Podcast Guest

[Martin Hash]

At the height of my computer software career when we attended most of the trade shows, the ones in Las Vegas were the biggest and the best. Getting a booth was expensive, even more so if you didn’t know the ins & outs. For example, booth babes, laborers, electrical drop, signage; all of which could be avoided or minimized if you knew how. There were also borderline scams: buying awards, magazine sponsorships and video interviews. The “interviews” were ego-ticklers, the interviewers implying that I was interesting & famous enough to be a guest on their shows. However, investigation soon revealed that I, the interviewee, had to pay $20K for the privilege. It’s been a long time, and I’ve experienced hundreds of scams since, so I’ve got a pretty good scamdar.

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My podcast is going on 1500 episodes over 10 years. My forum has a half-million posts, I’ve written 4-dozen books, ran for political office 5 times, and the world’s only ever simultaneously-licensed doctor, lawyer, accountant & engineer, so when I got a non-blocked email inviting me as a guest on a #1 Applecast selection, my only question was which of those things did they want to talk about out. I looked at the website and my scamdar went off. I noticed the podcast was based in Las Vegas during a trade show. I replied to the email questioning rather there were any fees. They immediately responded with an application but no direct answer to my question. The application was 4 pages. I carefully read it, apprehensive about how much information I should provide; mostly I left it blank. At the end was an accept button. Just above that was a bit of text informing me that there was an $8500 nonrefundable fee. Busted. On a positive note, I got a dopamine hit both from being asked, and correctly predicting the truth.

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[Haumana]

Do you know or have met John C Dvorak?

[Martin Hash]

Do you know or have met John C Dvorak?

I know the name from back in the day but I don’t think I ever met him.

[Haumana]

Do you know or have met John C Dvorak?

I know the name from back in the day but I don’t think I ever met him.

Cool beans. It sure seems like you two were swimming in the same pond back then. He wrote for Infoworld and PC magazine back in the day. Now he is one part of the No Agenda Podcast, twice weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays.