fidnip

We're still nailing down prices on the Rev C. New, fast parts.

Good news: Higher end machines are going to be cheaper because the big drives and RAM are cheaper.

Bad news: The low end prices are holding, because some of the cheaper parts have gotten phased out.

We're just finalizing the price list now. I'm going to try to keep a barebones system as cheap as can be, though we're using a lot of new parts to avoid the situation we had with the Rev A (to wit, the parts being discontinued shortly after the system was developed).

Higher end machines are definitely going to be cheaper. RAM and disk drives have come down a bit. CPUs, unfortunately, have not.

I know some of you guys have been waiting for a sign before ordering, so I'm thinking of doing a "grand opening" type deal again: $100 off! This time, however, I may limit it to the first X machines sold.

Let me know what you think in the forum!

The big news about the Rev C is that it does not directly support analog TVs.

Sucks, I know, but we spent the last three months trying to put a machine together that would support both digital and analog--I, personally. have an analog TV--and getting are butts kicked with driver issues, iffy quality and just general unreliability. Analog's being phased out, and parts that we used to build (too soon gone) rev A TriB don't even exist anymore.

We're looking at the best way to support the old analog TVs, though it will doubtless become less and less of an issue as the newer TVs get cheaper and cheaper.

Also, we'll have an end-of-summer sale--really just a TriB Rev C rollout--and see if we can't entice some of you online folks to buy. The forum's quiet. Too quiet.

Well, the TriB (rev B) never really met our standards, and we're running out of rev A's, so we've moved on to the rev C. (The back side will look different, but the front will still look like the basic black box shown here.)

Remember, if you get a TriB, please post feedback to the forum. Good or bad, it's reassuring to future buyers!

Hello, all! If you haven't been able to get on fidnip.com intermittently, never fear. It's just rewiring being done here at fHQ, that (with luck) will allow us to avoid serious problems this summer.

If you have trouble logging on, though, try again in five minutes and it'll probably be okay.

One of the components we've been using in the TriB is no longer available, which means we have to modify its design slightly.

The good news is that the new TriB will automatically come with Component & S-Video out options. The bad news is that we may not be able to make the machine as quiet as the rev A without swapping out the fan for a passive cooling system. This may end up adding $50 to the price, though it will have the advantage of being truly silent. (On the other hand, the price increase may be offset somewhat by hardware getting cheaper.)

Reminder: The grand opening coupon is good until June 15th.

OK, as most of you know, we're operating on the "don't bill until shipping" model here.

But if you go through PayPal, they collect instantly. And right now, Paypal (and cash or check) are the only payments we take.

So, for now, if you want to place an order and are worried about the billing, just select "cash" as the payment option. Then you can pay directly through PayPal when your box ships!


We're setting up the direct credit-card processing now, and that will allow us automatically delay charging until shipment.

Feel free to ask any questions here.

As you can see by the links on the right under "Shopping Guide", we are starting to put up documents that will help you make the best choice when purchasing your fidnip.

There's a lot, it's going to take a while, and I'm still not entirely happy with the presentation and formatting. But I figure if I wait until it's perfect, we'll all have moved to holographic televisions anyway. Right now you just click from top to bottom. (I'll add next/prev buttons and an table-of-contents and index later.)

Actually, when I say, "it's going to take a while", the actuality is that I see it being an ongoing process, adding things as more questions come up.

Next up will be the videos.

OK, I've posted some photos of the TriB in the forum.

I haven't put them in the store yet because, as I explain in the post, this isn't some fresh-from-the-store model. This is the original prototype, which has been in use for months. And it's beat up, scuffed, and generally grungy looking.

A big part of the reason this has taken so long is that I wanted to make sure the TriB could be used in real-world circumstances. We've done things to this box you shouldn't do. That anyone shouldn't do. But it's worth the confidence it gives us.

We've updated the store to reflect the entirety of the device, CPU, case, remote, DVD-writer, and so on.

We'll be adding more options in the next few days, as well. If there's an option you don't see that interests you, let us know. We already have requests for different colored cases, which we're working on. But if you don't see it, ask, and we'll see what we can do.

Good news! We've been living with the TriB for several months now, and it's always irked us that we needed an extra card to connect to our analog TV. Well, no more: We now offer an analog-output option at no extra charge. Yay!