Gerry Lawson's 82nd birthday - Today's Google Doodle
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the Fairchild F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries. Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game. Would any of you be interested in hearing his story? So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this? I would love to hear his story. Thanks for your input! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
I’d love to hear his story as well. But, not sure a non-profit should pay over and above travel expenses. Doesn’t feel right. My $0.02.
On Dec 1, 2022, at 10:42 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the Fairchild F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
My question would be, once we did this. How do we explain to future presenters why we can't pay for their presentation? How do we explain to past presenters why we didn't pay for their presentations? Once this is done, the group is setting a precedent and I don't know how that would affect the group in the future. This is really outside of my scope, maybe my concerns are unfounded. I don't know and hopefully people who are more experienced in this than I can chime in about this concern. On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 10:43 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the Fairchild F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
Precedent setting notwithstanding, I can think of several other things listed in Jeff’s and Corey’s emails that would benefit from $5000 and offer more for the group as a whole. Chris On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 1:09 PM Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
My question would be, once we did this. How do we explain to future presenters why we can't pay for their presentation?
How do we explain to past presenters why we didn't pay for their presentations?
Once this is done, the group is setting a precedent and I don't know how that would affect the group in the future.
This is really outside of my scope, maybe my concerns are unfounded. I don't know and hopefully people who are more experienced in this than I can chime in about this concern.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 10:43 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the
Fairchild
F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
Everyone, Thank you for your opinions and weighing in. It sounds like the consensus is: 1) We would love to hear him talk. 2) $5000 is a lot of money for a talk for a non-profit. 3) Paying a speaker would set a precedent that others might ask for as well as make previous speakers ask "Why wasn't I paid?" 4) That money could be spent on other projects. I will continue to ask advice privately from the Steering Committee and others before I decide whether this is a good idea or not. Thanks! On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 1:15 PM Christopher Gioconda via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Precedent setting notwithstanding, I can think of several other things listed in Jeff’s and Corey’s emails that would benefit from $5000 and offer more for the group as a whole.
Chris
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 1:09 PM Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
My question would be, once we did this. How do we explain to future presenters why we can't pay for their presentation?
How do we explain to past presenters why we didn't pay for their presentations?
Once this is done, the group is setting a precedent and I don't know how that would affect the group in the future.
This is really outside of my scope, maybe my concerns are unfounded. I don't know and hopefully people who are more experienced in this than I can chime in about this concern.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 10:43 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the
Fairchild
F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
On that note, we're probably in for $100,000 or so for Bil Herd. LOL Yeah, count me in on the "no thanks" vote. On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:01 PM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
2) $5000 is a lot of money for a talk for a non-profit. 3) Paying a speaker would set a precedent that others might ask for as well as make previous speakers ask "Why wasn't I paid?"
if we wanted to get Bill Herd a gift for all he has done and you wanted a donation for that, just let me know. On Thu, Dec 1, 2022, 4:45 PM Jeff S via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On that note, we're probably in for $100,000 or so for Bil Herd. LOL
Yeah, count me in on the "no thanks" vote.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:01 PM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
2) $5000 is a lot of money for a talk for a non-profit. 3) Paying a speaker would set a precedent that others might ask for as
well
as make previous speakers ask "Why wasn't I paid?"
I agree we shouldn't be paying speaker fees. More importantly, I second the motion to get Bil Herd a gift and am also willing to make a donation towards said gift. Lifetime Support of VCF Award, methinks? On 12/1/2022 5:21 PM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
if we wanted to get Bill Herd a gift for all he has done and you wanted a donation for that, just let me know.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022, 4:45 PM Jeff S via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On that note, we're probably in for $100,000 or so for Bil Herd. LOL
Yeah, count me in on the "no thanks" vote.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:01 PM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
2) $5000 is a lot of money for a talk for a non-profit. 3) Paying a speaker would set a precedent that others might ask for as well as make previous speakers ask "Why wasn't I paid?"
Chris makes a lot of sense. $5k+travel is a lot. On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 1:16 PM Christopher Gioconda via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Precedent setting notwithstanding, I can think of several other things listed in Jeff’s and Corey’s emails that would benefit from $5000 and offer more for the group as a whole.
Chris
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 1:09 PM Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
My question would be, once we did this. How do we explain to future presenters why we can't pay for their presentation?
How do we explain to past presenters why we didn't pay for their presentations?
Once this is done, the group is setting a precedent and I don't know how that would affect the group in the future.
This is really outside of my scope, maybe my concerns are unfounded. I don't know and hopefully people who are more experienced in this than I can chime in about this concern.
