Back before I started guerrilla warfare, I produced this doodle during one of Data General's meetings. Years later, I found it framed in one of the HR guy's office.

 

I guess my artwork encapsulated all the failures of DG. I'm amazed the HR guy had guts enough to actually hang this in his office.

Sincerely,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

I thought these guys had email scamming/spoofing/phishing/impersonation solved. Here's my ad in FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK.

 

My BigFix buddy, David Appelbaum 🇺🇦 was their CMO. Alas, vendor-side solutions like DMARC weren't the answer. I have a buddy who plays backup guitar for several famous entertainers. His solution is much better. His email provider gives him a choice whether or not to accept email from you. Each sender must "apply" to be on his list. Problem for me is potential clients are not likely to jump through those hoops. Selah.

We need to burn down the Internet and start from scratch. Not likely until China, Russia, Iran, etc. burn down the Web and make us start all over. Like I say, not likely.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

I came up with this domain, the name, and the animation about 20 years ago. Still haven't chosen a product.

 

Yeah, check out www.titaniumeagles.com. Great name for a clothing line for senior bicycle riders, a software company that's unique, or a novel? Someday I'll…land.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

I like creating billboards. They're up for a month and ideal for places like Silicon Valley.

 

Tenfold is one of the biggest ironies of my professional life. They lost their two biggest customers in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, and never recovered.

Sigh.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

Here's my "THANK YOU" ad for the $54-million investment from companies who "looked over the shoulder" of the people Talk2 was targeting.

 

Yep. Hewlett-Packard swooped in and gave hardware to my client, who was going to get free hardware from Sun Microsystems. And Oracle swooped in to replace Informix. Interesting, that ads often draw competitors.

As Oracle's M&A team was tasked with closing the deal, they almost tanked it by insisting that Talk2 pay annual maintenance fees. I sent a note to Larry Ellison suggesting that his M&A team was doing "malicious obedience." He not only reversed their decision, but canned the whole team. At least I THINK he canned them, as they ended up at Siebel and contacted me to see if Talk2 would entertain the same kind of equity deal with Siebel as they did with Oracle.

Go figure.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man