[Arm-netbook] Improv And Operation:Marketing for EMOA-*

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, May 23, 2014 at 11:22 AM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 21, 2014 01:38:25 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
>>  so by prototype 2 when we finally had something to do software
>> development on of the firmware, and i repeated the specification to
>> him, to cut a long story short in effect he changed his mind and
>> wanted a better specification.
>
> Wow. Just .. wow. Luke, I'm tired of you blaming me for failures that had
> nothing to do with me.

 aaron: i have kept silent on a number of things, when i should not
have done.  yes i made mistakes: they're part of a learning curve and
product development, and we are doing this all at a much lower cost
than would normally be attempted.   normally, mistakes would be hidden
from the client, because the amount of money paid would be *vastly*
higher than just the operational costs.

 i have spoken to other companies asking them if they would like to
help: many of them misunderstood my request and sent me back quotes
for full product development: those quotes were often somewhere around
$USD 250,000.  in total, on both the CPU Card and the tablet PCB,
we've gotten away with around $20k so far.  which is extremely good
going.

  when you threatened me (that if we made a competitor product to
Improv you would ensure that we never sold a product to a software
libre community ever again.  i wasn't intending to: i did reassure you
of that, so the threat that you made was completely unnecessary) but i
decided to let that pass, and, at a critical time in the project,
allowed you take control of the project, in effect.

 i figured what the heck: you have the experience, you have the
confidence, and the contacts, let's see what happens.  so i gave you
the database of all the people whom we had collected, and we skipped
the phase of doing a run of up to 150 units, where the people on the
database included those people who would have been happy to pay in
some cases up to $USD 150 for a board, as a loyal way to get the
project to the next phase.

 ... what happened?

 well, we ended up with our relationship with *two* factories being
destroyed, and we have a small dedicated client list who have paid you
money for a product that they are never going to get, until you return
their money to them.  even when you do that, some of those loyal
people may be so disillusioned that they give up.

 but there is more.

 the design team that you selected ignored my advice: i let you go
through that learning curve as well.

 the team that you selected started trying to take total control of
the EOMA68 standard, making promises on public forums that they had
absolutely no authority to do, placing themselves at risk of being
sued for misrepresentation, as well as bringing the standard and QiMod
Ltd into disrepute as a result, through that misrepresentation.  it
was extremely embarrassing to have to correct chris publicly on the
makeplaylive forum, but it had to be done.

 they also, by ignoring my advice to use lower-cost china-based
components from suppliers that i had already found, delayed the entire
operation by something like 8 to 10 weeks as they had to redesign the
board after selecting USA-based suppliers (of china-manufactured
components) and finding that the cost of components was often 400%
higher.

 overall the team that you selected, who have a lot of experience in
PCB design, took *OVER THREE MONTHS* to design a board with under 20
components.

 and you're complaining about _me_ making errors on a board with over
200.  do you think it is reasonable to continue to complain about me
making mistakes on 2 revisions of a quite high-density board on my
first major PCB design project when experienced people that you
selected cannot deliver a board with 1/10th the number of components?

 so, once we effectively handed over complete control to you:

* you destroyed our relationship with two factories
* you adversely affected our relationship with the software libre
community who has been following the project loyally for a few years
now
* you didn't deliver on the promise that you made
* you didn't keep us informed in a timely fashion as to whether you
were likely to be able to keep to that promise
* you selected an incompetent team that comprised one person that was
known to be *OPPOSED* to the EOMA68 concept and another that
misrepresented the standard on public forums
* you jeapordised not one but TWO factory relationships by not
responding to our communications
* you delayed the project by several additional and unnecessary months
through the selection of an incompetent team who took three months to
design a board with under 20 components.

now, i don't think it appropriate to make judgements, because that is
inappropriate.  what *would* be good is if you were able to accept
these things as lessons and do better next time.  by that... ach this
is really quite subtle, let me try to explain.

if you have someone who has access to a huge factory, and they are
presenting you with the opportunity to gain access to that resource,
and if you want access to that resource, then you should damn well
make sure that they are kept REALLY happy!!

 so if they say "you didn't answer our questions in a timely fashion"
what in god's name are you doing *denying* that they even asked you
those questions... not once, but TWICE!

 if you *really* were truly interested in making this a success,
instead of trying to continue to shout me down in a frustrated
fashion, you would be apologising profusely and going "eek!  this is
really bad, how can i make it right, how can i make this a success?"

this is harder than it looks, especially on a budget.
retrospectively, we all learned a lot, we're not hugely happy, but we
pick ourselves up and carry on.  unfortunately i don't have control
over my associate's decisions: he has completely lost faith in the
software libre community *entirely* (including in me) so he does not
listen to my advice any more if it has anything to do with software
libre or anyone else *in* the software libre community.

 which reminds me: have you removed all mention of EOMA68 and EOMA
products from all web sites yet, as my associate requested?  that
would be good.  i *really* do not want to have to tell him that there
are still pictures of EOMA68 CPU Cards on makeplaylive or any other
forums, or any public discussions going on on forums that you control,
a full two months after he sent you a notice to remove them.  trust
me: he's not someone you want to mess about with.

l.