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 10:43 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the
Fairchild
F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
Chris makes a lot of sense. $5k+travel is a lot.
It wouldn't be an issue if it would be returned in the way of boosted attendance, aka return on investment. Big events (yes, 501c3) pay for the top keynotes and stuff -- but they make a return on that by way of attendees coming to see em. Youtube famous people would draw more of a crowd if marketed well and cost less. - Ethan
On Dec 1, 2022, at 8:18 PM, Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
It wouldn't be an issue if it would be returned in the way of boosted attendance, aka return on investment. Big events (yes, 501c3) pay for the top keynotes and stuff -- but they make a return on that by way of attendees coming to see em.
Youtube famous people would draw more of a crowd if marketed well and cost less.
VCFMW proved this- the YouTube corner was packed non-stop from what I saw when I was there. Non-stop. I don't think they paid them at all to show up and talk. -andy
Yep, I think they came for the joy of it (at least Clint/LGR did). I vote no on the payment. I wouldn't take it amiss, as he probably thinks we're a corporation profiting from events, but it'd set a bad precedent, and I agree that we don't have the resources to do this, even if we wanted to. I spoke to Clint and Adrian at some length, and it was very clear that they were having a fantastic time. Ben Heck as well, though I didn't talk to him as much. - Alex On Fri, Dec 2, 2022 at 8:41 AM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Dec 1, 2022, at 8:18 PM, Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
It wouldn't be an issue if it would be returned in the way of boosted attendance, aka return on investment. Big events (yes, 501c3) pay for the top keynotes and stuff -- but they make a return on that by way of attendees coming to see em.
Youtube famous people would draw more of a crowd if marketed well and cost less.
VCFMW proved this- the YouTube corner was packed non-stop from what I saw when I was there. Non-stop.
I don't think they paid them at all to show up and talk.
-andy
I don't think paying a $5k speaking fee makes sense for VCF. $5k+travel is a lot for a small nonprofit where there are no paid employees and the overall budget is small. Having seen last year's financial report at Festivus, I would put VCF in this category. $5k+travel is not necessarily a lot for a larger nonprofit that has paid employees and charges a few hundred dollars or more for one to attend an event. There has been an overall push for speakers to demand speaking fees even from nonprofits. This is generally because well-funded nonprofits that are absolutely able to pay such fees try to use these excuses to avoid doing so and have been getting away with it for years. Such nonprofits may even claim that a speaker fee is “out of budget” because they haven’t accounted for it when they could afford it. This leads to a situation where “we are a nonprofit” and “we have never paid a speaker fee” are poor justifications. I think this brings up a greater concern: frankly I was a little surprised by how constrained VCF’s budget is when I heard the report at last year’s Festivus. I think it would make sense to publish an annual financial summary on the website so it is clear that VCF isn't flush with money and that people know where funds end up going. That way it would be obvious that, for instance, a fee of $5000 would be a significant portion of the organization’s annual revenue and make a huge dent on the operating budget. (One could continue this discussion further and ask whether an organization that is entirely volunteer-run is sustainable long-term, but that is not an easy problem to solve.) I don’t think this would necessarily resolve the matter being discussed here in the immediate term, but it would certainly make it easier in the long run, especially since I suspect that in the future we will see more requests for speaker fees. David
On Dec 2, 2022, at 10:59 AM, Alexander Jacocks via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Yep, I think they came for the joy of it (at least Clint/LGR did). I vote no on the payment. I wouldn't take it amiss, as he probably thinks we're a corporation profiting from events, but it'd set a bad precedent, and I agree that we don't have the resources to do this, even if we wanted to.
I spoke to Clint and Adrian at some length, and it was very clear that they were having a fantastic time. Ben Heck as well, though I didn't talk to him as much.
- Alex
On Fri, Dec 2, 2022 at 8:41 AM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On Dec 1, 2022, at 8:18 PM, Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
It wouldn't be an issue if it would be returned in the way of boosted attendance, aka return on investment. Big events (yes, 501c3) pay for the top keynotes and stuff -- but they make a return on that by way of attendees coming to see em.
Youtube famous people would draw more of a crowd if marketed well and cost less.
VCFMW proved this- the YouTube corner was packed non-stop from what I saw when I was there. Non-stop.
I don't think they paid them at all to show up and talk.
-andy
On 12/2/22 22:09, David Ryskalczyk via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
(One could continue this discussion further and ask whether an organization that is entirely volunteer-run is sustainable long-term, but that is not an easy problem to solve.)
