For a statement to be libellous it must be an intentional misrepresentation and it must be intentionally malicious or damaging.
In fact, I don't really care either way. I just want my laser to work properly, which right now, it doesn't. It makes me sad. I don't like being sad. :-(
As for the "quality product"- the hardware might be totally awesome, but the software could do with being dragged into, if not the 21st century, then at least the late nineties. A real Mac version would be nice (most VJs use Macs, because that's where Modul8 runs). Of course that's not going to happen while it's all written in Delphi, so I understand that there's a major obstacle there. Opening the FB3 USB protocol so that other people could write drivers would be nice- I know, Bill says there's secret sauce in there, but I don't think there can be that much. I get equally good results from the EasyLase, and Joachim Mueller is totally open about that kind of thing.
Pangolin's software kinda reminds me of the situation in the telecoms market in the early 90s. There were systems that could integrate this and that, but they weren't open and they were very proprietary. There were a few people using such systems and the market was very small. Eventually some company came along and offered an open-standards system at a low cost, and the market exploded. Everyone who offered open-standards products got rich, and the original companies offering the closed-standards software basically died off.
I genuinely believe that with the advent of low-cost DPSS lasers and relatively cheap scansets, every DJ and VJ could have a high performance animation-scanning laser system but two things have to happen before it's going to become possible. Firstly, the software has to get a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot more flexible. Secondly, everything has to be available as an off-the-shelf system. The NeoLaser projectors and other cheap chinese projectors go a long way towards doing this, but while it's all predicated on software like CypherLite, it's just never going to happen. Too many artificial restrictions, too many things you have to pay for. And no way to run from a tapped beat. A lot of these guys can't afford another $500 for software after they've spent $4000 on a projector, and it's not reasonable to expect them to do so either.
The DJ/VJ market can shift hundreds of thousands of units a year globally, but while you're charging $1500 for a file format converter, that's never going to happen. Surely you must see that I'm not talking trash about Pangolin here- I'm just sad that they don't see this industry the same way I do- as a thing of vast potential that's... just not quite there yet.
Personally, if I were running a laser show software and hardware company, I'd be falling over myself to get the open source community involved. Some of those guys are really scary smart, and- this is the great part- they'll write the clever new software for you! for free! for nothing but props and kudos! All you need to do is give them specs and they'll do the rest for you. Do you really think software like LaserLine or LaserBoy would be using hacked soundcards and the EasyLase if the FB3's software interface were open? *everyone* likes the FB3. It's the industry standard. But it's an industry standard that we can't do anything with other than what Pangolin wants us to. As an engineer and an artist, that makes me cry into my keyboard. :-(
So, Sorry Bill if I came off as unnecessarily abrasive. I'd just lost four hours of work to a TraceIT crash when I wrote the email way above up there. I know you know the feeling. And no, I'm not just some kid- I'm a professional and I know software and hardware, so if you want to get me a debug build of the drivers I'll help out tracking down the problem any way I can. I want this fixed!
thanks,
-J.