Something like that, yes.  I have never, anywhere, claimed to consider BFL a scam; since September last year, however, I have on several occasions done service to the community by pointing out that BFL seem to be a bunch of mostly incompetent and dishonest folks - at least those with public presence (Josh, Sonny, and "chips were not flawed" Nasser).

I'll just repeat myself:

Can you name three BFL engineers?

At this moment:

Yes, sounded like he maintained that he has always been a nice guy, had nothing to apologize for, and in fact was a victim of an evil government. People change, right.  A BFL engineer/executive Nasser then also chimed in, denying that Sony was a scammer, and in fact defending his past. Not even a tiny sign of remorse about the documented, well planned scam carried out by Sony. Inaba responded by derailing threads, offending concerned customers, etc. It is hard for me to believe that anyone would take BFL seriously or treat them with respect, not to mention giving them money for some future product.

Why would you spend time and money trying to collect funds and offering them to a person or persons who chose to remain unknown and move on with their lives?

Why don't you plant a tree, test the next release of the Bitcoin Client, help translate MultiBit, or donate to Bitcoin100? Or donate coins to archive.org?

Similar questions are often asked by new users. Those who explain Bitcoin to others should make this clear early on in the conversation/writeup.

Luke-Jr and regular, I see your point, but I disagree. I never considered pre-ordering ASICs, simply because it didn't seem to me like BFL or bASIC had the experience and ability to give it a try without much risk. Previously delivered FPGAs were a weekend hobby compared to the scope of delivering an ASIC. This involves serious engineering, know-how, project management, accounting and customer service, outsourcing,  coding. There was no way the likes of Inaba and Sony had what it takes to deliver within a reasonable time frame. In fact, I don't do business with those sorts of characters, even if they delivered i  the past. There was no way Tom had what it takes (for different reasons). Not sure about the Avalon and BitFountain teams - at least they each seem to have a team.

Ah, the lost art of due diligence... You don't need "more protection" - you can protect yourself by treating bitcoins much like you treat cash. You wouldn't just go to a strange neighborhood and hand a couple of thousands of dollars to a hand sticking out from a hole in the wall, the wall having a spray-painted advertisement "will build and deliver advanced, customized, integrated circuits"...? Or would you?

Paying cash to the likes of Sony and Tom - even ngzhang and friedcat, who so far appear much more credible - based solely on the promise to develop and deliver a rather complex product.

The best way to protect yourself when paying cash and cash-like bitcoins is to do research. Get to know the project, get to know the people. Are they trustworthy? Are they competent? Are there any red flags?  Alternatively, just pay a nanny (credit card company) to take care of you: she will gladly do it for a fee. If you are smart, you won't even be paying the fee - they'll find less-then-smart customers to cover it for you.
 

Are you saying that, when buying online using a credit card, I am not paying in USD, but in "digits"? Because I need to type in my credit card number.

The product was clearly priced in USD. You didn't pay in bitcoins, you paid through bitcoin network - much like Visa network.

I suggest waiting a few more days, obviously they are still processing claims and sending out confirmations every day. Busy with engineering, too.

There is more to life than this, son.

You may be confusing Javascript with Java applets. Even Flash is not required for all youtube videos (but it is for many), just enable html5 at https://www.youtube.com/html5
 

Suspicion of what? (I know, DannyHamilton beat me to it.)  The paper is there for you to read, and so is the code. Not just to read, but to build upon, improve it, ruin it, ignore it, use it. Lots of people have contributed to Bitcoin, before and after "Satoshi".

Let me ask you this: what would change regarding your and my use of Bitcoin if it turned out that "Satoshi" was a CS university professor? Or that he was a she? Or a shemale? Or a group of quants? Or employees of the Chinese government? Or former employees of the Chinese or Romanian or Irish Central Bank? Or a retired cryptanalyst and his 30-year old wife, who works for the Federal Reserve?  

Does any of this change anything in the source code and in various implementations the community is working on?
 

I have received a confirmation email with the correct addy and the number of shares. Thank you, friedcat, for cleaning up the GLBSE mess.

I wonder when Bitcoin-facing businesses, BFL included, will realize that conferences, trade shows, and such are an opportunity to introduce Bitcoin to the uninitiated, instead of wasting time preaching to the choir or staging incestoid incidents related to issues only bitcoiners understand. Specifically, BFL should have made their working FPGA the centerpiece, instead of the highly controversial, and in fact sensitive, topic of ASICs. Non-bitcoiners really don't give a damn, and we all just look stupid in front of them. Bitcoin looks stupid. Inaba and Micon are actually on the same team - the team that has been doing damage, no matter what their intentions are. I hope they realize this, and finally focus properly when it comes to public events. Public events - this forum included.

Are you worried about Japanese, Kuwaiti, and Italian grandmas who spent their whole lives doing money transactions with integers?

Again, most people don't give a damn. Such analyses are commonly done with today's credit cards, and vast majority uses them, without any mixing or similar services.

Since you are obviously just starting to use Bitcoin, would you mind sharing the first impressions? What was most confusing, frustrating, challenging? What was easy and obvious?