IS IT TRUE: Part 2 August 25, 2011
IS IT TRUE that it seems as though the VETTING PROCESS for the downtown Convention Hotel is going to slip its unpublished schedule by at least a week?…that yesterday was supposed to have been the day of face to face vetting for the second responder?…that yesterday’s meeting has been rescheduled for next week?…that the City County Observer will maintain its silence on the merits of the proposals themselves including expressing any opinions with regard to the analysis that we posted yesterday that was sent to a large number of local officials yesterday by Prime Lodging?…that for those readers that are interested we have made this analysis available to you at the following link?…that we would welcome a comparison analysis of the two proposals by the Kunkel Group and would publish any analysis that they choose to provide us with without edit, opinion, or bias?
IS IT TRUE that an examination of the 2009 campaign contributions to the “Weinzapfel for Mayor†effort lists a contribution from London Witte in the amount of $9,000?…that contribution along with the $8,500 that they contributed to Mayor Weinzapfel’s campaign in 2010 brings the two year total to $17,500?…that London Witte was the financial consultant on the Ford Center proposals?…that we do not have records of either the amount that London Witte was paid to advise the City of Evansville on the Ford Center project nor has the amount that is being paid for the VETTING PROCESS been disclosed by the ERC?
IS IT TRUE that Steve Jobs has resigned from Apple due to his health?…that Jobs along with his childhood pal Steve Wozniak started Apple in a garage in Cupertino, CA?…that through continuous innovation and implementing vision that Steve Jobs saw what is now the second highest valued business in America at $350 Billion spring from his parents garage?…that the headquarters of Apple Computer is still at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA, the town where it was founded on April Fool’s Day of 1976?…that there was much Angel and Venture money in the early years used to get Apple going?…that Apple’s board dispensed with Jobs for a time in the mid 80’s but eventually found that without vision and passion that corporate structure in a creative industry was incapable of prospering?…that Steve was invited back to Apple and that his triumphant return has been marked by vision, creativity, and financial success?…that Apple employs nearly 50,000 people and has been named the most admired company in America for 3 years running?
IS IT TRUE that the 1985 Apple Super Bowl party outside Stanford Stadium was a blast and this writer’s opportunity to party with Steve and Woz?…that we and our nation shall miss the vision, innovation and the fearless entrepreneurial spirit of Steven Jobs?…that if President Obama or any other politician at any level really was serious about learning what wealth creation and job creation is all about that Steve Jobs would be much more valuable that the CEO of GE?
IS IT TRUE that in after hours trading yesterday that the value of Apple dropped by $10 Billion on the news that Jobs was retiring?…that 35 years ago in the town of Cupertino two irreverent and clever guys set out to make a toy for themselves?…that this toy is the machine that changed the world?…that the infrastructure, the capital, the talent, the markets, and the lifestyle that Steve and Woz needed to make Apple happen was in place in Cupertino in 1976?…that Apple is a homegrown corporate headquarters that is less than 5 miles from the garage in which it was started?…that if and only if all of these things are available can a wonderful story like this play out in an American medium sized city?
IS IT TRUE that both Steve and Woz were Wayseers before the Wayseers know it?
It is true that when Woz built his first computer he was working for a firm called Hewlitt Packard. It is also true that when he and Jobs had decided to build more computers and sell them he dutifully met with his boss at H-P to ask him to please release him from the standard agreement that every H-P employee signed when they were hired. This agreement basically stated that whatever electronic devices Woz designed and built were the property of H-P, regardless of whether he invented them on or off the job. It is also (obviously) true that Woz’s boss was suitably impressed that his bright, young employee was complying with his employer’s policies and proceedures, so he released Woz from the intellectual property agreement, and wished him and his buddy Steve well.
Can you imagine what the world would be if the boss had said, “no?”
That is absolutely true and I have been in the HP facility where Woz worked. HP had (I hope they still have it) a very generous policy with respect to materials for their employee entrepreneurs. At that time if Woz needed microprocessors, logic chips, or even a wire wrap breadboard all he had to do was ask and it was free courtesy of HP. One of my best friends is an HP lifer but used this program to design and commercialize a product that makes wire routing and cable hanging easier and more efficient. He has made more money from his invention than he has from his salary at HP. He is currently developing a phase shift signal shaper for the music industry and is using HP materials and test equipment to further the process along. This is all with their blessing.
HP does this because it was started in a garage in Palo Alto by a couple of Stanford students named Bill Hewlett and David Packard. Mr. Packard was a frequent guest lecturer in one of my classes when I was at Stanford. Mr. Packard was always curious about how a long haired musician from Sturgis, KY ended up in the Stanford Graduate School of Engineering. He never lost touch with who he was and always supported the entrepreneurial dreams of young people like myself. He was a great man.
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