I, along with a lot of other people, have been watching the development of photovoltaic technologies with much interest over the past two years. For a lot of people, photovoltaics represent the holy grail of power generation, and for good reason. Almost all off the power we use currently comes from the Sun in one way or another (oil and coal are condensed plant matter from millions of years ago, the energy we get when we burn them is the energy that they stored through photosynthesis from the sun; nuclear power is a bit of a stretch, but when you get down to it, all elements heavier than hydrogen were produced through the fusion power of a star, including the fissionable materials we use for nuclear power generation). The only power sources that I can think of that don’t harness the Sun’s energy in one way or another are hydroelectric and tidal generation, which derive from gravity (which, I suppose, you could still say comes from the Sun because without the Sun the Solar System wouldn’t have formed, but that’s probably taking it a bit too far). So solar power, whether it be from photovoltaics, sterling engines, or some other technology is really just a means of cutting out the middle man. The sun puts out so much energy that once we have the technology to make solar power generation a large-scale reality, we’ll basically have access to infinite energy (approximately 386 billion billion megawatts).

The reason we haven’t started using large-scale solar power installations, of course, is that we haven’t been able to get it to the point where it’s cost-competitive with coal, oil, and nuclear. The number that’s always been bandied about as the tipping point where solar power becomes viable is $1 per watt. That goal was reached, indeed exceeded, last month by Nanosolar who managed to bring the production cost of photovoltaics down from about $3 per watt to about 30¢ per watt. Their technology is now shipping, and being sold for a mere 90¢ per watt.

Essentially, this now means that we have access to limitless, cheap energy. Of course the problems of cloud cover and night time are still an issue when it comes to solar generation, but there are certainly ways around that. It’s always daytime somewhere on the Earth, so enough solar plants spread around the Earth will allow us to generate power 24 hours a day. And there are always places where cloud cover is essentially non-existent, basically all the large deserts around the world. The true holy grail of power generation, though, is power generation satellites. Once we put large photovoltaic arrays outside of Earth’s atmosphere, we have an unobstructed view of the sun forever. Microwave power transmission can then beam that power down to Earth’s surface, although there are obviously some issues there. One of personal favorite ideas is to combine the idea of solar power satellites with the idea of a space elevator: basically a giant tower that pokes up out of the Earth’s atmosphere and has a huge array of solar panels at the top so that we can just transmit the power down the tower on wires; if we wanted to get really crazy we could build an entire ring of solar panels that completely encircles the Earth with multiple elevators connected to it serving as distribution nodes. That, of course, solves multiple problems at once but is sadly beyond our current technological abilities.

Science fiction aside, though, we have reached an important point in the history of human technology: the point where limitless, safe, clean energy is in reach.

I’ve been doing some more research into the authority of the Lakota Freedom movement to actually declare independence for the Lakota Nation. From what I can tell, even amongst the Lakota there’s a lot of confusion about the issue. The man largely behind the movement appears to be Russell Means, a Lakota activist and one-time gubernatorial candidate, and there are mixed feelings, to say the least, about him taking the role of spokesman. Some say that even if he did have the authority to represent them, they wouldn’t want him to. Others appear to be all in favor of what he’s doing and hopeful, if not confident, that the U.S. government will acknowledge him as a representative of the Lakota.

The discussion about this issue seems to be the same, regardless of which side of the always-complex relationship between the U.S. and American Indian nations you happen to be on. The fact that everyone is questioning whether the delegation that went to Washington had any authority to do so makes me suspect that they probably did not. However nearly everyone, myself included, also seems to think that even if it’s nothing but a PR stunt, it could turn out to be a tremendously effective one. It certainly raises the questions (or would, if the media was actually covering it… I still haven’t found any coverage of this in major US sources, maybe on Monday) of the legality of the way we (the U.S.) have treated the Indian nations, the true nature of the supposedly sovereign nations created by the reservation system, the reality of Indian dependence on the U.S. government, the desirability of freedom and independence, and whether or not the more recent treaties have been honored any better than past ones were.

