Dev community, reflash, and stylus

nekokami · 03-23-2007, 12:45 PM

See http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?p=5383#5383 for the full post. Notable bits (from my point of view, anyway):

Quote:

One of these tools will be a recovery method, which will allow developers to re-flash the software of the iLiad via a CF card. We expect to be able to provide this recovery method to the developer community by the end of April.

Quote:

Trial Projects... Currently we consider the following two projects: Stylus Calibration & Power management as both features seem to receive large support from the community.

I personally think this is very good news, and a good attempt by iRex to try to make good on their commitments with obviously limited resources.

Riocaz · 03-23-2007, 12:52 PM

Hmmm do they specify April this year?

No seriously this is great news. Now if they can get one of those developer units out to Adam :-)

Adam B. · 03-23-2007, 01:01 PM

This is indeed excellent news. The more devs that are working on the iLiad the better.

I'll wait to see what they post about the loan-an-iLiad program. It would be nice to have one to work with and develop on while waiting for my iLiad's trip around the world.

ali · 03-23-2007, 02:49 PM

*sigh*

This step is a step forward, but again, instead of taking the easy way, the iRex guys try to attach as many strings as possible. "Trial project"? "Guidance of an iRex developer"? What karel describes there is called outsourcing everywhere else, and it's pretty expensive. A contractor charges unbelievable amounts of money for this kind of arrangement, and now the company customers shall provide it for free.

This is not how open source development / communities work. The usual approach is to give the developers the freedom to implement whatever feature they like in whatever way they prefer, and to choose what to add to the main branch afterwards. Because OS developers do it for fun. It is not about having potential developers say "pretty please" first, then making them hand in a development plan, then decide how much it's worth to the company, and then generously allowing the developer to do it for free, under supervision.

I'll wait for the reflash. And I think the first thing to do then is to start an alternative OS. Thank god OE's Mickey has an Iliad now.

Sorry if this sounds so negative. I'm writing my PhD thesis under supervision of a professor who gives me lots and lots of freedom. My wife's advisor is a control freak. Guess whose thesis is better. Guess which professor got more benefit from his student.

Adam B. · 03-23-2007, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ali

*sigh*

This step is a step forward, but again, instead of taking the easy way, the iRex guys try to attach as many strings as possible. "Trial project"? "Guidance of an iRex developer"? What karel describes there is called outsourcing everywhere else

...

Sorry if this sounds so negative. I'm writing my PhD thesis under supervision of a professor who gives me lots and lots of freedom. My wife's advisor is a control freak. Guess whose thesis is better. Guess which professor got more benefit from his student.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you...

They're offiering to give guidance, nothing more. They aren't forcing developers to work on specific projects, but offereing a way to help the community develop the projects that they've been requesting. iRex has their own priorities (I can't even pretend to know what they are), and they apparently don't have anything to do with stylus calibration and/or cpu throttling. But, since the community has been asking for this, they are willing to help out when needed. Guiadance, not rules or slave labor, is what they are offering. Besides, given an unbricking option, the first thing I am going to do is play with the lower level OS stuff. Specifically suspend to cf and stylus calibration. Having their help would be a great benifit.

They're also proving a resource for developer information, and a way to track what the community is looking for in the way of new projects. I know I've had to scratch my head as to what people want ported until I saw a post asking for it. They're giving a way to organize and prioritize that.

Nokia runs Maemo.org, and provides much of the same information and guidance there. So apparently that is how open source device projects work.

Back to your writing analogy. When I was in college, and my lit teacher told me to write a paper on anything, I was stumped. It was only when they gave me a subject (that I was interested in) to write about, that I was able to come up with a great paper. Guidance and boundaries can help a lot when it comes to creating something.

ali · 03-23-2007, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam B.

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you...

If this what iRex is offering brings out the best in you, then something's great. I'd love to see what you can achieve.

No sarcasm in this post.

CommanderROR · 03-23-2007, 06:16 PM

I'm a bit sad that the reflash option is supposed to be delayed until late april since that is what is holding back the developers here in my opinion, but apart from that it sounds like iRex has learned a few lessons...

NatCh · 03-23-2007, 06:21 PM

Heh, I bet Adam B. would be happy to beta test their reflash utility -- seeing as they reportedly have it within a month of prime time, I'd think they might be looking for opportunities to test it, and it would save them shipping costs on his iLiad ....

jayk · 03-23-2007, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Heh, I bet Adam B. would be happy to beta test their reflash utility -- seeing as they reportedly have it within a month of prime time, I'd think they might be looking for opportunities to test it, and it would save them shipping costs on his iLiad ....

Unfortunately, From what I've figured out so far about the innards of the ILiad, I'm pretty sure it will need a new boot process (first stage at least) in order for the CF flashing to work. This, unfortunately, means that it's too late for Adam. :-(

I could be wrong, they could have some magic widget in there they can enable somehow, but I doubt it. From what I've seen so far, I expect that we will have to do another firmware update in order to get the low-level code loaded that will be necessary.

