Last weekend I participated in two investing panels for my friend Anina.net’s global online fashion conference. Anina is the pretty girl next to me in the picture atop this page. My second panel was the final event of the conference, so Anina and I stayed on the line to talk a bit afterward. She had been up for 72 continuous hours. Oddly, what we discussed were N-95 respirator masks, which are in such short supply thanks to COVID-19.
Anina lives in Beijing and China is starting to get back to work as the country slowly backs-off from its draconian coronavirus shut-down. Some businesses are retooling to address global coronavirus needs and one of those retooled factories is owned by a friend of Anina’s. His garment factory is now making fully certified N-95 respirators with no clear distribution plan. So the factory owner asked Anina for help and she asked me.
Late on a Sunday night with the tech world in shut-down, how long would it take for me to find someone looking for up to five million N-95 masks?
It took 10 minutes.
I reached out to Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and to Mark Cuban from the Dallas Mavericks and Shark Tank. I figured that the guy behind the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland would have the right healthcare connections and Cuban — heck — he knows everyone.
Within minutes both men replied. UCSF had already found enough N-95 masks, so Mark Cuban put me in touch with ProjectN95, a just-created national clearinghouse for urgently needed medical equipment. A few minutes more and Anina was working to qualify her friend’s factory for ProjectN95.org.
It’s important to realize what a miracle we accomplished. Normally there are lots of middlemen in Chinese distribution, but in this case, there were none, which meant maximal speed and minimal price. The goods were US FDA certified, too, and the certification could be verified. Anina and her friends actually went to the factory to see the masks produced and to accompany them all the way to the point where they left China. This is important because many goods are counterfeit and many are hijacked or stolen.
We are tech people attempting to function during a pandemic, but what really counted here were personal relationships. Anina knows and trusts the factory owner. Anina and I have known each other for 15 years and I’ve known Marc Benioff and Mark Cuban even longer. We spend billions as a culture trying to build digital versions of such webs of trust, but sometimes it is better to do it the old fashion way.
The first N-95 shipment has departed. Thank you, Anina.net.
Thank you
https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-cyberpunk-science-fiction-government-politics.html
sorry – how do you know the garment factory masks are actually N95 qualified? who did the certification and how do you know it is authentic? this arguably looks like textbook situation where US regulations can protect americans.
Their site indicates that what they’re sourcing will be NIOSH-approved.
The US is flooded with fake crap from China. Guaranteed this is no different. 100% guaranteed.
More fake news from a fake journalist.
@Dung Chow Ping You’re looking very fake yourself. GOP much?
Hooray! Thank you to everyone involved in getting the masks here and an especially big thank you to the dedicated pros who will be wearing them.
Churchill said it best.
Thank you! How would I get around the regulatory cluster#%^* between Chinese and US Customs that requires a billionaire’s intervention? My cousin and I were just trying to get more masks for friends working in healthcare. Even though he is in China and we were just trying to shop 500 or 1,000 masks, we were unable to penetrate the bureaucracy to (a) get Chinese Customs to release them and (b) keep US customs from confiscating them.
Does the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have any inspectors in China or does the factory ‘self certify’?
I thought Anina was Mrs. Cringely? And her website shows she splits her time between San Francisco and China. Are you two living apart now?
Bob’s wife’s name is Mary Alyce: https://www.cringely.com/2011/05/08/how-urban-legends-are-born/
“PBS Television shot a documentary about Anina interviewed by Robert Cringely at the start of 360Fashion Network as the first fashion blogger network.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anina_(model)
Yes, we get it, “Anina is the pretty girl next to me in the picture atop this page.”. Must you describe her that way any time you reference her? Surely she must be noteworthy for more than just her looks. It comes across as demeaning and creepy, take your pick.
@George: Your comment is the most demeaning and creepy thing I have read in any Comments section anywhere this year. Simply referring to a pretty girl as a pretty girl is now yet ANOTHER thing that today’s cancel-culture speech-Nazi’s such as yourself have decided is prohibited? (while of course paying no mind to the same type of terminology when the shoe is on your own other nacissistic hypocritical foot). This particular example of today’s bat-s craziness struck home because my wife and I frequently refer to our son as the “handsome boy” of the family….as does HIS wife and daughters (including in their facebook posts). I’m sure you have a multitude of posts on other sites calling women columnists “creepy” and calling them out for being demeaning if/when they happen to have referred to a boy (or man for that matter) as “handsome” or “good-looking” (and yes there ARE plenty of examples). Until then, you’re just a hypocritical creep yourself.
Cringely has a history of creepy misogyny. He joked on camera about one woman selling her body to fund his show.
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I’m an escort so that’s my job but why did he have to say this? I have called people out which ever way the sexism or racism or discrimination goes. No I haven’t got prizes for it. Also being an escort I don’t publish photoshopped pictures or publish pictures more than six months old. I have no idea what Cringely things he’sdoing with his banner photo but how many years old is it? Ten? More than ten? Why did Cringely fake up a Playboy fantasy at all?
