July 15, 1996, I never for a minute doubted Jim who wins "e-mail-of-the-day" and, writes (BTW I don't know why Jim says this because I have not and will not bug anyone for payment. Payment is optional!): ... (note made 3/98... I now do not even use the word "payment", I use the word "honor", as in "to honor a pledge" ... how about that?, just a word and it took me almost 2 years to figure it out. eh, at least I did and before I'm 50 years old too!)
" Hi, Larry I am embarrassed. I sent you a check a couple weeks ago and today I got it back because of an incorrect address. Even with your nicely printed return address label I goofed it up. Sorry. The check, really and truly, is, once again, in the mail. Thanks. Jim"I screw up much worse than that at least once an hour. Guess I'm just used to it. Geeee Jim, now that I think of it, that was pretty bad! ... (kidding). Finally, we have been getting lots and lots of pledge payments, ... so thanks to everyone, even Christian. BTW, I won't bug you, I don't follow up, so if you don't get a connector, tell me and I'll send another. Trust is a powerful thing. LHB
July 10...Peter from England sent a nice letter with US cash in it and a cool note ... "Thanks for the connector, it arrived today (4th of July). Strangely we do not celebrate this day!! Pledge enclosed, ... "
I almost fell out of my chair laughing so wanted to share it with you all. Thanks Peter. LHB.
June 28 News from England:
Hi Larry Connectors arrived Weds 26th. Amazing performance from snailmail especially as we had a 24 hour postal workers strike in the interim. Dollars on the way!! Best wishes Gerry,..... Gerry's package got there in 5 days! "It's not snail mail anymore!" (I made that up) LHB
June 26... a guy that works for H.P. (cool company) writes:
Hi Larry, I received the connector four days after I send my mail to you, thanks a lot for the fast delivery. As I promised I send know back the money for your effort. Hope you will continue to serve the Garmin users with this excellent service. Best Regards K.J.K Dusseldorf, Germany.....is this cool? FOUR days to Dusseldorf, from the back woods of Oregon! I will "continue to serve"....... And do "mybest" ... because of cool people like K.J.K. ..... LHB.
June 22 Notice the cool coffee cup (with ten bucks inside!) from Paul at XYPLEX, my first issue of Radio Control Jet international magazine from Traplet, England, and 500,000 Turk Lirasi as payment for a pledge, thanks Evren, Thanks for the offer, but I'll keep the half-million, it must be worth more than $8USD! Look at all those zeros!
June 20 I asked Mike why he pledged $12 for one connector, he replied:
I decided to send you $12 because I think it is a reasonable amount.
Plus, I believe what you are doing is great!
Mike
I like your thinking. I decided to send 2 connectors because I like what you said and I'm the boss here (when Ardel isn't lookin'). LHB.
June 17, 1996Philip G of Ireland writes:
"Dear Larry, Please find enclosed a cheque ... your connector will power our Garmin 45 as we race our Hondas across the Dubai. desert."
Man, how cool! ... I mean HOT! ... You see what a "cool" group you all are in?
May 28 .... An e-Mail: Glen says: " ... Kinda restores my faith. ... You sir are having *way* too much fun! ".
Right on!
Glen, life's not for long it's for fun (learning and growing). And you can not get too much! Keep the faith!
let me say that again....keyword is FUN, Learning, Growing.
And you can not get too much!
You can not get too much!
You can not get too much!
Others may tell you to accept less, .... Don't listen to them, try and get more and more and more and then share it! Share it with those "others", those who accept less. Some will help you find more and more and ... ... ... ... ... LHB.
May 28, '96 ... Glen of CA writes:
Yo Larry, Got in to work today after the long weekend and found a nice little connector in my mail slot...thanks! Check for $9.57 will be written tonight and mailed tomorrow. This experience definitely goes on to my "coolest things that I've seen happen on the net" list. ..glen
geeee, I think it is you "GPS guys that are the coolest on the net"....keep it up! LHB.
Another? .... This from the Netherlands:
> Thank you very, very much for the Garmin-connector. First I think it was > a joke, but it is real. Now I want to pay you the pledge. Please tell me, > how can I pay it from The Netherlands???? > > Greetings, > > Niek Vuurboom... very cool people in a "cool" country. (10/96 notes: This was fuel for the "pfranc" idea! So you see most of what there is here is because of the customer, not me!) LHB.
April 11, 1996 .... George writes (with $5 encolsed) " Thanks for the connector, Sorry this is so long in coming. My wife misplaced your card."
and
Steven D.S. ($10 enclosed!) writes: " Please forgive my tardiness in responding to you for the connector you shipped me L-O-N-G ago. I finally wired it up and it works great - using for APRS locally. Looking forward to any future Purple Projects that may come along. I will check your web page from time to time."
Man, and Steven is not just an ordinary dumb guy like me, he is ( I'm not kidding) a "Master Watchmaker" NOT a watch repair guy.... A WATCH CREATOR! Man! I have a collection of watch parts in my desk drawer from all the times I thought I could fix one (never considered making one). When ever I feel cocky and need some ego adjusting I just open that drawer and look at all the parts I could not make work and will never make work. LHB
Rex P. says; "Many thanks for sending a connector for my '45. I would like to pay for this one and order another 2. I am enclosing $10 ... ".
We did run out 3/14 and we got your letter 3/29, but as luck is, we found some from the early test run that were overlooked so it worked out just right. We shipped 3 to Donn M. (who ordered but didn't get somehow) and these 2 and 2 or 3 other folks that just missed out because we didn't compute the "all gone" day just right... and didn't even think (again not thinking) about the delay of good old s-mail. LHB.
1/7/96 ... In the beginning was an e-mail, not to me but to a news group:
From: someone Newsgroup: sci.geo.satellite-nav Subject: FREE GARMAN CONNECTORS! - Really! So this friend of mine (Larry Berg / Purple Computing) is going nuts over his new Garmin 45. Needed the data connector and decided to mold his own! (You can do that if you own where you work!!!). Sounds nuts, but he really did it. The mold was almost done when I last saw it. What his plans really are in the long term - I'm not really sure. BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS --. --> When you start up an injection molding machine you don't just run A connector. It will be spewing out hundreds by the time he gets it cooking! What to do with all those extra shots?? He's decided to GIVE THEM AWAY - FREE!!! Want one? See his home page at: http://home.........../pop1org.htm Who knows how long this will go on efore it's a pain in the butt. So I'd be getting one if your interested!... this got a lot of people excited. About 400 in the first few weeks. It was over 10 months ago and a lot has changed but I will try and reconstruct my original home page and put it at the link above. It was my first HTML attempt just a day after my first internet connection. I was even dumber then than I am now and didn't realize my offer would be taken world wide and I'd have to not only give away a plug, but pay to ship the cost of shipping it to other countries! I had to in order to keep my word! So I did. And people responded to a dumb guy who is just keeping his word. Why? Because people are cool! All over the world. And the rest is ... almost history.
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