Why All The Mysteries And No Clear Updates?

[VRAndy]

Bah. I hate to get involved in one of these threads, (Except, occasionally, to be unhelpfully sarcastic.) but I can't let this one pass without comment.

As much as there is a schedule, we're on it.
There is no 100% solid ship date for the first Pandoras. If there were, we'd tell you.

That's not really fair. At the moment I can't find where it came from originally, but there's been a lot of noise about a December 1st target ship date. I'm almost positive that's the last word we've heard on actual delivery schedules.

If you come along and say Pandora is "on schedule", then what are we supposed to think?

Okay, here's a little update ...
Very nice to hear about what is going on, thanks MWeston!Yes. Thanks.

P.S. Ok, Usually people say "November 30" not "December 1", but it's the same thing. Nov 30 is a Sunday.

 

[lubidog]

Thanks MWeston. That update will keep me tied over for a couple of weeks, so I won't be looking for any more updates until the beginning of December. But then, I am just great!

 

[White Demon]

At the moment I can't find where it came from originally, but there's been a lot of noise about a December 1st target ship date. I'm almost positive that's the last word we've heard on actual delivery schedules.

The last official word I read somewhere on this forum was that shipping could start as soon as the first week in December or as late as the third week in December. iirc, I think I read that about two weeks ago, just as the refund emails started going out.

Don't ask me for a link for that though as I don't know exactly where I read that in the recent deluge of threads, but I know I read it somewhere in here.

Although *SPECULATION* I wouldn't be surprised if shipping didn't start until January. And I personally think that's probably the best time to start shipping even if units are ready before then, so that the christmas postal rush is completely out of the way.

 

[tazg]

reality check

a company called Nintendo are STILL behind on production of a device called the Wii (in its second year now)

the worlds largest and richest software company messed up their release of a console called X-box, with a huge percentage overheating, catching fire or failing with the red ring of death (from new)

an electronics manufacturer called Sony completely misjudged the market and are selling a device called Playstation 3 at a fraction of its projected rate of sales, in fact they fired the head of development over it

a company called Palm computing spent years attempting to switch over to a Linux based OS and failed

another company known as GPH have consistently failed to provide a device with the specifications desired by its fans, and have just delayed the launch of the Wizz by another two months

an open source, cutting edge device, built by an enthusiastic community and a few "guru`s" is a few weeks behind schedule

spot the odd one out...................

Why were there 3 more pages after this post? This ends the thread, and all the other ones like it. With 50 billion dollars and 100 thousand employees, Microsoft released a disaster called Vista like 4 years behind schedule with all the promised features missing... while you guys clutter up this forum daily with complaints about a handful of hobbyists who have continually made improvements as opposed to cutting corners. Most companies don't even have blogs.

 

[mazza558]

Bear in mind that shipping/manufacturing is not in any way influenced by the bank troubles. The only thing other than manufacturing issues that can get in the way of the schedule is if you do not re-order, and the Pandora's waiting for you.

 

[TrevorBradley]

Why were there 3 more pages after this post?

In fairness, more than half of those 3 pages are MWeston's awesome manufacturing update and people thanking him for it.

In a perfect world, we'd *always* see these updates, no matter how minor, as a new thread, but c'est la vie...

 

[Chip]

In a perfect world, we'd *always* see these updates, no matter how minor, as a new thread, but c'est la vie...
Or you could just check the list of Dev Team Updates

The only reason I didn't add MWeston's post yesterday is because I knew I'd be including it in the big update today. All significant announcements go on the list.

 

[mazza558]

In a perfect world, we'd *always* see these updates, no matter how minor, as a new thread, but c'est la vie...
Or you could just check the list of Dev Team Updates

The only reason I didn't add MWeston's post yesterday is because I knew I'd be including it in the big update today. All significant announcements go on the list.

Big update today eh?

So a summary of everything?

 

[Chip]

Big update today eh?

So a summary of everything?

See for yourself. It's stickied.

 

[mazza558]

Big update today eh?

So a summary of everything?

See for yourself. It's stickied.

Thanks!

 

[iprice]

QUOTE
We need to get the failure rate down to about 3% to get production going full speed.


If only Microsoft cared so much eh? Certainly makes you think

 

[OrR]

Well, Microsoft probably got the in-factory failure rate down to similar levels or they would have had too many expenses on repairs or throwing stuff away... What they missed is making the design fail proof for actually running for some time. Very stupid and very expensive mistake but I can imagine it happening quite easily with something as cutting edge and rushed as a console release. (Somewhat applies to the Pandora as well.)