If nothing else, I think this will be successful in raising these questions on the reservations where it is, at least, getting more attention than off of them. Probably unsurprisingly, I, for one, think every step that can be taken towards true independence should be. Obviously it would be complicated for everyone if a completely sovereign nation sprung up in the middle of the country, especially if others were to follow. I’m currently in New Mexico outside Santa Fe, and driving from here to the Albuquerque airport next Wednesday I’ll pass through about 5 or 6 different reservations. What would happen if they decided to become fully independent nations as well? Nevertheless, I think it is extremely important that we look at the treaties that we’ve signed, understand what obligations they entail, and examine whether or not we’ve actually lived up to them. The treaties were theoretically supposed to be for the benefit of both sides. Were they? If they were, are they still? If they’re not, they should either be re-negotiated or gotten rid of entirely.

The declaration made this week was almost certainly timed to take advantage of the upcoming elections. Now, in particular, we’re all questioning the wisdom and benefit of pursuing imperialistic policies abroad. Before we can even hope to answer those questions we need to answer the questions surrounding our imperialistic policies at home. Putting real thought into these questions and trying to answer them will, I think, be of tremendous benefit not only to Lakota and other Indian nations, but to us as Americans, and to all the peoples we currently do and will deal with abroad.

Well, it seems that the Lokata Independnce story is starting to get picked up in national sources …kind of. It’s made it into USA Today’s On Deadline blog: Lakota withdraw from treaties, declare independence from U.S. It’s not much, but it’s a start. Hopefully next week will start to see the story make it into some of the bigger outlets. Also, I was very surprised to find that if you do a Google search for ‘Lakota independence’, my previous entry is the number two result. Cool for me, not so much for the Lakota or whoever is handling their media relations. I’ve also found, thanks to digg, a map of the Lakota nation.

The story is getting some international coverage though:

• In the UK
• In Africa
• In Canada
• In the Netherlands

There is, of course, some question as to the reality of this movement. It’s being said by some that it’s nothing but a political stunt by the American Indian Movement. Certainly the AIM was involved, but I’m not sure that necessarily means the whole thing is a farce. Some more research into the matter is called for. I, for one, would like it to be real, and to actually happen. But it seems that even among the Indian community they’re saying that it’s nothing but grandstanding and that the delegation that went to Washington didn’t actually represent them. Well, I’ll still be following to story to see what happens.

I haven’t seen a whole lot of coverage of this, and what I have seen hasn’t really had all the much information. But apparently the Lakota Sioux have unilaterally withdrawn from all treaties with the United States and are taking steps to emphasize their sovereignty including plans to issue their own passports and drivers licenses, as well as opening diplomatic relationships with other countries. The most interesting step they’re taking, to me, is the offer to allow U.S. citizens to move to the new Lakota Country where they can live tax free so long as they renounce their U.S. citizenship. This move could serve to attract the talent and marketable skills that they will need to survive as a fully independent nation, but only time will tell. They’ve also announced that they will be pursuing energy independence through renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and bio-fuels.

The best coverage of this that I’ve seen so far comes from the Indigenist Intelligence Review. It also contains the only link I’ve found so far to their website: lakotafreedom.com. Unfortunately, due to the recent news exposure, the site has exceeded it’s bandwidth allotment and is inaccessible. I’ve attempted to contact them in order to offer some of my own hosting for the interim, but have yet to hear back. Edit: the website is apparently now back up, so we have a first-hand source of information.

I’m extremely interested to learn more about what’s going on, and will be doing my best to keep on top of the story. Unfortunately it doesn’t really seem to have been picked up by any major news outlets, which is unfortunate. In particular it will be interesting to see how the U.S. government responds to this. In theory it’s completely legal, and they were technically already sovereign. In practice, the sovereignty of the various American Indian nations has always been tenuous at best. A few other nations, however, including Bolivia and Venezuela, have apparently already expressed their support.

The other day I got a call from a recruiter. Apparently Apple wants to hire me to work at the Genius Bar at the new Boyleston Apple Store. Presumably they found me through my Apple certification, and I certainly have the resume for the job. Being a Genius isn’t really that bad a gig. You get something like $20/hour, benefits, and, of course, you get to play with toys all day. Of course this isn’t exactly the direction I’m looking to go in professionally. I have no particular desire to work retail. And I certainly have no particular desire to do nothing but fix people’s computers for $20 and hour when I already do that for more money on the side of a more lucrative business. I might consider a job managing the Genius Bar, but retail tech support seems like a bit of a backwards step at this point.

On top of that I think I may be on the cusp of moving my business to the next stage. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve transitioned my business into being primarily about web development and services. My business model has been to partner with web developers who need someone to do the programming for them. This strategy has been working very well, and for the past few months I’ve been much busier on average than I had been previously. Now, I think, things may be about to really take off.

