Spurious Missives

New Blog Address - Spuriousmissives.com

Bob — 2009-08-14T21:05:00Z

I have moved this blog to a new site. Up to this point, I have been using a personal domain name, but, have decided to use a domain name that is the actual name of the blog.

Please reset your bookmark to : spuriousmissives.com.

Thank you.

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A Tribute To My Son by Linda Beeman

Bob — 2007-10-27T21:36:00Z

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the loss of my son, Matthew Robert Beeman. It is truly the most heartbreaking event a parent can ever experience.

Little did I know that over the next days, weeks, months, and years I would still be learning about the life of my wonderful son. At the time of his death he was a senior at the Stetson University School of Music. His years at Stetson had been successful but he lost his long battle with depression.

Part I

Monday Afternoon October 27, 2003

On that day, a policeman visited me at work with the news that the Deland, Florida police had informed him that my son was dead. He drove me home where another policeman, a chaplain, waited with Bob.

The pain of hearing you have just lost a child is almost impossible to describe. It just rips through your very being like a fire, leaving a crushing pain in its wake.

The next few hours and days were a blur of activity. Our minister, Reverend Savage, and two wonderful ladies from our church were there to help us tell our daughter when she arrived home.

Our family doctor made an unheard-of house call, and our next door neighbors stayed with us until the first members of our family began to arrive. Since the Florida Medical Examiner would not release Matthew's body for the next several days, we did not know how or when to schedule a funeral. We were in a kind of limbo that is hard to describe.

Out of this tragic event came so much love and care. Family members traveled long distances. Our church family, work colleagues, friends, and neighbors blanketed us with support. Visits, food, and phone calls started to pour in to keep us going.

Our large extended family took care of the everyday tasks which left us just to deal with the details of preparing to bury our son. Reverend Savage and a Stephen minister from our church, whom I will always think of as an angel on earth, were with us every step of the way.

Tuesday October 28, 2003

I woke in the early morning hours thinking that there was no way I was going to make it through the day. We had to take care of business at the funeral home, plan the services, and write an obituary. Bob and I had stayed up most of the night trying to grasp the reality of the situation.

Thank God for the shock comes with the sudden death of a loved one. At least some part of you is numb to the things you are experiencing.

I was terribly distraught about what kind of service Matthew would want. I was so obsessed with this idea that I could not function. Suddenly, a voice in my head said, "Matthew wants whatever his Mother wants".

At that moment I felt at peace for the first time and ready to face whatever the day brought.

That morning brought a steady stream of visitors and phone calls as word spread of our loss. Two surprising phone calls came that morning as I greeted our visitors while Bob answered the phone.

One call came from the Music Minister of the Presbyterian Church where Matthew sang in the choir a short time before his death. He evidently made an impression there. The man informed Bob that at choir practice whenever Matthew entered the room there was sunshine and laughter.

He told us that the next Sunday after church they were going to walk to the campus and have the "releasing of the doves" ceremony. At that time I had never seen this but later I attended one myself and it is truly beautiful.

The next call was from the Dean of the College of Music who told us of the assembly held the night before on campus and how hundreds of students had been there. He also wanted to know about funeral arrangements because he and many of the students wanted to attend. Finally he asked for our permission to have a memorial service at Stetson to honor Matthew. They wanted to schedule it so that we would be able to attennd.

Later that morning we left for the funeral home accompanied by my cousin and Rev. Savage. They sat in with us and provided support for the many decisions that had to be made that day. At that point we were still waiting to set the date of the visitation and funeral, still not knowing when the Florida Medical Examiner would release our Matthew.

By the end of the day, the business end was complete, the funeral and visitation were set and the obituary was written. We had gone through volumes of pictures and decided which ones best portrayed our son’s life for display at the services.

One thing that brought smiles to everyone was the fact that his "wake" would be on Halloween. How appropriate for his wickedly funny sense of humor. I was sure he was smiling down of us for that one.

Wednesday October 29th and 30th 2003

The only thing I remember about these two days was waiting for Matthew to be released and for his clothes to be sent from Stetson. All his dress clothes were down there and had to be shipped to us by Federal Express.

Someone told us that one of his friends had a blog where she had written about Matthew and that comments were coming in from across the country. We started reading at that point and were truly amazed by what we read. There were so many, hundreds of them over a period of a month or so.

It was like looking into a window and seeing an entirely new room that you never knew existed. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences that I have ever had. I will always cherish the comments that were written there. It was just the beginning of the things that I would learn about the man my son had become.

