Crafting is More Fun than Lawyers

I've developed a new appreciation for lawyers.  Well... MY lawyer, in particular.  But, they are time consuming and expensive.  The expensive part is what my former sargeant in the Army would call a "Personal Problem".

But, the TIME-CONSUMING part has not only affected me; but, affected those of you that were hoping for more help than I've been able to provide in the last few months.  So, I thought I'd at least provide you with an explanation and my intentions going forward.

No, I have NOT abandoned the eCraft.  The new patch is exactly what I expected it to be.  It's certainly not what I hope it will become.  But, it met my level of expectations for now.

My father-in-law has had dementia for at least three years.  He was tested in 2008 and 2009 by his neurologist and a geriatric psychiatrist three different times.  And, each time the dementia had progressed.  The last Mini Mental Exam (MME) score in 2009 was 17/30.  He was institutionalized for about a year until on a visit home he absolutely refused to be moved.  My 87 year old mother-in-law tried to care for him; but, as you can imagine it was exhausting.

He fell in January of this year.  And, thinking that we'd give her some respite for a few days before deciding whether or not to place him back in the nursing home, we agreed that he should go to my sister-in-law's for a few days.

In five days, she took him to her long-time physician at a walk-in clinic and had her doctor sign a certificate that declared that my father-in-law was capable of signing a Power of Attorney document and a will.  She effectively took over his life in just five days.  She then sent a letter of demand to her mother to fork over half of everything her father and mother owned to her.

Thus began a protracted legal battle that, in total, among all the parties, has already cost well over $100,000.  When you are involved in something this complex, there is little time left for cutting shapes.

My sister-in-law's attorneys are with a law firm having a reputation for being a "predatory" law firm.  They not only prey on those they are fighting in court.  They also prey on their own clients, generating many, many times the number of pages to generate excessive costs.  There are six lawyers involved in the cases that have come about because of my sister-in-law's actions.  My sister-in-law, for instance, is paying $400 per hour to TWO lawyers.  So, she is definitely VERY serious about grabbing 1/2 of the estate even before her parents are dead.  If she wins, she will, no doubt, sell her parent's home, forcing her mom into a facility.

Why?  The economy.  My sister-in-law and her husband took out a $960,000 mortgage and an $80,000 line of credit on a $1.2 million dollar home.  They could afford that if they were both working.  But, that is not the case.  And, in fact, neither are working right now.

So, we have to stop what she is doing to her parents.  And, because of the excessive filings and paperwork keeping up is quite a chore.  But, we WILL prevail.  We will NOT give up.  As part of our action, the courts asked that my father-in-law be tested again, and the outcome was no surprise.  He tested 15/30 on the MME tests.  Clearly, he did NOT have a miraculous recovery back in January.

The final court date was to be in the last part of December, 2010.  But, it's been moved back to March 2011.  Hopefully, after the holidays I will have a little respite to check out the new software more completely before having to pick up my research for the final trial.

So, that is my explanation for my absence at the very time you needed me to be on top of my game.  But, it looks to me that the eCraft is going to be one of those products that developes slowly, over time.  So, hopefully, by the time that they bring out the next phase of software, I'll be here for you.

But, by THAT time, I might only be able to test 15/30 on the MME!!!

Waiting Like You... On Purpose

"Everyone is equal.  But, Some are more equal than others"

 George Orwell, "Animal House"

One of the things that first sold me on the eCraft was their reputed reputation for listening and responding to customers.

Because I, myself, am not an actual user in the traditional sense, I have focused on things not normally reviewed in craft circles. At first, I was sympathetic toward Craftwell because I knew that it was, effectively, a startup.  This was true even if the manufacturing company behind it might actually be enormous.

But, as time has gone on, I am less and less inclined to have a favorable opinion of the commitment of management of Craftwell to its user base.  And, that lagging optimism has everything to do with their almost utter lack of communication.

I can pick up the phone at any time to talk directly with the management at Craftwell.  But, I am not because it is not fair to all those that CANNOT get through.  I do NOT subscribe to the "Everyone is equal; but, Some are more equal than other's" view of users.

I will learn about what is going on when YOU learn what is going on.  And, I will respond the way I think is best for YOU.

But, I want to make this clear.  I am NOT upset that we are having to wait for the software.  It's free and we get it when we get it.  What is killing my enthusiasm for the eCraft is the fact that even as they have built up their staff, they have not dedicated anyone on that staff to be their consistent voice to hurting customers.  That's right.  HURTING customers.

People make a purchase for a purpose.  And, they have high hopes when they finally bite the bullet and buy.  When a vendor delivers less than promised it is MORE than simply a mild nuisance for some of those users.  It can be traumatic for some.  And, a management that seems to be callous to that reality is NOT a management that can hold my respect for long.

