[slinkelist] DXSgusting Customer Relations

[Colby Boles]

I'd prefer to stay out of this melee, but I think it's worthwhile to 
hopefully improve the understanding of the situation for all those involved 
(or interested).

First, the DXS was a product I started on before David began working here, 
and the hardware and software aspects of it have been so far completely my 
undertaking, so any gripes regarding their quality should be directed to 
me, not David. Credit goes to David for doing a great job creating a 
simple, sensible manual for the DXS as well as providing a great deal of 
input about making the UI more user friendly and practical.

Regarding the problems with the DXS operating (which are now fixed with 
current flash upgrade download), this was truly an unfortunate combination 
of bug introduction on my part and vacation timing. My apologies to all of 
you who had patiently awaited delivery of the DXS only to have it misbehave 
randomly for the last two weeks.

The DXS code itself had been tested extensively for months before the DXS 
ever shipped. Unfortuntately, we discovered a flaw in the microcontroller 
manufacturer's code security scheme and had to add an additional security 
layer at the 11th hour before our ship date. We tested this for a day, saw 
no problems, and shipped the units out. Only a minor bug relating to 
setting IR codesets was reported by a user the day before I left to go 
hiking in Thailand. I stayed up all night to fix this bug an create version 
1.01 (David never released this due to the more serious bug discovered 
subsequently). I left at 5:30am the next morning for Thailand thinking that 
all known problems with the DXS were corrected. Had I known of the other 
bug, I would have stuck around and fixed it.

While I was out of contact for the following two weeks, the more serious 
bug relating to the security surfaced. Unfortunately, there was no way for 
me to know about or fix the problem until I returned. I can sympathize with 
any one's frustration with the DXS during this period as I'm a big fan of 
instant gratification (at least with consumer electronics) myself. I 
appreciate the patience most of you have expressed over this period. I was 
able to fix the problem within a couple of hours of coming home, and only 
delayed its release a day to be sure that the problem was resolved and that 
the patch software would run smoothly for people.

I do however take some offense to the following:

>I frankly found Colby to
>be snotty, given to curt one-sentence replies and no greeting, informal or
>otherwise. Other than that, the presales exchanges were nothing special one
>way or another, neither helpful nor unhelpful.
>
>--
>Tresy Kilbourne
>Seattle WA

Admittedly, I do write shorter e-mails now than I used to due to the sheer 
volume that I must respond to, but I don't think I behaved as described 
from the following transactions. I think anyone who has talked to me on the 
phone knows I'm a pretty nice guy. (editorializing preceded by a colon):

At 11:03 AM 10/24/99 -0700, you wrote:
>I am a happy Slink-E owner via Riversong Interactive. I now own 3
>daisy-chained Sony changers, which is causing problems when auto-cuing CDs
>on different changers: the upstream, playing changer's output is blocked by
>the downstream, paused changer. It may be time to consider a switch such as
>your digital DXS.
>
>My question: what am I looking at in terms of initial configuration and
>cost? All my Sony changers have digital optical outputs, which would be nice
>to exploit, but not if the cost of doing so is prohibitive. Your ordering
>page says I need more than just the DXS base unit. With what I have now,
>what do I need to get going? And in addition, what other capabilities will
>this device give me? For example, I have a DSS receiver, Onkyo A/V receiver,
>and Sony SLV VCR, as well as many X-10 devices scattered throughout our
>home. We are consequently drowning in "universal" (not) remotes. Any chance
>of bringing some unified control to our home entertainment octopus?
>--
>Tresy Kilbourne
>Seattle WA

Hi Tresy-

The base DXS has no inputs or outputs - we custom configure it for you 
based on your needs. You'd need a minimum of one input and one output 
module to have a working system. that would provide you with 4 inputs and 4 
outputs, which would be sufficient. This would total $449. The DXS can also 
switch any other DIGITAL sources you may have. It does nothing for analog. 
The Slink-e itself and our free Windows software can take you a long way 
towards integrating your X-10 and A/V gear. Right now, Titletrack does not 
support X-10 or IR.

Colby

: that was the only mail I had received from Tresy.
: About a month later, I discovered a mail to David
: that I thought I should throw out a comment on to
: give a tip on getting cheap cables. I was in the
: middle of DXS assembly programming, so it was a
: short one, but better than nothing (David was
: answering the main content of the message) and I
: thought I could save him some money in the future -


At 12:55 PM 11/19/99 -0800, you wrote:
>David:
>
>While I wait for the DXS, could you provide any guidance on the issue of
>which interconnect to buy for the output? This will be going into a DAC with
>both coax and TOSlink inputs. I bought 3 TOSlink interconnects for my
>changers and they cost a fortune; OTOH, I figure they are immune to
>electrical interference. What are the pluses and minuses of going coax?
>
>Thanks for your advice.
>
>--
>Walter Kilbourne
>Seattle WA


You can get TOSLink cables for $9 each.

Colby

http://www.core-sound.com/toslink-cables.html


on 11/19/99 1:40 PM, Colby Boles at cboles@nirvis.com wrote:
 > You can get TOSLink cables for $9 each.
That's about $30 less than I paid for them at the local stereo store. Where
do I find them at that price?
--
Walter Kilbourne
Seattle WA

at the link i sent in the e-mail.

Colby

: I guess it was this last message that he considered snotty,
: but really I was just in a hurry to get some things done and
: had already spent more time than I had planned searching the
: web to find the link for him in the previous mail. My apologies
: to you Walter / Tresy if you felt that I was brushing you off
: - I was only try to help you out with what limited time I had.
: The root e-mail you sent didn't require a response from me at all.
: I merely was skimming answered messages the help box and noticed
: that I had a helpful tip you could use.

Colby




Nirvis Systems
http://www.nirvis.com
http://kowloon.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cboles