I’m about to start a very big project, my biggest so far. Because of that, I’m basically going to be completely booked for the next two to three months while I work on this. But, with my business model being as successful as it has been lately, I can be pretty sure that during this time there will be a number of other opportunities that arise (in fact I already know of a few that will be coming up soon). This is exactly the position I’ve been working towards since I started this whole experiment just about 18 months ago: having more work coming in than I can handle myself. This means I’m finally at the point where I can seriously consider hiring more people. Of course at this point I’m really only looking for a contractor or two. Someone who can put in a few hours a month for me doing the work I don’t have time for myself.

Having gotten to that point there’s a clear path forward. While I work on this big new project, I’d only hire contractors as I need them for the work I don’t have time for myself. Once it’s done and I have a little more leeway to think about other things I can continue to take advantage of them to reduce my own work load and let me spend more time on finding new business. At some point after that I should be able to have enough business coming in that I can afford to hire a developer full-time and focus primarily on sales myself. And, of course, if that goes well I can hire someone to do sales full-time, and then I’ll really be getting somewhere. The obvious ‘end-point’ of this strategy is for me to be managing a company that employs a full-time sales staff as well as a full-time development staff. Maybe even bringing in my own design team, although I think I’d prefer to maintain my partnerships with a large network of designers. At any rate, I think I’m finally approaching the point where I can truly consider this whole venture to be ’successful’.

In the meantime, I guess I should start looking for some contractors. Any LAMP developers out there who might be interested in a little freelance work? I’m mostly looking for PHP developers, but those working with Python, ASP, Ruby and others are welcome as well. Also, I’d favor the Boston area at this point, but am definitely interested in expanding geographically as well. Feel free to send me resumés at josh@dydxtech.com.

…my account of Blogtoberfest 2007.

As expected it was a lot of fun. There were a ton of people there, far too many to be able to actually have any sort of real conversation with even most of them. In addition to our illustrious host Jenny, I was able to meet a number of area bloggers for the first time including: Dana Zemack, Michael Krigsman, Jesse Baer, Andrea Mercado, and a few others whose names and/or URLs I sadly can’t remember. All in all, there were actually only three bloggers that whom I had met before: Jesse Legg, Steve Garfield, and Adam Gaffin. From the sound of things most of the people there were meeting a bunch of new people as well.

The highlight of the evening was probably the raffle. Everyone who attended put their name in a hat (well, bowl) for a chance to win a number of prizes including a beautiful print of Fenway Park shot by Jenny herself. As per usual, I didn’t win a thing, although both of the two people standing to my left at the time won things, as did at least two other people I had been talking to throughout the night. I’ll just try and claim credit for that.

Afterwards Jesse (Legg) and I made our ways back to Somerville via TC’s Lounge and the Newtowne Grill. A good night, I think, was had by all.

In other news, I think it’s safe to say that it’s officially starting to get almost kinda cold here. It looks like Monday will be the first day that the temperature doesn’t even break 50°, although overnight temperatures appear to be remaining strictly above freezing for the foreseeable future (at least according to the weather widget in my dashboard). I did, however, actually turn on the heat today for the first time in months. The furnace hasn’t actually kicked in yet as the residual heat from the day is still keeping us above the 65° I set the thermostat to, but it probably will within the next 30 minutes or so. I also bothered to take the time to figure out how to program a schedule into the thermostat. It’s a much more useful feature than I thought, letting me program in 4 distinct periods for weekdays (delineated by Sleep, Wake, Leave, and Return), and 2 periods for weekends (Sleep and Wake). This actually works out rather well since despite the fact that I work from home and so will want the heat to be on during the day, I prefer a much cooler temperature than Jessi does. Thanks to the programmed in schedule the condo will only be too warm before Jessi leaves for work in the morning and after she gets home at night leaving it nice and comfortable for me during the bulk of the day.

So when I first put my computer up on Craigslist to sell I received a very interesting offer: a year of unlimited free travel on US Airways. Being a big traveller this was an extremely appealing offer on the face of it, and I let my imagination run away a bit on the possibilities. I came up with various ways of doing it, from simply hopping from city to city having fun and taking whatever flight I could get out when I was done, to a more commercialized plan of attempting to get corporate sponsorships to pay for places to stay and places to eat (and maybe even the flights as I’d much rather do this sort of thing on JetBlue than US Airways) in exchange for the marketing they’d get from me putting their branding on my blog, writing about their services, having my picture taken using their products and services &c.

