Re: Possible futures

Tomorrow is the big day when Duane throws the switch on the new stub service. I expect we will get a lot of traffic over the next few days as things change/get tested.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Possible futures

BoloMKXXVIII wrote:

Tomorrow is the big day when Duane throws the switch on the new stub service. I expect we will get a lot of traffic over the next few days as things change/get tested.

Is there anything we need to do tomorrow or will we just have to reboot our Chumbies?

Re: Possible futures

Worst case, you have to reboot - best case, you may not have to do anything.

Re: Possible futures

Just a sincere Thank You for keeping our little guys alive. :-)

Re: Possible futures

Duane wrote:

Worst case, you have to reboot - best case, you may not have to do anything.

Those of us running on the test server will need to remove that line from the hosts file, right?

Re: Possible futures

Well, at launch, the test server will be completely in sync with the production server, with the exception that the production server supports https, which is needed for some of the clients, such as Android.

The test server will then go into a mode to test any changes that I'll need to deploy if something comes up that needs addressing, or new features that might make sense to support in this mode.  It would be helpful to me if at least some devices continue to hit that server.

Eventually, the test server will go into a state where we're beginning to rebuild and test the restored "full" system, so anyone wanting to sit on the bleeding edge might want to hang around there.

Otherwise, yes, you'd just have to delete that line, sync, and reboot.

Re: Possible futures

OK here's what I was able to think up...
I love my Chumbies enough to pay a subscription for the service.  I read somewhere it would cost $5000 month and there are some 40K chumbies out there.  So if those are the final numbers that comes out to about $8/month per device.  Obviously the numbers would scale based on how many are willing to pay-to-play.  But could this be an option?
Could pay-to-play be monitored by MAC addresses or serial number of the unit white-listed to stave off free loaders.  Maybe pay-to-play for the whole widget package but freeloaders can get the "stub" with an occasional splash about "subscribing" as a friendly nag.
I don't like the idea of pay-to-play, but I do far prefer it to losing my Chumbies.  Could someone "in the know" run the numbers and figure out how much a subscription would cost (either per year or per month)?

Re: Possible futures

I really can't speak for Duane but if you have followed his writings about this, the price of the service will drastically be reduced with the migration to the new server. Seems like he said around $200 per month compared to leaving it on Amazon @ $5000 per month. That being said, no one will want to leave Duane with the total bill just because he is a *nice* guy. He has put in countless hours in the preservation of the system since Chumby Inc went down and has continued up to this point without a paycheck. [Although Duane, I did find a good deal on the plane you wanted on ebay. Kidding!] I think after the migration he will be able to actually think about the nuts and bolts of the financial future of Blue Octy (aka Chumby) and how people can help. I think some money should go to the continued maintenance and upgrading of the system. That can only happen if Chumbyers step up and donate. I don't think it will be a problem after hearing the loyalty chumbyers voice in this forum.

Still haven't seen the transfer yet. Maybe sometime before bedtime.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Possible futures

Once the system stabilizes, I'll get a better idea how much this stub service will cost, and also we'll know better how many devices and of what type there are out there to determine the potential costs of a restored system.  It's hard to make an accurate guess right now.

The big surprise so far in the new analytics is how many Insignia Connected TVs there are using the system.

Re: Possible futures

Will this plane do for now?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tamiya-North-Am … 2c6c96140d

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Possible futures

I love my chumby. While I am technologically savvy, I have never really messed with my chumby because it did what I needed it to do.  When it didn't, I taught myself enough flash to make my own app (a sleep noise machine/clock), and never really used it for anything else.  I'm not a programmer by any means nor do I think the majority of users are. That being said, whatever format uses something easy/free to program (maybe like Android widget creators, ie:UCCW) would be beneficial.

Just wanted to stop by and throw my two cents in the well and keep up on what's happening with this new project.

Re: Possible futures

All is well with my two big and two little infocasts. Ready for chapter two of "Chumby: resurrection after the fall".

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Possible futures

Love my three  Chumbies, and am very grateful, Duane, for all of your efforts to keep them alive.  Would certainly be willing to donate to support the effort.

