I had my suspicions, but I'm not surprised. I may have never had the privilege of meeting Duane in person, but he has been a huge influence on my AS scripting, and making me reach further in my skills, etc.
I remember when I first came on the scene a number of years back, and I was bitching (it's what I do 
) about some early widget not being on the "Most Popular" list or something, and he responded by basically telling me I would need to "raise the bar." I was really frustrated at that reply. But he was right. I came back with Chumbyland; a real-time multi-user widget that is very highly rated and has been visited by over 15,000 "chums" and running for over 3 years (What other widget has an almost 100 page manual created by the users? And translated into Japanese as well?). Friendships were made, fun times were had.
In retrospect, Chumbyland has been my most ambitious and challenging personal project in all of my 20 years of programming. I have chumby and Duane to thank for that. So, thank you. It was an amazing ride. There is no way I could put a value on what I learned during that time and how I've applied it to my current work. I continue to push myself to fine tune my projects even more. I always have the voice of Duane, who in my imagination sounds a bit like Obi Wan, whispering "raise the bar, Luke." 
In this tech-drenched society people are obviously attracted to devices for different reasons. I've found the people that are attracted to chumbies are generally awesome. Seriously. This whole chumby "thing" is not something I will forget soon, if ever.
Anyway, Duane...a man of mystery with a heart of gold. If there is one who "believes" in the users, it's him. If I had to pay for every time I wanted to "buy that man a drink," I'd be broke and he'd be drunk.
Cheers to you Duane!
Thank you for all the support and help over the years, and especially for dealing with my "passionate" postings.
Best,
Cb (develephant)
Blue Buddy
