Status of Free GPS40/45 connector:
I'm sorry, I am all out of connectors! All gone. No more. ...ahhhh but...
The purpose of POP #1 is to:
1) Send a connector to anyone, anywhere, if they appreciate it.
2) Accept payment to keep #1 going.
3) Create more POP's.
(HN = Historical Notes = I added this insightful text later) ... (HN: This page was the status for 3 weeks! By the end of May, over 80 pledges came in. Pledging was the new idea because "free" stopped working and I had sent all 400 from the first run. I finally made more connectors and we began shipping again 5/20/96, day 133 so the world went without my connectors for 67 days, one day longer than it went with. /HR)
May 07, 1996 ... Day 121 ... birth of the pledge.
I have tons of requests and pledges piled up. (HN: I had 2755 hits to the page, which is double in the 8 weeks since I ran out of connectors). Guess I will have to make more connectors, but I think this time I'm going to ask that you promise to send a few bucks after you get it. It's a micro contract. The first 400 I made were totally free, yet many just sent money, just because, very cool. It is the only reason I have even considered making more. I only accepted donations because it allowed me to pay for shipping anywhere in the world. So I'm all done, it worked very well, about 300 people are happy. But now you guys want more. (HN: and an increasing number of people expected free, strange evolution.) This time I want to learn how many of you cool GPS owners will keep a promise. Pledge a few bucks per connector. (HN: This was the first time for the Pledge idea.) DO NOT SEND MONEY until after you get the connector and are happy! There are some countries where it could cost you $20 to send me $5 so that is no good. Try and think of something cool that is inexpensive to send ... that is exactly what I am doing! (HN: later the pfranc idea started to address this.)
(HN: BIG GAP ... about 2 months here and another 1382 hits to the page.)
(HN: With some digging I could maybe find out what was being said during this "it's over" period.... But this is history.) /HN
Day 70, March 18, 1996
Donations still come in: Thanks Brian of Sydney (10), Mike J.K.(10), Shawn F.(10), Bill Y.(5), and Darren L.(5).... (HN: I had 1373 hits to my home page. I ran out of parts 5 days ago.)
Day 66, March 14, 1996
Shipped the last 25 today... I saved one so I could make me a cable. Thanks Donald T.W. (NY) $5 and Jan-B. B. of Nederland .
Day 65, March 13, 1996
All gone!
The requests keep coming in every day, but that is all. Ardel told me today that we have about 25 left.
Maybe tomorrow someone will buy a few thousand! Then I'll be back in the free connector business.
...week ago ...Wednesday, March 06, 1996
NOTICE: I'm running low! I made only about 400 and I am almost out of pins too! I need more pins! Help! Anybody got pins? (note: John sent me more free pins)
Jonathan D. ( Ireland or the UK?)... I responded to your e-mail ...
but it bounced back! ... try again!
Day 58,Wednesday, March 06, 1996
Donations: One Pound, thanks Tom from Bristol, Ted F. from California very generous, Dave T. thanks to you 4 more free connectors will go out into the world somewhere. Donations are being recorded in the "info-heap" page.
Day 57, Tuesday, March 05, 1996
We entered names 251 thru 275 today, printed the mail list and stuffed free connectors into 25 envelops to
ship tomorrow.
Day 53, Friday, March 01, 1996
Another fiver this time from a cool guy down under
. I didn't
have to scan it ... he e-mailed it to me (hope I get the real
one too for my real wall) thanks. Also, Tim of TX, Donn of
TX, Bob the Aeronaut, and Robert of NM. With 26 donations so far (some were for
more than one connector) we have $180.00 (not counting the 2 fivers).
Free connectors have been sent to 228 people in 13 country's, and still counting.
Day 47, Saturday, February 24, 1996
We got our very first FRANC form a guy in France. It has a Jenny
type biplane on it. Very cool. It will be framed and hung on my wall. Take
a look: 
It
is a 25k jpg file from a 150dpi scan, then displayed with width=400 pixels.
Thanks Jean-Charles B. We don't have airplanes on our money, just buildings,
birds, and presidents.
Day 43,Tuesday, February 20, 1996
This is Canada donation day, ... no, not the $30 from the Gramin rep
yet... 2 letters today from Lorne of Kingston and David
of Fredericton, thanks for the letters and the cool votes.
I added a few pages today... a donations page and a how
to purchase page. Links are in INFO HEAP.
Day 42, Monday, February 19, 1996
What happened? The word got out again? I'm getting 10 requests a day,
.... for MORE FREE CONNECTORS, man, how many are there of you people that now know where you are at?
This is a
6k byte .JPG file based on a 24k .CAM file that I down loaded from my new
CASIO QV-10 digital (no film) camera, at
57.6k baud on a cable I designed. In the photo, can you see a box of FREE
CONNECTORS that are ready to take to the post office? I grabbed the camera,
took the picture, walked back here, plugged my cable in, click,
click, click, .... more clicks, and here it is. No scanning, no
film, no tape, no searching, no adjusting.... Man is this easy? Too many clicks though.