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November 2003 Newsletter
Snippets are what this month's
newsletter is made up of, little bits of information. First, the big
reminder, I'll be away for a week. I leave on FRIDAY 14th NOV. and
return on THURSDAY 20th NOV.
Please get your orders in well in
advance. You can place orders while I'm away, but I probably won't
be responding to them until Monday the 24th at the earliest.
The trip is to Milan in Italy to
see the HOST trade show, a major portion of which will be occupied
by every manufacturer of espresso equipment in Italy, as well as
most makers from other countries in Europe. There is also a large
green and roasted coffee exhibition running concurrently.
Next, as far as equipment itself is
concerned, I sold my last remaining piece of Rancilio equipment
yesterday. I have a new shipment arriving while I'm away, but (in
line with the USA) it looks as if I'll be severely short of Rocky
grinders for a while. I ordered 40 but will only get 20, and they'll
all be the "doser" model. More may arrive mid-December but it's not
guaranteed. It looks like I will have heaps of Silvias for
Christmas, though.
The supply line for the Imat
equipment is once again running smoothly and all the items are in
stock, much to my relief. I'm currently trying to build up my stock
of the Bodum Santos brewers for December as well.
One piece of good news is that I've
signed the contract for the delivery of the very special Christmas
coffee; now all I have to do is pray that it arrives on time and
matches the original sample when it does. This will be a really
exclusive coffee, absolutely superb and (as far as I can determine)
not available from any other online source, anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, the Peru Villa Rica is all gone and the Monsooned Malabar
has about 10kg left, which should be all sold by the time I leave.
I've finally finished the
programming necessary to build in bag size selections on the order
pages. If I've done it correctly, most people will be unaffected;
ordering large amounts of coffee in small bags will put the price
up, though. Since the price of the valved bags is heading towards a
dollar each (most of it the cost of the valves themselves, I think),
it saves me from having to put the overall prices up when the costs
of the green coffees haven't changed. I've got a few other website
updates in mind but I suspect that they'll have to wait for a bit
more free time, in January perhaps.
Finally, the use of a nasty
word...plagiarism. I've been publishing stuff on the internet since
1996, and along the way lots of people have asked to use various
bits and pieces of it. As long as they ask, and are willing to
credit it to me, I've never refused, which has resulted in bits and
pieces popping up in all sorts of places. I've even had whole
articles translated into other languages.
I'm always very careful to credit
other people's works myself, even for short quotes in articles,
which is why I get quite snarky when work I've done is ripped off.
In a couple of recent examples, the entire text of my "Links" page
magically appeared on another Australian coffee website. A much
worse example occurred recently, however, when a Sydney retailer
used a photo pinched from my website to sell equipment on
Ebay.
I don't mind honest
competition, but I'm not pleased with the idea of me doing the work
and them reaping the benefits, so I've given them a gentle warning
that in future I won't be quite so kind and it will be "off to the
Lawyers!"
Alan
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