@trashtalk: Fair enough. Am new to this board and don’t know Cringely so perhaps there’s a back history there that I was unaware of. I glanced at a few previous ciolumns and he certainly doesn’t seem very well liked by his regular readers!
And agreed sexism has no place in this world but that maxim has to be equally applied in both directions or it’s worthless. I’d be right there with @George if Cringely has called attention to a woman’s looks in any kind of sexist way in which it wasn’t germaine (e.g. “that’s Jennifer Morgan, the CEO of SAP and a very pretty woman”), but in this case he was simply directing us to look at a photo of someone standing next to him by describing her as pretty – which she is.
Just as I distinctly recall watching Oprah (or some female talk-show host) saying “This sexy man standing next to me is John Legend.” Was she being creepy? Demeaning?
No doubt that real sexism against women needs to be called out, but the recent trend towards scorched-earth destruction and total shut-down of any speech or any one who does to stray a millimeter from the Central Committee’s mandate of allowable words….even innocent generic words like pretty (a “pretty” house? garden? painting?) diminishes the fight against real sexism by diluting it.
Again, if I missed the context due to some of Cringely’s previous bad behavior, apologies my bad, but otherwise his faux-outrage seemed like a ridiculous response.
Sexism like other discriminations are a difficult topic especially with subtle stuff. I have no truck with free speech advocates because most of them are advocating licence and are hugely intolerant of understanding different views themselves. Not all opinions are equal and some are dangerous hence various laws.
Cringely desperately trying to make himself the hero of the hour again, rub virtual shoulders with the wealthy, and monitize monitize monitize. Call me cynical but Cringely isn’t the only person in this space and there are lots of other efforts happening all over including a fair few in the UK and mainland Europe. Make no mistake this is about the money and self-promotion.
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I doubt those 5 million N95 masks actually exist. The number is a wild estimate of potential sales. Nobody is giving them away.
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It doesn’t mean you have a functioning government.
I agree with this comment..
You trust the Chinese? I don’t.
Makes me wonder where your electronic gadgets were made.
Back to kindergarten when they reopen and later to elementary school. Without Chinese and Arab civilization Western civilization would still be stuck technologically in 3rd century anno domini and politicians are worst type of people in any country a few percentages more or less.
Yeah, Chinese classical civilization was remarkable. Now they have Muslim concentration camps. Sit down.
I remember when phones were dumb and people were smart.
First thing when you talk to me is leave politics out of it. I am not into politics. I have never been member of any party and I have my own brain to think and nobody will tell me what I should think. My connection with politics is reading headlines on yahoo.com and I get all those headlines in bold letter size 36 so I have to read them and that is how I know all about Trump and Kardashians and others though I do not give a damn thing about any of them. My opinion about politicians is overdeveloped ego and underdeveloped brain and as such of course you can’t be mathematician or physicist or doctor or well carpenter or plumber but you can be politician.
Regarding China I take same approach as CEOs of big corporations – You set the rules in your own house –
Regarding stealing of technology by Chinese government – It has been done forever – You need to read the book The Wealth and Poverty Of Nations: Why some Are So Rich and Some So Poor by David S. Landers and you will see that countries have been doing that from well forever only with the rise of multinational corporations they took over the role of stealing technologies from each other but it is the same thing only players are different now. Reason for that now is also that technology research moved from state level to corporate level.
“First thing when you talk to me is leave politics out of it. I am not into politics.”
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Putting religious minorities into concentration camps is now “politics”? Okay, interesting viewpoint you have there, sir.
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“I have never been member of any party and I have my own brain to think and nobody will tell me what I should think. My connection with politics is reading headlines on yahoo.com and I get all those headlines in bold letter size 36 so I have to read them and that is how I know all about Trump and Kardashians and others though I do not give a damn thing about any of them. My opinion about politicians is overdeveloped ego and underdeveloped brain and as such of course you can’t be mathematician or physicist or doctor or well carpenter or plumber but you can be politician.”
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Quoting this in full because it’s the best Old Man Screaming At Cloud Simulator I’ve ever seen. I am not sure what medication you are taking or what medication you should be taking but aren’t, but please see if you can get that fixed. I made a simple statement that the grandeur of classical Chinese culture has nothing to do with the current state which puts religious minorities into concentration camps.
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“Regarding China I take same approach as CEOs of big corporations – You set the rules in your own house –
Regarding stealing of technology by Chinese government – It has been done forever – You need to read the book The Wealth and Poverty Of Nations: Why some Are So Rich and Some So Poor by David S. Landers and you will see that countries have been doing that from well forever only with the rise of multinational corporations they took over the role of stealing technologies from each other but it is the same thing only players are different now. Reason for that now is also that technology research moved from state level to corporate level.”
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This mental goulash is the bumbling boomer’s response to the simple statement that “China puts religious minorities in concentration camps,” because for some reason you are incapable of saying a nation should not put religious minorities into concentration camps.
