good luck. So anyway, so
I go to the Skype page. And now I guess eBay took more so they
got this corny piece people should just go to the Skype you
know download skype.org Download page or their first page. This
is corny picture of a grand dad bottle feeding a baby and, and
some girl I guess his daughter was standing over there.
It's the eBay creative team man. They're the ones that are doing
that stupid shit. Like the Korean
piece of crap. What's it got to do with anything? What is it has
to do with anything they're trying
to show happiness and a dream of togetherness and connectivity?
John, don't you understand that?
Dude, they're doing a crappy job because I found the picture to
be highly offensive,
it is offensive. It's insulting is what it is. Like, why don't
why don't you look at that. That makes no sense. You remember I
told you about the switching gears here, the auction rate
securities market. And we were talking about that about those
auctions that were failing. So I picked up an article on
TechCrunch. And apparently 20% of venture backed startups had
been advised by financial advisors in the valley to put it
you know, and if they have any spare cash that they raised,
which a lot of companies will do you know, you raise money and
then all of a sudden there's millions of dollars in your bank
account you know, you don't put it in the checking account. You
put it where you can get some some interest off of it. And so
20% of the companies in Silicon Valley have put money into the
auction rate securities and you know, you couldn't you know,
they have seven day auctions every seven days 28 days with 35
days. And now they can't you know, the auctions are failing
so now they can't access their money. How crazy is that? Isn't
that awesome?
Well, let's see. This is something this is good that you
knew this in advance you wouldn't be suckered into that.
No, no, I would have said Ah, bad idea. And oh, by the way,
Bear Stearns Holy crap. This thing's coming apart at the
seams man. The money on
these guys can only turn these guys can only scam the world for
so long with this you know, craziness The gig
is up but what's so funny is you know it's still being called the
subprime crisis you know, horse shit you know, this is this is
so much more than it's gonna be sued for half a trillion dollars
and now apparently the government Bernanke and his boys
are bailing out a lot of these guys.
They're printing fucking money. I mean, it's not a coincidence
that they they literally print $200 billion Yeah, they say it
comes from some kind of reserve but that's not transparent. No
one can can check on him if it's true to see if it's true or not.
And then the dollar of course devalues another notch. I mean,
da 200 billion in the marketplace issuing
more stock. Yeah, exactly. Like issuing more stock in a company
you just did. Everyone gets diluted. Everybody looked at the
Dollar as a share of stock In addition, there's so much of it
out there. And if they add more to it, there's the money's worth
less,
they just print more and then Okay, so the automatically all
the markets just, it's almost like it's a computer process.
It's like everyone understands how that works in the financial
world. And who's getting screwed? Why? Because he's and
what I do, like, by the way, is it's not like they're giving the
bank's money, they are printing the money, which that's where
the devaluation comes from. But they're lending it to the banks
for like, you know, 28 days or something like that. And other
banks still won't do business with them even though they have
the money for 28 days. So it's not like the you know, they're
not like giving it to the banks but damn look at what they're
doing to our dollar which is in essence a hidden tax I guess. If
your money devalues that's and the government does it is not
just another form of tax taking money out of our pockets, and
they've given it to us actually, really good
point. Yeah, that's exactly what that's an interesting point.
Because you know, the Bush he's, you know, have this thing about
no taxes and or lower taxes. And then meanwhile, you get to
having this happen. I mean, if you have to pay twice as much
for something as a 50% tax, yeah.
And I wish you could take credit for that. That's actually a Ron
Paul line, but you know, it's true. It's tax pisses me off.
So did my favourite thing, though, is that the the lot of
these executives of these big companies that have been folded
left early are giving themselves big bonuses. Yeah. It's
it's a great business. That's what it is. I've done
such a wonderful job. I couldn't give myself $100 million bonus
for, like ruining the company.
You know, let me just go out on a limb. You know, come on,
you've met bankers, you I know where you're gonna go with this?
And I don't think you do. Yeah, go on. Okay. Yeah, I lived and
worked in New York Bankers Trust was what was one of our big
clients back in the day of thinking of ideas. And, you
know, those of my clients and so you take them out, and bankers,
particularly those that are in this business trading, the ones
who, you know, who make all the money, all these big bonuses,
because they're putting together these structured deals, they're
managing credit and risk and using derivatives and that just,
you know, it's it's basically all electronic money, and it
clear somewhere in the background, you know, after
these guys have gotten their check, you know, months later is
when all the clearances are done, and all the money's
actually paid if, if ever, but these days, like horse traders,
you know, it's it's a certain type of guy who does this. And
first I'll say they're not the they're not, in my humble
opinion, not super intelligent. You know, they're sexist.
Usually, you know, they're, you know, it's the guys you see a
strip clubs, that's who's doing this. I mean, come on, can't you
see that this is a big scam. You know what I mean? It's just, you
know, these Yeah, it's those guys. You know, he's like, you
know, those like, sweaty, kind of little bit overweight, coked
out, guys, that's who's doing this shit. And, you know,
they're, they're buying huge mansions, they're buying sports
cars. They're buying women, you know, who knows what else they
were buying. And, you know, if you've ever you've ever seen the
movie, the smartest guys in the room, which is the documentary
about Enron, and you hear them, when they were controlling the
energy and creating rolling blackouts throughout California
for their own benefit and profit. You can hear it's these
kinds of guys.
