General

From Oliver Starr:

THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT AT HUMOR

PLEASE REPOST

At some time between 7:30 and 8:10 AM on Sunday Morning December 2nd, 2007, Marc Orchant, my fellow author on this blog, as well as one of my closest friends sustained a massive heart attack while working in his home office. At this time Marc is in critical condition at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Critical Cardiac Care Unit, Bed 3. He is not expected to regain consciousness for the next 24 to 48 hours.

I was notified by Marc’s wife, Sue and asked to help notify Marc’s colleagues, friends and other business associates. Marc was scheduled to go to Seattle, WA as well as Ojai, CA this coming week. Obviously he will not be able to attend either event. Those of you that have association with either of Marc’s scheduled appearances at these locations, please notify those that require notice of this turn of events.

According to Sue Orchant, Marc was up early Sunday morning as is his normal custom. Sue told me that he was working in his office from about 7:30 AM until 8:10 when Sue says she heard a strange noise in Marc’s office. When she went to investigate she saw that Marc was not sitting in front of the computer like he normally does and was slumped over between his desk and a small couch that is in the room.

Initially, Sue said, she though he was leaning over doing something to their Golder Retriever but then she realized that he was not conscious. Fortunately, Sue has basic medical knowledge and after verifying that Marc was not choking and had a clear airway she began to perform CPR while their son, Jason, called paramedics.

The ambulance arrived in less than 10 minutes and technicians immediately took over performing CPR and administered treatment with a cardiac defibrillator. Marc was rushed into emergency open heart surgery where an angioplasty was performed to restore circulation in the blocked artery.

Sue went on to tell me that in spite of Marc’s apparent good health, he has severe occlusion in both his other arteries and they too will require treatment soon. That, however is a secondary concern as is the condition of Marc’s heart muscle. The primary concern and the question that cannot be answered until Marc regains consciousness is the nature or extent of any neurological damage as a result of insufficient oxygen reaching Marc’s brain.

While Marc still had what appeared to be normal color when Sue found him she is uncertain as to the exact time that Marc suffered the infarction. It is also unknown if Marc had stopped breathing or been without oxygen for any length of time prior to her discovery of the situation.

Currently Marc’s immediate family as well as his brothers and parents are in or on their way to Albuquerque to be with Marc. Sue has asked me to keep Marc’s colleagues and friends in the technology community updated as information becomes available. Please do not contact Sue for updates. I will publish any information that I have in multiple venues to keep people informed of any changes in Marc’s condition.

For those of you that wish to send flowers, cards, or other gifts, Marc is at: Presbyterian Hospital Cardiac Care Unit Bed #3 1100 Central Ave SE Albuquerque, NM 87106

the hospital switchboard number is 505-841-1234.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Marc and his family in this difficult time. Marc is one of the finest human beings that I have ever had the good fortune to know and I pray that Marc makes a full and speedy recovery.

As Oliver says, Marc is one of the finest human beings I have ever met, and my thoughts, prayers and every bit of happiness go out to Sue, Jason and their daughter – as well as Marc’s entire extended family. My initial reaction was to fly down to join them, but I know this is an intensely personal time.

Marc, pull through buddy, we’ll all be here waiting when you’re better!

1. The announcement from Aptera of 2 cars arriving next year (their first cars, I believe) fascinates me. 300mpg on the hybrid. 120 miles per charge on the pure electric. A few things. First, I’m curious why, if the hybrid goes 300mpg they didn’t give it a 3 gallon tank. Would have made it the farthest per-tank hybrid out there. Second, some of the innovative features are very, very cool. Third, one of the biggest markets for hybrids is young families (trying to save a buck or two). But with only space for 1 car seat, they’re limiting their market a touch. Fourth, the huge trunk is welcome. Fifth, it’s nice to see some new designs.

   All in all, I expect this vehicle to sell a few hundred units of each model. It’ll net them about 50-75M in revenue. But the next iteration I expect to be very interesting (assuming they hold out and don’t take a 200M offer from Chrysler just to crush the technology). The biggest problem with this is the form factor. It’s cool, but it’s also a requirement for that gas mileage. Cool on paper isn’t the same as cool in your driveway, after all.

2. Some folk (like Mikey Arrington, see Scoble’s video) are really hammering the Kindle for things like UI, depth, etc. To me this is primarily a KoolAid drinking issue. I, for example, totally get that this isn’t really a device, it’s a book replacement. You want to be able to hold it and read it in bookish light for 5-6 hours without hurting yourself. As such, the depth of the device is actually a Good Thing, since it’s easier to hold in a traditional “bookish” manner. The price is a little high, and it should have come with a dozen free books of your choice. Personally I don’t care about the browser in this iteration. All I care about is books. Delivered to my fingertips. Instantly. As such, it’s an interesting device. And, no, I don’t care about the UI, cause all I’ll be doing is page up/page down’ing. And I won’t be typing, much (since your Amazon profile is pre-loaded on the device so you don’t need to enter CC details to order). Again, my focus is on this as a first iteration device. As a first device, I’d give it a solid 7. Not great, but not Etch-A-Sketch useless either ;-)
3. It’s been interesting to see the huge number of inbound meeting/call requests that have come in post-BWE. Not just from BWE folk, but from folk who heard about b5 through BWE coverage. We’re now getting about a half-dozen per day (just for me). I used to take all of these myself, no questions asked, because I enjoy chatting to folk, and even if there wasn’t a match for b5 I could probably think of someone else who it would be a match for. Now, though, I’m having to cut meeting timeslots from 1 hour to 30 minutes, having to ask for details in advance so I can simply have the “right” person (sales for ad stuff, tech for platform stuff, etc) take the first call. I’m also not taking calls that aren’t core to where we’re going in the next 6 months. I’m pretty sure I don’t like this, but I’m not sure of a way around it. Any suggestions?
4. I managed to apply for a lost birth certificate online this weekend. Very easy to do once you had all the info (thanks CDN government!). Apparently should arrive (“guaranteed”) by next Wednesday. Which gives me about 10 days to get my new passport. Which isn’t a major issue, except for the 6 hour wait at the passport office. 2 days in a row.Ugh.
5. I’m really jiving for the local community. I’m hoping that in the new year I can free my schedule a bit so I can start co-organizing events. There’s so much going on that I *want* to be involved in, but 1) don’t know about til the day of (can we get an alerts system or something guys?!) or 2) just don’t have time for Right This Minute.
6. I’ve been asked (and agreed) to sit on a board for a new startup. It’s a quarterly thing, so not a drain on my time (or resources), but I’m actually thinking I’d like to do a bit more of this. So if anyone hears of anything… ;-)