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Next time you can just say “I think we should put religious minorities in concentration camps and stop playing stickball near my lawn.”
That is right wing bullshit straight from the Goebbels’ mouth – why you don’t tell that to Tim Cook and other CEOs ?
Were you into human rights too when we were caging kids here and kicked out Edward Snowden out of the country ?
You are just grumpy old man who can not withstand that another kid around the block is younger prettier smarter and very soon will be way richer than you.
“That is right wing bullshit straight from the Goebbels’ mouth”
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—Guy Who Wants To Stick You In A Concentration Camp If He Gets A Cheap Phone Out Of It
@granville
That is why people have problem with you extreme right wing bullshiters. You are double faced idiots. You can’t have garbage in your own house and go around and tell other people how they keep garbage in their houses. For you is ok that you cage kids and other stuff and you talk a lot about freedom of press abroad but it is ok to bullshit and harras your own press.
It is great that you come out of closet so we know what kind of right wing idiot you are.
“Supporting a fascist racist régime that puts minorities in camps is a left-wing cause.”
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—Retard on Cringeworthy.com
Concentration camp exist only in your right wing fantasy land and I will always have high regard for Chinese culture Chinese people and Chinese know-how. As I said I don’t give a damn thing about politicians just any of them.
Here’s more right-wing fantasy from the totalitarian BBC for you, gramps!
Keep the dream alive use the snooze button.
Chinese version of Guantanamo Bay albeit on a far larger scale and better living conditions and you don’t finish there just for stealing chocolate in supermarket.
There was also a case of Beijing Roman Catholic Archbishop that Chinese kicked out of the country and did not allow Vatican to appoint new one but it seems guy just could not keep his mouth shut and French Revolution from 1789 made state affairs completely separate from church so I suppose that Chinese who were kicked out to their version of Guantanamo did the same.
I am not telling you that Chinese politicians are humanitarians and not brutal sometimes but you need to keep your mouth shut. Same happened to our Navy air carrier captain – he just could not keep his mouth shut. Sometimes you can be right but you are still wrong for obvious reason you don’t follow procedure.
Keep in mind also that current population of China is 1,438,040,600 as of Tuesday, April 7, 2020 so if you take few hundred troublemakers from each province it is easy to fill that camp.
Old man yelling at cloud: “You need to keep your mouth shut.”
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lol go fuck yourself, grampa. You look like a hack by denying the undeniable for 5 posts of mushmouth.
Fact is just for going into church or any other religious institutions in all communist countries nobody never went into prison. There was price for that to pay like you could not get any government job or maybe even a passport but nobody touched you just for attending religious services. Same for priests and other religious leaders as long as they strictly followed that. That is just a fact.
Now when they opened their mouth little more and started going into politics yes they would get heat. Same for people who supported that.
You right wing nuts blow everything out of proportion and bbc is giving you present facts but not details that were as important as the facts. One thing I will give to you right wing nuts is you are great at spinning facts around.
You should probably show receipts if you’re going to tell this story with yourself at the center of it. You’ve been caught and sometimes admitted making shit up to make yourself look grand too many times now.
You should probably show receipts if you’re going to tell this story with yourself at the center of it. You’ve been caught and sometimes admitted making shit up to make yourself look grand too many times now.
France has placed an order for 1 billion masks in Japan, Italy 600 million, other countries are doing the same. Italy is chartering every large cargo plane they can find out of China.
Andrew Cuomo has said he’ll pay $7/mask, no questions asked, any amount.
I’m surprised it took Bob 10 minutes to find orders.
China’s manufacturing is ramping up but finding transport space is the biggest problem – nobody wants to wait the 30 days it will take to get the masks here by ocean. Frankly, nobody can wait as the hospitals overflow and we haven’t hit the peak yet. Bob, don’t concentrate on masks, get planes in the air.
that’s a good point GMF, but synergy can be our friend here in these tough times.
Bob, what about using Eldorado Space’s fleet to fly those N95 masks over from China? They–or some of them anyway–could be here tomorrow.
His non-existent space fleet? Sure, why not? Maybe they can fly over some pink unicorns while they’re at it.
You should probably show receipts if you’re going to tell this story with yourself at the center of it. You’ve been caught and sometimes admitted making shit up to make yourself look grand too many times now.
Re: “show receipts” Why the same post 3 times by 3 different commenters (Stephen C, Granville, & Questionable PhD) ?
Solidarity.
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And — though any help is better than no help at all — let’s observe that Bob Kraft was loading a million-plus (Chinese) masks into his Patriots jet as of midnight 02 April, per Twitter, so this wasn’t exactly an unprecedented OMG-TWO-HUMAN-BEINGS-INNOVATE-NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN-PHILANTHROPY thing.
US officials have been caught offering cash to take deliveries already bought and paid for by France. The US also hijacked supplies destined for Germany.
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This will not be forgotten.
Like all Bob Cringely stories, this one is exaggerated for effect.
