**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Tue Apr 26 02:59:57 2011
Apr 26 06:20:00 <elFidel> kusznir: 20 dreamplugs? sounds like a serious number .... do you mind reporting back if those 20 arrive and you got a first impression of the state?
Apr 26 07:13:14 <bullfinch> kusznir: thanks for the update.
Apr 26 07:13:21 <NightMonkey> elFidel: Who is getting 20?
Apr 26 07:13:41 <bullfinch> please keep on posting the news :D
Apr 26 07:14:24 <NightMonkey> Ah, where was this posted?
Apr 26 07:15:08 <bullfinch> 17:21:50 < kusznir> bullfinch: it appears they have solved the heat issues; we got one defective chip.
Apr 26 07:15:11 <bullfinch> 17:22:09 < kusznir> bullfinch: the second one we used did not have heat issues (but eventually suffered a memory controller failure).
Apr 26 07:15:14 <bullfinch> 17:22:17 < kusznir> We did buy 20, though, and are waiting delivery of those.
Apr 26 07:15:49 <bullfinch> NightMonkey: I'm a bit worried about the dreamplugs as the guruplug was mayhem
Apr 26 07:16:09 <bullfinch> if they get it right I
Apr 26 07:16:14 <bullfinch> will buy one
Apr 26 07:17:06 <NightMonkey> bullfinch: Weird, wonder why I missed those. Thanks.
Apr 26 07:18:13 <NightMonkey> bullfinch: Oh, my gurus are collecting dust. Perhaps I'll use them to clear snow next winter.
Apr 26 07:18:21 <bullfinch> NightMonkey: np. Looks like you joined 2-3 hours late
Apr 26 07:18:32 <bullfinch> hehe
Apr 26 07:18:41 <elFidel> ;)
Apr 26 07:18:43 <NightMonkey> bullfinch: My sheeva is rocking, tho.
Apr 26 07:19:03 <elFidel> i guess that 20 dreamplugs should give a good impression about problems
Apr 26 07:19:10 <elFidel> lets wait ;)
Apr 26 07:19:19 <elFidel> and hope hehe
Apr 26 07:19:44 <bullfinch> I really want esata, Never liked usb.
Apr 26 07:20:30 <NightMonkey> I wish there was some variety for US buyers in the plug space.
Apr 26 07:21:17 <elFidel> why are you mentioning US buyers in specific?
Apr 26 07:21:31 <elFidel> is there more variety in the non-us-market? ;)
Apr 26 07:26:39 <NightMonkey> elFidel: NewIT?
Apr 26 07:27:05 <elFidel> NightMonkey: is NewIT not selling worldwide?
Apr 26 07:29:02 <NightMonkey> elFidel: There's quite a markup for US buyers.
Apr 26 07:29:02 <NightMonkey> elFidel: But I'm not blaming them. :)
Apr 26 07:34:31 <elFidel> blame your location hehe
Apr 26 07:34:45 <NightMonkey> Indeed.
Apr 26 07:52:42 <NightMonkey> Good night, *.
Apr 26 15:22:30 <kusznir> bullfinch, elFidel, and others: We disassembled a dreamplug, and it looks like they finally did get a lot right.  The guru suffered from massive design flaws (looks like an intern designed it on a computer, then sent it direct to production without actually prototyping and such...in fact, it looks like they took the sheeva and 'added stuff'.)  We have sheevas, guru's, and dreamplugs.  The dreamplug looks to be the best design so far.
Apr 26 15:23:18 <kusznir> There is the detail that our two units both had to be RMA'ed, but for different reasons, both of which looked like component failure.  At this point, I suspect the only risk to the plug's longevity are the quality of parts and construction.
Apr 26 15:24:58 <kusznir> As to thermal issues, the dreamplugs are fanless, and use a heat plate as the sheevas and early guru's.  The difference is that they changed the form factor of the case.  The PSU is now in a seperate "case" from the computer, and the whole thing has been "squashed" -- it is thinner, but larger length x width.  The heat plate is the entire size of the front face, and they cut ventallation holes in it.  This allows it to effectively dissapate th
Apr 26 15:24:58 <kusznir> e heat (main failing on the guru wasn't the heat plate, but the lack of air flow to dissipate the heat).
Apr 26 15:28:09 <kusznir> We haven't played with the accessories yet (sound, wifi, bluetooth, etc).  We can confirm that they do use a 2GB SD card internally in place of the NAND flash.  The stock uboot requires a partition as FAT16 for the kernel to load on.  Also, there is now a small (2MB?) NOR flash used for uboot & env. variables.  This has been a bit problematic, as there doesn't appear to be a linux driver for it yet, and it seems to be difficult to get OpenOCD
Apr 26 15:28:09 <kusznir> support for that at the moment.  I'm sure these problems will be fixed.
Apr 26 15:28:31 <kusznir> Our 20 are scheduled to ship next week.  Hopefully I get our RMA'ed plugs back "real soon now".
Apr 26 15:29:02 <kusznir> Oh, and if you have an older release of DreamPlug, go to the google code repo and download the flash tools.  It has an updated uboot that is considerably better than the older one.
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Wed Apr 27 02:59:58 2011