Unless PINs are optional and OFF by default Empeg opens itself up for a host of "I forgot my PIN" support problems when the next unit hits the masses. Right now we're a fairly compact group of people who have at least half a box of clues. Don't expect the masses to be the same way...

Also, as owners move and units are privately bought/sold, verification of identity (by Empeg) will become a problem -- which raises issues on how to determine a real "I forgot my PIN" request from a bogus call from a thief who did his homework on who he stole something from. (Publicdata.com sells access to public information such as license plate records, etc -- so a cunning thief could actually socially engineer the situation given the proper information about where he/she illegally obtained something...)

Take it from someone who has built (from ground zero) the tech support and network operations centers for two start-up companies, so far -- you DO NOT want these kinds of headaches. It drives me nuts when users indicate they forgot their password and I have to spend 3 minutes to change it for them; my organization receives such requests an average of 5 times per day for machine login IDs and voicemail -- from a company with 400 people in it. That's 400 people with two passwords each for a combined total of 800 passwords. 5 requests a day means 0.6 percent of my userbase has password problems.

Now reverse engineer that based on whatever number of units Empeg intends to sell to the masses. Let's call it 15,000 this year just for kicks. 15,000 x 0.006 is 90 morons a day with PIN problems.

The worst part of it is that I live in Austin, TX -- where most of the average joe users have computers and have some sense of how to use them. Fear it when audiophiles in BFE with little computing experience shift to MP3s and lose their PINs...

-- Bleys

"If you would judge, understand." -- Seneca