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It’s not clear why Bob has to call up his good buddy Mark Cuban in order to find out the existence of Project95, like it’s a secret that only billionaires know or something.
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A quick Google search for “us national clearinghouse n95 masks” has this as the FIRST RESULT:
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/22/project-n95-launches-to-battle-2020-shortage-of-n95-masks-during-coronavirus-outbreak/#45b1bb48445e
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A Forbes article, dated March 22, 2020, about the launch of the Project 95 website.
Read again Einstein – Bob had no idea that mentioned project existed
I read it, Bob said:
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“so Mark Cuban put me in touch with ProjectN95, a just-created national clearinghouse for urgently needed medical equipment. ”
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But what I’m saying is that he could have just as easily found the “just-created national clearinghouse” with a simple Google search, as I did. It was on Forbes, after all.
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He lied about buying all the Mach 2.2+ aircraft in the world to make a story sound more exciting. Why not this?
Not going into it false or not or whatever but you can not give Bob hard time just for that. He had all those masks and did not know what to do with them and that is exact phrase that will never come to your mind unless someone tells you as Mark Cuban did. Besides it is easier to get information from right person than from Google search. If you had all those masks you would search all words connecting with masks but not that phrase. Any way I don’t go into other things with you and Bob but just in this case you were too harsh on him.
I don’t understand these people. They don’t like Cringely, fine nobody is forcing them.
But why even read his column? Why not do something about the epidemic? Faulty or lying or whatever, he at least tried to help.
Quote: “Besides it is easier to get information from right person than from Google search
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Is it though?
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Is it, really?
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Quote: “If you had all those masks you would search all words connecting with masks but not that phrase”
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But it’s not just that phrase. You can search for “n95 national clearinghouse masks” and it’s ALSO the #1 result. Or any combination of those words. Or all sorts of other similar words.
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The phrase “national clearinghouse” appears in THIS ARTICLE.
* Project N95, that is.
Bob selling fake/defective chinese masks in a crisis. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.
Re: “fake/defective chinese masks”. “Bob said “His garment factory is now making fully certified N-95 respirators with no clear distribution plan”. It sounds like you’re implying that if Bob made exactly the same statement about masks made in Utah, you would believe it. Scammers exist throughout the world. I had an interesting personal experience last year when I needed a battery for my Chinese laptop. Since the item I wanted wasn’t conveniently listed on Alibaba, I quickly ordered one from a US seller, but two months and 14 (7 pairs of) emails later, I gave up and ordered from China, explaining what I wanted to the manufacturer. In order to get my money back from the US seller, I had to file a dispute with my credit card company. Don’t ever by from dreamesper.com.
Because of the clickbait and historical lying and shady US-centric boosterism I would never cite Cringely as a source for anything. It really kills my enthusiasm for adding anything positive to a topic
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The US has also been caught paying bribes to hijack a shipment of masks already bought and paid for by Barbados. This is in addition to hijacking French and German and Canadian shipments.
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At the more political level the US dismantled its own pandemic team and like the UK (who dismantled national biohazard testing centres) wasted months of preparation times on a flawed strategy which made everything worse. Pretty much every lesson which was learned from Cold War biohazard preparation, WWII production, and South Korean real world tested protocols was thrown out the window. UK-US exceptionalism is undermining the WHO for behaving like sneak thieves and banana republic hysterics.
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If I hold a gun to a seller’s head and insist he sell the product to me instead of the first buyer, that’s hijacking. If I offer the seller a higher price, and let him freely decide whether or not to accept it, that’s called selling to the highest bidder, which is not normally considered bribery, hijacking, or theft.
Using the Epstein defence doesn’t make it look better.
Not after a deal has been sealed. Then it’s scumbag behavior.
Agreed. It’s scumbag behavior, unethical, and immoral, on the part of the seller, who failed to keep his prior agreement. Still not hijacking or theft on the part of the buyer, who simply made a generous offer, which would have been rejected by a reputable seller.
[…] Cette semaine, le spécialiste de la technologie Robert Cringely a décrit de quelle façon une conversation fortuite avec l’entrepreneur chinois Anina a conduit un ami avec une usine de confection “à fabriquer des respirateurs N-95 entièrement certifiés sans plan de distribution clair”. Tard un dimanche soir avec le monde de la technologie en arrêt, combien de temps me faudrait-il pour trouver quelqu’un à la recherche de jusqu’à cinq millions de masques N-95? Cela a pris 10 minutes. […]
[…] This week, tech pundit Robert Cringely described how an opportunity dialog with China-based entrepreneur Anina led to a pal with a garment manufacturing facility “now making fully certified N-95 respirators with no clear distribution plan.” Late on a Sunday evening with the tech world in shut-down, how lengthy would it not take for me to search out somebody on the lookout for as much as 5 million N-95 masks? It took 10 minutes. […]
[…] This week, tech pundit Robert Cringely described how a chance conversation with China-based entrepreneur Anina led to a friend with a garment factory “now making fully certified N-95 respirators with no clear distribution plan.” Late on a Sunday night with the tech world in shut-down, how long would it take for me to find someone looking for up to five million N-95 masks? It took 10 minutes. […]
It turns out the Barbados masks which had been bought and paid for were seized en route in the US. They didn’t even go through the pretence of paying bribes. The US just stole them cuz “Team America, fuck yeah”.
