Friday, March 6, 2009

Illuminato & Open Source Hardware Bank - update

Ok, it's almost 2 am, and I just got home and regenerated the order queue graphs below. Also, I still haven't gotten around to all of the emails I've received in my Inbox... including one in particular, it's nice to know that if I ever need "Open Source" Canadian prescription drugs, I know where to turn (thanks spammers, but come on, seriously? that's a stretch). On a serious note, it's definitely clear from the graphics below that there are people who are willing to help out - thanks!

Also thanks for the ideas, links, suggestions, and recommendations. I am going to try my best to summarize everything in a couple of posts to come. I'm also going to spend a lot more time this weekend putting together some ideas into pictures and slides, since I tend to think visually... Now, on to my trusty little queue image script (I uploaded the Open Source graphics code to the wiki for now, but the formatting is still messed up, sorry).

This is what the Illuminato order queue looked like last night, with the pre-orders from the first round (I think you can click the picture to make it bigger, since last time it got chopped off):



And this is what the order queue looks like after 24 hours, right now (thanks for the help too Robert, Justin and Gareth!):




That's a pretty big increase in one day, and it definitely makes me feel confident in the number to build - I was a little nervous putting out 100 again, since that seemed like a pretty large amount at first. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I sent out some emails asking for new quotes on a few of the chip parts, in preparation for building next week (keeping fingers crossed).

In the meantime, I also got 6 emails today from guys that were interested in maybe being the some of the first investors in the Open Source Hardware Bank! (That's the group that's going to fund the right side of the queue above, that's marked by the 'X's, and get the return from that margin). I'm writing up the official "Build 5" and "T-bill" notes with Justin, and will email them around to make sure the make sense for everyone, along with a little document that describes some more details about how it will work. But Andrew, Justin, and I didn't want to rush into it without asking for opinions first, and without making sure that we weren't missing out on anything.

Also, just so I don't have to keep posting updates on the blog, I'm going to try to automate the order queue system this weekend, maybe on another site... But first, I've pulled two consecutive ~4 hour nights, which probably isn't healthy... so I'm headed to sleep...

5 comments:

Matt said...

Wait... I almost forgot to add that Justin and I are also going to print out the pre-order OSHW Bank certificates and mail them out...

Priya Ganapati said...

I work as a reporter with Wired.com and am looking to get in touch with you for a story I would like to do on this. Can you send me a note on how I can reach you. My email address is priya_ganapati@wired.com

Matt said...

@Priya ... wow, that's really flattering...! i just emailed justin too, sorry i just saw this comment, i hope it's not too late?

Unknown said...

Hey Matt,
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Matt said...

@catalectric.... hmmmmm this is causing me a moral dilemma. normally, i tend to delete any comment that has a link to something not related to the post. but in this case, i actually do own an ibm lenovo, so i actually find . hmmmmm... quite a quandry... say, i could definitely use a spare battery for when i work on the road!

@priya - btw thanks for chatting with me, i hope you liked the other blogs i wrote write after this one, based on your suggestions