Posted on 11/11/2011 7:57:16 PM PST by Kevmo
NI And The eCat Money Trail
admin on November 11, 2011 — 68 Comments
Peswiki’s scoop on the National Instruments relationship with Rossi is a left-field slam that forces you to think anew. I have a feeling that AR has more of the same in store. He is doing things his own way, sticking a finger to those who tie themselves in knots trying to figure the trick, the small army with big voices who attack anyone associated with the inventor as in-on-the-scam or incompetent. Poor NI do not know what they have let themselves in for. They will undoubtedly become the focus of the razor minds behind the pseudosceptic handles .
The importance of such a link cannot be denied but we have to be careful of assuming too much. We do not know the depth of the relationship and we do not know if NI has had a private demonstration to convince them of AR’s sincerity. It is always possible that the company has done no more than sign up to build some control equipment for the eCat as defined by a spec presented to them by Dr Rossi. If we take such a cautious stance, however, the news is still important .
We are told by Daniele Passerini that talks have been going on since April. NI are well aware of the controversy surrounding the technology and apparently held off until now before making the jump. If – by some miracle – the conglomerate has done so while doubting Rossi, it must be reasonably certain of making money. They are either getting paid up front or believe him a good risk. In such an arena of controversy, that would be quite telling .
If we strip away all our hopeful assumptions and leave the bare-bones commercial deal of one company doing a job for another without trust then we must assume that Andrea Rossi’s financial circumstances have suddenly changed. A few weeks ago, he was running out of the stuff even after putting his house on the line. Remember, this is a businessman who sold a successful enterprise to fund the current venture; taking his life’s work to the wire amid a barrage of FUD disguised as reasonable doubt. Perhaps the pseudosceptics will say he has managed to trap a rich idiot behind the scenes after faking the 28th October customer test. In such a scenario, no real customer existed and Fioravanti was a Rossi plant. In my eyes this is risible but it is the only story capable of holding the weak argument they have .
Without twisting ourselves in knots to deny the mere possibility that the eCat does what it says on the tin, perhaps the following is true:
National Instruments believe they are going to make money. They fully understand the waters they are entering. They trust Rossi or they will be paid up front. Either way, a real customer or investor has stepped in .
We now have to decide what is more likely:
That the geniuses are right. Rossi fooled all those scientists (with stupid demos that would not fool them) built a series of machines using a different magician’s trick each time, hired an actor skilled in talking like an engineer to other engineers, got him to pretend to be the customer rep and then hired another group of ‘extras’ to hover in the background and say nothing afterward. Or that Fioravanti was a real engineer and did not notice the big genset (if only maryyugo had been there) and mistakenly thought he could do his job when he was as incompetent as all those other fools .
The 28th October 1MW Customer was real and paid up. And now the financial landscape has changed. Rossi has orders pushing out for the next two years. No matter how this is parsed, that is a lot of money. If we take a modest production rate of 30 per year, we have projected sales of $120 million right out of the gate .
So far, despite the constant cries of ‘foul’ from the usual suspects, Rossi has done what he said he would do all along. He delivered at the end of October and now, in November, he is in production. I continue to be open to the possibility that this whole thing is a mirage but such a stance takes a determined effort. This move by National Instruments – particularly their willingness to associate their name with the controversy and the implied financial confidence – should make any genuine sceptic wonder .
From the Peswiki Article:
On November 10, 2011 4:39 PM [MST], regarding the above story, I received the following from Trisha McDonell | Corporate PR Manager | National Instruments .
Subject: Re: final Re: contact info for E-Cat / NI contract
Thank you Sterling for allowing us to review. We approve the text, especially the National Instruments portion of the story that includes Stefano’s quote and information .
Best regards Trisha
- Jed
The Cold Fusion Ping List
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/coldfusion/index?tab=articles
-------------------------------------------------------------- http://ecatnews.com/?p=1144
Unfortunately, if Rossi did the following:
1) hired a bunch of actors to pretend to be the customer reps,
2) created an elaborate year-long special-effects-derived series of demos,
3) bribed, hypnotised or otherwise fooled Focardi, Levi, Kullander, Essen, Bianchini, Stremmenos
4) arranged for Piantelli, Miley and a host of others to try to fool the world into thinking that cold fusion was real,
5) got NASA, SPAWAR, The Defense Threat Reduction Agency and The Defense Intelligence Agency to say nice things about the field,
6) got Bushnell to make a fool of himself,
7) and convinced his former partners to set up another company called Ampenergo to pretend that they had a contract for The Americas for a substantial sum ----- or that they just did this with no proof because they have worked with Rossi and trust him because he’s such a fine fellow,
8) sold his profitable company to his ex-partners in order to spend that wealth on a multi-million dollar scam; ----- certain that once he got all the above ducks in a row he would pretend to sell the first device ----- and then reel in the true target of his dastardly plan
9) and convinced a bunch of Greek crooks to set up a dummy company called Defkalion ----- to pretend to fight with him over the non-existent eCat, ----- to perpetuate the illusion and spin it off into a competing mirror-scam
[the second (this time genuine) buyer of a 1MW plant that will net him $2 million dollars ----- until they want their money back or sucker a $100 million dollar deal under the table ----- because he has experience in pulling the wool over all these idiotic eyes ----- and knows that they will just take his word for it ----- and not want to test if his 1MW plant can heat a small village without truckloads of coal or oil or a big fat electric cable coming into the container from beneath the floor (no you can’t lift the carpet!) ]
10) and that, in order to pull this off, Rossi had to risk discovery by interviewing all the people he subsequently fooled so that he could only invite the gullible Professors and not the brilliant anonymous posters on the Internet who surely would have found him out
then, yes, all bets are off and I’m with the guys who think that Rossi is an idiot and they are all geniuses.