Correction: seized ventilators. I’m also hearing US federal government is seizing supplies ordered at a US state level.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/04/05/ventilators-destined-for-barbados-seized-by-u-s/
[…] This week, tech pundit Robert Cringely described how a chance conversation with China-based entrepreneur Anina led to a friend with a garment factory “now making fully certified N-95 respirators with no clear distribution plan.” Late on a Sunday night with the tech world in shut-down, how long would it take for me to find someone looking for up to five million N-95 masks? It took 10 minutes. […]
Here’s the two people & organization that Cringeworthy & Aninasinine decided to emulate during their self promotion brainstorming phone call: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/the-silicon-valley-face-mask-disruptors/1d63fe63-f879-4b34-8975-774e42ab8350
Look at us everyone, look what ‘we’re’ doing. We’re ‘Supers’ too !
That ‘factory’ they contacted is working with a ton of countries btw. Cringeworthy’s gaul to expect anyone to believe that a Chinese businessman and factory owner would go into production of masks and not know where, how or whom to sell them to in the present circumstances is literally INSANE. Though perfectly in keeping with his status as a major Douchebag.
^^ This is sort of where I was heading. The ‘action’ (to facilitate shipment of medical equipment to troubled regions) is noble — but the over-puffed claim that “OMG IN TEN MINUTES WE MADE AN UNPRECEDENTED ALTRUISTIC BUSINESS CONNECTION” is just nonsense. Other ‘regular Joes’ were discussing + doing the same thing within the same 24-hour period, if not earlier. Classic case of ‘jumping on the band-wagon.’
Jake and Drew, the two people in the podcast, are part of this company: https://operationmasks.org/
Yes, and I see that there are others as well.
Global manufactures is Asia and elsewhere are so adept in closing factories in one part of the world and opening them fully operational in another (just to save on labor etc.) that I’ve heard it can be done in under 3 weeks. Knocking off brand new products, patented or otherwise, is also done so fast that the o.e.m. mfg. and patent holder can be shut out of the market before their products even hit the shelves.
I mention this to point out whom the ‘masters’ in this particular story actually are. And these Asian businessmen understand ‘middle men’ and how to grease the wheels. Disliked throughout Africa they do better than their preferred American counterparts there because they splash the money and have less restrictions placed upon them in the way they accomplish their goals. Meaning? There’s no way you broker a huge sale for them and don’t get a ‘kick-back’ in the deal.
I’m very happy that these deals are going through as a stop gap until the slower State & Federal corporate controlled supply chain deals can be worked out but I can’t stomach the ‘SPIN’ presented in this article and I sincerely doubt that any ‘altruism’ here isn’t getting rewarded in one way or another.
To those who say – “Well at least they’re doing something, come on!” – you still don’t understand. These mfgs. & warehouses in all these stories you are hearing about, that are being ‘discovered’, are simply taking new orders. The more the merrier. Yes they have stock, yes they can make a simple mask to pass standards. But get in line and read the contract for delivery date. 25 people called before you, and over a hundred were solicited by middle men working for the factory. Trust me, the largest / most profitable orders will be served first. You can still call them yourself tomorrow and write your own self promotion story if you like.
As for Aninasinine walking the factory floor with the ‘owner’ – LOL. That’s the oldest story, ask anyone doing business in China. Yes you walk ‘a’ factory floor, yes you look at stock – but it’s not theirs. She knows the owner? Over 50 employees and you’re required to have a CCP member working on staff. Any factory capable of cranking out the numbers needed will be owned in one way or another by a larger Holding Company. She’s doesn’t know the owner(s), they wouldn’t waste their time with her. Just another middle man.
In France 5 million rental homes have been made available for free to health workers on the frontline. This is organised by France’s housing ministry and AirBNB. This helps cut travel time which is especially valuable during this crunch time and also reduces them risking the safety of relatives and friends they may live with.
Wow! Bob has saved us all! No one has ever thought to ship stuff from China to the US before and, fortunately, Crookely knows all the right billionaires to Get It Done™! All Hail Crookely! We are saved!
Roger you are not complaining about Mineservers any more so I suppose you got yours that Bob shipped on April 1 – All Fools’ Day.
@wwwpirate — “…so I suppose you got yours that Bob shipped on April 1 – All Fools’ Day.”
Sorry, that joke was old three years ago.
Perhaps you should start your own political party.Call them the Anti-Crooks! And then figure out who you really want to put first ; children, schools, or teachers. Good luck.
I doiubt any of this story happened the way Cringely said or implied it did. Like more a composite of inspirations.Tech porn.
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And now for some fact based news:
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UK prime minister is now in ICU.
