Little Christmas Update

[rmm2131]

I have discovered a revolutionary payment system I thought you might like to hear about, all you need are four bits of paper

one is called "a cheque"

one is called "notepaper"

one is called "an envelope"

one is called "a stamp"

how it works...

you write the sum you want to pay and your name on the "cheque"

you write a short letter on the "notepaper" requesting what you want and giving the address you would like the item sent too

you place the "cheque" and the "notepaper" inside the "envelope" and seal it

you write Craigs trading address on the "envelope"

you then attach the "stamp" to the upper right corner of the "envelope"

thats phase one done....

now for the difficult bit, you need to find either something called a "postbox" or a "post office" (either will do).

in the UK the "postbox" can normally be found lurking at the side of a road somewhere, it will be made of heavy cast metal and painted post office red, if you can find one of these you will notice a narrow slot on the front, you are almost at your journeys end, place the "envelope" containing the "cheque" and the "notepaper" with the "stamp" attached into the slot and push it inside, if it doesn`t fall inside when you release it you can poke it further in with your hand until it does, then just go home and wait for results.

to find a "post office" you will normally need to be in the centre of at least a small town, it will normally be placed near the park or market place, if you take the "envelope" containing the "cheque" and the "notepaper" with the "stamp" attached into the post office and present it at the counter they will send it to Craig for you (although you will find several "postboxes" attached to this building that you could place the "envelope" containing the "cheque" and the "notepaper" with the "stamp" attached inside, but they are not normally as easy to recognise as the roadside "postboxes")

I have used this system MANY times, and the huge advantage over electronic cash transactions are readily apparent.

1...its very simple
2...its considerably faster than bouncing/canceled/refunded debit cards
3...it ALWAYS works
4...you get to go outside...yes the framerates lousy...the skybox uses weird textures and the NPCs keep getting in the way like some early FPS AI is controling em, but it can be interesting (some of the NPCs are female and cute )

Very funny hobbyman.
I'd go to a post office more often if the cute women there didn't all have "flavor savers"(mustaches).

As for the Pandora, it appears the team will really start manufacturing the consumer-end Pandoras mid-February, and 400 of the first production will be kept for testing, which makes the starting ship date to be near end of february if a best optimistic guess was made given what's been alluded to. This would make the first batch the second batch. Hope i'm right.

 

[hobbyman II]

oh! ok then, I can see this sophisticated, high speed system is not for the masses (it never took ME months to get a cheque processed ) , and a cheque crossed ac/payee is only payable to the recipient (other security issues mentioned are moot since you actually supply all that data using a card anyway), plus you are already paying bankers fees and whatever (over and over), I would would have thought you would be no worse off.

since my brilliance is to be ignored I will refrain from sharing my discovery of a power free solid state media device called "BOOK" (also based on the new "paper" technology)

paper is the future of data and media, after the apocalypse it will rule for all required data needs, I predict there will be (post Armageddon) data centres to store paper media...called....BOOKERIES, you just wait and see, you people put too much faith in this old fashioned electronic stuff, I am already prepared, I am now being trained in the required data manipulation skills that will be needed in our desolate post industrial feudal society, already I can make marks with a "writing stick" and reliably decipher those marks, THE FUTURE IS MINE......AND MINE ALONE......

PS, nice update Craig, will send my c.h.e.q.u.e as soon as you have units available

 

[rmm2131]

oh! ok then, I can see this sophisticated, high speed system is not for the masses (it never took ME months to get a cheque processed ) , and a cheque crossed ac/payee is only payable to the recipient (other security issues mentioned are moot since you actually supply all that data using a card anyway), plus you are already paying bankers fees and whatever (over and over), I would would have thought you would be no worse off.

since my brilliance is to be ignored I will refrain from sharing my discovery of a power free solid state media device called "BOOK" (also based on the new "paper" technology)

paper is the future of data and media, after the apocalypse it will rule for all required data needs, I predict there will be (post Armageddon) data centres to store paper media...called....BOOKERIES, you just wait and see, you people put too much faith in this old fashioned electronic stuff, I am already prepared, I am now being trained in the required data manipulation skills that will be needed in our desolate post industrial feudal society, already I can make marks with a "writing stick" and reliably decipher those marks, THE FUTURE IS MINE......AND MINE ALONE......

PS, nice update Craig, will send my c.h.e.q.u.e as soon as you have units available

Sorry but I disagree because with society today glued to computer and TV screens now, their offspring will degenerate to morlock status, and with a raveneous taste for "topworlders", will wipe out those who can read these mysterious things called "BOOK"s.
Either that or Mel Gibson will drive in fast to save the last refuge of humanity and sadly there will be no room for such tomes on the "battle buses".

 

[Mr.Gonzo]

hmm maybe my question wasn't clear enough.

Do i risk anything if im out to the south from January the 3rd to the 11th?
Like having my order canceled or anything because of me not sending the answer/money soon enough.

I know this might sound dumb but i don't wanna risk anything.
I've waited enough to get it canceled at the end of the line.

I feel like a high school girl before prom.
CAN'T WAIIIIT.

aha.

 

[Schugy]

I'm waiting for gp2x.de to accept preorders again. Hopefully I can get a a coloured one from the second batch.
Maybe I can resist to buy another toy before the pandora (like that Raon Everun Note).

 

[VRAndy]

Any news on what forms of payment are acceptable?

I was hoping to repay as soon as possible, both to show my support for the project, and to not have to worry about it, but doing a bank transfer from my own bank is both a hassle and expensive.

Are there online bank transfer places that are (reasonably) cheap? Could I airmail a personal check?