Re: Possible futures

Duane, thank you for keeping the flame burning.  Let us know when/how we can contribute.

Re: Possible futures

I, too, love my Chumby and have for many years....and while it's a little less 'active' right now, it will continue to stay right by my bed.
I'm happy to contribute as soon as we can.

Re: Possible futures

Quick question... what are the old IPs for Chumby.com?  Per what Blue Octy said, the old servers are actually still there up and running through the 28th, meaning two things...

1) I'm guessing if we do the reverse thing of trying out the stub beta (i.e. modifying our hosts file to now point to the original IPs instead of the stub IPs which are now 'live') we can use our devices for another week while we figure out things like Zurk's offline ROMs.  But more importantly...

2) I didn't even know this change was coming (!!) so I haven't grabbed all of the widgets I was using as a back-up!  I know there's the tool wget, but again, I'd need to point it at the Chumby servers before they go dark to grab the widgets themselves, which it now looks like I have an eight-day window to achieve.

Also, just my 2c worth, I too would gladly pay a few bucks a month if it would help get the service back to what it was.  I'd pay even more ($5-10) if the devices could be upgraded to use HTML5, QT or something... anything but Flash!  (Couldn't stand writing in it!!)

Re: Possible futures

We have five chumbies in the house. When people starting selling them on eBay for $20 I found it difficult to resist sad

My daughter approached me after school and said "Daddy where have all my widgets gone?" I looked and saw that the user had changed to "chumby" so here I came.

The option that I most prefer is restoring the old service (with improvements to reduce load) simply because I'm busy and it would mean the least work. However, I would be concerned that Blue Octy might also collapse in the future. Long term, I think I would like to install server side software locally so I could keep my chumbies running.

I think the idea of widgets that could be written in HTML5 or QT is a great idea.

Here is my crazy suggestion: I'd be willing to support a kickstarter project to the tune of $500 if it did the following:
1. server side software released as open source
2. full software stack for Chumby (Classic / One)  released as open source
3. client software ported to Raspberry Pi
4. classic chumby design with Raspberry Pi internals

The reason I've suggested the Raspberry Pi is purely that is has momentum and would enable prototyping.

To be honest 1 & 2 are what I really care about, but 3 & 4 are what might interest others.

Re: Possible futures

OK, yesterday (the 20th), I noticed that all of my three Chumbies only had one channel, called "Chumby," with only one widget, the "Space Clock" (which is a coincidence, since, also yesterday, I discovered that my Firefox theme wasn't compatible with the new version of Firefox, so I shopped for a new one, and the similar LCARS Star Trek theme was one of the ones I tried out, and I decided that was a good one for my netbook.)  Anyway, I presume that that's the "stub"?  I hope that this will be expanded (and, hopefully, that we can get access to our old settings again at some point), but I'm happy that my Chumbies are still alive, especially with the Internet radio still working, since I use that a lot, especially for old time radio shows via Shoutcast!

Thank you for your work!  smile

Re: Possible futures

Yes, that would be the changeover taking effect, you are now on the stub server.

If I recall correctly, Duane does have everything backed up, so if there is any way to restore original functionality with the original widgets it would be quite possible for your Chumby to go back to working the way it used to.  If he has to set up a new widget ecosystem though (HTML5, Python, qt, etc), the old settings/widgets/etc wouldn't make much sense on such a system, so you would probably have to rebuild things anyways.

Re: Possible futures

I realize that it may put me in the minority of Chumby users, but if we're discussing the future, for the record I don't really care about widgets. Particularly Flash widgets. What I'd love is a more standard Linux distro for my 4 Chumben. I did write one Flash widget for my ChumBrew project, but would have _much_ preferred to have written it as a html/js project. So my vote would be for a distro to be maintained on some free existing opensource infrastructure like github (or existing distro site?) with maybe one default webkit app.

Thanks to Duane for all the hard work keeping our devices going. This is in no way intended to be a vote against that, just my perspective.