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The EU is providing discrete assistance to reduce UK embarassment over Brexit.
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China has flown in 300 ventilators, 33 million masks and 1 million gloves for the NHS. Lastweek 15 Chinese experts flew in to provide advice for the UK and Chinese business and ex-pats and carried 17.5 tons of supplies.
Ms. Trash/Talk/Trash Talk,
Consider it the American virus. Just another way to make America great again. Or not.One must remember, America was stolen from the natives by the French and English.It was,in turn,stolen from them by the subjects left behind to civlize the land and subjugate the natives and make it fit for the crown. It’s just business as usual.🎃
Trick or treat!
Cringely has been abusing economcis since his new burst of stories. The key elements to examine are boosterism for one industry and destruction of another. It doesn’t mean any fundamental has changed. It’s just a narrative to shift money from one pile to another pile.Note: Cringely isn’t hugely open about his financial interests. It’s a similar narrative basis to soeof the mega-corporations who plead poverty and lost sales via piracy. The reality is there is only so much economic resource. Demand and reources switches elswhere so there is no macro-economic loss. Krugman and other academics are now making this argument.
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Meanwhile the US just suspended payments to the World Health Organisation. When this decision was announced one of your US political representatives had already set in process a complaint to the International Court of Justice in Hague.
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The UK is projected to have 40% of all European deaths. There has already been talk of criminal prosecutions.
https://southfront.org/fall-of-oneweb-global-conspiracy-or-soaring-ambitions/
“OneWeb has a license from the Federal Communications Commission to launch an initial constellation of 648 low-flying satellites, to provide high-speed internet around the world to homes, boats, and planes located above the 60th parallel north latitude. 74 satellites are already in orbit. Initial services were scheduled to start in 2021.”
“It’s interesting to note that OneWeb’s concept was among the key competitors to the G5 network projects developed around the world. China’s Huawei and large Western 5G provided saw its possible success as a direct threat to their interests. Therefore, it’s possible that using the ‘COVID-19 turbulence’, they exploited their levers of pressure to limit the further funding to OneWeb. Another factor is that such free and widespread cheap Internet, that cannnot be controlled by common measures of the censorship, goes contrary to the interests of the global elites that strongly rely on their ability to control communication and information flows.
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It seems there is conspiracy theory for any comment posted here
It seems there’s a crotchety old man screaming into the void in nearly every reply here.
Someone has to tell you right wing idiots what you are
I think I finally figured out what wwwpirate and granville are saying, specifically, that the former is an old man and the latter is a right-winger. As a 75 year-old, who votes as a conservative, I guess I’m both, and proud of it. Note that I can’t endorse anything either says, since I’m having trouble understanding their other posts. Full understanding should come before endorsement.
He apparently calls everyone he dislikes “right-wing” and “xenophobic.”
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>tfw bernie-supporting chinese-american and random old man screams that you’re a white nationalist
For your consideration :
EMO : The world is broken, and I’m sad because there’s nothing I can do to fix it.
GOTH : The world is broken, but there’s an odd beauty in the dark parts.
PUNK : The world is broken, and I am angry, and I am going to fight to fix it.
SKA : Maybe the world is broken, but I’ve gotten an fecking’ trumpet.
So what’s Cringely rake from the profit off 5 million masks? Enough to pay back the Minservers? Plus what happened to the dead cert insurance money or was this as flakey as the “money machine” youtube channel Cringely started?
I believe — to the extent Cringe ever fully documents or substantiates anything — “[his] insurance company denied the claim on the [alleged lost] computer hardware,” and was possibly disputing the remainder of house-damages. He made a few sporadic (melodramatic) posts on this topic, without full closure.
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The reason this sticks so firmly in my memory is that it’s right about the same time C let slip that he was still using the same 2010-vintage MacBook which “couldn’t be evacuated or retrieved” from the fire, thus necessitating his buying “an ancient IBM ThinkPad” in Mendocino. That little lapse was 07 June 2019, meaning that either the house was undamaged, or minimally damaged such that contents survived (note that “the Mineservers [allegedly] burned down” and “the truck [allegedly] burned down too”), or that the chronology was otherwise not as initially and vehemently reported. May also explain the insurance dispute?
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For newcomers: this is why everything written here, tech-prediction or otherwise, needs to be taken with huge grains of sodium chloride. Cringe lies. He exaggerates and backpedals. He proactively and retroactively spins ‘the truth’ into enormous teetering Munchausen narratives. Surely not every single thing posted here is false, but the significant percentage of embellishments renders the entirety of his ‘credentials,’ ‘expertise,’ and ‘business ventures’ without value, except possibly as psychiatric fodder. Caveat emptor.
Quote:”Cringe lies”
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Ain’t that the truth. Doesn’t seem like it will stop any time soon, either.
Everybody lies.
– Gregory House, M.D.
FTFY!
“Everybody lies” sounds like something a liar would say.
“Gregory House, M.D.” Great show!
