1. What is the actual cost to produce and ship (out the door cost) a single iopener device as is with and without clip & goop? (I suppose this will not be answered. Trade secret. Competitors would know their pain threshold and undercut them in price). This goes to the viability of selling a more expensive break-even hobby model with no clip & goop, and a harder to modify clip & goop Netpliance isp client. BTW last week, a smarmy/smug sales types at the LA Internet Trade show Netpliance booth asked if I was a "Hacker" in a derisive manner and told me the iopener cost around $500 to make. If it does, this company is going under! He was just yanking my chain, but this tells you a bit about the corporate culture at Netpliance. Also, Gateway is the manufacturer of the new AOL Internet Appliance and will be selling them via their outlets soon. NEO, Qbit, ePod, iBrow, POSEIDON, AOL and now Gateway are all forcing a lower price point for Internet Appliances like Netpliance's iopener. Looks like a trend to me. 2. Are Circuit City orders going to be filled? Will they be filled with no forced TOS II? 3. Of the 535 Circuit City stores, all company owned by the way, how many iopeners are now back-ordered? 4. Do they intend to, or rather, do they sell normal Netpliance isp users browsing and buying information? 5. Ask if they will announce publicly who will be held to the new TOS II. End the speculation. 6. Will they publicly apologize to the people they burned over the last month enmass? (In other words, will they prove/admit they have a soul). 7. Is there an Ethernet NIC in the iopener's near future? 8. I saw, with my own two eyes, an iopener (at the Netpliance booth in the Los Angeles Internet Trade show) last week with an operational touch screen. It was mounted on the freezer door of a refrigerator. Is this device going to be a production reality? If so, when? (Got a neat iopener paper coffee cup too!) 9. Is there an ASP model associated with Netpliance's future? (I suppose this will not be answered. Trade Secret) It is an important question because it would mean added value for Netpliance isp users. For an additional cost they could get a word processor, spreadsheet, etc... from Netpliance servers (NT Terminal Server & Citrix ICA to Dos & Win 3.11/CE/95/98/NT/2K, Linux, Unix, Mac, (QNX?) clients). 10. Have they claimed a trademark on any of the hacker iopener nicknames? i.e.. iopened, iopened it, i-wide-opener, opener i, etc....?
Add/delete this list with your own ideas. My 2 cents.
Slashdot Mirror
Is 'OCaml' pronounced 'Oh-Camel', 'Ach-amel'...? Akin to the 'Line-Ux' versus 'Lin-Ux' confusion.
How about asking your local Private Foundation for Infrastructure money?
We asked. We're about to get it.
$2M for Phase 1. If Phase 1 is done to their liking, Phase 2 will be built for a total of over $3M.
Phase's 3 and 4 are to involve the local community for the final build out, for a total of $7M.
Try it. You'll like it.
Slashdot - Top Ten Questions to ask Netpliance:
1. What is the actual cost to produce and ship (out the door cost) a single iopener device as is with and without clip & goop? (I suppose this will not be answered. Trade secret. Competitors would know their pain threshold and undercut them in price). This goes to the viability of selling a more expensive break-even hobby model with no clip & goop, and a harder to modify clip & goop Netpliance isp client.
BTW last week, a smarmy/smug sales types at the LA Internet Trade show Netpliance booth asked if I was a "Hacker" in a derisive manner and told me the iopener cost around $500 to make. If it does, this company is going under! He was just yanking my chain, but this tells you a bit about the corporate culture at Netpliance.
Also, Gateway is the manufacturer of the new AOL Internet Appliance and will be selling them via their outlets soon. NEO, Qbit, ePod, iBrow, POSEIDON, AOL and now Gateway are all forcing a lower price point for Internet Appliances like Netpliance's iopener. Looks like a trend to me.
2. Are Circuit City orders going to be filled? Will they be filled with no forced TOS II?
3. Of the 535 Circuit City stores, all company owned by the way, how many iopeners are now back-ordered?
4. Do they intend to, or rather, do they sell normal Netpliance isp users browsing and buying information?
5. Ask if they will announce publicly who will be held to the new TOS II. End the speculation.
6. Will they publicly apologize to the people they burned over the last month enmass? (In other words, will they prove/admit they have a soul).
7. Is there an Ethernet NIC in the iopener's near future?
8. I saw, with my own two eyes, an iopener (at the Netpliance booth in the Los Angeles Internet Trade show) last week with an operational touch screen. It was mounted on the freezer door of a refrigerator. Is this device going to be a production reality? If so, when? (Got a neat iopener paper coffee cup too!)
9. Is there an ASP model associated with Netpliance's future? (I suppose this will not be answered. Trade Secret) It is an important question because it would mean added value for Netpliance isp users. For an additional cost they could get a word processor, spreadsheet, etc... from Netpliance servers (NT Terminal Server & Citrix ICA to Dos & Win 3.11/CE/95/98/NT/2K, Linux, Unix, Mac, (QNX?) clients).
10. Have they claimed a trademark on any of the hacker iopener nicknames? i.e.. iopened, iopened it, i-wide-opener, opener i, etc....?
Add/delete this list with your own ideas. My 2 cents.
Robert Webb
MCSE, MCT, CCA, Net+, A+