Glad you were able to repost this, because I think the NI development is quite significant. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and spend a day with Dr. Truchard (”Dr. T”) and while NI may not be a household name, he has built it to over a billion dollars in revenue, created thousands of jobs, and NI has become the worldwide standard in test and measurement software. You don’t do that by being a dummy who gets tied up in harebrained scams. Truchard earned a B.S. and an M.S. in physics, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is a great example of American exceptionalism.
If Dr. T is willing to link his company’s reputation with E-CAT (as the email excerpt proves), that says a lot.
And, for those who enjoy crapping all over ECAT threads, please enlighten us as to where you received your PhD and earned your first million dollars, thanks.
Hey Kevmo, are we close yet? Or is the proof that the machine works just still a bit out of reach? Methinks we are close.
I bought my PhD on the internet through a legitimate diploma mill. I made my first million dollars the hard way - a two day straight game of Monopoly®. With that out of the way, I am still skeptical of this E-cat contraption.
They’re providing controls. That hardly links the two companies futures. Regarding Rossi, a NI spokesperson said “I would love for him to be right.” The company isn’t buying into anything, but Rossi is buying NI controls.
I don’t think we’re that close. Rossi says he has sold 2 more units, has 2 years of work ahead of him. Naturally, the seagull brigade will consider that the 13 customers he’s lined up are in on the scam. At some point the ever-widening conspiracy theory balloon pops, but not any time soon.
We’ll keep an eye on it, eh?!
I'm sure that Bernie Madoff must have purchased a lot of computer equipment to keep his multi-billion dollar scam going. That's a lot of dollars and a lot of investors for a company with no assets. I bet that the computer company was paid and had little interest in Madoff's business otherwise.
I'm not familiar with the details, but I would wager that Madoff was quite skilled at keeping his distance from potential customers that would question his results. He would simply leave them alone and concentrate on the investors who were convinced, by the high returns that he was supplying, that he must be on the up-and-up.
What a coincidence. That's exactly how I feel about him.
The original press release indicated that Rossi is buying parts from National Instruments.
Somehow that has morphed into an article with absolutely no quotes or links to a press release that refers to a major scoop, states that the author will be “careful of assuming too much” and then provides a perfect setup for people to imply that National Instruments believes the ecat machine works.
Honestly, I am not surprised that the ecat people would hype a very routine transaction into a major deal, then suddenly develop amenesia to become very vague on what the agreement actually was but insist that whatever it was, it means the ecat works.
I am personally cautiously hopeful for the e-Cat.
I need to also say, “caution” on the NI “news”. A company will sell electronic parts to anyone who will pay for them. A company will also build a specific component for a customer if the customer pays the development and fabrication costs. The company could care less whether the final product is viable or imaginary, as long as they get paid, and deliver the agreed-upon component within specification.
Until I see that National Instruments has entered into a partnership of some sort, this news does not make me more certain that e-Cat is real.
So, National Instruments isn't Rossi's "secret company".
Naturally, the seagull brigade will consider that the 13 customers he’s lined up are in on the scam.Source?
I did read that the "13 E-Cats sold" was bogus, but I can't find that link at the moment.
But it really doesn't matter. You can't name even one of the alleged "13 customers". At this point, it's still very much a game of "Rossi Says".
>>...They would not allow a press release of this nature if they suspected the machine might be a scam. I expect they did careful due diligence checks. A large corporation like that is very concerned about its public image. It would not want to be identified with a scam in any way...<<
Perhaps NI is simply throwing Rossi a bone?
In other words, NI’s business justification may simply be, “Risk a wager, even if it turns out to be a hoax.” The amount they are ponying up may seem significant to you and me, yet is relatively trivial to NI. As for their reputation taking a hit if it turns out a hoax, I would think that highly doubtful — presuming part of their business is to R&D new tech — and they have already set the tone with comments like, “We support every kind of research for the betterment of human kind.” blah, blah, blah.
I don’t see NI’s involvement as that big of a sign at this point.
That being said, I hope the eCat is no hoax and that we can soon tell the arabs they can *eat* their oil since we don’t need it -and- that the per bushel price of grain is set on par + %25 with a barrel of oil.
Did anyone ever suggest they were?
In other news the website you were touting as proving that many LENR names were financially linked to the E-cat has been pulled/revised, with Rossi specifically saying the list was in error. A much shorter list remains, but with no indication of any financial arrangement/connection. That was a presumption on your part.
It's also become clear that sales funds will be put in escrow (better than a money-back guarantee) until the E-cat buyers are satisfied. And still no sign that Rossi is asking for investors to send him money. While we all wish for better confirmation of the E-cat, this is not shaping up like the close-minded pseudoskeptics have been telling us for the last ten months.
At this point, it’s still very much a game of “Rossi Says”.
***Then find the lie. Rossi’s claims seem to be expanding, so it will become easier to catch him in an outright scam if that’s what this is.
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