Jeremiah 17:9-19 Con men and psychopaths will always tell you enough truth to gain your trust. People are always quick to draw a line between their own behavior and the behavior of everyone else. Everybody lies.
Re: “Jeremiah 17:9-19”. That passage is about how we can be fooled by our own emotions, not about people lying to each other. Even within the emotional context, there are times when one may want to pay attention to emotions. Here’s an interesting discussion: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-your-heart-is-not-always-deceitful-above-all-else_b_1702319
And you don’t think liars are fooled by their own emotions?
I felt this story lacked a lot of texture. It’s not what was in the story but what wasn’t in the story. The details. I felt there was a big “What was Cringely not telling us”. Cue reverse engineering and citizen journalism. Since you mention it I have read that insurance companies and the cops check out social media etc for evidence to asses a claim or catch criminals. I would suppose oddities would catch their eye which might void a claim.
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I don’t write much on my escort blog and have been too lazy to put up new movies or photos but this may change. I’m not much one for writing an escort diary or stories and I don’t like telling fibs or insulting my audience so haven’t done much with it. What I have written is based on truth or at least true enough. Nothing I have written would win an award but it’s given me an approciate for art and respectful writing. Equality is now a thing too plus I’d like the guys to read something more than flim-flam. I always want something or some sentiment of value they can carry away with them. It’s not just a consumable but a form of marketing too and I have to be careful because I don’t want to put the wrong ideas in anyone’s mind. Then there’s the things nobody would believe which are true true and things people might believe which aren’t true at least in the actual historical event kind of true.
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Apparently, sales of sex toys and protection have tripled in New Zealand since the lockdown. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. Men still have their needs and their wife is a good plan B.
@trashtalk, you have a blog? Where? Please post the URL!
I turned down a prime time television show so unlikely to post my blog url here. It might also count as advertising across a border so would trip an EU directive and UK law and possibly US law. My first question would be how can this advance public policy and politics and I’m not equipped for this. Secondly the content is nothing special. Today’s New York Times article on “changed streets” is more interesting. I’m more an analyst and policy influencer than an Instagrammer.
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This week I’ve been focusing more on makeup and a little on adding some presentational polish with lingerie selection. There is a reason for everything you normally never experience outside of top end Hollywood production or word of mouth boutiques. I have copies of two books on this which don’t tell me anything I didn’t know apart from 2-3 small details but these are details the mainstream miss. Psychologically it’s frustrating because clients can spot these things even if they don’t conciously go much beyond I look hot or cute. Most women do but don’t step much beyond the average or cherrypick what celebrity of the week is doing. It is a frustrating discussion. You also can’t buy these books for love nor money as they go out of print very fast for the reasons I stated.
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Escort pays well but is one of the least forgiving and loneliest jobs in the world like a cross between kernel programming and designing kettles. Very few people can do it well and if you do it well nobody notices but this is more about my insecurities.
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If you place Cringelys article and the NYT article next to each other and compare and contrast they both show very different skews.It’s an interesting excerise in perception and hidden details. Entertainment versus real journalism.
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But what do I know? I’m just a glorified prositute.
trashtalk, I highly doubt that posting a URL on a website contravenes any laws whatsoever– the entire Internet would be useless if such a thing existed and was enforceable.
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But if you don’t want to post the URL directly, how are we to find it? Do we Google search for “trashtalk blog”? Do you have a different nom-de-plume that we can search for?
The New York Times ran an article today on sex work. It’s interesting and I can’t fault its accuracy but it only covers one section of sex work and misses out the rest. Boththe article and most of what is missed are known knowns, I’m not sure how I can tactfully put I know more about my job than journalists.
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Friends of mine who have been in the news or who have worked with icons of the tech industry have shared their view of the media.I have also listened to people whose job involves a lot of media and I do watch and learn from other peoples experiences. I have also in the past had comments picked up by the media and industry from online. (Three industry shaping stories can be verified with varying degrees of difficulty.) Also simply by posting something online in law this is placed in the public domain and I lose my privacy rights.I know journalists are nosey and want a story but this is never going to happen without a contract recorded in a permanent form.
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The last paragraph of the New York times article “Sex Work Comes Home” (10th April 2020) is worth reading.
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If you check you will find hints of this story I wrote weeks ago. My advice to these sex workers is simply decide your fair market value and decline work which doesn’t pay this. I decline three quarters of new clients atthe first hurdle. I’m not dancing like an idiot and fighting for the money. I only ever cam to kill time and have a chat first and dangling the bait to attract new clients second. This crisis isn’t going to last forever and I value my sanity more than money.
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If you want to know the English you couldn’t go far wrong reading a decent biography of Nelson and watching some youtubes on Royal Marine selection and the Profumo affair. Jane Austen is quite the rascal too. Also read Black Beauty by Anna Sewell if you have the time.
