845 replies to this topic

[TaG]

Oh, and mazza was right. 6,263 views yesterday. The previous best was 4,738. I spend too much time reading the stats btw.

Already at 4213 for today with several hours to go.

[mazza558]

We hit 7,000 yesterday, and with all the tech sites linking to the blog (and quoting my estimate for release date all over the place), it'll probably hit 10,000 or more tomorrow.

Good times!

[mali]

@mazza
Creating this blog will go down in history as an important milestone, good job

[mali]

how long will be the final Pandora Stylus?

Dimensions are 100mm long by 5mm diameter.

[mali]

I finally got Angstrom running this afternoon. I just couldn't get an SD card loaded with multi-partitions so I could have the FAT boot partition and the EXT2 filesystem on one card so I had to make them separate. After almost a day of fighting with that, it's working!

I don't have time for a video just yet. I must be off to a family get together in about 10 minutes, so I offer a quick snapshot: http://s198.photobuc...nt=DSC01003.jpg

It still needs a mouse attached, but it uses the internal keyboard.

[Gruso]

Cheers mali, putting it up now.

[mali]

This is nice, too:

I made some progress so i made a quick video showing you the basic gameplay.

You can see it here: http://au.youtube.co...h?v=sZHi3YT3xuE

Changes:
- Combo System, The number of points each kill produces depends on: The number of kills this projectile has already made, the number of kills without letting an enemy past and a "Tricky" factor.
- 3 enemy varieties.
- Various graphics.
- Blood.

Looks good why not make low poly 3d characters of them?

I considered doing this but i think the only improvement would be gained in the animation department. I've also got absolutely no skill at modelling.

[Gruso]

[edit] The day's stats weren't quite tallied at that point, actual total was 9,131.

Edited by Gruso, 31 January 2009 - 01:55 AM.

[JerryG20]

Looks like there is a backlog in terms of updating the unofficial blog. Could it be updated to include info about the CNC being ordered on Monday and the dimensions of Pandora stylus (the important news pieces that are missing on the blog still for some reason).

[Gruso]

Sorry boss, I'll work back next Friday to make it up.

http://openpandora.w...e-design-facts/

[mali]

We could do MWeston a favor and put this on the blog

Firstly, the CPU is a 900 MHz Cortex A8 which has actually been underclocked to 600 MHz.

WRONG!

It's a 600MHz CPU that seems to do well at up to 900MHz under the circumstances it has found itself in the hands of Pandora devs. I wish this particular inaccurate fact could be remedied once and for all. For all we know TI could change the silicon three months from now and suddenly all chips fail at 650MHz. I don't see that happening but it is worth noting.

[Gruso]

Hmm. I agree that misconceptions like these need to be stamped out, but I don't know that the blog is going to do it. Also, I'd be hesitant to quote a source as saying "For all we know TI could change the silicon three months from now and suddenly all chips fail at 650MHz." We know what MW is saying, but we also know how quickly the rumour mill gets out of hand. ("Wait - future TI chips could fail at 650?!"). We'd be replacing one misconception with another.

I think the only way to get the facts straight is through an official press release. This man speaks the truth:

http://www.gp32x.com...f...&pid=695523

I think there should be an "Introducing Pandora" press release sent out when mass production begins. It would contain several concise paragraphs summing up the development history and capabilities of the system, the spec list, interview invitations, and perhaps the offer of a review unit (loan).

A well written press release enables lazy journalists to copy & paste straight into their CMS. And there is no shortage of such journalists. I've got some background in this area, and I wonder if it's worth drafting something up to give the team a starting point. This idea has met resistance in the past, but things have changed...

[mali]

Ah yes, didn't think about that. The press release thought is a good idea

[Esn]

Apparently there's a USD account now.

Was this mentioned on the blog?

[mali]

I don't believe we've heard anything official about assembly time. It would be nice to get an "official guestimate" of the between batch time, double or triple it, sleep on that data and make my decision from there.

Official guestimate: Four to six weeks from the first to the last of the first batch Pandoras. Give or take a couple weeks for testing and tweaking the assembly process.

Once the manufacturing process is 100% nailed down (2nd batch onwards) the plant can make ~5000 per month, though they can only make them as fast as we can get parts. Second batch will probably start up about two months after the first is finished (again, depending on parts availability).

So at least 3-4 weeks before first batch starts, 4-6 weeks after that it finishes, then ~8 weeks until the 2nd batch starts. If you want a Pandora soon, order from the first batch. Otherwise you'll be waiting a while.