[Archive] BFL trolling museum

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Interview with miners pre ordered BFL products

Turn subtitles on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ERE4uiufqE

ROFLMMFAAO! Caution: Don't watch video while smoke a psy-type cigar as I did. I'm still fuckin' chokin'.

I was made aware of this video a couple years back and already had it in mind to spoof it someday. Never occurred to be to use the subtitle option though. Great idea!

[punin]

I imagine they've blown through at least a million bux at this point in masksets alone.

This has been my concern as well. They went the risky route, and got burned maybe even twice. They might be in a situation where they need more orders to be able to pay the fab, hence the delays.

Believe me, I'd be as skeptical as you are if BFL had not previously delivered good working products.  Absolutely NOTHING from them has shown me that they are operating any kind of con.  EVERYTHING points to them just having things go wrong in the design/production process.  I am not surprised that they delayed past their expected date - it was a "best case scenario" date.  Certainly, you are entitled to your opinion that they are a scam, but I have seen zero indicators of such that cannot also be representative of a small company experiencing a few setbacks.

I agree they don't appear to be intentionally trying to scam anyone, but they're inexperienced in ASIC design and have been reluctant to answer certain details. I think it's probable that things went wrong in a way they couldn't predict. And despite what Josh tells us about their "money in the bank" and "not using preorder funds" to fund NRE.. I'm almost certain that Josh has no access to their bank account or balance sheet. What worries me is that the man with the access to those might the one with a shady history. No one wants to break the bad news to everyone.. You saw what it did to Tom..

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where every delay and bad news causes more and more people to cancel, further deepening their deficit of funds to actually deliver those products... and you probably understand where that ends.

[Frizz23]

Interview with miners pre ordered BFL products

Turn subtitles on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ERE4uiufqE

LMAO!!!!!!

BFL presented prototype at CES ... based on Nexus 7 phone ... It is awesome ... It works, I will be rich ...
...
Q: What did you invest?
A: I sold my kidney to order a Jalapeno ...

LOL.

lucif, thanks so much man! My whole family is ROFL ...

[EDIT] I wonder if SLoK finds this funny too. He is Dutch and understands what they are saying (plus he loves BFL).

[bitmar]

I imagine they've blown through at least a million bux at this point in masksets alone.

This has been my concern as well. They went the risky route, and got burned maybe even twice. They might be in a situation where they need more orders to be able to pay the fab, hence the delays.

Believe me, I'd be as skeptical as you are if BFL had not previously delivered good working products.  Absolutely NOTHING from them has shown me that they are operating any kind of con.  EVERYTHING points to them just having things go wrong in the design/production process.  I am not surprised that they delayed past their expected date - it was a "best case scenario" date.  Certainly, you are entitled to your opinion that they are a scam, but I have seen zero indicators of such that cannot also be representative of a small company experiencing a few setbacks.

I agree they don't appear to be intentionally trying to scam anyone, but they're inexperienced in ASIC design and have been reluctant to answer certain details. I think it's probable that things went wrong in a way they couldn't predict. And despite what Josh tells us about their "money in the bank" and "not using preorder funds" to fund NRE.. I'm almost certain that Josh has no access to their bank account or balance sheet. What worries me is that the man with the access to those might the one with a shady history. No one wants to break the bad news to everyone.. You saw what it did to Tom..

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where every delay and bad news causes more and more people to cancel, further deepening their deficit of funds to actually deliver those products... and you probably understand where that ends.

Good point.

source: http://www.design-reuse.com/articles/13550/fpga-prototyping-to-structured-asic-production-to-reduce-cost-risk-ttm.html

[crazyates]

I imagine they've blown through at least a million bux at this point in masksets alone.

This has been my concern as well. They went the risky route, and got burned maybe even twice. They might be in a situation where they need more orders to be able to pay the fab, hence the delays.

Believe me, I'd be as skeptical as you are if BFL had not previously delivered good working products.  Absolutely NOTHING from them has shown me that they are operating any kind of con.  EVERYTHING points to them just having things go wrong in the design/production process.  I am not surprised that they delayed past their expected date - it was a "best case scenario" date.  Certainly, you are entitled to your opinion that they are a scam, but I have seen zero indicators of such that cannot also be representative of a small company experiencing a few setbacks.

I agree they don't appear to be intentionally trying to scam anyone, but they're inexperienced in ASIC design and have been reluctant to answer certain details. I think it's probable that things went wrong in a way they couldn't predict. And despite what Josh tells us about their "money in the bank" and "not using preorder funds" to fund NRE.. I'm almost certain that Josh has no access to their bank account or balance sheet. What worries me is that the man with the access to those might the one with a shady history. No one wants to break the bad news to everyone.. You saw what it did to Tom..

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where every delay and bad news causes more and more people to cancel, further deepening their deficit of funds to actually deliver those products... and you probably understand where that ends.

Good point.

source: http://www.design-reuse.com/articles/13550/fpga-prototyping-to-structured-asic-production-to-reduce-cost-risk-ttm.html

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought there was a difference between "Standard Cell" and "Full Custom"?

[ElectricMucus]

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought there was a difference between "Standard Cell" and "Full Custom"?