After thinking it over, I decided that the first option is just untenable. At least for right now. I have a business to run and build, and a number of opportunities on the horizon to expand that. I’ve got a home to take care of an a mortgage to pay. I’ve got bills. I’ve got all sorts of responsibilities that, as much as I might sometimes like to, I can’t just walk away from (unless I can find a place to walk to where the IRS can’t find me, that is).

The second option might very well be doable. With a good enough pitch, I could probably get sponsorship to do this sort of thing. There would be all sorts of sponsorship opportunities as well: national sponsorships from whatever airline and whatever hotel chain I can get, regional sponsorships from state tourism boards and regional chains, local sponsorships from local restaurants, attractions, and what have you. And of course I could sell advertising on the site as well. If you think of the whole venture as a year long online and physical marketing campaign for the various sponsors, it could pretty easily lead to a 6 figure income when all is said and done. So I considered that, and I considered who I could approach, and how much money I could reasonable expect to get, and what I would have to promise in return. And I decided that, while it may be doable, and I might even be able to convince the sponsors that they want me to do it rather than to just steal my idea, fund it the same way I would with sponsorships from other companies, and then just hire some actor to do it better than I ever would and only pay him a small fraction of the money because it’s just a job for him, even if I could do all that I don’t think it would be worth it. I’d love the opportunity to travel around the country. I’d especially love it if I was not only not paying for it, but was making a lot of money off it. But the things I’d have to do to make that money would, I think, take all the fun out of it. I like to travel on my own, and see things and do things and even write about it, but as soon as it becomes a big corporate thing there’s just too much planning and negotiating and crap like that I don’t want to deal with. I’d want to be spontaneous and have fun and deviate from whatever little plan I have whenever an interesting opportunity comes up, and I’d never be able to do that if I had and airline and a hotel chain and who knows who else footing the bill.

Unfortunately, I came to the conclusion that the traveling idea would either be really fun but impossible, or possible and lucrative but not fun at all. So instead I sold my computer and monitor for cash and ordered a new iMac to replace them.

Expect a write-up of Blogtoberfest 2007 later today.

Treehugger just posted a quote about the relative efficiencies of various modes of transportation. Basically, biking is the most efficient way for you to get around. Walking comes in 2nd, then trains, then cars. This is hardly news for anyone who pays attention to such things, but I think it’s still worth pointing out.

Boston is America’s walking city, and it’s true that this city is very friendly to walking. Sure it may be a bit of a hike from the North End to Kenmore Square, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility, and the more you do it the easier it will be. Really, unless you’re making a delivery there’s very little reason not to walk everywhere in Boston. Even when I was living in Central Square I’d often make the walk across the river into Boston to go to the Boston Public Library. But really, what we should be is America’s biking city (currently Sparta, Wisconsin is the Bicycle Capital of America; I say we should take that title). Not only is biking more efficient than walking, but it’s much faster as well. The walk from here in Somerville to Boston is a little more than I’d want to undertake on a regular basis (though I’ve done it once or twice). With a bike, however, Boston suddenly become mere minutes away. It takes me about 30 minutes to bike at a fairly leasurely pace from Porter Square to the Broadway Red Line stop in Southie. According to the MBTA it takes the Red Line 20 minutes to make the same trip, and that’s if the T’s being friendly that day. On average, I’d say biking that route is as fast or faster than taking the T. To drive that same route, according to Google maps, would also take 20 minutes, though that doesn’t account for traffic (and Google says it could take up to 30 minutes with traffic, though on some days it would certainly take even longer). It also doesn’t take into account the amount of time it takes to find parking. Some days it could take just as long to find parking as to drive there.

So not only is biking more efficient, it is easily just as fast and often faster than taking the T or even driving. When you’re talking about the shorter distances actually within Boston (say from the South End to the Financial District or Fenway to Copley Square) the advantages of biking will just be magnified. With those shorter distances the small amount of time it takes for you to walk to the T station and wait for the train, or to walk to your car and then deal with traffic, become even more significant. With a bike, you just get on and go and can, for the most part, ignore traffic.

