After having to wait endless days for things to clear customs, I finally have my VCI-100 .. w00t. A few lessons learned in international shipping. For one, do not trust the USPS.com tracking site. They listed the shipment with an "attempted delivery" on Monday, when in fact all that happened was that the package was handed off to the local custom office here in Berlin. Now the next lesson to learn is that USPS has no information at all about the local delivery company. After a bit of searching and calling I found out that its DHL. They in turn knew that the package was still being held at customs. When I got back from my keynote at the IPC conference yesterday I finally had the card from the customs office, that I can pick up my package. I immediately went over there, an anxious 15 minute walk later, I discovered that the office is closed on Wednesday afternoons. Oh the horror!
Well this morning I finally went there, only to learn the next lesson: Have your packages shipped to Switzerland, where the sales tax is only 10% versus the 19%. On top of that there were customs fees to pay. Not so cool, but I don't care, I have a MIDI controller at long last. No more excuses, but first I went to my grandma's house for some home made food. :)
At any rate, I now have a beautiful controller. The deck D button was slightly bent, but not a biggy. Overall the buttons feel kinda hard to press, but then again, this might be a feature, so that you do not accidentally press a button. But it does mean that the investment in the arcade buttons will truly pay off when I get into controllerism.
Ah forgot to mention, I also met with Ean Golden himself here in Berlin. We talked about various ideas for how to improve the DJTT site. Seems like we will soon have an event calendar and if all goes well a nice map showing all the DJTT members across the world and their events and much much more. Ean also gave me a quick hands on demo of the VCI-100, so I got to ask some of the questions the recent walk through video had left open. It was awesome meeting Ean. I talk to people online every day, but having met once in person always helps in online communication. Just gives you a 3D image of the person to think of while you are communicating.
madhuhn
t3h collar-fool bu77onz!!!11
m3 in ur c0ntroller prezzin 'em
2009-05-28 7:10 pm