For Craig

[SNESFAN]

hopefully you'll read this, seeing how you're the headman on this whole thing... why don't you just give people what they want as far as updates? This seems to be the biggest complaint from the community this is designed for after all.

maybe like a template or roadmap of what the hell the hold up is and what we are actually waiting on, what's really being worked on, what's next... and there's no way you and every other member of the dev team can be THAT freaking busy to where you or someone else can't update it every other day or so. It would literally take 5 min even if there was no change in a status, at least we'd know what we were really waiting on and it's being updated. The updates on the main site are so vague and VERY rarely updated, and we all know there's stuff going on behind the scenes. Even the minor updates like right now the d-pad is being tweaked or something like that, that's not on the road map... the hinge in also being tweaked... agian.... ?? What bugs were found in the; board, firmware, controls, case... etc etc... you know what you need to do... why not tell us? I know we'd all like to know, seeing how this project has gone over it's original scope as far as release date and whatnot, you have a very loyal community and I'm sure very few investors that have abandoned the project. I wouldn't say you owe it to us, but it would be REALLY nice if someone updated us on a more regular basis.

I see people starving for updates, I myself check once a day or several times a day in hopes that even the smallest update. What do you need like a PR guy, project manager, assistant, secretary or something? I'm sure any one of us would be more than glad to help you in this respect, hell, I'd even do it for you. No credit or mentions required. Just to calm these people down, myself included.

I think we'd all appreciate more updates and not to feel so outside the loop *shrug*

oh well... thoughts anyone else?

 

[WizardStan]

I can't speak for Craig, but if I could, I imagine most updates would go something like this.

June 4th, 2009: Made toast for breakfast today. It was kind of burnt. I put jelly on it to cover up the burnt. Nothing else happened.

 

[craigix]

We give updates whenever there is anything to say. If only it was as simple as you make it sound, alas it isn't as for the most part lately we have to rely on other people.

 

[Awakening]

You have apparently missed the fact that Craig are posting in various threads. We just got info on the status of the PCBs and cases. Just look around for it.

 

[danielliu88888]

go take a vacation for a week, then come back.

 

[javaJake]

Trying to maintain a blog with daily updates on your latest activities is like trying to log every single thing you plan to do in a day into a calendar, and then keep it up to date on a daily basis. This doesn't include the time wasted explaining to people why you're doing the things the way you're doing them.

It's just impossible. At some point you have to be more productive getting things done, rather explaining what has to be done.

While I can't say I have a lot of experience, I have enough working on Gentoo for Pandora to tell you that it's very difficult to keep any kind of documentation or blog in sync with your work, especially if there are no pauses in the action. It's inconvenient, and it slows you way down more than you might think.


Possible solution: Have Chip submit common questions or the like to Craig and getting an answer is a much better solution. They were doing this for a while to start, and it seemed to be working. Answering direct questions might be faster than writing blog posts about everything every day.

 

[gruso]

This is just how it works, it's been this way since the start. Thirsting for more info is par for the course if you're checking the forums daily. If you're not already subscribed to the community blog (see my sig) do eet now. All the pertinent updates appear there.

What we've learned this week:

- Hinge testing still in progress
- D-pad tweaking still in progress
- TV out cables on the way, will most likely ship in box with first batch
- Wifi testing seems to be done, next run of boards will be used in shipped Pandoras
- Analogue nub firmware is sorted
- July looking good for first units shipping

Not a bad list really.

 

[fade]

I can't speak for Craig, but if I could, I imagine most updates would go something like this.

June 4th, 2009: Made toast for breakfast today. It was kind of burnt. I put jelly on it to cover up the burnt. Nothing else happened.

haha

I like burnt toast incidentally.

 

[noonioo]

go take a vacation for a week, then come back.

a practical suggestion :rolleyes:

i have been obessive to check every blog entries every night since i found and

ordered an OP.... this suggestion could be working: the complexities of developing and

producing such a monster handheld are enormous, the team are gaining experiences and therefore

can make it better...in this case, it's reasonable to say the progress updates are not / can't be post-on-demand...


we simply don't have to check blog everynight/day/hour/...... further, RSS feed is a good alternative approach

to keep pace with OP status.

 

[skeezix]

Theres also a lot of 'gnashing' of the software; theres only a few people involved, and most of us are tied up with real life/work/etc (sigh), and thus only able to really handle our specific parts. (Were this 2 years ago, I'd be all over the kernel, but instead I'm taking care of some of the dev tools, SDK and software distibution/operation/etc stuff, for instance.) Anyway, consider.. poor DJW is working through the OS firmware images; imagine trying ot build many hundreds of applications to all work and tie together halfway sensibly, while ttrying to tie in out of date or other-platform nd wonky drivers (like opengl/etc).. cpas and pickle and him bang their heads on this stuff. Its a nightmare Likewise, notaz and a couple others bang on the kernel, working on the wifi drivers and so on. Imagine how many hundred drivers and relations are in a kernel, and then try to consider how many of them are tested on a handheld, on a brand new chip, and then set the device to sleep to memory, and then try to find out why those many drivers don't work right

You really don't want to hear about all that stuff; suffice to know it is coming along nicely, but you can imagine.. 'try something, takes a couple hours, night is done; work all day, try something else..' ..