Biking is cheaper too. I got my bike for $10 off of Craigslist. It was in good enough condition when I bought it, though not perfect. For $20 I probably could have gotten a bike that was in perfect condition. But even if I had gone and bought a brand new, top of the line bike, I could have gotten one for as little as $1500, and most people would be more than happy with a $300 or less bike. Once you make that initial investment for the bike, helmet, bike lock, and maybe saddle bags to carry your stuff and some lights for biking at night you’ve still spent very little money. And when biking you don’t have to worry about paying for parking or paying for T fare.

Even at longer distances, biking can make sense. When Jessi was working in Lexington she could still bike to work. The Minuteman Bikeway goes from right here in Somerville straight to Lexington and beyond. It’s about an 8 mile ride from here to Lexington, which takes 30-45 minutes depending on your speed. Public transportation requires you to take the T and then transfer to a bus which actually takes longer than biking. So she could leave later and still get to work on time all while getting some exercise. Really, if you ask me, biking is the ideal form of transportation for Boston, or most cities for that matter. Obviously it won’t work so well for everyone, but it does for a whole lot of people who probably never even considered it.

The only drawback to biking is the weather. Biking isn’t so much fun in the winter. But even if you take the T or drive in the winter and bike the rest of the year you’re still going to be saving a ton of money and getting a lot more exercise all at the same time.

For me, my bike is my favored form of transport. Weather permitting, I’ll use it over any other method. Of course I do have a bit of an advantage in that I do all my own work on it which means I can keep it in tip top condition for no cost other than the occasional replacement parts. But if you want to keep your bike in good condition without getting your hands dirty and without spending a fortune on over-priced maintenance, I highly recommend you take it to Quad Bikes. They’re a non-profit bike shop that services the Harvard Community and does all the work on the Harvard Police Departments bike fleet. I also happen to volunteer there in my free time, which is something else I’d recommend to people interested in bikes. Their volunteer program is great, basically they just teach how to work on bikes by having you work on bikes. After a few weeks there you’ll be competent and confident enough to do all the basic work on your own bike, and you’ll have a great resource in the people who work there to help you with the more complex stuff. Plus, they have all the tools so you don’t need to buy your own. And they rescue and refurbish old bikes so you can get a great deal on a perfectly serviceable bike. Or even, if you wanted, get a bike custom built for you. As an additional benefit, I find that getting my hands dirty and actually producing tangible results (unlike web development, which offers it’s own rewards to be sure) is extremely satisfying. It’s a great way to relax, unwind, and still get something productive done.

Currently my main computer setup is a PowerMac G5 with a 24″ Dell monitor. It’s a great computer, but is getting to be a bit dated. So this afternoon I listed it on Craigslist. My plan was, if I can sell it for enough, to replace it with a 24″ C2D iMac. So far I’ve gotten one offer that’s very different from what I was expecting, but has filled my head with all sorts of fun and tempting ideas.

The offer was from a guy who works for US Airways. As a US Airways employee he basically gets unlimited free flights whenever he wants them. He also gets a companion pass so that other people can fly with him. Apparently the holder of this pass doesn’t need to fly with him, so he can just give it to someone and they can fly for free. His offer was to give me one calendar year of unlimited free flights in exchange for my computer system.

Obviously a year of free flights won’t pay for a new iMac, but it gave me an idea. If I took this, I could spend the year being, basically, an air-hobo. If I wanted to be really hardcore about it I could spend the year sleeping in airports and eating nothing but airplane food, but I think I’d probably end up missing out on a lot of fun opportunities that way. But think of it this way: there are 52 weeks in the year and 50 states in the union. I could spend just over a week in every single state. But how would I pay for food? Not to mention our mortgage and bills. Well, I could blog about it.

There’s plenty of interest in travel blogs, and this would certainly be a travel blog with a twist. Might it be able to generate enough traffic and interest that I could make enough money off it for a year? It may well be able to. Maybe I could even get US Airways to sponsor me somehow to help make it doable, or a hotel chain to do so and give me a place to stay during my travels.

At first I just dismissed the offer out of hand. But travel is absolutely my favorite thing to do, and the more I think about it, the more tempting it is. (I actually even considered trying to do something similar on my own without the free flights after college.) I was just going to delete the email, but now I’m seriously considering calling the guy and getting more details on the limitations of this pass. This could be very interesting and very fun. And Jessi’s already given it the green light. So if I can figure out some way for this whole thing to be financially viable, I just might do it. The money thing, of course, is the limiting factor here, so I leave this with a question for you: should I do it?