You know, I knew that was when those rolling blackouts were
going on, you know, I immediately have him again,
worked in the oil industry. I mean, it looked like a scam. To
me from the get go. And I just knew it was a phoney bunch of
black. These things were like fake, because it was an all we
have to conserve more, don't use your air conditioning, all this
other crap. And watching these things happen, you know, week
after week after week. Luckily, I was on a grid that's part of
the police department's grid. So I never I didn't have to deal
with it. But every time it happened, it was like this was a
funniest thing I've ever seen. And I didn't see like the gut
that idiot governor Governor Grey Davis didn't say anything
about it. He didn't look cute. He was so naive. He didn't know
it was a bunch of bull and then But then what really got me is
that the science and media reporters and all the people
that were in the newspapers, nobody thought anything they
instead of saying This is bull they all set Oh, we have to
conserve more
servers. They didn't do any actual research into it. They
don't know what the hell they're writing about. Just just writing
that was it for me when that during that rolling blackout
period, the fact that nobody could see that it was obviously
a scam. Yeah, I mean, I could see it. It was an obvious scam
to me. That I don't think it's because I worked in oil company
but it's just there was just so artifice, just how But out of
the blue, all after privatisation, that seemed like
a bad idea to be
exactly. Well, you know, you take take it right from there
over to Spitzer. Gosh, that's been a fascinating story.
Well, you know, there's a new twist on the Spitzer story.
Let me just let's just recap this for I'm sure many, although
the story actually is spreading to spreading internationally,
because essentially, I think everyone gets the basic idea.
This is the governor. Wasn't he also Attorney General before
being before he was governor? Not Attorney General. He, he was
what he
was saying is what some law Guy Yeah.
He's got a good name too for a lie. You know, Spitzer,
we shouldn't we should look it up.
Anyway, he was responsible for he was he was responsible for
stopping payola in the music business, which of course,
pissed off a lot of people, particularly in New York. He's
busted up all kinds of, you know, I think, organised crime
as well, or, you know, real cartel type stuff. And he's this
hard nosed, you know, I'm gonna kick everyone's ass into shape.
And then he gets caught in a prostitution ring, where they
bust. They bust his prostitution ring, and he was client number
nine. And and I love it when when, when these guys get
busted for those in New York State. I'm sorry, he's in New
York State Attorney General, right. Attorney General.
Exactly. And the and then he does this big thing. Like, I'm
sorry, I let my family down. And why do their wives stand next to
these guys clutching their pearls? When every single time
that happens, my wife would be like, standing next to me with a
knife on my dick. She would not be clutching her pearls. I'm
telling you.
I thought she did she do that anyway.
Only because I like it. But you know, what's, what's up with
that? What kind of deal do you have to make for your wife to
you know, it's like, how do you get away with this
thing? I'm, I'm gonna link to this on the blog
divorce.org/blog. But you may have to look it up. Because
it'll scroll off by the time anyone hears the show. But
there's a reporter that that linked this Spitzer's to like
this, there's a belief among some reporters that because
Spitzer went so hard and heavy against the bankers,
specifically over these usury laws, because they were, you
know, during this period of all this, you know, these balloon
payments, all the rest of there's actually, you know, we
used to have laws in this country that prevented people
from being loan sharks, essentially, officially, I mean,
if you wanted to go to lunch, or you got to go to the mob, now
you can just go to the corner, the money store, the money
store, and so there's some thinking, then they should
document a little bit that he was actually set up on this. And
I'm sure
he was, there's no doubt it was a setup. It was perfect. I mean,
obviously, he wouldn't have been set up if he hadn't had these
predilections if you know what I mean, of course, so I mean, if
you're, if you're, if you're a whoring type of guy, you would,
you know, you can easily be set up, if he would just play it
played a little closer to the vest, it wouldn't have been
something that he would have got caught, but then, you know,
somehow they suckered him into, like, doing money transfers in
his own name.
And the thing is, is he was it's just one of these. And of
course, this is what the human nature loves this, you know,
when there's someone who's holier than thou, when that
someone in authority, someone who clearly stands above the
rest, for whatever reason, we love it, we fucking love it when
they toppled down, you know, and that's, that's actually the
story that I'm reading over here. And, and even further
east, is is not about the background, no one gives a shit
about what he did. All they care about is, hey, here's a guy who
had a big attitude about putting everybody else in their place.
And that's what it is. That's the news filming.
Right, but let me read you let me read you this little entry
from Wikipedia that somebody dropped in here. As Attorney
General Spitzer took cases relating to corporate white
collar crime, securities fraud, internet fraud and environmental
protection. He most notably pursued cases against companies
involved in Trump's involved in computer chip price fixing
investment bank stock price, inflation, and the 2003 mutual
funds scandal. He also sued Richard Grasso, the former
chairman and the New York Stock Exchange claiming had failed to
fully inform the board of directors of his deferred
compensation package which exceeded $140 million. Wow. So
so if you're gonna go be this kind of guy, yeah, you gotta.
