http://www.vimeo.com/4487183

We have reached a point where we need to make a decision. One cube is telling us to sink it, the other is, well, confusing. Bertram and the company don’t see eye to eye and I’m stuck in the middle. I asked about a UStream (thanks Dante, for giving me the correct spelling) meeting in the forum and saw some willingness to attend in the replies. So, I’m asking anyone who may understand these cubes or who has worked with us on them to join me on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Central. I’m working on creating the “channel” now and will update this page with a link as soon as I finish it.

So team meeting: 8 p.m., Wednesday, May 6, 2009.

EDIT: This Ustream page

That was tougher than expected, but we got the new cube to work. Bertram has once again worked his magic and created a way for everyone who has shown interest in this cube to see what we see. He added the new console to the top tabs (Thanks B!). We’ve been working so hard on this we haven’t communicated much, but this is exciting and we felt we should share.

Some questions raised about my mother have been nagging at me lately. Why did she want us to sell out? What does she know about the cube? Can she find my father? The more I thought about these, the more I thought those asking the questions might be right – she must know something. Anything at all. So I called her. She said she doesn’t know how to find my father, but she knew about the cube the whole time. It turns out, she pushed us into taking the company deal because she hoped the company would take the cube away from us.

Long story short, the cube caused my parents to split up. And get this – she swears it will “ruin our lives like it ruined his.” She said it consumed him. After seeing what Bertram went through earlier I was a little concerned, but we talked and he brought up a great point: Dad was working alone.

So thanks to all of you for keeping us on task, for finding answers we never would have seen and for making sure we get to the bottom of all of this.

http://www.vimeo.com/4365614

B and I finally spoke and made some progress. He agreed to come back to work and we are getting back into rhythm. Bertram walked in just as I was about to ask for help with the cube my father sent. He was still a little suspicious after we spoke, so I wasn’t sure how he’d take the new one. We’re back to work now, and that’s what matters.

http://www.vimeo.com/4330403

Bertram has been missing work lately. That’s nothing new, but he’s stopped talking to me as well. When I went by to check on him he didn’t seem to realize I was there. I was so worried I filmed it with my phone. I’m still asking for help because I have yet to hear from him.

He’s not a bad guy. He’s actually quite brilliant, but sometimes he gets a little over involved in projects. Some of the advice I’m getting is that B may be a little fragile right now, so if anyone knows how to get through without creating bigger issues, let me know.

I had a request from @phyrehawk to post some images of the new cube, so I’m putting them here. I have yet to attach it to anything, but that is the plan. I’m including an image of the note as well.

http://www.vimeo.com/4302343

I ran to the post office during lunch today. Usually the box is empty – we’re new and not many people know about us yet – but today it had a key for a package. Needless to say, I’m a little floored by the contents. I’m not sure what to think. The return address was so scribbled I couldn’t make out who it was from and the handwriting on the outside didn’t match the letter inside.

I wish Bertram were here. He’d distract me with some random theory about the sky falling or something. As it stands, this is getting a little scary.

Based on the comments and forum discussion, the consensus is that the company shouldn’t have cared what we did. And I mentioned that to my mother/attorney. According to her, our employment contracts with the company both included the non-disclosure agreements as well as non-compete clauses which, if I’m understanding her translation of legalese, means I can’t work on anything hardware related and Bertram can’t work on anything software related that the company does not own without going into breach of contract. I thought I read those papers when I came on, but I don’t remember that one. My signature is on it, though, and it sits at about page 70 of 86 or so, so I had probably started skimming/skipping blocks of text by that point. This is why attorneys get the big bucks. Who wants to read 86 pages of jargon the first day on the job?

Anyway, we’ve worked out a deal with the company that, we hope, will benefit everyone. Bertram didn’t say much this morning, but he gets to keep working on pages so he should be happy. Basically, the company absorbed Electron Innovations as a whole. Electron Innovations will continue to operate as it has until now – Bertram and I will run it in the same space with the same resources. Well, except that instead of my mother taking all of the financial risks, the company can absorb some now.

Unfortunately, they aren’t willing to invest anything aside from the basic costs to keep the rent paid and power on, but they will allow Bertram and I to focus 100% on the EI2 and the cube instead of going into our division every day. Everyone who knows about this cube thinks it could be a huge step toward intelligent computing once we find a way to integrate it into the EI2 design.

As for the wonderful people who have helped us decipher the pages coming out so far, we still need you. We understand if you prefer not to help us given the company’s involvement, but they’ve assured me that nothing will change. The only difference is that once we get out of design and into development, we’ll have access to the company’s factories. That will speed up distribution, but everything else will stay the same. We are still designing a pet project, only we now get to spend all of our time on it and still get paid.

Speaking of getting paid, after some communication with Jeromy and Squid808 I had hoped to negotiate a pay increase with this deal. Unfortunately, nobody was receptive to that option. But, we aren’t fired and we didn’t lose the project, so everything appears to be working out.

So if you are willing, keep doing what you are doing. We appreciate your help and can’t do this without you.

http://www.vimeo.com/4254837

In looking at the forum Bertram and I see that the group helping us unravel the mysteries of the cube is a collection of geniuses. They figured out there are images inside the cube, THEN discovered those images contain hidden messages. Putting the interface on the site has increased progress exponentially. Watching these people communicate to solve problems collectively is really something special. Bertram has also been working hard decoding these images, but I fought a cold over the weekend, so just checked progress and spent what little energy I had responding when I could.

Today at work B and I got called into a meeting. We never get to “meet” with our superiors, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Once the doors closed they gave us an ultimatum: either hand over the cube and all information related to it on our way out the door or continue our work on the EI2 and the cube as a newly acquired division of the company (which I still prefer not to name). Either way, they absorb everything we’ve done with Electron Innovations. My mother, who is a lawyer, recommended we allow the company to absorb our side project and keep our jobs. Obviously, paychecks are important, but it’s really hard to imagine the EI2 not being our own. They did say we would continue managing all aspects of the project and using the same resources, but the company would ultimately take all the financial risks and maintain copyrights/patents on whatever we develop.

I’m curious as to how much they’ve explored the forum, how much they know about the people who are working so hard to help us. They didn’t mention anything in the meeting, but that doesn’t mean anything. Do they know about Jeromy’s future physics theory? Or that atomicthumbs has made connections between the images and 20th century film and literature? I know everything will work out as it should, it always does, but I just wonder how much the company knows about what they are trying to take from us.

Our crowdsourcing experiment worked and people from all over came together to discover the garbled text was actually an image. Thanks to Squid808 for posting it to the forum and thanks to the group who started transcribing the text by hand to figure it out.

This is great work and we appreciate the help, but these people did extra work while we were dealing with our own schedules. Bertram has now created a way for all who have offered to help to interact directly with the cube.

This should ensure our day jobs don’t interfere with communication or productivity elsewhere. Bertram added a page to the site and posted the following to the forum.

I’ve been working all night to make this happen. We now have what I call the “Cube Console” on the EI2 website. The technical magic which makes this possible is the cobbled together serial/USB cable connected to a modern computer (one with a real network interface on it), and some custom software of my creation.

You should be able to experience what Cray and I do when sitting in front of the Mac Classic. I hope it holds up – it isn’t exactly a piece of software engineering artwork

Again, we appreciate all of the help and hope this direct interaction will be of use. Thanks to everyone on the forum for coming together to help discover what was on the cube.