It’s been a while since I’ve written about anything political, but this seems like a good topic to start back in on. I’m going to start by making an admision—one that’s pretty much guaranteed to earn me a phone call as soon as my dad reads this: I don’t have health insurance.

Just to be clear, let me expound on that. I live in Massachusetts, a state that requires by law that all residents have health insurance. I am currently, as I type this, breaking the law just by sitting here minding my own business and daring to make my own decisions about my life. Starting in December (and I think it’s important that it be made more widely known that even though it’s currently illegal to not have health insurance in Massachusetts, you won’t actually start being punished for it until December) the state will theoretically even begin to fine me for not having health insurance (although, to be honest, had I not just make a public admission of it how would they even know?). And yet, I am among America’s uninsured. Funny how outlawing a behavior (or, in this case, a lack of behavior) doesn’t actually stop people from doing it, isn’t it?

There are a number of relatively cheap insurance options available to me, although not as cheap as I’d like since Massachusetts’ wonderful law making health insurance mandatory only focused on lowering health care costs for people older than myself. The truth is that I could afford health insurance. When I did some research a few months ago I think the cheapest plan out there was around $125/month (and I’m sure it would be possibly to get those rates even lower if I went with a high deductable plan that would actually save me even more money in the long run; more on that here). I can afford that. I just don’t want to. And why should I have to? I honestly can’t remember the last time I went to the doctor’s office. I can’t remember the last time I was sick for more than 3 days. I can remember the last time I went to the emergency room: it was when I was 12 and I broke my pinkie in a karate mishap. If there is anyone who doesn’t need health insurance, it’s me. Of course Massachusetts says I do. And they’re going to start fining me if I don’t get it by December.

Some might say that this is a travesty. Some might say that someone should intervene to protect me from myself. Some—and I think everyone knows who I’m talking about at this point—might say that the government should step in and provide me with a service I’m not asking for and actively refusing despite being legally obligated to avail myself of it (the position of universal healthcare makes a lot less sense when phrased that way doesn’t it?).

Some might want to know why I’m bringing this topic up now. The answer is that I just read this post over at Clasically Liberal (a favorite political blog of mine) and it really gave me pause to think. Most of the information in there is pretty old news to those of a more libertarian bent: the cost of health insurance is so high not because of greedy insurance companies, but because of lazy consumers and moronic government policies that encourage that laziness. And it’s not a problem to be solved through government regulation, which repeated evidence in massive experiments carried around around the globe to the detriment of millions of unsuspecting and undeserving subjects shows only decreases the cost of health care by not providing it in the first place. Amazingly enough in this era of enlightened liberalism, and this is the part that really caught my attention, the market has actually provided a better solution.

Enter Dr. Jay Parkinson. Dr. Parkinson has introduced a totally new kind of health care: the kind that doesn’t cost a whole lot of money. When you sign up for his service he becomes your personal physician. He handles just about everything for you, but for very low costs. He keeps his costs down by not having an office: he makes house calls. But more than that, he’ll talk to you over the phone, or by email, or even a video conference to determine if you actually even need to see a doctor. And of course he charges less for that than for a house call. He also only takes patients between the ages of 18 and 40 (hey, that’s me!). When you need to see a specialist, or even go to an emergency room, he’ll help you make the arrangements. And more than that, he’s already done the price comparissons for you so he can make sure that you’re not getting overcharged by a hospital or doctor that’s used to people who don’t question their high prices. Basically he’ll help make sure that you get the best care you can for the least amount of money. He’s even done the research to let you know which pharmacies charge the lowest price for the medication you need. All in all, he saves you a ton of money by not making you pay for things you don’t need. For most people in the age bracket that he services, they’ll only be paying about $500/year, just 1/3 of the cost of the cheapest traditional health plan I could find that doesn’t provide anywhere near as good service.

There’s only one problem: he live in New York, and therefore only takes patients in the New York area. If he, or anyone else for that matter, set up a similar practice here in Boston I would sign up in a heartbeat. As, I’m sure, would a ton of other people. (You here that, Massachusetts doctors?) I’ll even help them out with their web page! But for now, I’m sitting here with no health insurance, breaking the law, just because the only guy out there who’s offering a service that would be worthwhile for me is a couple hundred miles away.