I haven't been able to attend all this stuff either because it's just
irrelevant:  We're migrating to a new platform and it appears to be Sybase
running on Solaris [I would have given odds the HP3000 would outlast them
even last year, but that's life].

Organic farming might actually be the best answer and you should consider
raising Habaneros--it's quite a HOT market, if you'll pardon the pun and
even if you don't, who would care?

Chilies stimulate production of endorphins in a roundabout sort of way
[http://www.all2true.org/endorphins.htm].

If you start into organic farming with Red Savinas be aware that there are
some trustworthy sites to pursue and some not so trustworthy.

For example, http://www.redsavina.com offers the Red Savina Habenero Pepper
both ground and offer seeds, but use Paypal, of which I have been
suspicious because of its, let's say, unsavory reputation
[http://www.paypalwarning.com/].

It is also suspicious that they do not have a telephone number or mailing
address on their site, so I did a WHOIS at Network Solutions
[http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois] and found "Malba, NY"
for "Sevex International" as the Web Host, but the telephone number listed,
206-339-4357 is awfully suspicious and since I live near there recognized
it as being a Seattle, WA number.

This was stranger and stranger.

So I called and got a message, something about "Start FAXing Now or Leave A
Message".

Since I'm not a voice-mail kind of guy, I decided to search for "Sevex
International" with the worst results of all; there's no indication that
such a corporation exists which has anything to do with Habeneros, let
alone jalepenias.

Anyway, I wasn't about to give up, so I called the good folks at
http://www.gkg.net/ out there in friendly College Station, Texas at 1 (800)
617-0412 and these folks are really great--it's too bad I already have an
ISP I'm happy with right here in Tacoma [http://www.iewebs.net/].

Anyway, they checked their records and found the dreaded INCONSISTENCIES in
the registration of www.redsavina.com and they aren't able to contact them
either!

So I guess it's a pretty good bet that it's a pretty bad bet to do business
with these folks--and I thought Nigerian scams were state-of-the-art.

Although it's not a complete list, it's pretty good for most of your
options:

     http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Food/Seasonings/Chile_Peppers/

Let me just say right here, though, that there are only two vendors worth
note on this list in my estimation because the others either use Paypal OR
worse, when you go to checkout, their site does not take you to a secured
area and there is no HTTPS:// and that is an unacceptable risk.

http://www.grindhot.com/catalog.html allows you to order stuff, but the
shopping cart only allows you to have one item at check out--bummer!

http://www.wildpepper.com/pepperpowders.html is sold out of the Ground Red
Savina pepper at present.

Uncle Steve's Hot Stuff [http://ushotstuff.com/Order.Form.htm] allows you
to order off a form, he sends you an e-mail, you send him a check and a
copy of the e-mail, and he sends you the merchandise.

Best of all is Doug Conklin over there at Jot Products
[http://www.jotproducts.com/]!

Now here is an honest business man!

Order the products, he sends them to you with the bill, and you send him
back his invoice with a check or money order!

How can you beat that?!

He says, "We feel the world needs to have more trust in people".

I can't agree less, especially regarding the previous information, but it's
his thing and we respect him for it.

There's one more thing I should mention:  The telephone at the bottom of
the form, (253)520-6497 down there in lovely Kent, Washington isn't quite
accurate because he's moved off to Yuma, Aridzona, which would make sense
if you're actually growing chilis and all, and calling the number will get
you a "Sorry this number is disconnected", but gives (928)329-6388 as the
new number and I called it, and Doug is just great to talk to.

So if you want to do business, it's probably good to do business with him.

Of course, if you're  going to get into growing chilis you should know
something about comparative hotness and you're going to learn about
Scoville Units sooner or later, so you might as well look at
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~gcaselton/chile/scoville.html right now.

Now I don't know if this will help you much in getting started in organic
farming and moving away from the HP3000, but if you're looking for hot
chili, this should be just the Friday distraction you've been looking for.

Normally, you wouldn't think so, but it might be good to get a chili
reception.

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