i've seen this dude's name mentioned recently a lot and i don't get why people have been talking about him when his actions are the common mistakes that a lot of newbies have been making and nobody talked about any of them.
It's only because he's a known personality in libertarian and goldbug circles which have quite an overlap with (earlier) Bitcoin users. His 2006 prediction of the real estate market driven recession brought him a lot of new followers, many of whom later got involved in Bitcoin and were disappointed he didn't share their enthusiasm for Bitcoin. He's too heavily invested in metals to bother with Bitcoin so I don't see him changing his sceptical stance.