It's marginal.
With standard cell they use logic element libraries which are then made masks of. With full custom they build their own logic elements and transistors they basically work in the analogue domain.
It's kind of nonsensical to build a full custom asic unless you are doing something very special. Like mixed signal ICs, asynchronous logic and the sort. And there are even libraries who can work with that so...


However if some part of the layout is fixed, like those fpga conversion chips, or any other kind of structured asic, that is something different.

[Bogart]

source: http://www.design-reuse.com/articles/13550/fpga-prototyping-to-structured-asic-production-to-reduce-cost-risk-ttm.html

Pardon my ignorance, but I thought there was a difference between "Standard Cell" and "Full Custom"?

Yes.  Full Custom is another step more difficult still.  On that chart I guess the risk would read "Very high".  Same for the NRE, and probably Development Span too.

Full Custom: This is similar to a Normal ASIC, except that you have the flexability to design down to the transistor level (or below). If you need to do analog design, super low power, super high performance, or anything that can't be done in a Normal ASIC, then this is the thing for you.

Pro's: This requires a very specialized set of talents to do properly. Performance is great.

Con's: Same con's as Normal ASIC, only more so. Odds of screwing something up is much higher.

[Bogart]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

...in a situation where they need a bailout!  Much like another vendor.

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

[Bogart]

CES interview with Josh from Butterfly Labs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZUPniBo5UQ

Pay attention to the micro expression before saying that "shipping" products, looks down and pauses ...

Good catch.  He also stutters a bit at that point, while he talked pretty smoothly for the rest of the interview.

I don't think it means much though.  All I see is that he's embarrassed that they have yet to ship any of their products that he personally "honest abe" said they would be shipping in October.

I'd be embarrassed too.

If anything, I think it shows that he is not in fact soulless.

[Gyrsur]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

yes, a 51% attack is coming...  the United Nations (http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/) will shut down Bitcoin because to much people buys Shit on SilkRoad... 

[Bogart]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

yes, a 51% attack is coming...  the United Nations (http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/) will shut down Bitcoin because to much people buys Shit on SilkRoad... 

SR is nothing but a useful distraction.  The real threat is to the established fiat system(s).

[Gyrsur]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

yes, a 51% attack is coming...  the United Nations (http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/) will shut down Bitcoin because to much people buys Shit on SilkRoad... 

SR is nothing but a useful distraction.  The real threat is to the established fiat system(s).

Bitcoin will never become the main world currency in the future. There will be several digital currencies coexist. And one of them (or several) will be a fiat system and a other is Bitcoin like several currencies and gold coexist. 

[SgtSpike]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

...in a situation where they need a bailout!  Much like another vendor.

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

Strictly speaking of BFL here:

Given that preorders account for a large majority of the 20,000 chips on preorder, and given that a large majority of those preorders are from individuals, as claimed by forum posts in the preorder thread, I don't see any room for preorders from a set of hands with very deep fiat pockets - it would have shown itself in the absence of a large chunk of the preorders from that listing on the forum.

Given that BFL is now doing a run with 100k chips, I suppose the potential is there for a deep-pocket-hands dude to buy up the other 80k, but also given BFL's stated commitment to the Bitcoin project as a whole, I don't think they would allow it.  You never know though...

[DobZombie]

If the chips haven't been paid for, and there really isn't enough money to get them finished, they'd be in a situation where...

I'm getting an uneasy feeling about this.  What if all the ASICs end up in one set of hands?  A set of hands with very deep fiat pockets...

yes, a 51% attack is coming...  the United Nations (http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/) will shut down Bitcoin because to much people buys Shit on SilkRoad... 

And the new world order in league with the illuminati will destroy bitcoin and enslave us all!!!

O.o

[witherworth]

CES interview with Josh from Butterfly Labs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZUPniBo5UQ

Pay attention to the micro expression before saying that "shipping" products, looks down and pauses ...

Good catch.  He also stutters a bit at that point, while he talked pretty smoothly for the rest of the interview.

I don't think it means much though.  All I see is that he's embarrassed that they have yet to ship any of their products that he personally "honest abe" said they would be shipping in October.

I'd be embarrassed too.

If anything, I think it shows that he is not in fact soulless.

Interesting vid, but I agree with this. I honestly think he'd be a bit more smooth about saying they were about to ship if he knew he wasn't going to be anytime soon. I think it's more embarrassment than a "aww shot, I hope they don't catch on." Not terribly worried.

[ElectricMucus]

Really nice demo Josh! 

[PuertoLibre]

He's got red rings around his eyes.


Must be from all the PTSD from dealing with BFL customers. Possibly too much crying or staying up late night on the forum?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

He's got red rings around his eyes.


Must be from all the PTSD from dealing with BFL customers. Possibly too much crying or staying up late night on the forum?

And no ears, and one set of giant upper teeth, but enough about the cartoon with the squirrel.

[ElectricMucus]

Because of you I just wasted hours watching squirrel videos.  

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Because of you I just wasted hours watching squirrel videos.  

My favorite is the drunk squirrel after he ate the fermented pumpkin. The squirrel catapults are pretty good, also. Let's not forget those two squirrels dancing the Merengue with 243,005,991 views--and counting.