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I’m not sitting on my hands doing nothing…
So, here’s a question for the Cringiverse… If Crookely is really on late-night-phone-call-friends basis with Mark Cuban, a billionaire who “has been a “shark” investor on the ABC reality program Shark Tank since season two in 2011″, how come he didn’t ring him up prior to starting the whole Mineserver biz?
I know nothing of Mark Cuban (other than that he’s apparently friends with Crookely, which does not speak well to his character) but most successful people are happy to advise their friends’ kids when they want to start up a business. If it had been me, I would have rung him up and asked “hey, my kids have this idea for a company; could you give them a few minutes to see if what they’re doing makes sense and if they’re on the right track?”
In fact, before I started my first Kickstarter project, I sat down with a friend who runs a successful company and had researched crowdfunding extensively to get his thoughts and advice. How come Crookely didn’t do that?
For that matter, for the amount of money that Cuban and Benioff have, I’m surprised he didn’t just get them to invest; it seems like $35k would be nothing to them, especially for his kids’ project.
Now, I understand, he might not want to be one of *those* friends, who hits up rich people for investment, but surely he could have asked for some advice? For his kids?
@Roger, at times Cringely has hinted that a billionaire “friend” was interested in investing in Mineserver, and he’s name-dropped Mark Cuban a few times before this article. I don’t think he ever directly claimed that Cuban was involved in Mineserver, though. I’d have to go back and check.
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Bob likes to name-drop a lot. He has crossed paths with some billionaires before (like his interview with Steve Jobs) but he acts like he’s all buddy-buddy with lots of different billionaires. I suspect, like many of his claims, that this is not true.
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I mean, I once met Gabe Newell and asked him tech questions for an article I was writing for Ars Technica (it had to do with multi-core support in Source– it was a long time ago). But I would never say that I am friends with Gabe Newell or even that he remembers me.
I have stories about Steve Jobs and Gabe Newell too. It’s a small world! Cringely covered at least one of these stories in the past but he has no idea of the truth behind the story. To the best of my knowledge neither did Jobs or Newell. I could also shoehorn in a Microsoft or even Google connection but this is several layers of indirection and stretching things. The world was different before social media exploded. I’m not sure either of those stories would have happened today. The world has taken a few different twists and turns to what may have been too. I may know technology and make my living off my looks but doesn’t make me Hedy Lamarr!
I watched series one of the UK’s “Draigon’s Den” (which Shark Tank is a franchise of) and series one of The Apprentice (which the UK’s “The Apprentice” is a franchise of”). I rate both as 90% entertainment and torture chamber. I’ve never watched Shark Tank or the UK’s The Apprentice apart from a few youtubes samples. I also never watched beyond the first series of Big Brother for similar reasons. Handing arbitrary power to another person and exposing yourself to public gawping doesn’t strike me as a good combination. The decline of science as a public policy priority plus the media becoming dog-eat-dog for easy ratings is a toxic culture.
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I suspect most of us reading Cringelys blog are old enough to remember how things used to be before “Big Bang”. (This is a reference to the1980s Thatcherite policy of City deregulation mirrored by Reagonism.) The Coronavirus situation is causing a lot of karmic kickback and the 1% and Chicago School libertarianan nationalistic eugenicists aren’t going to want to let go easily even when their policies are killing people and shredding the economy.
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Roger’s “look before you leap” policy is a good one. Due dligence is a thing. Ittakes soe skill and isn’t free but a modest cost up front can have a big pay-off. It’s always best to avoid a problem rather than mop upafter. What better to do than speak with a trust third party who knows the sore? “Learn to walk before you can run” is another one.
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I’m with Rogerup to the point he eschews chasing rich men for their money. Actually, this isn’t true. Money gets my attention but like Roger I don’t care if a man is rich or poor. Everyone’s money is the same. What matters is the man I’m dealing with. Character really does matter. It’s really good to read Roger saying this. I find some men whether they’re millionaires or have to save up to see me to be complete assholes. They think their money entitles them but I never see them twice. The opposite exists too as does every combination in between whether they’re self-made or a salaried serf, retired, a student, or whoever. I also think this Coronavirus situation is showing the cracks from billionaires like Murdoch scrabbling for tax handouts to cover their failing business models to billionaire’s in Lebanon who suspended all rent and utility payments. Let’s also not forget the ordinary people who aren’t wealthy like farmers and small shopkeepers who began home deliveries and people in the community volunteering to protect vulnerable people, and the shelf-stackers and binmen and bus drivers. Innovation can happen at every level. Let’s enable this!
Where is Socrates when you need him? I’ve had it up to here with 6×10 to the 23rd versions of what is the “truth”. Things will be sorted in about 20 years when most of the verifiable facts are dug out, exposed and listed chronologically — after which one-third will accept them, one-third will scoff and one-third won’t bother, having based their opinions on tea leaves, tarot cards and some half-remembered anecdote from their youth. There will be three novels and two miniseries. Meanwhile, enjoy The Andromeda Strain’s Younger Brother.
Meantime, breathe wisely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant
Bored.
Thank you! This is really useful