I knew that he had a strong work ethic, and a deeply ingrained sense of right and wrong. He believed in justice and fairness, and he did not suffer fools. He always kept his word and he had very little patience for those who didn’t.

He was brutally honest and of course there was always that wicked sense of humor. He truly knew how to comfort people who were hurting. After all he had been there on and off since adolescence. He would go out of his way to help other people. He was always reaching out. He loved people, at least those who didn’t persecute him. He knew he was loved and he knew how to give love to others.

He was handsome, talented, and when he wasn’t lost in the darkness called depression he could light up a room just by walking in.

4th Anniversary Of My Son's Death

Bob — 2007-10-27T19:22:00Z

Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of our son, Matthew. He was a senior at Stetson University, and hanged himself in his dorm room. There would seem to be no pleasant memories of this day for our little family, but many things have come to pass to make us appreciate the life of our son, and what he meant to us and many others.

My wife, Linda, is in the process of writing on this subject. I will publish her words in this blog in the next day or two.

On Monday, October 27, 2003 at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the doorbell summoned me to the front door to see a couple of Roswell, GA police officers on my front porch. After asking for ID, I let them in and deposited them in the living room. The den was thoroughly trashed with my stuff, and was not presentable.

They were not there to pass judgment on my housekeeping habits.

Very professionally, the lead officer explained that they had been contacted by the DeLand Florida Police Department, and my son had been found dead in his Stetson University dormitory room that morning. He had committed suicide.

My first thought was that the little scamp had finally done it! It took a few minutes for me to realize that I would not be able to fuss at him for doing such a stupid thing. Reality has a way of catching up with you.

The next few days were a blur of activity. Family, friends, church members, and just plain nice people did nice things to help us cope and get through this tough time. We could have never made it without them. I will let Linda tell you about these things.

There are a couple of things I want to mention, and these are the practical things you have to face when a loved one dies.

Lesson #1:

When you are ready to bury a loved one, funeral homes do not negotiate. Plan ahead, and if it is practicable, buy some family grave lots. You will get a better price that way.

This is easier said than done, because so many families are like ours, and tend to move about the country. A lot of people don't know where they will wind up, and a burial lot is the last thing they will consider. No pun intended.

Lesson #2:

Yes. You do need life insurance on children in spite of what ignorant talk-radio hosts say. Life insurance for minors costs very little, and if your child dies, you will not have to raid your life savings for a $15,000 to $20,000 funeral. Matthew's funeral, including the cost of casket, vault, grave lot, and marker cost a bit over $14,000. It was not cheap. Thank God I ran into a good life insurance salesman when Matthew was little. If he had lived he could have assumed the small premiums, or could have taken advantage of the cash value.

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Mexican Fix

Bob — 2007-09-02T15:45:00Z

This is not about an occasional visit to Tijuana Joe's to get my Mexican food fix.

This is about two huge problems our nation is currently experiencing.

1. We are hosting 20 million illegal aliens we don't need, most of whom are Mexicans.

2. NAFTA mandates that Mexican truck drivers can go straight from Mexico to points in the USA or Canada with their loads of cheap Mexican goods, and not have to observe US and Canadian safety and emission standards.

These two, seemingly intractable, problems can easily be solved by levering one against the other.

When a Mexican truck driver delivers a load of goods in the USA or Canada, he must be required to carry a load of Mexicans back with him!

They can go back the same way they came, and therefore, their treatment will be consistent with Mexican government treatment of its citizens in their home country.

You see? There are good solutions lurking out there. All you have to do is think out of the ~~truck~~ box.

Once again, it gets real easy, real quick.

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Senator Craig Got Stung

Bob — 2007-09-01T17:29:00Z

A Senator from Idaho stepped down from his office because he pleads guilty to doing weird things in an airport mens' room.

Think about this for a minute. No crime was committed, and nobody was hurt or threatened during this supposed gigantic breach of legal and moral rectitude.

The worst of what was going on was a man was trolling for the attention of another man. The other person involved was a cop.

Now, here is where the thing goes off the tracks.

In many locales, there are laws against prostitution, but, there are no laws against propositioning someone for sex. There are no laws against accepting a proposition for sex. In this case no money was offered nor asked.

If there were laws against looking for sex, then bars and singles groups at churches would go out of business real quick.

The public sin in this case is that the cop was setting up a public servant, who was coincidently weak-willed and did not belong to the Bill Clinton school of sex-oriented crisis management.