Hopefully, though, they can get Adam one of those sample units. :-)

JayK

nekokami · 03-23-2007, 08:56 PM

I took "guidance" to mean "support," not "control." But then, I tend to interpret optimistically, especially when I'm reading English text by someone whose first language is something else.

NatCh · 03-23-2007, 10:38 PM

I hate to say it, but iRex does have a history of phrasing things so that they sound a good deal more optimistic than they actually mean them. Hopefully that's changed....

CommanderROR · 03-24-2007, 07:19 AM

I can't vouch for iRex, but from what I heard from Angel Ancin is seems that there really is some fundamental rethinking going on at iRex.
We'll have to wait and see what happens, but perhaps there really is going to be a way forward for the Iliad. It might never live up to the original expectations, but it might just develop into a quite nifty tool with the help of 3rd party apps and some OS hacking...

Janus · 03-24-2007, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ali

Free battery upgrade -or- partial refund
Plus free unbrick service (reflash, that is) -or- boot from CF card
Plus a few free Iliads for the most active developers

Then I'm happy

I would think you'd be happy now Ali

NatCh · 03-24-2007, 11:12 AM

Heh, they have pretty much run down his list, haven't they?

ali · 03-24-2007, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Quote:

Originally Posted by ali

Free battery upgrade -or- partial refund
Plus free unbrick service (reflash, that is) -or- boot from CF card
Plus a few free Iliads for the most active developers

Then I'm happy

Heh, they have pretty much run down his list, haven't they?

Yup, they did. Alas, so far just in announcements, which are worth not too much. Let's hope they turn it into reality soon. (the real "soon", not the iRex "soon")

03-23-2007, 02:49 PM	#4
ali Addict Posts: 302 Karma: 116 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Iliad, dude!	sigh This step is a step forward, but again, instead of taking the easy way, the iRex guys try to attach as many strings as possible. "Trial project"? "Guidance of an iRex developer"? What karel describes there is called outsourcing everywhere else, and it's pretty expensive. A contractor charges unbelievable amounts of money for this kind of arrangement, and now the company customers shall provide it for free. This is not how open source development / communities work. The usual approach is to give the developers the freedom to implement whatever feature they like in whatever way they prefer, and to choose what to add to the main branch afterwards. Because OS developers do it for fun. It is not about having potential developers say "pretty please" first, then making them hand in a development plan, then decide how much it's worth to the company, and then generously allowing the developer to do it for free, under supervision. I'll wait for the reflash. And I think the first thing to do then is to start an alternative OS. Thank god OE's Mickey has an Iliad now. Sorry if this sounds so negative. I'm writing my PhD thesis under supervision of a professor who gives me lots and lots of freedom. My wife's advisor is a control freak. Guess whose thesis is better. Guess which professor got more benefit from his student. Last edited by ali; 03-23-2007 at 02:53 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
PRS-600 A stylus! My kingdom for a stylus!	FrayAdjacent	Sony Reader	16	06-06-2010 10:15 PM
Reflash Problem	jas_williams	iRex	1	11-05-2008 05:29 AM
A few problems after reflash, help appreciated	dso371	iRex	1	09-27-2008 04:23 AM
Reflash question	dso371	iRex	3	03-06-2008 05:28 PM
I need to reflash. Where can I get the image?	tesa	iRex	7	01-17-2008 12:08 PM

03-23-2007, 12:52 PM	#2
Riocaz Fulfilled but not by iRex Posts: 932 Karma: 286846 Join Date: May 2006 Location: London Device: Far too many	Hmmm do they specify April this year? No seriously this is great news. Now if they can get one of those developer units out to Adam :-)

03-23-2007, 01:01 PM	#3
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	This is indeed excellent news. The more devs that are working on the iLiad the better. I'll wait to see what they post about the loan-an-iLiad program. It would be nice to have one to work with and develop on while waiting for my iLiad's trip around the world.

03-23-2007, 06:16 PM	#7
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	I'm a bit sad that the reflash option is supposed to be delayed until late april since that is what is holding back the developers here in my opinion, but apart from that it sounds like iRex has learned a few lessons...

03-23-2007, 06:21 PM	#8
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Heh, I bet Adam B. would be happy to beta test their reflash utility -- seeing as they reportedly have it within a month of prime time, I'd think they might be looking for opportunities to test it, and it would save them shipping costs on his iLiad ....

03-23-2007, 08:56 PM	#10
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I took "guidance" to mean "support," not "control." But then, I tend to interpret optimistically, especially when I'm reading English text by someone whose first language is something else.

03-23-2007, 10:38 PM	#11
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I hate to say it, but iRex does have a history of phrasing things so that they sound a good deal more optimistic than they actually mean them. Hopefully that's changed....

03-24-2007, 07:19 AM	#12
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	I can't vouch for iRex, but from what I heard from Angel Ancin is seems that there really is some fundamental rethinking going on at iRex. We'll have to wait and see what happens, but perhaps there really is going to be a way forward for the Iliad. It might never live up to the original expectations, but it might just develop into a quite nifty tool with the help of 3rd party apps and some OS hacking...

03-24-2007, 11:12 AM	#14
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Heh, they have pretty much run down his list, haven't they?

Advert

Advert