 

[DixieDawg]

Thanks for the info Craig! Sure wish I had that Pandora now, as I'm without power for days here. :unsure: Got a generator going to run a few of my gadgets but the Pandora would have been a real winner right about now. :lol:

So I have to ask - where are you?

 

[White Demon]

Do i risk anything if im out to the south from January the 3rd to the 11th?
Like having my order canceled or anything because of me not sending the answer/money soon enough.

I know this might sound dumb but i don't wanna risk anything.
I've waited enough to get it canceled at the end of the line.

Best to give the helpful ladies at OpenPandora a call. I'm sure they'll be able to sort something out for you at the very least.

If you require a phone number, look at This post from TaG for a copy of the re-order email, which contains a phone number for you to call.

 

[hobbyman II]

@DixieDawg...I`m guessing he`s in the midwest USA, theres that "The Day After Tomorrow" type Ice storm up there at the moment, huge power losses, property damage and even AT&Ts mobile network and tier 3 internet is down

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316271,00.html

is a linky, sorry its Fox but google doesn`t show any other results...weird

 

[mechanizeddeath]

So I have to ask - where are you?

Michigan. I ended up getting my power back yesterday afternoon, about 36 hours ahead of schedule. Can't complain there. It was kind of fun though, wrapped in a blanket, burning wood for heat, and having a reason to play my neglected GPA SP for the first time in months. Really made me wish even more for my Pandora though.

Still holding out hope for February!

 

[giovanni]

Thank you Craig!
I hope we will get this first unit this month (January)....

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

nice update, thanks.

just don't let the re-preorder happen TOO close to the actual launch, it would be horrible to have the pandoras ready and the payment slowing it down.

people had no problems ordering months before the actual release, why would they bother start re-preordering now?

I really think you could start charging people slowly, but starting at the beginning of january.

You and your new fangled methods will never catch on. He's a witch! Burn him!

hauheauehauehea lmao

 

[lobski]

It's finally 2009 and the CC re-re-reorder page isn't up yet

 

[mali]

Look at the quote in my sig. It might be that there won't be a fully public CC-reorder page at all. Craig's words are a little vague sometimes, but this really sounds like they want to mail everyone individually and ask for a re-order. I might be wrong, though.

 

[TaG]

If they open a public page, sooner or later someone who did not pre-order will try and order. Perhaps this is all part of getting around that. Also, it suggests that when they ask each person to pay they will not be too far off getting their unit thus avoiding other complaints.

Sits waiting for email...

 

[Dunny]

Look at the quote in my sig. It might be that there won't be a fully public CC-reorder page at all. Craig's words are a little vague sometimes, but this really sounds like they want to mail everyone individually and ask for a re-order. I might be wrong, though.

Fantastic. I've yet to receive any of their official emails (other than the "thanks for signing up" confirmation emails) to my gmail account. The only correspondence from them has been when I've mailed them myself.

If I wait for them to mail me to re-order, I'll likely be waiting a long time judging by their current performance.

D.

 

[Asmo]

If they open a public page, sooner or later someone who did not pre-order will try and order. Perhaps this is all part of getting around that. Also, it suggests that when they ask each person to pay they will not be too far off getting their unit thus avoiding other complaints.

Sits waiting for email...

Well if you submit an invalid order number or one that doesn't match the previous address gatecrashers could be filtered out, although there are probably enough 'surplus' units to meet a few hundred interlopers anyway. It's just as likely that a few recipients of an email might forward the link (I presume the email will be a link to a secure server, not a request for card details!) to 'friends' or try to make multiple orders and profit by reselling later, it won't be a firewall against dishonesty.

I wonder though, if there was any significant progress on the manufacturing front we would surely have heard about it, a 'final' prototype isn't even on the horizon yet.

 

[TaG]

If they open a public page, sooner or later someone who did not pre-order will try and order. Perhaps this is all part of getting around that. Also, it suggests that when they ask each person to pay they will not be too far off getting their unit thus avoiding other complaints.

Sits waiting for email...
Well if you submit an invalid order number or one that doesn't match the previous address gatecrasher's could be filtered outYes, but by that stag you have offered for sale and taken funds. If they were to take 1000 orders this way they are in deep doodoo as thy have to decide what to do and potentially do 1000 more individual refunds, which I suspect might not cheer the ladies in the office too much, never mind how the bank would react.

 

[lobski]

Look at the quote in my sig. It might be that there won't be a fully public CC-reorder page at all. Craig's words are a little vague sometimes, but this really sounds like they want to mail everyone individually and ask for a re-order. I might be wrong, though.

I really hope that there is a CC order page, since I can't do bank transfers.

Ugh.

 

[JerryG20]

If they open a public page, sooner or later someone who did not pre-order will try and order. Perhaps this is all part of getting around that. Also, it suggests that when they ask each person to pay they will not be too far off getting their unit thus avoiding other complaints.

Sits waiting for email...

Well if you submit an invalid order number or one that doesn't match the previous address gatecrashers could be filtered out, although there are probably enough 'surplus' units to meet a few hundred interlopers anyway. It's just as likely that a few recipients of an email might forward the link (I presume the email will be a link to a secure server, not a request for card details!) to 'friends' or try to make multiple orders and profit by reselling later, it won't be a firewall against dishonesty.

I wonder though, if there was any significant progress on the manufacturing front we would surely have heard about it, a 'final' prototype isn't even on the horizon yet.

What are PayPal people supposed to do? We didn't receive an official order number like you guys that paid with alternative order methods, and we'd also still like to maintain our place in line