Quote:
For myself, I have now started off with something new to keep me interested.

Rob,

Well, I hope "something new" is good, but not so good that you are scarce on this BBS. I'm sorry that this proposal/discussion didn't result in something interesting for you and I appreciate your making the effort. I never did chime in that I would kick in $100-$200 (which I probably would) perhaps in part for the reason that I saw the bug-fix project as high-risk -- all money aside, might not be doable with reasonable level of effort even if The Guys could help with a leg up.

My only earlier comment about "planned obsolescence" was just a wisecrack. The Empeg has been very good to me. I don't nurse any hurt feelings about the fate of the product and I have been impressed with the variety of efforts, not all of them successful, to make the Empeg better.

I will say that I would be thrilled to have a stable version 3 software so as to enjoy crossfade, Ogg, AutoEQ, but I have gone back to enoding in VBR MP3 and may go to FLAC and transcoding to hedge my bets now that I have some new big hard drives.

I agree it's too bad the discussion went off track. That must have been very frustrating for you.

Given the huge amount of work already in the existing player, and the absolutely tantalizing alpha features, it would seem a bit bonkers to imagine writing a new player from the ground up. On the other hand, having an unencumbered "Dreamland" player could be the focus of some renewed interest (any reason it would only have to run on the existing base of Empegs?) I can't program C in any real sense, so I can say that I would be thrilled to have a debugged version 3 type player, but am not in the position to contribute in any meaningful way.

If a miracle occurred and the gents in Cambridge stumbled on a forgotten cache of benzedrine and popped out v3RC1 one weekend, well that'd be swell. Truly. But I don't have any reason to expect that of them and I would be content just knowing their realistic estimate of the situation. If the benzedrine solution is a no-hoper, so be it.

If the v3RC1 concept is deemed DOA, then anyone qualified to do more than dream about a replacement player would need to swing into action. Sadly, I expect most of those folks have jobs and families, too, but you never know! One fairly low-risk step would be to form a task force, committee, working group (whatever bureaucratic term fits!) to kick around a scope of work, discuss design, make block diagrams, etc, just so that interested parties would know what would be involved. As a less techno Empeg lover, I don't always use all the features and can have a hard time remembering what is in kernel, what's in Hijack and what's in the player. Would it be possible to contruct a player in stepwise fashion (basic features first) that is feasible, or does the very mention of the word "basic" simply demonstrate my ignorance?

Greg Combs worked on a replacement player, did he not? I didn't follow that story all the way. Did/does his experience tell us anything? Was he farsighted with respect to seeing this day coming?

The community? Sure, I see (and contrtribute to) the growing Off-Topic/General tilt and, as others have said, as more Empegs die or get stolen, the base will get smaller. And if no replacement player miracle occurs, then I would say there will be less technical interest to keep people posting. Sure, there are familiar BBS handles that don't seem so familiar anymore.

If this BBS blew up and vanished, I am not sure where I could go to exchange text conversations with such a varied, odd collection of people from many countries (who I might never encounter otherwise). OK, I admit the BBS fills some deep-seated weird need to blabber endlessly (like now!). And people on the BBS have generally been very tolerant of said blabbering and related excesses. I appreciate that. But things always change. We'll see!
_________________________
Jim


'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.