This whole charade reminds me of one of my former blogs, where I remind the world:

"It is not against the law for a Government Agent to lie to you".

The application of this principal is that the cop was masquerading as a homosexual looking for a sex partner. The cop was presenting himself as someone he was not, and this is the same as lying. I am against government sting operations for this reason.

Time and again we see law enforcement officials making-up stuff to get an arrest. In this case they made-up a whole crime.

I don't respect Senator Craig for doing what he did, but, if he could take a clue from one of the most egregious moral offenders in the history of the country, all he had to do was to deny, deny, deny.

Bill Clinton could make real money if he would just publish his patented method of escaping guilt.

Deny, deny, deny.

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American Public - We ARE Winning In Iraq

Bob — 2007-08-31T16:57:00Z

Quoted from Don Surber's blog.

"John Zogby's latest online poll -- for UPI -- showed 54% of Americans believe that the war in Iraq can be won. Only 34% said the war cannot be won.

11% said the war has already been won!

Among Democrats, 66% said Iraq is hopeless."

This was an online poll, and therefore was not very scientific. But, it was done by Zogby for UPI and this is supposed to give the poll some credibility.

It is particularly telling that 66% of Democrats believe we are losing in Iraq. Perception is everything with these people, and they don't perceive anything but the lame utterings of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and a peanut gallery of liberal has-beens like John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy.

Once again, the Democrats are on the wrong side of history.

President Bush was exactly right when comparing the current anti-war crowd in Congress with the Democrat Congress during the Viet Nam war. It is historically factual that the USA was winning in Southeast Asia before the Democrat Anti-War Congress decided to cut-off all funding for the war.

As a result of the idealistic rantings of the Democrat Party, millions of Southeast Asians died. Two million South Vietnamese put to sea to find sanctuary from the North Vietnamese Communists. They were called the "Boat People".

Tens of thousands of these poor souls perished at sea, and thousands of others were caught and herded into prison by the North Vietnamese whose historic victory was compliments of a Democrat Majority Congress, and anti-war protesters like Jane Fonda and John Kerry.

Hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese were tortured, mutilated, and murdered by the victorious North Vietnamese. The History Channel got it right when they recently showed films of North Vietnamese prison camps, with their soldiers torturing thousands of South Vietnamese to re-educate them.

This is denied by the Democrats who, during the war, were busy smoking dope and protesting the war to keep from being drafted and forced to do their legal and patriotic duty.

Democrats will not take responsibility for their failures, and therefore cannot profit from the lessons of history.

Fortunately, most Americans are smarter than the average Democrat.

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One Way Justice

Bob — 2007-08-31T15:54:00Z

Attorney General Al Gonzales is being investigated for possibly lying to Congress. I personally doubt if he did so intentionally, but, that makes no difference to the political geniuses in charge of Congress.

There are just a couple of points I would like to make.

1. It is against the law for you to lie to a Federal Agent. It is not against the law for a Federal Agent to lie to you.

2. It is against the law for you to lie to Congress. It is not against the law for a Congressman to lie to you.

Just remember that our current Congress is led by men and women who are planning to surrender to the terrorists in Iraq. This is the courage evident in this bunch, and they are lying to the US public about almost everything while trying to make their point.

There is no penalty for such egregious lying to the American public. There should be.

Remember the brilliant Contract With America, originated by Newt Gingrich? He got things done, and even got some legislation passed to make Congress subject to the same laws as the rest of the nation.

Anybody want to make bets that the current Congress will accomplish anything other than investigations?

Don't hold your breath.

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The White Dog Lady

Bob — 2007-08-31T11:52:00Z

If she is jogging up the hill, it is 7:00 AM, and we are on time.

If she is jogging down the hill, it is 7:15 AM, and we are on the ragged edge of late.

If we don't see her at all, we are in trouble.

The White Dog Lady can be seen daily, jogging with her white, bushy tailed dog, on the hill outside our subdivision. You can set your watch by her.

Every morning while driving my wife, the-sweetest-woman-in-the-world, to work, we see the White Dog Lady doing her thing. I personally feel better having seen her jogging bravely up and down the hill.

She is so predictable in her schedule that I know that the world is still in its place when she is there. Normality can be many things to many people. The mere presence of the White Dog Lady is a comforting thing to me,

She is pretty. I don't know her name. I don't know where she lives. I will never know these things because the-sweetest-woman-in-the-world discourages me from stopping and talking to the White Dog Lady.