You gotta keep your dick in your pants is the basic message.
Exactly. Wow. So seriously, there's that he? So he
essentially was a do gooder. That probably was been a benefit
to the public at large, who essentially took himself out of
the picture because he's a jerk.
And don't you think that is that attitude is just rampant
throughout all administration, John, I mean, Isn't isn't that
obvious? What's what's been going on for decades, maybe,
maybe centuries, maybe all of humankind? You know, we'll we'll
make everything okay for everybody and shut up and do
what we say in the meantime, I'm gonna start filling my back
pockets.
Yeah, well, especially in this era. I mean, they could do it.
The thing that bothers me, I think you're probably right. But
the thing that is that's kind of bothersome and worrisome. And
that the publish is that how blatant? Does it have to get
before the public actually gives a shit?
We've been numbed and dumbed down, you know, again, so you
know, that's, that's what it is. It's a society of spectacle. We
want to see just people getting in trouble. We don't care if
it's David Beckham, Britney Spears, or or Spitzer. We just
that's our entertainment, you know, and now we're not thinking
about what it really means. I mean, I grew up in a generation
that just got so numbed by, you know, rhetoric and confusion.
You know, nowhere in the world have I ever been in any type of
election, that was clear how it fucking work. Look at the
American process. The rest of the world is like, Is it over
yet? Is that is that is that guy the president yet? Or who what
happened? You know, it's like, the primaries were hyped so much
that, you know, it's like, everyone's confused. They just
don't understand. Well, now, I think they kind of understand.
But yeah, all right. Well, forget about it. Now, it looks
like it's going to be a bit, you know, between those three, and
people just don't care, man. They don't care, because we're
taking care of so well, you know, these things don't affect
us anymore. I think governments have figured out, you know, keep
the trains running don't even have to be on time. You know,
keep some money flowing, and everyone else Shut up.
Well, that's apparently the case, unfortunately.
Yeah. That's why that is why my friends, you need to start
supporting this programme.
Yeah, you know, that's we're gonna have to, you know, I was
thinking about that I was looking at some public TV stuff.
And of course, we'd have gotten some notes from people saying,
Yeah, well, you know, I might kick in $1. No, people
like Leo's model, which is like two bucks a month on a recurring
payment schedule. I mean, come on. That's, that's 50 cents.
So the, I was looking at the couple of public broadcasting
people, and they have this interesting, they had it one of
them had a breakdown of how they finance themselves. And it was
55% were personal contributions. 40% were grants. Dead 10% was
the government and there was a bunch of you know, that the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and these, the
funny thing is about that, of course, is that the 10% or less,
in fact, that was eight is the stuff that they squawked about
the most all these public broadcasting and when the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, you know, got
taken over by the Bush administration, and they, you
know, got rid of the left wing do gooders in the right wing do
gooders. And so I was squawking, but I'm thinking this is not
where they were, you know, this is just a piece of it. Well,
it's
the real power, the real power in and public broadcasting is
with the affiliates. I was following a story a week or two
ago, where all of this money that has been spent on
podcasting, and interactive stuff and websites is now all
being re appropriated. And the money's going back to the
affiliates. They have some ultimate power over this
process. I'm not quite sure how it works, but they clearly
couldn't tell homebase what needs to happen when they group
together.
Well, I used to have a public radio show and it was always it
was a pain, it was painful experience to get anyone to pick
up the show. And which I think is generally true with where
it's wide open is like syndication as opposed to
networks. Right. And, and they've the problem in radio.
And I think this is what's interesting about this
podcasting thing is that people do the people that debt, figure
out how to use it, especially automated, really like it
because it gives them a different perspective on things.
There's less you know, in this case of our show, there's no
commercials. But the thing is, is that the guys in radio, and I
don't think the public generally appreciate this, even though if
you listen to Jim Rome, he's always bitching about what he
calls monkeys that run these stations, right and any Gen
he'll go on and on. In fact, he had a great story the other day
where he wanted some affiliate he was bad mouthing some city
not really bad man. He was quoting from a newspaper article
in that city and the and the local. When he called the radio
monkey got on. And since that he has to apologise to the city I
think it was Baltimore Philadelphia somebody and he
says are and we're giving them 48 hours or we're going to roll
the show for free We're gonna pull the show and bring said, Oh
yeah, I'm pulling the show and he just killed the show and
rivage another station. High demand. Yeah. So they so this
guy shot himself in the foot, but the but the public in
general doesn't realise it in radio in particular. The guys
that run these stations from the station manager, the programme
director are extremely stupid.
Yeah, they're like the bankers. It's the same kind of guy. They
all hang out together to drinkin and Horan.
Well, they're not Well, I wouldn't put him in the same
league as bankers because I to be honest, I don't think too
many of them go to strip clubs, but the they're not the they're,
they're stupid. I mean, in a really funny kind of way that is
indefinable.
And they'll drag like, amen. Amen. I'll talk like this. Amen.
Are you doing? I heard I shipped this morning. It sounded pretty
good. Uh, John, I don't hotlines your man.