 

[TrevorBradley]

In a perfect world, we'd *always* see these updates, no matter how minor, as a new thread, but c'est la vie...
Or you could just check the list of Dev Team Updates

The only reason I didn't add MWeston's post yesterday is because I knew I'd be including it in the big update today. All significant announcements go on the list.

Not to be too snarky, but is this fairly cumbersome for the user. I just quickly checked the latest dev posts and was greeted with:

QUOTE
Sorry, the board administrator has enabled search flood control. Please wait at least 20 seconds before trying again.


So it will take about 1-2 minutes to check to see if any new dev posts have come out in a given day.

*YOUR* posts are great, Chip. It's the other devs I'd love to encourage posting multi-paragraph updates at the root level. But again, c'est la vie.

 

[Chip]

So it will take about 1-2 minutes to check to see if any new dev posts have come out in a given day.
I was referring to this list of dev team updates.

 

[TrevorBradley]

OK, gotcha.

EDIT: Could that get stickied? It's probably the most deserving thread in the forum.

 

[mali]

OK, gotcha.

EDIT: Could that get stickied? It's probably the most deserving thread in the forum.

It's accessible through the Info Index page

 

[TaG]

OK, gotcha.

EDIT: Could that get stickied? It's probably the most deserving thread in the forum.
It's accessible through the Info Index page
@Trevor and all, Or stick it in your sig, I didn't put it in mine just for everybody else's benefit.

 

[yashton]

Some of you may recall the fiasco that occurred during the One Laptop Per Child Give One Get One program.
From Wikipedia:
QUOTE

A significant minority (at least 10%) of these had not received their "Get One" laptop a couple of months after their donation because of order fulfillment and shipment issues within both OLPC and the outside contractors it had hired to manage those aspects of the program. This led many donors to question whether OLPC's management and staff were capable of successfully managing the much larger task of distribution of laptops to the developing world.

I ordered mine half an hour after the sale opened. Anyone who ordered within the first week was supposed to get the laptop before Christmas.

I didn't get mine till February 20th.

This was an even bigger project, with 83,000 orders in the G1G1 program, as a ramp up to the needed million units ordered by governments. Huge corporate support including "[funding] by member organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. Each company has donated two million dollars."

We've got a small group of developers. We have fewer developers than OLPC has corporations. Things like bank issues are not surprising given the current fiscal situation and the nature of what we are doing. If you were a bank and one of your client's accounts suddenly had 4,000 transactions depositing more than 1.3 million dollars, with huge withdrawals made to other companies in short periods of time, you probably wouldn't want a risk of fraudulent activity sitting on your shoulders. Delays in suppliers providing parts like the LCD is not uncommon for any project, and I've heard people making references to companies like Sony having the exact same problems. The manufacturing itself is insanely complicated, cutting edge, and difficult, and our developers are competent engineers. MWeston's post about emphasizes clearly the level of precision and difficulty behind what is going on to make the motherboards. One thing to note, however, is the nature of manufacturing. Making the first couple units is exceedingly difficult, as you have to figure out the entire process. But once you get the process down, the product just flies off the assembly line. More than likely within a couple weeks of the first finished production unit, all 4000 will be made. Meanwhile, all the software and drivers are proceeding nicely. The scope of what we are doing is amazing.

Back to my original remarks about the OLPC. For the first couple weeks I was excited. I would check the message boards and for emails. As the weeks dragged on and no news, I started to get frustrated. Finally there were announcements that few would be getting their laptops before Christmas. Then more announcements that there might be indeterminate delays.
So I decided to forget about it. I didn't check any forums, I didn't read any blogs or anything. When it finally came, it was a pleasant surprise, with none of the anxiety and waiting. I've heard several people make similar comments of "see you guys in a month". A lot of us are probably the type who does this with shipping.. We are an impatient culture.
I don't think it would be as much fun to just plain ignore it until it gets there. We have a great community going on here. I've been playing some of the open source games people have been talking about, trying out what I want to load on my Pandora. It's going to be fun, both before and after we get our Pandoras.

It will be finished when it is finished, and it will be shipped when it is finished.

 

[vaustein]

Not to state the obvious, but I hope those of us who ordered during the initial 3,000 unit offering and have never asked for a refund will not be forgotten.

 

[vaustein]

Strike that - I just asked for a refund.