Sailbourne

“Smilin’ Bob” firm ran $100 million scam

Now if only the indictment had included an injunction getting those wretched, wretched commercials off the air …

Leo,

I’ve been listening to DGW faithfully since episode1, and have been a regular TWiT donor for quite some time as well. I was stunned to hear you say the following on DGW#141:

“… and most of you don’t have great ideas.”

Maybe not, but how on earth are we going to know until we try?

Sure, point out how difficult and expensive it is to market an invention. Address the copyright difficulties involved in sending one’s idea to a Famous Person. Warn people about the ripoff artists who are just out to make money off someone’s dream.

But to basically tell people, “Your idea is worthless”? That’s disrespectful, bordering on cruel!

I’m not necessarily going to walk away from TWiT. But I am very disappointed.

When I woke up this morning, I found myself wondering, how many years would there be in a googol of seconds?

(Just in case you don’t remember your math trivia, a googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes, or 1×10¹⁰⁰.)

So I sat down and tried to figure it out. There are, if my math and memory are correct, 3.156 x 10⁷ seconds in one year. (Give or take a few, thanks to rounding, etc.)

So 1 x 10¹⁰⁰ / 3.156 x 10⁷ = 3.17 x 10⁹⁴, or 317 followed by 92 zeroes.

Given that there are 3.156 x 10¹⁷ seconds in ten billion years, then I guess the ultimate answer to my question is, “More than there are in the age of the universe, and then some.”

Of course the real question is, why in heaven’s name was I thinking about this in the first place? Especially just as I’m waking up.

Ah well. A little mental exercise never hurt anyone, right?