Re: Possible futures

Like a few of you....I had NO IDEA what went on with Chumby Industries until I caught up on things today....noticing yesterday that my Chumby wasn't displaying the content it was set up for. I understand the "Stub Service" concept and appreciate Duane's efforts in keeping things alive. We have one Chumby and it's in the kitchen....small and out of the way. We only used it for Weather, Google News Feeds and a few Webcam Feed sites. Never used the radio/alarm/sleep functions. I didn't buy the Chumby for radio/alarm but as a small out of the way display that I could view relevant information while getting ready to go to work....or catching glances of trends/topics over the weekends. It sat on the counter taking up little space....performing it's duties flawlessly. I never found anything else like it. I guess I'm going to have to rely on my iPad for "weather at a glance" or rely on the "old fashion way" of getting the weather....radio/TV.

Sorry for the "apparent pointless" background of my use but it gives you context for my needs. I would be fine with restoring things "AS IS" (with a monthly contribution to support infrastructure). I realize that it would most certainly end up being a set of static widgets that would not get support as other things "changed" and in a few years.....could be back to a semi-useless brick. So as far as the backend goes.....I'm not in a position to discuss the technical aspects.

i would not be against the device relying on a powered on PC/Mac on my home network. (whether it be to get udpates or manage widgets directly versus the web portal interface as before.) If there was some way to do a virtual Chumby on my iOS devices....that would be fine. (even something as simple as a VNC like screen mirroring thing).

I never realized until today how involved it was to keep a heartbeat for our Chumbys. I always assumed they were self sufficient for the most part and had the core code to run things internally.

Re: Possible futures

amen....   r.i.p. chumby one !

i have had this device for over 3 years (bought 2nd hand), and when i first acquired it, the reason was that i *hate* the noise of a clock ticking in the quiet of the living room

but between a selection of clock faces and some other occasional use, i just took it for granted

so, is there a repository for *.swf files i wish i had had the prescience to download while the chumbysphere was still cranking ?

unfortunately, due to my complete ignorance of the impending chumbageddon, i both failed to teach myself to program the little guy, and missed the chance to grab copies of my favourite clocks when the opportunity arose

i guess this will be a chance to improve my skills in that regard, and hopefully reclaim some of the lost virtue of my blue leatherette clock substitute

anything else will be a bonus


here's hoping the device gets a backer to resurrect it, but i have my concerns that it will join my collection of palm devices which have taken their place in history - great ideas before their time, superseded by clumsier "popular" devices that miss the point for those used to superior options

48 (edited by demarks51 2013-02-21 19:10:07)

Re: Possible futures

Hang on. Chumby may look dead but not so. Things are actually looking up. All in good time. But if you happen to have a couple of white leather classics to sell there is person "msharp42" who would like to buy them. It  may actually improve his attitude.

Edited: I take that back. I don't think it would help.

Owner of 3 Sony Dash, 2 Info 8.

Re: Possible futures

RaptorAlpha wrote:

We have one Chumby and it's in the kitchen....small and out of the way. We only used it for Weather, Google News Feeds and a few Webcam Feed sites. Never used the radio/alarm/sleep functions. I didn't buy the Chumby for radio/alarm but as a small out of the way display that I could view relevant information while getting ready to go to work....or catching glances of trends/topics over the weekends.

This is how we used it too - in the kitchen, actually on our kitchen table.  We'd check the NOAA weather feed in the morning, entertainment/news updates, a few different clocks, radio/music.

It was so convenient.  And, yes, it just worked.  So we never gave it a thought...until I rebooted a couple of days ago and everything was gone!

I too would be happy if I could get back those other things, especially the NOAA weather feed (the music is already back - thanks!).  And willing to contribute something if it'd help - work/dev/some donation.

Re: Possible futures

Unlike some posters, I loved the widgets and used a lot of them.  My original Chumby sits on my desk; that one ran clocks, weather, news, webcams, etc.  The Chumby 1 is used bedside for an alarm clock; during the rest of the day it displays lots of other clock widgets.  The Chumby 8 is on the kitchen table, and provided entertainment while eating breakfast and fixing dinner - I Can Haz Cheezeburger, I Haz a Hotdog, webcams, puns, quotes, news, weather, games, and probably well over a hundred widgets in various channels.  Just wanted to speak up for the widgets!

And, once again, I'm extremely grateful to Duane for keeping the Chumbys going, and more than happy to donate.