I've had this wonderful little gadget you guys are betting the company on for a little over a month now.  Without a doubt, it's a positive addition to my life.

I love how configurable it is.  I dig that I can wake up to pretty much anything on the internet, or anything I can fit on a jump drive.  That's totally dope.  I love any number of the widgets available, and check back every couple of days to see what's new.  It's really exciting to have access to so many creative minds... so easily and so portably. 

I'm perpetually amazed by the level of access I have to you guys.  By having a little bit of input into what this gadget becomes it becomes that much more mine.  I don't just own a Chumby - I'm *invested* in my Chumby.  It's like a sports team or something.  And I'm excited about how much potential this funny little blob of leather and tech has.  It's seriously cool.  You guys stand to make a crapload of money off this thing.

At the same time, I'm not sure you guys are thinking of this thing the same way I am.  I have a real sense that the Chumby is designed to be sitting next to my red Swingline stapler in my cubicle on the floor in Building A in the office park on the beltway.  Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it'll do *awesome* out there.  But I bid an un-fond farewell to that phase of my life almost a year ago and I'll be damned if I'm going back.

Like this "ad revenues" thing.  You'll be horrified to find out that while I *listen* to my Chumby many hours a day, I'm probably looking at it for ten minutes or less.  Not something you (or your potential advertisers) want to hear, I'm sure.  Frankly, from 8am until about 6pm, you could pump raw, unadulterated LowerMyBills.com flash movies at me and I'd never know.  I don't need eyes on screen to interact with this little guy.

And you've made it kind of a pain in the ass for me to interact with it.  'cuz really - it's not a Gameboy.  I don't have it in my hands very much.  So yeah - the tilt sensor for games and widgets.  Okay, neat.  But here's what I do with my Chumby:

-look at clocks
-look at Webcams
-Look at Flickr
-Look at earthquakes
-Play Reversi when I wake up too early and don't wanna get out of bed yet
-Play internet radio
-Play other internet radio
-Set alarms
-Snooze alarms
-Set the Sleep Widget
-Mess with volume control
-Surf through channels

To do that, I have to click the "squeeze sensor" (let's be honest - it's a momentary toggle.  It doesn't sense "squeeze" at all - it's binary.  You've got a power switch on the back - why can't I have a "menu button" on the front?).  I have to click on channels.  I have to switch channels.  I have to click on music.  I have to click on "my streams."  I have to click on the stream - or scroll to the stream and click on the stream.  I have to click "play." I have to click "done."  I have to click "done" again.  And then I can click on the "current widget" to get back to where I am.

Huh?

And yeah - pinning a widget is cool.  But If I scroll around in the widgets, the timer still goes.  So if I want to *actually* scroll widgets, it's an extra click. 

If I want to rate a widget, I can do it on the Chumby.  But if I want to leave a comment, I have to do it on the website anyway.  And I don't have anyone to "share" a widget with - and really, I don't think I'd want anyone to "share" widgets with me regardless.  I'm pretty particular about what I look at. 

That control panel is half-wasted on features I don't use, while features I do use are buried under awkward sub-menus.  And it's just Flash anyway, right?  How 'come I can't configure my control panel on your website?  I have to go there to load widgets, I have to go there to select the beta control panel, how 'come I can't load a custom swf with *my* control panel on it?

I've played with your tilt-sensor, by the way.  I've played with a number of widgets that talk to it.  And... erm... how do I say this?  They're... lame.

Maybe you've got some super-bitchin' Widget to end all Widgets that's going to rawk the house with tilt sensors.  That's cool.  I'll bet it will require some sensitive control.  That's cool too.  but I'll bet I can max that sensor out by giving it a shake.  And I'll bet that shake won't really be necessary on your widgets.  And I'm cool giving my Chumby a hard shake to change widgets.  Really, I am.  I'd be cool with *another* squeeze sensor on either side to change widgets.  I'd be cool with an IR bug on the front that I hit with an Apple Remote or cover with my finger or a loud clap through the microphone sensor or whistling dixie or *anything* to interact with the *chumby* (instead of the widgets) without going through the control panel.

...'cuz right now, I have to go through the control panel.  And once I"m gratified, I leave it on the control panel and walk away.  And you couldn't spool advertising to me if you tried.

This thing is *crazy* cool.  But right now, to do anything with it I have to do the equivalent of going into "Settings-Preferences."  That's the *last* place I should be hanging out.  You want me playing with your channels.  You want me interacting with this thing in ways that I can't interact with anything else.  Maybe I shake it hard from side-to-side to change widgets, and hard up'n'down to change channels.  Maybe you let me disable the tilt sensor for widgets so that I can use it to interact with my Chumby.  'Cuz I'll bet you a dollar - none of your advertisers are going to mess with the tilt-sensor.  So really, you're strengthening a feature that protects me from the people you hope to pay you.  That's not going to play well.

You guys have bent over backwards to make this thing completely open to me.  Thank you.  I applaud your strategy, I applaud your ingenuity, and I applaud your integrity.  But I'll level with ya: I've never written flash.  I suck at Unix.  I'm handy with a soldering iron but outside of resistors, capacitors, diodes and coils I suck at electronics.  I'm not going to make a remote-control car that steers with the tilt sensor while streaming Celtic Frost from a pirate server in Volgograd.  I'm not going to run portable linux ports on it just to show I can.  What I *am* going to do is use this thing as a display for webjunk and a speaker for webmusic.  And anything you can do to make that easier for me, the more time I'm going to spend with it.

And the more time I spend with it, the more your advertisers will love you.

Please - keep up the good work.  Soldier on the way you're going.  And kindly figure out a way to let me interact with this charming little gadget...

...without diving into the control panel every time.

Thanks,

Seth