Communication, to be real communication, cannot simply be a one-way vehicle for good news whenever it's convenient.  It has to be a two-way dialog that continues in tough times as well as good times.  When I go up to Craftwell's Facebook Page, and see people pleading for help with no response, it does not encourage me to try to do Craftwell's job for them any longer.  And, that is the primary reason I have not participated in discussions about the eCraft for the last month.

I have one eCraft set up and unused right now.  I have another in a box, unopened.  I am NOT going to subject my daughter to unnecessary frustrations as long as Craftwell remains 95% silent leaving users in limbo.

I don't hold grudges.  So, the situation could change at any minute if and when Craftwell decides that customers truly are important enough to talk to publicly.  Let's hope that is soon.  In the meantime, I will not be calling them.  When you find out, I will find out.

INSERT SD CARD Message - FIX

Never feel like you are bothering me when you send me emails with the problems you are having with your eCraft. This site can only be truly useful if it provides helpful information to the crafting community. And, for the most part, that information is going to come from you.

For instance, I received this email today...

Thanks Tom you've put my mind at rest.
However I am now experiencing another problem that I have not read anyone else has had and that is: yesterday I thought I'd give the software another try but all that happened was that it kept telling me to insert my SD card which of course was in the machine but just to see if it would work I took the SD card out and then put it back in again to no avail.

Now, even though I have tried numerous times and in every way I can think of, the machine display tells me to insert the SD card.....I cannot do anything with this machine as the display will not go to the categories. I have made sure the machine is switched off before inserting the SD card but nothing works. Its incredibly frustrating....I had resigned myself to being patient about the software but now I cannot use the machine at all. Do you have any ideas as to what the problem could be?
Many thanks
Virginia

Now, it turned out that Virginia discovered the fix as well as the problem. She found that removing the USB cable seemed to reset the console and restored it to function correctly. Nice find!

It sounds to me like there might be a bug in the firmware that Virginia stumbled across. And, bugs in firmware are not uncommon in new products, which is why the firmware is designed to be updated from time to time.

So, if you run into this particular bug, you can thank Virginia for helping you to quickly recover from it!

Thanks, Virginia!

One thing leads to another - Sliceform to the EXTREME!

As you know, I just posted an article about SusanBlueRobots.

Maybe I have a soft spot for her robots because they are blue or because they give me another opportunity to sneak in a little personal history.  In the 1980's Hasbro sold a toy robot that 'talked'.  Casey was it's name and here is a short video of the ad for Casey.



In the mid-1980's I was hired by a brilliant engineer, John Perkins, to create some video to be used to create one of the first demos for a new video game system based on video tape. (This was prior to the advent of DVDs.) We were working for Nolan Bushnell of Atari fame and he, in turn, was charged with creating such a product by Hasbro. Hasbro picked it up as the NEMO project.  (Look up NEMO on YouTube)

I used Casey, the Talking Blue Robot as the lead character in my demo video game. I still have the original videos and need to get around to posting them someday on YouTube simply for historical purposes.

It was one of the most fun projects I've ever been involved with but, unfortunately, Hasbro was forced to abandon it because they could not get the costs down low enough for Toys R Us to carry it. 

But, I should also note that NEMO made the 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming list at #19! It's a little disappointing that we only made #19. Maybe that's because they got their numbers wrong. They claim Hasbro spent $20 million. Actually, Hasbro spent $35 million on it before scrapping the system. That's GOT to be worth at least one or two higher positions on the list! LOL!

At any rate, I'm certainly partial to blue robots. But, I'm also appreciate of the fact that one thing often leads to another. My opportunity to work for Nolan Bushnell and Hasbro came from a person that had once worked as a consultant for Astrocade, the video game company for which I was an employee.

The point of this story is that one thing... John working for us... often ends up leading to another... i.e. My working for John. That's how opportunities grow.

And, in the immediate case, we have another instance of one thing leading to another great opportunity. And, it came from a comment on the SusanBlueRobot article.

A person that goes by the name CPEEP commented on the article about SusanBlueRobot's work in sliceform creations and I was so intrigued by the comment that I decided to see if I could locate CPEEP's work. Fortunately, I was successful in doing so.

CPEEP'S Blog is called EXTREME CARDS AND PAPERCRAFTING And, it is a great place to visit with lots of tutorials.  Here is just one sample of what you will find there.

CPEEP'S work is quite broad in the methods used.In addition to sliceform, you'll find paper folding, pop up cards and paper animata (mechanical models) which are equally interesting.  I wandered around for quite a while and was not the least bit bored by what I found.

