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2010-04-21 12:02:46 (4424 views) - First phase of the Canton fair (dealing with electronics among other things) thoroughly sucked, invitation received from vendor was invalid, so we had to pay a small fee but this was unforeseen so we arrived with no cash at all - huge complex with over 50,000 companies and no ATM machine anywhere except in the subway station where both terminals were both broken. Walked 1km trying to find ATMs before giving up and going back in to demand free entry - at which point it turned out they lied about not accepting credit cards ("This counter no, there yes", there is exactly half a meter away)... and we were able to use visa. Nothing interesting inside except a machine that prints on your nails (Miss Kim printed DL Labs nails) and a toilet seat with big handles on both sides presumably to prevent some sort of takeoff :). People here do NOT speak mandarin and that's final. They can't even understand simple words like "money", or numbers. Speaking standard Chinese to them is useless. It's the Canton fair after all, people speak Cantonese.
- LED manufacturer is being replaced as their shipment was delayed a week, then another week then indefinitely but they said please send the money and we'll see what we can do. No thanks. Already found a tentative replacement.
- Battery manufacturer is being replaced, their samples were delayed 3 days, then another 3 days, then for holidays, eventually partial samples arrived and manufacturer's not replying to inquiries regarding lack of some of the samples. Very very aggravating. Minor setback. That's China...
- Incorporation is now on-going. Unfortunately they need proof of address in *English* and nobody wants to send mail to us with an English address including the bank and everyone else. It's like getting a US bank to send you a piece of mail with a Chinese address written in Chinese. Not likely. Trying to find a solution... the good part is that when this is sorted out and the money's in the whole process may last less than a month.
- Jason accepted delayed payment for the remainder of mold tooling costs!!!! This is a huge deal, we can buy components with that money. He also will talk to Mr Tang to keep him motivated in case he tries to quit helping us due to complexity. You've got to dig and dig but eventually you find the serious people in China. When you do, they are much more down to earth, friendly and willing to help out than their western counterparts.
- Rubber keypad is now being produced at our secret male management R&D complex. These are final production parts.
- Small run of very final PCBs (white, gold plated) are being produced, these are the final production PCBs that will go into the product.
- Trying to tap into a special order made by the RF module manufacturer for us, we need to negotiate with the distributor. Are Canadians on holiday right now? Trying to get a hold of people across time zones is very difficult sometimes. We need those parts!!!
- We're going to make a new plastic prototype that is properly spray painted, and a new remote control top with the light pipe, with this in hand (plus the pcb) we can order the overlays (hence the new design completed earlier today). Nice pics coming soon.
- Received an answer to our US customs import tariff ruling request. They want a sample and literature to decide how much they'll tax us. We have no samples so that will have to wait. Will they actually try it on? Will it become homeland security standard equipment?
To summarize: all sorts of administrative headaches. Very busy as usual. Things moving quickly. Minor set backs and big progress. Very good that we're stress testing our supply chain and vendors! The unreliable ones will drop out before we launch. We can't have this sort of stuff happening after launch.
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To finish up, some comic relief: some of the best China moments this week:
DL Labs: "Please send samples of 20x40x3.5mm li-poly packs with molex connector such and such, 210mAh capacity, 30mA maximum drain impulse, including pcb protection circuitry as in the picture."
Battery supplier: "THANKS dear friend for inquiring about apple laptop batteries please find our catalogue attached" (this is actually a standard way for them to respond without even reading English inquiries, so after much grief we've resorted to imitating their cut and paste approach. If the answer is not well thought out we just paste back the inquiry, that works).
DL Labs: "Please supply li-poly charger with molex connector for the battery shown in the picture"
Another battery supplier: "Certainly! Is this ok?" (their proposed device will inevitably lead to battery fire and/or explosion as its voltage is too high and it doesn't change with time which is a prerequisite for li-poly packs)
DL Labs: "Does your product have CE marking?"
Vendor: "Yes of course!"
DL Labs: "Then please forward your Declaration of Conformity"
Vendor: "Sorry we don't understand your meaning" (this means they just put the logo on the product without doing any testing whatsoever and you are legally liable and subject to fines or imprisonment if you import their stuff)
DL Labs: "Looking for USB enclosure that doesn't have the flash drive inside, again just looking for the PLASTIC not the PCB, please quote for plastic enclosures only."
Vendor: "Thank you for inquiry! You mean you look for USB drives right? We have 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, please send money to this bank account" (just about every usb drive vendor answered with a catalogue of disk capacities without reading the inquiry).
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Trying to avoid China rants but it seems they are inevitably going to creep in as our stay here becomes progressively more frustrating. Occasionally we should write something good about living here just to be fair... like... like... hmm... ok let us get back to you on this :)
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of the DL2000-user and sends inmediately a strength-2-impulse to
the DL2000. So the girl can be sure that the guy won't have sexy
feelings during his work (in her absence)
How would you like that, girls???