Yeah. Well, that's different than the public radio guy. Oh,
call your radio. Guys aren't the Jive talkers that you think and
Okay, I'm sorry, guys are bankers who would like to more
or less they want to be
they want to be the president, the president of NBC is what
they want to be.
They want to be that and they are a professor, right. Okay.
And they think highly of themselves. And they just love
the fact that they can, that they have power. And they can,
and they make decisions, programming decisions based on
what they perceive as the public need and
their decisions affects people's lives, not just of the station,
the station operators, but also those of the public at large. I
have the power.
But anyway, so it is very disappointing to work in that
media. Yeah. Stay, the TV guys are much better, but they're
least got something on the bone. They're better looking
to bring it back, though, to bring it back. So I still am
hoping that someone comes up with some grant somewhere. But I
think that's that's the most elegant way of funding this
programme. But I'll certainly take donations,
yeah, it would be good. Well, we have to come up with some
scheme.
And we really do have to I mean, we put a lot of effort into it.
How much? How much? How much whether it's our view or what is
our listenership currently? Do you have any idea? Yeah,
I'd say, yeah, it's growing. But it's, it's between 15 and
20,000.
That's listen episode. Yeah, per episode. Yeah. That's, that's
about the listenership of a reasonably popular local radio
show.
Well, that kind of depends on transmitter size depends on
market. I mean, that that's not entirely true. But I think we
can get this to 100, we should be able to get this to 100,000.
I mean, that should be possible. If we, if it doesn't, I think
that for at least it should be growing consistently month over
month. And we should it is well, we
get Yeah, we should get to 100,000 at 100,000, at 1% of
those people will probably chip in. I mean, can't expect much
more than that. And that's 1000 people. Yeah. So you know, and
we don't want and somebody said, Well, you know, whatever you do,
don't do Bo telethons or whatever it is that I think, put
a Pay Pal button.
Well, we'll we'll do good telephony.
I mean, it would be funnier than how we could do an auction. Oh,
we
can do an auction we can. We can have celebrities on taking
calls. And taking money. There's nothing like a celebrity to come
on the show or take on
a lot of good voices. You know,
we can get some celebrities. Yeah, that's true. I'm sure we
get celebrities. Who would you want? But let's go after one.
You tell me I'm sure. I'm sure within within one week, we can
track down anybody we want. And they'll come on the show.
Let's see. Well, first they'd have to be interested in you
know, in some
Oh, you're working backwards man. Shoot for the stars. Who do
you want? I'm sure we can get to him.
Who's the hottest stars right now? Let's get Tom Cruise.
He's not hard. He's lame. It's totally lame. Let's get Angelina
Jolie
right now. She's pregnant. Tom Cruise is up. She came I like to
do it. You know, that's a good question. I'm not a big
celebrity Maven. So I'm not done off the top of my head. Nothing.
Oh, you that person. I'd love to get them on.
I like talking to you, man. I like there's there's I don't
think there's anybody I'd really be interested in talking to
Well, no, of course there are some people we should get to
George Clooney. Sounds like a guy you'd like to have a beer
with?
Yeah, I like him a lot. He GEORGE Yeah, he I don't know
personally He does seem very personable. He's personal. Yeah.
And he's kind of like, like old Hollywood WDS case on the
shortlist. He's kind of like old Hollywood. You know, that's what
I like about him. You know, he kind of has that Cary Grant kind
of vibe. You know? Like, he'll Don't worry, ladies. George will
take care. You know, he's pretty cool guy.
That's just the role he's playing. Yeah, of course. Well,
he knows that he's milking it. Yeah, and
your point would be
our guys probably been fun to have a beer with. Okay, who
else? That'd be cool to have on Eliot Spitzer.
I can get to what's that guy? Murray Sabourin. I can get him
on. He's running for Senate.
I know it's one of your crackpot balls.
I haven't spoken to him yet. He called he wants to be on the
show
this evening. Get Steve Ballmer. Hey, what are we going to show?
You know, we're
not gonna have nutcases as a nutcase. Man. I have nothing to
ask him what Ballmer it but I'm not going to ask him I'm not
interested. Yet. You know what, let's get him on the phone and
ask him for Fox. You know, let's ask him how you delete that
stupid file that's making your your laptop grew. Your computer
crashed. Let's ask him that.
That's the registry.
Yeah, here. Steve. Could you come over and fix John's
registry? Please? He really needs your help.
Yeah. Okay. Let's say you don't like Ballmer.
I didn't say that. I'm just not interested. What about one of
the Google Now? Not interested? Not interested? Well, I mean,
you know, I'm interested in utility affairs. No, no tech
guys, please. Although I do although I do think Hollywood if
you if you got Steve Jobs into into the right zone into the
right spot, which, you know, it's just never been done. Do
it. It's never been done. Exactly. But that that will be
interesting. I'm sure that will be entertained.
Probably wouldn't be but you know, he's I've been blackballed
from his talk to list for 20 years, at least. Really, what
did you do? years ago? Oh, well, one. Well, you know, he has a
long memory and he has an NS short list of blackballed
people. I'm one of them. And he would happen was when he quit
the first time, you know, back in the John Sculley era, I had
written, I was writing for The Inside Track column for
InfoWorld. At the time, it's 80s, early 80s. And I had
written the headline, Steve Jobs. Good riddance. And that
was it. Okay, I know, I welcomed him. I'm sorry,
I was gonna say I can see where that might be a little problem.