Apparently, CPEEPS is not yet and eCraft owner and is able to cut to a Robo Craft directly from Corel so not all of their creations are available in SVG.  Hopefully that situation will change in the near future!  In the meantime I am enjoying the creativity of another person that thinks in 3D, all the while being thankful that one thing does, indeed, lead to another!

Cutting Chipboard Video at Nicki's Cardstock Creations

A lot of people have asked me about cutting chipboard.  Chipboard is such a generic class of materials, I could not confidently say that the eCraft would or would not cut the kind of chipboard preferred by most crafters.  I have to reply on the label on the material and the only paper I had with the 'Chipboard' label would NOT cut.  In fact, it acted more like sandpaper and simply dulled the blade.

I do NOT think that is the material most crafters mean when they ask about 'chipboard' so I'm going to defer to the experts.  There is a new video on Nicki's Cardstock Creation blog that shows how well the eCraft actually DOES cut chipboard.

Chipboard Video

By the way, she reveals one other thing about the eCraft's console controls.  If you hold down the arrows when selecting the shape from an SD card, it will swiftly go through all the choices!  Now, why didn't I think of that???

Robots, Robots Everywhere! The eCraft and Robots!

One of the great things about being a part of a community of crafters is being able to enjoy the vast differences in direction which human creativity can take us.  Recently, I've been enjoying the work of Australian, SusanBlueRobot who publishes the SusanBlueRobot Blog.

I love the quirkiness of her creations.  The best way I can think of describing it is thinking OUTSIDE the box by thinking INSIDE the box!

Using tree found on the eCraft Fundamentals #1 SD that comes with the eCraft digital die cutter she created this card.  Of course, no tree is complete without a few robots enjoying it!

But, using this very same eCraft Shape, she has also created this sliceform 3D tree.  Imagine a party table adorned with various sizes of these wonderful trees!

SusanBlueRobot may be the first person to post an image of a sliceform.  And, in doing so, she has paved the way for an unlimited world of 3D art using a digital cutter with NO LIMITS TO LENGTH.  Because the eCraft uses ROLLS of materials, as well as sheets, sliceform art of larger dimensions is possible.

Here are some samples of sliceform works that might inspire users to consider designing larger sliceform installations.  They can be found at this link.

In the process of exploring sliceform, I ran across the blog of an amazingly prolific crafter that specializes in creating and selling sliceform designs.  Perhaps the most useful way to introduce you to her work is to link to her video page.  Here is the first video on that page.    JennieBeanCrafts Videos




I want to thank SusanBlueRobot for sending us off on a great adventure.  I can tell you that she got instant rave reviews on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo group and deservedly so!  So, be sure to drop by her blog and see why everyone enjoyed her work so much!

Could the eCraft make the cut with Make The Cut?

There was an intriguing message in the Make The Cut forums that Andy, the developer, and Craftwell have opened lines of communication.  None of us know where this will lead; but, there are a number of reasons why I think Craftwell would benefit enormously by an arrangement with Make The Cut.

First, if Make the Cut or Sure Cuts A Lot can cut to the eCraft it takes a LOT of pressure off of Craftwell in an area in which they have the least experience.  There is no doubt at all that the Craftwell team KNOWS hardware design.  The eCraft, as I have said over and over, is BRILLIANTLY designed.  THAT is their area of expertise and it shows.

But, what is also abundantly clear, is that Craftwell is NOT as skilled and experienced in the area of software.  And, having a bit of a safety valve in place as they sort out and build that experience will not be a bad thing.

This would not preclude Craftwell from designing and delivering a world class software product down the road.  In fact, in my opinion, it would HELP them in that quest by taking pressure off of constant fixes to a poorly designed initial product and let them back up, regroup and build a team of consultants and in-house experts in the management of software development that would know how to deal with farming out the actual software programming effort.  Right now, the tail seems to be wagging the dog and the tail has the dog in a very bad place of dependence.

Craftwell needs something to break themselves away from that dependence.  And, that something could be Make the Cut or Sure Cuts A Lot.  Once that dependence is broken, Craftwell can step up and have more control over the development process in the future.  But, to do so means reorganizing their development strategies, which will take some time.

However, it would be well worth it.  As long as we can cut, using SOME software, I will be the first to urge every eCraft owner to give Craftwell the space to do what I know they want to do... provide a PRO product that more than lives up to the name.  I don't think that will be as likely to happen if Craftwell doggedly pursues their own path without the help of 3rd party products like Make the Cut.

So, I'm hoping the lines of communication produce some cooperative efforts to support the owners of the best hardware in the business.  That would be very exciting to a LOT of owners.  And, frankly, increase the odds that Craftwell could eventually deliver a killer application of their own... which is our ultimate hope.