Hard to post updates about, boring to most everyone, and meaningless to most.. yet a few people are working their tails off.

(For free, in their spare time.)

I've got a bunch of stuff I need to jump on but work managed to (*sigh*) hit me with about 70 hours of work a week the last 8 weeks *bastards*. (In the face of layoffs too, sucks :/) At least I'm not on the kernel, though I wish I had the time for it

jeff

 

[craigix]

An actual entry for today:

Got invoice for PCB work, invoice included incorrect money for UPS shipment. Contact UPS. Can't solve problem today.

Needed $4000 to pay for UPS error. Transferred money.

Money might not be needed after all as UPS bill is transferred to out account.

Consider moving $4000 back. Fees will cost too much. May as well leave the money as it will be needed for something else.

Review cost of EBVbeagle clone. Too expensive.

Sign NDA.

Email some confirmation on commodity codes to China.

Check forum. Answer things on forum.

Do some work on new video. Need to refilm something. Will do it tomorrow.

Do some behind the scenes press work.

Answer outstanding emails.

Write this.

 

[(naw)mcx]

You are a busy man, Craig.

Good job.

 

[gruso]

No time to read, will wait for DVD.

 

[eomonkeyboi24]

No time to read, will wait for DVD.

Haha Nice one gruso.

 

[Frogboy]

An actual entry for today:

Got invoice for PCB work, invoice included incorrect money for UPS shipment. Contact UPS. Can't solve problem today.

...

Write this.

You forgot "Put up whiney little bitches on the forum".

Just kidding. Although, I'm sure that makes the list on a good number of days.

 

[Asmo]

I can't speak for Craig, but if I could, I imagine most updates would go something like this.

June 4th, 2009: Made toast for breakfast today. It was kind of burnt. I put jelly on it to cover up the burnt. Nothing else happened.

Follow up:

"Realised it's called Jam this side of the Atlantic. Should have had Coffee first. Toast ended up having the consistency of a mousemat."

 

[michaeljustman]

I can't speak for Craig, but if I could, I imagine most updates would go something like this.

June 4th, 2009: Made toast for breakfast today. It was kind of burnt. I put jelly on it to cover up the burnt. Nothing else happened.

Follow up:

"Realised it's called Jam this side of the Atlantic. Should have had Coffee first. Toast ended up having the consistency of a mousemat."

IDK... IIRC, jam and jelly are two different things where I'm from (US). Jelly is made from fruit extract or juice and jam is made from the whole fruit. For example, strawberry jelly (no seeds), strawberry jam (seeds). Not sure it has anything to do with what side of the pond you're on.

Disclaimer: Only eaten breakfast in the UK twice... Weird question perhaps, but does anyone know where I can get some Scrumpy Jack in the States. I land in the Shannon airport maybe twice a year, when I'm traveling, and get one and love it. (Yes, I've had it with breakfast. )

 

[Asmo]

. Not sure it has anything to do with what side of the pond you're on.

UK/Ireland - Jam = almost any fruit based spread. Unless it's Oranges in which case it's Marmalade, bits or no bits.

Jelly - Gelatinous moulded Dessert gunk, 'Jello' in the US. Very difficult to spread on toast, futile given the results.

 

[michaeljustman]

, strawberry jam (seeds"]. Not sure it has anything to do with what side of the pond you're on.

UK/Ireland - Jam = almost any fruit based spread. Unless it's Oranges in which case it's Marmalade, bits or no bits.

Jelly - Gelatinous moulded Dessert gunk, 'Jello' in the US. Very difficult to spread on toast, futile given the results.[/quote]So even things that don't have chunks(bits?)? Like no self-respecting American would call grape jelly, grape jam, because there's no as you call them "bits". Same goes for any other fruit made to spread that doesn't have seeds. Maybe I'm just crazy... being from northwest US and living in Texas for the last five years has really screwed up my concept of the English language.

 

[fade]

, strawberry jam (seeds"]. Not sure it has anything to do with what side of the pond you're on.

UK/Ireland - Jam = almost any fruit based spread. Unless it's Oranges in which case it's Marmalade, bits or no bits.

Jelly - Gelatinous moulded Dessert gunk, 'Jello' in the US. Very difficult to spread on toast, futile given the results.[/quote]So even things that don't have chunks(bits?"]? Like no self-respecting American would call grape jelly, grape jam, because there's no as you call them "bits". Same goes for any other fruit made to spread that doesn't have seeds. Maybe I'm just crazy... being from northwest US and living in Texas for the last five years has really screwed up my concept of the English language.[/quote]In the UK/Ireland Jam is jam bits/chunks or no bits/chunks, doesnt matter. An jelly/jello is that gelatinous stuff you set in the fridge an eat with ice-cream. Another americanism - peanut butter an jelly sandwiches, have any fellow Uk'ers ever heard of peanut butter an jam sandwiches?