So, but even though I have praised him, sans because I
think he did a good job of turning the company around. He's
not the type of person who he's not a forgiving type of person
who's ever going to talk to me. So that's the end of that. Oh,
well, but hey, I don't hold back. I mean, I got to ban I get
this thing here. I got to put this on the blog. This is kind
of funny. So I find this in my piles of paper. Where is it?
It's a memo. Here it is. I got some copies, you know, there was
this case, comas versus Microsoft. No, and they it was a
big it was a lot one of these iOS some little place sued
Microsoft, they didn't think they got enough money on the
antitrust settlement. So they sued Microsoft for continued you
know, violations of whatever, and went into discovery and
picked up even more documents that they never nobody's ever
seen before. And so I have my I'm on a list. Curiously enough
with Mark per Cal, who's my computer time sysop for the
blog, which is weird, but it says it's a plaintiffs exhibit
number 1386, comas vs Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Ms beta
programmes and it says at the top do not send or give any
information to the below
and it says John C. Dvorak.
No, they left the C out, which is kind of annoying. But the but
they have me in there with with some crackpots, which is kind of
that's kind of weird though. marks on here. That's I mean,
I'm the Mark and I are the only two people that are except for
al l. Li Mia, Joba tag Leah and Joan Brewer who was a
essentially kind of a stalker because she And he says brewers
aliases Joan Jett Redmond rose William Tell Vogue image blah
blah blah right she was a had a crush on Bill and his drink
making him crazy and I guess he was an employee or something
anyway then just got so those are the that and then Mark per
Cal are the are the and then Gerard Franken of BHV some some
some company in Germany or Netherlands do not give
information to Geo works go IBM profound computer which was
funny about the IBM things is there are partners at the time
area puzzle system Santa Cruz operations and they have the
names of the people who set for me they say who set who told
them to put them on the list, Sun Microsystems Vera test and
then and then it says do not give any information about ms
dos 5.0 rom das which I don't know what that even though it
ever came out to Apple, computer time Mark for Cal comp you think
digital research. Gio works go John Dvorak. multisoft
you're in good company, my friend. That's a good list.
Excellent. Congratulations.
No, yeah, you know, that's what I'm thinking. I mean, at least
you know, it shows that I'm not one of the you know, normally
corrupt types who cover this stuff. There you go. Because one
of the things is I'm always busting them to because they
used to do this meeting down in, in the Hood Canal Bill Gates is
a mansion somewhere in the Hood Canal area of, of Western
Washington. And they would invite all the boys to spend the
night with Bill and the big Lodge and this would include
John Markoff and Walt Mossberg and everybody that you can think
of that writes about Microsoft and they bring him in and then
have a song and dance and they brainwashed him as best they
could put them up and feed them and fly him out I think they
both of these guys would have their own company fly them out
because it was it was unethical for them to get a free aeroplane
ride. Anyway that which is the part of the whole scam but
meanwhile they're they're you know schmoozing with these guys
and feeling good about it. So anyway, so I found out about
these meetings that were once a year and because I was never
invited, and I just blew the lid off the whole thing told them
what they were doing. And also
what were they doing like water, water, Cannon fights, water
balloon fights, pillow fights, hot dog eating contests, beer
guzzling guy can only win
the corrupt. It seemed like a corrupt practice, of course,
where
did you run? It was where do you write about that?
I wrote about I think in PC Magazine and insight track, and
I just pretty much outline the whole thing was who was there?
And you know, I didn't name all the names, but only they made a
point that this was like a corrupt practice. And that was
and that was it last time they did it.
Oh, man. That's why you would probably vote everybody. Yeah,
of course. No, this
is this. This is this was his 10 years earlier. Well, this thing
is none.
Oh, you totally. We are a party pooper. You spoiled it for
everybody. Dvorak you're off the list. Party pooper. You are a
big ass party pooper. Nice so being
a party pooper and all that's why Steve Jobs is not gonna come
on our show. Hey, you know Ballmer, actually, I do
correspond. Go ahead. I say do correspond with Ballmer once in
a while. I mean, I'm still on good terms with him. I know Bill
do took a dislike to me some years ago. And you know, he
acknowledges me when he sees me. He's Hi, John. How you doing?
And that's the end of it. But it's not a big fan of mine.
Ballmer probably doesn't necessarily like me, but he's,
you know, he's, we're civil.
I have about a once a year three, three email exchange with
jobs. Now, one, really, yeah, once in a while, he'll send me I
mean, it's happened twice. Right. Since I met him that he
sent me something and I've sent him something and it's usually
one of those, you know, thought you would enjoy reading this
blog. And I'll say thank you. bloemen. It's over. Right. Or Or
the other way around? I like him. He's. Yeah, I thought it
was an okay guide.
