I give to Charity: Water. They've got a great proposition where 100% of your donations go directly to the field to fund water projects. They're also a tech saavy group of folks and try to prove that by providing GPS signals and photos of the project you funded. Administrative costs are covered separately by a group of benefactors (who understand they are solely paying for administrative costs).

Spot on analogy, Tackhead. +1, you.

Hahaha. I had forgotten about the LBs. Hope you are doing well soon.

Thanks man. Advogato 4 lyfe.

Hahahaha -- ah, the ball gag. That brings back memories.

Almost like we planned it that way. Too bad we didn't!

I SEE YOU PUDGE

Nope, CBN left a few years ago. Samzenpus and Timothy are still around tho'!

You can refer to me as "Norman" if that makes it more palatable.

The worst part is that I did miss first post. But it was chrisd who beat me so that makes it slightly more bearable.

Thanks -- it was always the personal part that made me happiest.

Thanks. And you all should know that it has been the readers that kept Rob and I going for as long as we did.

And also why I get some very odd spam sometimes. Although nothing tops: "Hemos, pink flicks! Merhabalar! Super Viagra is here!"

I left Geeknet aka all the other names Rob has typed already nearly exactly a year ago now, and had stopped really posting on Slashdot prior to that but the work, creation and launching of Slashdot remains one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Rob and I went to the same middle school, high school, college and had the joy of working together for well over a decade; I've been very lucky to have worked with him and the other friends we started with.

Rob and I became friends not actually because of being in the same school, though we knew each other that way. We because friends when we both had modems and got on the BBSes, and that desire to have a place to share news and stuff with friends was what I think Slashdot has done well with. Bringing together the people who have the love of technology in their blood. Rob is really really good at that, and working with him and the rest of the folks has been on honor and privilege.

We've had some good wedding times and some burnination times (Chris, I forgot about the cell phone. That makes me giggle.) And while I could go on and on, then I'll turn maudlin and no one wants that.

I started at Google just over a week ago now, and love what I'm doing -- and I think that's the most important lesson I learned from Slashdot. You won't always like what you are doing but if you working on something you love and with good people around you, that's worth a lot.

If you care to see me poke fun of Rob, you can find me on Twitter as (the imaginatively named) @hemos, or find me on Google Plus as Jeffrey Bates

Thanks for the fun, Rob. We done good.