[geeks] can't wait for Vista

[Bill Bradford]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2006 at 07:22:13PM +0200, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> That's the point, which really feeds him? The money from Google, or the 
> service to the ham radio community. Eham was started by several hams as
> a service to hams. Unfortunately three of the four founders died (as I
> said before most hams are old). 

Unfortunately, "providng a service to the community" doesn't pay the bills.

As an example - SunHELP barely manages to break even.  I continue to run it
*because* I enjoy helping people, it *does* manage to break even most of
the time, and occasionally someone buys me a book or DVD off my Amazon 
wish list as a thank-you.

However, not everyone is in the position to do the same.  I imagine that
eHam's cost for hosting or colo service and used bandwidth is much, much
greater than that for SunHELP.  

> The current owner of the site is more interested in selling advertising
> than in supporting ham radio. 

"supporting ham radio" may not pay the bills.

> He mixes Google ads and regular advertising, he could have made a point
> of dropping the Google ads, and selling more direct advertising. 

What if Google pays better?  There's nothing wrong with going with an
advertiser that pays more than others.  Also, there may not *be* enough 
direct advertising from ham radio companies to pay the bills.

> He could have made it a rallying point, he chose to take the money and look
> the other way.

Maybe he didn't see a need to make a political statement?  Perhaps he
thought that current efforts were appropriate.

> Not a very good thing from a company whose motto is "don't do evil".

They invested in a technology.  Google itself isn't doing the BPL 
tests, so rage against the company that does it, not the companies
that invested in a technology.

> > Can you take your anti-Google anti-BPL rants elsewhere, or at least tone 
> > them down a bit?
> Your, list, your desire. I'll stop it here and now.

I have no desire to be a censor or a dictator.

I'm just saying that most everyone here is well-aware of your feelings on
the issue by now, so there's no need for your head to start spinning around
every time someone mentions Google or BPL.

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford 
Houston, Texas