Most people don't. The he does. He has his little short list of
people that he will send observations to hoping that they
pick them up and run with them. Yeah. I can't remember the last
time he did this, but it was recently and it would he said
something to always be some sort of a like a zinger. It sends a
zinger out to specific people hoping that one of them picks it
up without attribution. He doesn't care about that. He just
wants the zinger, which is usually a one liner that's
highly critical of a of a competitor to be used, and go to
get into the public domain. And not too many CEOs do that. I
don't think that many even think of the idea but Generally
speaking, I write my own material.
That was earlier this morning. This afternoon. I was horsing
around a little bit surfing around a bit. And I happened
upon that the SXSW interview that Sarah Lacy did with Mark
Zuckerberg. Bright and
poor Sarah. Well,
you know, is interested in cranky geeks if you will. And I
also watch cranky geeks where you indeed mentioned you were
gonna try and get her on maybe for next week. And I was looking
at that video and I'd seen her on cranky geeks maybe two months
ago. I'm just guessing it was about that long ago. And and I
remember we had a conversation at that time I said, you know,
she's not really my type. But for some reason that South by
Southwest she looked pretty hot. Tells me something's different.
I don't know that you can even see her that close. I mean, the
one thing I thought was weird is that whoever shooting that video
they had at some angle her she was I don't know, she had her
legs on a be on a on a hammer. Had she heard laser weapon, the
era? From the camera angle? Or like, at face level? Yes. That
tick two of the boxes? Yes. Okay. against a wall. While
that's probably what you're looking at being the linkman
that you are.
It's almost now though some other ancillary video, you know,
people interviewed or after the fact and there's some YouTube
stuff, and she just looked good. She looked really sexy. She's
a very flirty girl. And I think it didn't go over well with that
audience of you know, Metro sexuals that go to that s by
Southwest thing.
Have you ever been to South by Southwest? I've never been
myself. So now I don't have time
for this stuff. I mean, I can't even clean my office. Going down
to Austin. Why should I just spend a couple $1,000 going to
Austin to party listen to a band and drink beer. I can do that in
San Francisco. Yeah, but like a lot less money.
But then you're interactive, dude. You gotta be hip and
interactive. John C interactive Dvorak.
Interactive with what? With other people with a bunch of
people you're never going to see again. That happened to live
down the street from you. I mean, the thing that bugs me the
most is you go in, it's like, Oh, yeah. Hey, I haven't seen
you for a long time. Yeah, Louis. Well, you're, you're in
Berkeley too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're both the young guy from
two blocks away. Oh, cool. We should do lunch. Oh, yeah,
absolutely. We're gonna do lunch. cards you get exchanged.
year goes by nothing.
That's funny. It's exactly the way it is. I hate it. You should
Cup this year. Oh, wait, I'm going to add, um, you should be
my guest. I want you to come to the portable media expo. It'll
be in Vegas this year. This is what was the podcast Expo? I
think it's an August, you have to come? You will. I mean, you
think conferences are strange. Wait until you see this one.
What's so strange about it, that I haven't seen something similar
to like the game developers, for example.
The audience at the portable media expo is it's just
fantastic to observe that it really is. Because you know, you
have to understand that everyone who's there is probably a
producer. And everyone who's there is also listening to all
the other people. So everyone is a star and a fan at the same
time. And you just see all these these dynamics going on. It's
it's a fascinating thing to watch. It really is. Because
people are getting props to like, you know, when someone
comes up and says, Hey, look at your name badge. Hey, you're the
you're the dude from the pickle podcast. You know, I also see
that you're wearing the podcast pickle suit. You know, I
listened to you. You know, and that's a big deal. You know,
when people say, I listened to your show, it makes you feel
good. And it gives you some kind of, I don't know, chemical
reaction. Offset, usually by lots of alcohol.
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, maybe if they invite me to
speak, I'll come.
Will you Hey, dude, you should do the keynote. They're always
looking for a keynote. I've refused that.
No, man is it isn't that two guys who charge you to do the
keynote kind of things that I
think they've I think they've figured that one out. I think
they've changed that and, and I'm sure they'll pay you.
They'll pay to come to the keynote. That'd be hilarious.
Yeah, well, maybe I get some somebody throw something at me.
So I'm
going to investigate. I'm going to I'm gonna get you as a
keynote. At PMA you'll be great.
Well, I do have a few speeches.
Now we have to do a new One can just use something. Yeah,
I could do a new media speech from scratch. It's not a big
deal.
Well, the only thing it has to be about is how to make money.
Because that's really the only thing anyone ever talks about,
oh, well, let's get our begging thing going together. And then I
can explain how that works. How to make money.
Yep, that's what it's all about monetization. My friend is all
about how to make money. People love doing this shit. They just
want to get paid for it. That's it
wouldn't be it would be better.
Yeah, it makes everything better.
And the fact of the matter is, if you have like 100,000
listeners, it seems to me there's money to be made.
There's gotta be, but again, I think the grant I think that's
the way to go. I mean, as everyone pitches in, because
it's your tax money or whatever. And sometimes it can be a
private foundation, I guess. That's handing out a grant that
there's gotta be one out there for some. Currently, there's a
fair programme
tonne of them out there. The problem is you have to be a
grantsmanship person. You know, there's people that specialise
in this as a business. I know.
