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04/02/2005: "Firetide extinguished, Canopy killing its own"


I got a notel from someone who would know that, as of tonight, all remaining staff in Hawaii, the ex-chief architect, the chief architect, the CTO, and a couple of others were laid off today at Firetide, "to reduce expenses".

In other news - i saw a press release from Strix claiming the largest temporary mesh ever deployed at 25 nodes. When I installed the WiFi at the Austin airport, back in 2000, we had 13 APs doing something a lot like "mesh". (I subsequently connected them to a wired infrastructure.) Now Strix takes credit for a deployment that isn't a lot different. Tellingly, 2 of the nodes in the Strix deployment are wired.

I also have to note Firetide's recent press release that they installed all of three nodes in Culver City.

Three nodes?

Meanwhile, OLSR has been used to create networks nearly as large, or larger.

Also noted, Ray Noorda's daughter took her own life last week.

This after Robert Penrose killed himself. in late December.

To answer or reply to a message in the Yahoo finance forum, Rob, as far as friends and his immediate family are aware of, was not dealing with depression or simialr problems. He was a well natured person, active in his community and church. His death was a complete supprise to everyone which has left us all wondering why and exaclty what happend. While we may never know the details, all current indications are that this was directly related to what was going on in his work environment.

Less than two months ago, Val Noorda Kreidel sued Canopy's former management. Less than a week after that suit was settled, she took her own life.

Also , Ralph Yarro, post his settlement with Canopy, is now SCOXE’s largest shareholder at approximately 30% shares outstanding. According to court documents, Yaro attempted to blame Kreidel for Penrose's suicide.

Court records filed in the Canopy suits noted that Penrose, 39, had become distraught after a closed-door Dec. 22 meeting with Mustard. (Mustard is Canopy's interim CEO.) Further, Canopy's legal proceedings show that Penrose had been granted 150,000 options of Canopy by Yaro, worth nearly 3 million dollars when they were granted (and immediately vested).

The normal reason for executives to suicide is fear of exposure. Both left behind spouses and 4 or 5 children. Both were practicing Mormons. One was on each side of the SCO/Canopy 'war'. Penrose's ties were obvious, Yaro had handed him three million large.

Suicide is an unforgivable sin in the LDS church, and will strip the suicide of all "blessings" in the afterlife. For this and other reasons, suicide has a low occurence rate amoung practicing LDS.

Something stinks. Penrose likely killed himself because he was about to be exposed on whatever puppet strings Yaro had attached. Kreidel's suicide is more baffling. What is Canopy hiding?