The-sweetest-woman-in-the-world is right. If I knew all these things about the White Dog Lady, she would lose her mystique, and she would revert to mortality, albeit a good looking mortality.

As of this morning, I know that all is well in the world.

The White Dog Lady was going up the hill, and we were on time.

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AT&T - Deja Vu all Over Again

Bob — 2007-08-30T16:05:00Z

AT&T is controlling my telecommunications world, again. Does anyone remember the old AT&T, and the total lack of innovation in the Bell systems?

Even though the old AT&T owned Bell Labs, the worlds most advanced research and development organization, technological innovations were very slow to find their way to the American consumer. The Carter Phone decision was the beginning of the penetration of the Bell Systems with innovative devices, and MCI pioneered the way in anti-trust suits against AT&T, paying for their national long-distance network from the proceeds of their legal winnings.

Now, the dark side of the telecommunications world threatens to drag the USA behind in the new world economy as it is being played out. AT&T has no competitive reason to improve on their services in their system, and this will bode ill for the US economy in the years to come.

Currently, Japanese consumers are experiencing internet speeds of over 60 mbs because of fiber optic circuits being installed. There is no economic reason for AT&T to install fiber to the home, and we are doomed to languish at ADSL download speeds for the foreseeable future.

What goes around, comes around. The Death Star is real, and AT&T is the evil empire.

Without fail, history will repeat itself.

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Joke Of The Day

Bob — 2007-08-30T13:56:00Z

This joke was stolen from the Adam Smith Institute Blog. I have no shame.
*****************************************************************

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. They loaded up Jack's station wagon and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. They pulled into a nearby farm house and asked the attractive lady of the house if they could spend the night.

"I'm recently widowed," she explained, "and I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my house."

"Not to worry," Jack said, "we'll be happy to sleep in the barn."

Nine months later, Jack got a letter from the widow's attorney.

He went to see his friend Bob and said, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow at the farm we stayed at?"

"Yes, I do."

"Did you happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and have sex with her?"

"Yes, I have to admit that I did."

"Did you happen to use my name instead of telling her your name?"

Bob's face turned red and he said, "Yeah, I'm afraid I did."

"Well, thanks! She just died and left me everything!"

My Presidential Campaign Reform Proposal

Bob — 2007-08-30T12:33:00Z

It gets real simple, real quick.

All you have to do to reform the current impossible campaign funding laws is to repeal them.

US citizens should be able to contribute any amount of money to any Presidential candidate. But, this has to be limited to individual citizens. No corporate or advocacy group money should be allowed.

All campaign advertising should be limited to that of the official campaign organization. No exceptions.

All contributions must be published on the world-wide-web within 24 hours. No exceptions.

The entire process becomes transparent, and continuing audits by opposing campaigns will assure compliance.

Immediate jail terms should be provided for campaign managers if the rules are broken. We can't wait for years for a broken Federal Election Commission to figure out who did what to who. Oh, yeah, get rid of the Federal Election Commission.

This new campaign funding paradigm will leverage the entrepreneurial spirit for which the USA is recognized the world over. It makes no difference how much money a billionaire contributes, because American citizens will be able to spot the jerks in the herd of candidates, no matter how much advertising is bought.

We won't have to worry about slime-balls like Al Gore picking up bags of illicit Chinese money at Bhudist temples.

Oh! There is one more thing I need to mention.

Soccer moms should not be allowed vote. Oops! That's another blog for another day.

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The Ultimate Witch

Bob — 2007-08-29T15:04:00Z

Here is news on the bitchiest witch in existence, or, final repose.

"Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. She became known as a symbol of 1980s greed and earned the nickname "the Queen of Mean" after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion. One employee had quoted her as snarling, "Only the little people pay taxes."

Article link: biz.yahoo.com/ap/070829/helmsley_s_pooch.html?.v=1

She became a pretty small person, herself. There is nothing big or noteworthy about leaving your dog $12 million, and stiffing two of your grandchildren.

Wealth didn't make her happy.

She was just a nasty ~~bitch~~ witch.

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Surreptitious Computing

Bob — 2007-08-28T17:54:00Z

Lots of people have company owned laptop computers, and are forbidden to use them for personal purposes. Personal purposes include email, correspondence, and any other activity that involves using the company paid hardware and software.

Corporations and government agencies reserve the right to search your computer at any time for any unauthorized software or files created when not doing their bidding.