And we've mentioned this before, but we need someone to step up,
you know, step up to the plate with your grantsmanship and get
us a grant already. Yeah. That would be perfect. I think we get
it well. We'll have to keep begging I guess. I just want to
beg for a grant. That's much more interesting to me than
little bits and pieces.
I'll, I'm all for it. I think we should get him a MacArthur.
Where are those people when we need them?
Or the Arthur Daniel Midlands company?
Oh, well, you know, that's I don't know if I want to take
their money. Of course now, I probably would
not, aren't they Millett Military Industrial Complex
guys.
They're the ones who are like, you know, making you know, as
grow corn and soy, another week prices jacked way out, right? I
mean, at Arthur Daniels, those guys and Monsanto are not
companies that want to do business with? Well, it's just I
don't think they're doing anybody a favour. Let's put it
that way. I mean, they're doing what they do. I mean, their
shareholders, I guess. I'm sure the executives get paid well,
but just you know, I'm not you know, the people in Monsanto
sued a couple of journalists down in Florida or someplace,
some, I should look that up and refer to it because it was kind
of disgusting. These people just bitching about the fact that I
think we had to what the BST that crappy give the cows and
make them produce more milk. And they were trying to blow the lid
off of something or other and they might sell, I guess,
decided to sue them. And, you know, just as harassment suit,
and that was the end of that. So I don't know,
just as an as an update, final update, I guess
PricewaterhouseCoopers got back to me, they now have the new tax
rules that go into effect April 8 here in the United in the
United Kingdom. And this, of course, is the non domiciled tax
status that I'm most interested in. Okay, so they've changed a
few things, it is going into effect, it'll affect people who
have lived in the United Kingdom for seven years. So I have a
couple more years to go before all of it takes effect, but some
of it takes effect immediately. But essentially, you will be
taxed worldwide. Unless you pay 30,000 pounds per year to
basically have the UK say okay, whatever you want to make
outside of the UK is your business. However, here's the
interesting thing. Regardless, and this actually, this starts
now regardless of whether you're a domiciled or non domiciled,
regardless of whether you pay your 30,000 if you make capital
gains outside the United Kingdom, and you want to bring
money in, you will be taxed again. So, you know, to make a
real long story short, what they've essentially said is
okay, if you want to live here, that's fine. And they've I think
they the whole thing with double taxation, they've worked all of
that out even they've even come to an agreement with the states.
So all of that is kind of cool and won't really make any
difference, I don't think but if you want to bring your money
into the United Kingdom, and you want to invest it or you want to
use it to shop or you want to buy, you know, houses or cars or
whatever, that's fine, but there's an admission fee at the
door to our store. That's essentially what they're saying
is you have to pay for the right to spend your money in the
United Kingdom. And so again, the papers today are full of was
it there was like three cotton three companies have just
announced they're moving to a Geneva and or Zurich. They're
all leaving. Oh, it's actually it was a Yahoo Google and one
other online company I think was Yahoo. Who said they were moving
to Geneva so they're all leaving now. It's Stupid.
It doesn't make any sense. You want people to just to drag
their money over and spend it in England.
Whoa, hold on a second. John, you just started to sound like
you sound kind of funny too. Let's do reconnect.
Okay, hold on. Okay, that was cool. No one even notice that.
So what we're where we
don't remember is it took so long to reconnect, I completely
forgot?
Well, I think it was having to do with the fact that you had to
spend $30,000 to spend money when it's just our hard thing to
do is to let people spend money in your country.
It's not. And really, this whole thing has been spun. So out of
control has nothing to do with people not paying their fair
share of taxes. And that's really not what it's about. But
now it's like, okay, you know, I can buy stuff anywhere I want, I
can invest in any country I want. You know, I might choose
not to not to spend 18%, just for the privilege of bringing my
money in. That's crazy.
It doesn't make any sense. Wow. We'll see. You know, if you go
to San Francisco and roam around, it's like we're
welcoming anyone that come in here and drop every all day
every nickel. They have places crawling with Europeans.
Asians, too.
Yeah, yeah, there's some Yeah, that's true. Well, as always,
everybody's coming to the States. It's the Chi town right
destination yet half off for the rest of our lives. Come on over
buys.
I mean, they're coming over here and buying stuff that they can't
even get in their own country at these prices.
As pretty amazing. Although air travel, international, air
travel has not really gone down that that's kind of offsetting a
lot. You know,
you think $110 a barrel oil has anything to do with that. Gosh,
I mean, I predicted the 100 the $100 a barrel oil, but 110 I
actually believe this year we get a new president. I think
we'll see. I'm gonna make a prediction right now. I think
we'll see 200 before the end of the year.
I think that's gonna be tough to sustain. Because right now it's
just at the point where people are gonna go I mean, I think
people look at their especially these Americans who drive you
know, these these gas guzzlers. You know, you go and you fill up
your car, and it's like, $75. So, you know, unless you're
going to just, you know, after a while you go, Well, if you've
got to fill it up, typically once a week, if you're
commuting, maybe more, and that's like, 150 300 bucks a
month right off the top. I mean, geez,
I'm not saying that people be able to afford it. I think it's,
it's going that way. It's just like, there's no, there seems to
be no floor for the dollar. There's no ceiling for oil.