There's an argument to be made about the long-term sustainability of an organization structured to have built-in high ongoing cash requirements, especially if that organization's primary purpose isn't the generation of profit. This goes counter to traditional MBA wisdom, but traditional MBA wisdom isn't always correct or reasonable, regardless of how certain it may be of such. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I interviewed Ed for the Floppy Days Podcast a couple of years ago (https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-100-ed-smith-developer-of-apf-mp10...). Neat story. He didn’t ask for a fee to be on my podcast. Just sayin’ Randy Kindig Host Floppy Days Podcast floppydays.com Sent from my iPad
On Dec 1, 2022, at 10:43 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the Fairchild F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:07 PM Randall Kindig <randall.kindig@gmail.com> wrote:
I interviewed Ed for the Floppy Days Podcast a couple of years ago ( https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-100-ed-smith-developer-of-apf-mp10...). Neat story. He didn’t ask for a fee to be on my podcast. Just sayin’
That may be because the perception that VCF East has big bucks to spend on speakers. We do not. It has grown big enough with many big and/or popular speakers in vintage computer speakers. He had emailed me out of the blue. I called him on the phone. He mentioned a speaker fee. I explained that we are a non-profit, that we have never paid a fee and that is way beyond our budget. That's when he offered $2000 for a virtual talk. He already has a book, so I don't know why he is asking for money. I would think it would be better for him to just plug his book at our show.
Randy Kindig Host Floppy Days Podcast floppydays.com
Sent from my iPad
On Dec 1, 2022, at 10:43 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Today's Google Doodle is about Gerry Lawson who helped design the Fairchild F and on the team that pioneered the video game cartridge. Gerry has been deceased for 11 years. He is one of the few African Americans who have been inventors in the early vintage computer and vintage video game industries.
Related to this: I have been presented an opportunity to have another African American with similar experience come talk at VCF East: Ed Smith. Ed Smith started out working for APF Electronics, Inc. which released The Imagination Machine, a hybrid video game.
Would any of you be interested in hearing his story?
So here's the catch. Ed Smith wants a speaker fee of $5000 and travel expenses. As far as I know the Vintage Computer Festival has never paid a speaker fee. We honestly can't afford such a large fee. It is beyond our budget. We have paid travel expenses for a select few speakers who can't afford it and/or are very important speakers. I'm contemplating doing a fundraiser for this. Just a straw poll. How many would donate towards this?
I would love to hear his story.
Thanks for your input!
========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey@vcfed.org
On 12/1/22 14:12, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:07 PM Randall Kindig <randall.kindig@gmail.com> wrote:
I interviewed Ed for the Floppy Days Podcast a couple of years ago ( https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-100-ed-smith-developer-of-apf-mp10...). Neat story. He didn’t ask for a fee to be on my podcast. Just sayin’
That may be because the perception that VCF East has big bucks to spend on speakers. We do not. It has grown big enough with many big and/or popular speakers in vintage computer speakers. He had emailed me out of the blue. I called him on the phone. He mentioned a speaker fee. I explained that we are a non-profit, that we have never paid a fee and that is way beyond our budget. That's when he offered $2000 for a virtual talk. He already has a book, so I don't know why he is asking for money. I would think it would be better for him to just plug his book at our show.
It seems pretty clear that he just needs some cash and is trying to capitalize on what he's got. I can relate, sure, but IMO the answer here should really be a very clear "no thanks". (I had initially typed something different there) -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I second that. All in favor of "no thanks"? On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:18 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On 12/1/22 14:12, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:07 PM Randall Kindig <randall.kindig@gmail.com> wrote:
I interviewed Ed for the Floppy Days Podcast a couple of years ago (
https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-100-ed-smith-developer-of-apf-mp10...). Neat
story. He didn’t ask for a fee to be on my podcast. Just sayin’
That may be because the perception that VCF East has big bucks to spend on speakers. We do not. It has grown big enough with many big and/or popular speakers in vintage computer speakers. He had emailed me out of the blue. I called him on the phone. He mentioned a speaker fee. I explained that we are a non-profit, that we have never paid a fee and that is way beyond our budget. That's when he offered $2000 for a virtual talk. He already has a book, so I don't know why he is asking for money. I would think it would be better for him to just plug his book at our show.
It seems pretty clear that he just needs some cash and is trying to capitalize on what he's got. I can relate, sure, but IMO the answer here should really be a very clear "no thanks".
(I had initially typed something different there)
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
participants (13)
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Adam Michlin -
Alexander Jacocks -
Andrew Diller -
Chris Fala -
Christian Liendo -
Christopher Gioconda -
Dave McGuire -
David Ryskalczyk -
Ethan O'Toole -
Jeff S -
Jeffrey Brace -
Peter Cetinski -
Randall Kindig