What a bummer! Just think, there you have a really neat piece of hardware, and you are not supposed to go to your local Starbucks, oogle at the inmates, and indulge in personal blogging. It just takes the fun out of personal computing.

There is a solution to get around the corporate IT cops. I am using that method right now as I type in my blog.

I am using a version of the Linux operating system that runs on a live CD. Yep! The entire system and tons of software are on the CD, and the computer's hard drive is never accessed, nor are any files ever written to the hard drive. Any correspondence files, or other files, can be written back to the CD using the built-in CD burner most laptops have.

This way, if I were using a company computer, there would be absolutely no trace of my personal computing. NONE!

So, there you have it. I have a virtual computer on a CD that I can take with me wherever I go, and use it on any computer that can boot from a CD drive.

If you use it at the office be careful. Many corporate IT departments can monitor activity from your position or address, and using the live CD method would only slow the computer cops down.

No need to spend your own money when you don't have to.

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Vick Will Never Rehabilitate

Bob — 2007-08-28T16:07:00Z

That's my prediction. No matter how much Micheal Vick tries to rehabilitate himself, the world we live in will not let him outlive the sins of abusing dogs. He doesn't get it, anyway.

Here in Atlanta we have all known for some time that Michael Vick was a thug, and a stupid one, at that. He has jumped from one troubling episode to another, and apparently felt immune to the laws normal people had to live by.

Vick was taken care of for most of his life because of his awesome athletic talents. He got Virginia Tech a national championship, but, I wonder how the Hokies feel about their hero, now? I am sure they feel even more let down than the Atlanta Falcon fans.

One of the interesting things about the whole episode is that the American public, especially the press, seems to care more for dogs than people. The Vick story pre-empted the gangland-like murders of college kids in New Jersey perpetrated by illegal aliens. It just seemed more newsworthy.

Are we, as a society, more tolerant of murderers of people than we are killers of dogs? Probably.

Yes, I know that it is the gambling that Vick will serve time for. But, don't kid yourselves. It is his treatment of dogs that will ruin his professional football career.

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ISLAM Cannot Compete

Bob — 2007-08-28T14:33:00Z

The Taliban is releasing 19 South Korean Christian missionaries this week after weeks of imprisonment. One of the negotiated conditions is that the Koreans will not send any more Christian missionaries to Afghanistan.

Why is this?

They are afraid of the competition of Christianity. They cannot compete in the world of religion and ideas.

Christianity is all about redemption, and includes the abiding faith in the living God as personified in Jesus Christ. Jesus died for humanity's redemption, and ISLAM calls on its followers to kill themselves for their own redemption.

Jesus' tomb is empty. We know where Mohammed's bones are.

What a contrast!

ISLAM cannot deal with the comparison. Muslims are taught that they should kill infidels. Christians are taught to love and forgive.

The results are obvious.

ISLAM cannot compete.

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40 Years Of Marriage And Those Darned Vows

Bob — 2007-08-25T22:14:00Z

"For richer or poorer. For better or worse. In sickness and in health. 'Til death do us part". Or, something like that.

We have held it together for 40 years on August 26th, but it doesn't seem that long. It's not easy living with the same person for forty years, and there ought to be some sort of medal or grand prize for keeping vows that long.

But, noooo... Not in this world.

Besides, vows don't have much to do with it. As a friend of mine told me this afternoon, it is more like the concept of grace, as in the grace of God. It has to be love, and that means love without question.

If the only thing holding marriages together was a bunch of promises, the institution would not last long.

Promises are important, but, some real love has to be there for a marital relationship to prosper. That means that the marriage gets better over time, or I don't think you will have a marriage.

We have been through a lot. Thankfully, we have been relatively healthy in these years, but, there have been episodes that required work, faith, and not a little prayer to get the other through an illness.

There has been sickness and health, and some pretty rough times. I am just waiting for the "better" stuff, now.

Or, maybe it's like an old barber used to tell me, "It's like the World's Fair. It gets bigger and better every year!"

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Ham Radio Hooker Shoes

Bob — 2007-08-25T12:22:00Z

GPS Alarm Shoes for Sex Workers

This just in from Wired Blogs

"Where would a good prostitute be without her (or his) signature platform shoes? In trouble, that's where. The Aphrodite projects has taken steps to protect street-walkers with Platforms. The shoes have a built in audible alarm to scare off attackers, and when the alarm is triggered, the prostitute's position is transmitted to either the police (in places where prostitution is legal) or to sex worker's rights groups.
The GPS unit uses APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) a system which uses amateur radio frequencies to send data, which, ironically, was first developed at the United States Naval Academy (all the nice girls love a sailor)."