Now, we'll see. Gold's jumped over $1,000 That's kind of
interesting.
Is that the first time ever? It's been over $1,000? Yeah.
I think it hit 900 ones, maybe, I don't know, I'd have to look
at some old charts, but it wasn't doing anything for years.
And then now it's just, you know, been rotting. So
let me as I always wondered about this, and you might be the
right person to ask. So if you look at gold, and you look at
diamonds, right, both substances that come from the earth, that
are that have value attached to it, and people know the value in
it with gold is even very, very precise. But what can you
actually do with gold? I mean, is that is there any real good
use you can use for it?
Yeah, it's used on connectors for for headphones. Use for it,
you have to use it for that. semiconductors and things like
that. They use a lot of gold, because it's a good conductor of
electricity. That's what you use it for.
And there's a big market in that I mean, there are people buying
gold to you.
And then the other thing is teeth, you know people have
gold, right? Right. And then the rest of it is jewellery.
And how about diamonds? I mean do the jewellery factory just
doesn't work for me I mean that's not a necessity of life
we need gold teeth we need to be able to make so many diamonds
are used in industry to an extreme I mean most diamonds are
not ever make cut into jewellery they're ground into this powders
that they use for cotton through steel and they use lots of
tonnes
I thought it was pretty useless myself but I guess it's part of
the industrial system hmm
yeah, you really can't there's a lot of things that can't really
be done effectively without diamonds and then mainly cutting
Okay, I'll have to change my feelings then about diamonds
and it gives him something to do with all this you know most
diamonds are not you know commercial and they're not they
don't become jewels but the ones that do I mean those are
obviously worth a lot more than a powdered up stuff. But and
then there's a problem they have a diamonds in the you know, they
can now artificially make them believe they tend to be a little
too perfect in some sense. situations are low in the dark.
And but with gold gold is pretty much you know what you get what
you got? You can't make it.
Do you? You buy diamonds for your wife.
She's not a big diamond person. And her stone is not a diamond.
It's a green sapphire, Blue Sapphire or something like that.
And that's what she likes.
Oh, yeah, but diamonds are a girl's best friend John.
Not hers. She has other friends.
Jackson, guys like that. And
it was me. You see, I remember the time that I first met
Melissa, or Melinda and Melissa Melinda on camera route, I
guess. Gates, his wife, Melinda and Melissa. Melinda, I think it
is Melinda Emily. Yeah, I met her at once and maybe twice. But
I met her once after she was officially Bill's girlfriend.
And she was still working at the company. And she was wearing the
engagement ring which I guess somebody told her to stop
wearing because I heard that you don't get to see it so much. The
thing was it was looked like it the stone was the size of small
golf ball. Yeah, it was quite flashy. But that's
a big deal with the Silicon Valley guys I see lots of them
have have wives with huge rocks. Some of them are second or third
wives but all huge rocks, big deal in the valley.
Now know that and the Rolex
got to have one.
The Rolex is almost you if you find somebody in Silicon Valley
and the semiconductor guys are the most identifiable in some in
Silicon Valley because they all have a Rolex, generally a Rolex
President gold and they wear Khaki coloured pants and a blue
shirt. That's probably the colour blue of like three
seasons ago. Never the current blue which is tends to have a
lot of other colours and the newest one being by the way, a
blueberry which is fantastic looking.
Right? You had a very, very colourful and light and airy
ensemble on cranky geeks from this week, like a yellow striped
shirt.
All right, this is my famous yellow striped shirt. This is a
shirt I got two years ago over his texture. It's pretty old.
And it used to wear it on ZD TV, that particular shirt because
Harry Fuller who was one of the guys that was one of the
executives there hated it. And I could never figure out why
because it was it would really look great on camera, especially
when he didn't have a jacket on. And fuller would always go home
with a yellow shirt. I can't stand that yellow striped shirt
and he just moan and groan about so if I knew is going to be in
the area always make sure to wear that
kind of kind of like your wa MVC.
So anyway had in the in storage. And I was going through some
shirts because I ran out of shirts and got out there bring
out an old shirt and I've ran into that was this will work. So
next everyone had twice.
Well, it looked good on you. It's suiting you quite well.
Yellow works great since I'm so pale.
Yeah. Do you ever go on vacation man you ever like go sit in the
sun on an island somewhere?
I used to go to Hawaii once in a while. But now I kind of make my
vacations a part of my business. So if I go to like Europe for
some business thing, I'll stick around for a few extra days
or conference. Right? You do the talk at a conference and then go
hang out. Yeah. What a wonderful life you have John.
Yeah, right.
So I got the music playing man. Listen, the show. We're like, an
hour and 10 minutes once again. Yep, gotta get get done. And
it's taken us five hours to put it together with all the stops
and configuration shit. Unbelievable. All right, coming
to you coming to you from the curry manor in the United
Kingdom. I'm Adam curry.
And I'm John C. Dvorak in Northern California.
We will talk to you again. Whether you pay us or not next
week right here on no agenda.
Bla