Bug Blogger

Good to see you

We had a great time at our first Open House.  About 30 of you came by to play with the BUG firsthand, see the SDK in action, and meet and greet the Bug Labs team.  We had some fantastic questions, ranging from programming the BUG from the command line, what the hardware pinout looks like for constructing custom BUGmodules, and even specifics about the BUGmotion's (motion sensor/accelerometer module) microprocessor and conducting real time data sampling - sweet! Some of the best inquiries to date.  It's great to see so many of you excited to dig in and make the best of BUG.

This also means that we have to do another Open House soon.  For the next event, what do you think? Should we throw in an SDK installfest, BUGapp coding session, hardware demo and spec talk, or something else?  Let us know and stay tuned to bugblogger.com for details on our next get-together.

Thanks again, and hope to see you again soon!

Come on down...

Our doors are always open - but we'd thought we'd swing them open a bit wider on Wednesday, the 26th - between 6:00 - 8:00. 

You asked us about the hardware, you wanted to check out the office, you think BUG is the tool to solve your problem, you are a DIYer hacker and want to know more about what makes the BUG tick, you want to talk about your dream application, you are an entrepreneur and/or and artist with a great idea, or maybe you want to work with the Bug Labs team.... whatever the reason may be, we hope to see you.

You can find us at 915 Broadway (between 20th and 21st) on the 11th floor, at the end of the hall in Suite 1109.  If you can't make it this time, don't fret and stay tuned - we'll do it again before too long.

Reminder: BUG+SV and BUG+Hack

(UPDATE: Due to several requests, BUG+Hack has been extended to Thursday at noon. Remember to visit the BUG+Hack wiki page)

Just a quick reminder: BUG+SV is happening tonight. With EclipseCon in full swing, it looks like we're going to have a good turnout of developers joining us for drinks as we extend BUG+Hack into the evening. Again, the event is open to all, and we'll be giving away BUGbundles to the two developers who create the coolest BUG applications. Visit the BUG+Hack wiki page for rules and instructions.

WHAT: Meet the Bug Labs developers, grab a drink, hack together a new BUG app before the night ends.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 18, 6-9pm

WHERE: Bistro 412, located at 412 Emerson, Palo Alto (Google map)

WHY: Play with the BUG firsthand, make up for a missed St. Patrick's Day

WHO: Ken, Angel, Alex, Mehrshad, and you!

HOW: Car/pool, Caltrain (Palo Alto exit), BUG+teleporter (still in beta)

Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

We're Shipping *

Mixed news today.  Our first batch is shipping out the door!  Our whole engineering, QA, production, design, and development teams all worked very hard to get to this point, and we're excited to reach this milestone.

Now for the bad news. As we've ramped up operations for shipping today we've experienced some bumps. The end result is we are not yet happy with the quality of the units we are getting off the line. Consequently, we are going through all our first shipments individually to make sure they are what they should be. Unfortunately, this holds up our original shipping schedule (we are shipping them in smaller batches as they come through production vs. all at once).

We're sorry, especially to disappoint any of our pre-ordering customers. But we honestly think you'd rather wait a little bit longer to get a better product. To thank you for your patience, we're going to upgrade all these pre-orders to have free 2-day shipping. I know it's not the same as instant gratification, but we're hoping it's not too far behind.

We're also extending the Early Adopter Discount another 30 days.  So if you've been on the fence, you get an extra month to get the discounted pricing.

Lastly, we'll be updating the Web site soon to have details of our BUG+EDU program, which we are looking forward to.

Thanks to everyone who's given us so much support to date (don't forget to say "hi" to the team at EclipseCon right now, and stop by the BUG+SV event tomorrow night).  Thanks also, in advance, for bearing with us as we get these last few tweaks in place.

Oh Hai from EclipseCON

What do I love more than lolcats?

Why, EclipseCON of course.

I've noticed a great deal of interest lately among Eclipse bloggers about Bug Labs and BUG, particularly given our involvement with the Eclipse and OSGi communities. So with the buzz about BUG growing, especially as we begin shipping soon, I'm pleased to announce that we'll be showing off the BUG and the Dragonfly SDK all throughout next week's event.

Angel, Alex, and myself will be at EclipseCon 2008 between Monday and Thursday, and attending as many of activities as possible. In addition to our BUG+SV next Tuesday and speaking at the show next Wednesday, we'll also be hosting a BUG+Hack event at EclipseCon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Bug Labs will be camping with Cloudsmith in their CloudLounge, located in the lobby of the mezzanine level of the Santa Clara Convention Center. Stop by, load up Eclipse and your OSGi bundles, and have some fun. There will be some great prizes in store (hint hint: a BUGbundle or two) for whoever makes the best BUG apps by the end of Wednesday.

On the OSGi front, there has been some interesting discussion on OSGI consoles. Looks like there should be a standard at some point soon. Have a wish-list or gripes? Might be a good time to check out the mailing list or come to a BoF (Birds of a Feather) session at the show, as I'm sure the topic will come up.

Lastly, I've been working on a personal project in PHP and gave the PDT project a try. Wow! The PDT team did a fantastic job. It's simple, elegant, and "just works". Reminds me of the profiler we had back in Eclipse 2.11. If you do any PHP development I highly recommend it.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at EclipseCON!

BUG+SV next Tuesday, March 18

Ken, Angel and Alex from the Bug Labs NY team will be out in the SF Bay Area next week to speak at EclipseCon 2008. And we figure it's been a while since we did a BUG+ get-together (not to mention that we need to celebrate shipping the BUG). So on Tuesday March 18, we'll be hosting BUG+Silicon Valley, or BUG+SV, between 6-9pm in Palo Alto at Bistro 412, and we're inviting developers, enthusiasts, and the community-at-large to meet and grab drinks with the Bug Labs team. Let us know via upcoming if you can make it.

However, there's a twist to this BUG+ event. At previous gatherings, we've been demoing the BUG and Dragonfly, and showing how to build custom apps on the fly. This time, we want YOU to make a BUG with us. You bring your laptop and your imagination, we'll supply the drinks and support, and let's see if we can develop a new BUG application or two by the end of the night.

And as always, the event is open to all, developers and non-techies alike. Hope to see you there!

REMINDER: BUG @ SXSW on Monday, and PopSci Contest Extended

The Bug Labs team is packing up and getting ready for SXSW Interactive, where Peter will be speaking on Hardware Mashups: Introducing the Long Tail of Gadgets. If you've yet to hear the Bug Labs story or see the BUG in action, stop by Room 8 at 11:30 on Monday morning and check us out.  And if you've got any SXSW tips for us newbies (parties? sunscreen? cowboy hats: straw or felt?), drop us a line in the comments or on Twitter.

Also, after receiving more entries than we anticipated for the Popular Science Build-a-BUG challenge, we're excited to announce that we're extending the contest deadline to April 1, giving you more time to participate and win great prizes! Again, to win the grand prize of a BUGbundle, we want you to get your hands dirty and develop an original BUG application using the Dragonfly SDK. For full rules and regs, head on over to the official Build-a-BUG challenge website. Good luck!

BUG+Austin?

So Peter and crew will be in Austin next week for SXSW 2008, and even though it's our first year at the festival, we know it's going to be hectic. But we thought we'd pop the question - if we threw a BUG+Austin, would you attend? We'd love to get to know the Austin community, and share battle scars with SXSW first-timers and veterans alike.

Let us know by leaving a comment below, sending a self addressed stamped envelope, or pinging us on Twitter or Jaiku. If we get enough responses by this Thursday morning, we'll pick a place and time and let you know by later this week.

Regardless, if you see us among the rabble, feel free to stop us and say hey.