Amateur Radio has been my hobby since High School, and now I can be proud of my nerdiness. It seems that all that Ham Radio stuff might have a payoff, because, you see, if a hooker can be located using Ham Radio technology, then Ham Radio can find you a hooker!

I wonder if the wearers of these shoes have to have Amateur Radio FCC licenses? Hmmm...

The Federal Government may have found a way to tax sex workers. Does that make illicit sex legal?

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Solar Power - Are We There, Yet?

Bob — 2007-08-24T12:46:00Z

Even after decades of development, investment, and just plain hard work, solar power has a long way to go before becoming economically attractive. Coal is the most economical fuel in power generation stations around the world.

However, there are other reasons to keep the solar development efforts going, not the least being that solar power releases no pollution into the atmosphere, whereas, coal is probably the dirtiest fuel around.

The problem with solar power is that no particular solar system is efficient enough for most people's use. For example, silicon based solar cells are only capable of converting about 15% of the sun's energy into electricity.

Other materials are being investigated, and there is a project underway at the University of Delaware where a combination of materials has been coaxed into the 40% efficiency range. However, this technology will not become commercial for a long time.

Germany has a system of subsidies for solar power usage, resulting in a large solar energy industry in that country. The problem is that everybody pays, both through the tax structure, and through increased commercial power costs driven by government rules that the power company has to buy power from its customers.

We can look forward to the US government coming up with some sort of program, and some states already offer tax breaks for using solar power.

One way or the other, we will all pay exorbitant prices for our energy usage, especially given that the government will be distorting market forces.

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Hurricane Dean Wasn't So Mean

Bob — 2007-08-24T00:28:00Z

Hurricane Dean, a monster Category 5 storm, struck Mexico's Yucatan peninsula last week.

Nobody died!

In 1955 Hurricane Janet, another monster Category 5 storm, hit the Yucatan at about the same place and killed 600 people.

Was this just luck, or something else.

With today's ability to track hurricanes and to predict their course, populations everywhere can prepare for storms, and mitigate the effects. This is what happened to Hurricane Dean.

People in heavily populated coastal areas are learning, and now have the ability to escape a storms fury. The predictability of a storm's track, especially in the last 24 hours, has become fairly precise.

So, congratulations to NOAA.

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Hat tip to World Climate Report.

EDIT 8/23/07 - At least 8 people have died in Mexico's interior in the flooding and landslides caused by Hurricane Dean as it continued its journey across the country, according to BBC News. The comments above were not meant to trivialize the effects of the storm, but, to recognize that the ability to forecast hurricane tracks has advanced remarkably, and this fact has saved scores of lives compared to similar storms hitting the same coast in years past.

ZONBU - Small Compter With Big Plans

Bob — 2007-08-23T14:01:00Z

I just read a CNET article on a new entry into the desktop computer market, A company named ZONBU is producing a tiny, 6"x5"x2" computer with the advertised price of $99.00. Is this too good to be true?

You bet it is. But, ZONBU comes as a package of CPU hardware, and Linux operating system with all the applications you would conceivably need. The actual hardware cost is $249, plus $14.95 per month for the service. Since the computer does not have a hard disk, they use a 4 Gb flash memory card, and sell you on line storage of up to 100 Gb.

For the $14.95/mo, you get 50 Gb on line storage, and regular updates to the operating system and the applications. Since the package uses only 10 watts of power, it is considered the "greenest" computer on the market.

If you pay two years of the monthly service in advance, you get a $150 rebate against the hardware price. Do the math. They are still making money.

How do I know? I know because I am a Linux enthusiast, and I get all my software, updates, and new versions free. All I have to do is to download the stuff.

It is interesting that someone has figured out a way to make money out of free software, and you have to respect the results you get. You get a package equal to any Windows package, and you get guaranteed on line storage of your files.

On line storage can mean a lot if you are writing a book and value your work, or need to keep photos and other media in a safe place.

I have the equivalent computer for about $160, having paid $20 for a flea market P4 Dell computer, and added RAM memory, 300 Gb hard drive, and a wireless modem for internet access to my DSL service from ATT. My Linux operating system costs me nothing, except a little time to download and install.

So, value is in the eye of the beholder. I get my value from a used, flea market machine because I am a fairly technical person. Others, who have neater desks than mine, will get value from the ZONBU package, and will not have to worry about computer viruses and spyware.

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