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Berg is shutting down

blog.bergcloud.com

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Re: Berg is shutting down

#31

Post by Igglyboo »

eddieroger wrote: post #22

I'm not sure why we're surprised to see functionality disappear from online-tethered services when it's been happening in other arenas for years now - most visibly, online gaming. The oldest example I can come up with offhand (because it's the Dreamcast's birthday) is Phantasy Star Online. That game was fun, but really only as fun as it could be played online, and the servers have been off for a long time now. EA has…

PSO was playable just fine offline and split-screen however. And if anyone is interested SCHTSERV[1] is a PSO private server that is still up. They have gamecube, dreamcast, and PC clients.

[1] http://www.schtserv.com/

Re: Berg is shutting down

#32

Post by toomuchtodo »

gioele wrote: post #29
sleepybrett wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the email I just got says if they can't find a way to keep the service running, they will open source it and open source the firmware on the cloud device.

This is possible, but rare. If your GPS navigator requires "cloud maps", it will be useless the moment its provider goes out of business or turns off the v1 servers in favour of v2 servers. This as already been discussed in the Ars Technica's article about Android and the problem of old phones with "broken" apps. (Well, the reality is that it will be useless for 3 years, after which somebody will finally crack the DR…

> This is possible, but rare. If your GPS navigator requires "cloud maps", it will be useless the moment its provider goes out of business or turns off the v1 servers in favour of v2 servers.

I have a 10 year old GPS receiver in a box, with no way to update with maps from Garmin, not because Garmin went out of business but because they just choose not to support the device anymore.

Do I want to spend hours trying to figure out how to update a 10 year old device? Or would I rather spend $100-$200 on a brand new one with the latest maps?

Obsolescence isn't a bad thing, its how we move forward. We just need a clean process to recycle the waste that process generates.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#33

Post by gioele »

Did anybody reverse engineer the Berg/Little printer protocols? OK, I have found this from 2013, not very detailed though: https://github.com/pipt/little-printer-payload-inspector

It think the printer's form factor is very nice, much much nicer than the other hacked-up solutions I have seen around.

I would pay those £149 for a thermal printer that was so cute and also completely open.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#34

Post by chaostheory »

zizzer wrote: post #11

I wondered when this might happen. You can't really rely on any of these devices with a 'cloud' based backend to work a couple of years after you've bought them (As anyone with a Nabaztag gathering dust in a corner will tell you). I made my own version of the little printer based on the open source plans here: https://github.com/exciting-io/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-... It's really easy to get up and running and i…

Chumbys still work (probably because bunnie seems benevolent). Even when its servers were turned off for a while, they still worked; you just couldn't choose a different clock face.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#35

Post by avsm »

gioele wrote: post #33

Did anybody reverse engineer the Berg/Little printer protocols? OK, I have found this from 2013, not very detailed though: https://github.com/pipt/little-printer-payload-inspector It think the printer's form factor is very nice, much much nicer than the other hacked-up solutions I have seen around. I would pay those £149 for a thermal printer that was so cute and also completely open.

While I enjoy a spot of reverse engineering as much as the next hacker, it's probably easier just to ask them for the protocols in this case; try http://twitter.com/nickludlam

Re: Berg is shutting down

#36

Post by bsg75 »

rjbwork wrote: post #15
benoliver999 wrote: post #12

One of those things I always convinced myself I really wanted, but the fear of the cloud service going down put me off dropping the cash. £200 for a device that's useless if the business went under was not my cup of tea.

Ironically this mindset contributed to them going under. Not criticizing you, just a funny observation.

A mindset, and growing recognition that startups are failure prone or targets of acqui-hire-and-shutdown. Disposable product-services are only good for those betting on the next (first/only?) quarterly earnings report.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#37

Post by GotAnyMegadeth »

Igglyboo wrote: post #31
eddieroger wrote: post #22

I'm not sure why we're surprised to see functionality disappear from online-tethered services when it's been happening in other arenas for years now - most visibly, online gaming. The oldest example I can come up with offhand (because it's the Dreamcast's birthday) is Phantasy Star Online. That game was fun, but really only as fun as it could be played online, and the servers have been off for a long time now. EA has…

PSO was playable just fine offline and split-screen however. And if anyone is interested SCHTSERV[1] is a PSO private server that is still up. They have gamecube, dreamcast, and PC clients. [1] http://www.schtserv.com/

Sickeningly me and a few friends each played the Game Cube incarnation of PSO I & II for over 100 hours offline

Re: Berg is shutting down

#38

Post by jonursenbach »

zizzer wrote: post #11

I wondered when this might happen. You can't really rely on any of these devices with a 'cloud' based backend to work a couple of years after you've bought them (As anyone with a Nabaztag gathering dust in a corner will tell you). I made my own version of the little printer based on the open source plans here: https://github.com/exciting-io/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-... It's really easy to get up and running and i…

Genuinely curious, but why print reminders like that when you can use a calendar? Or using something like Pushover for notifications when a download has finished.

Seems wasteful.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#39

Post by tylerlh »

Crap -- I have a Little Printer still in the box that I've been meaning to play with. Really hope they open source the protocol so I don't end up with a Little Paperweight.

Re: Berg is shutting down

#40

Post by Igglyboo »

GotAnyMegadeth wrote: post #37
Igglyboo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PSO was playable just fine offline and split-screen however. And if anyone is interested SCHTSERV[1] is a PSO private server that is still up. They have gamecube, dreamcast, and PC clients. [1] http://www.schtserv.com/

Sickeningly me and a few friends each played the Game Cube incarnation of PSO I & II for over 100 hours offline

Yea I've been there, the local co-op was a ton of fun really. The only downside was that the framerate drops a bit if you have more than 3(2?) players.
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