Tale of a Black Dog - page 2

A Different Type of Canine

After seeing the device in action at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, I quickly pre-ordered one after my return home. Shipping on the new device was set to begin around September 1, so I was anxiously waiting for the new pup to arrive. Production delays and a large number of pre-orders (guess I wasn't the only one impressed at LWCE) delayed shipment for almost a month, but that was understandable given that it was a totally new device.

Finally, the day came when the dark pooch arrived. Given that this device is apparently a production prototype of some future portable computing device, I fully expected the shipping carton to contain a simple, vanilla box holding the Dog, a CD with needed software, and maybe a sheet of information on installing the little beast. Much to my surprise, I discovered that the folks at Realm Systems had come up with a packaging system almost as clever as the device it held.

Opening the shipping carton revealed a bag styled after a sack of dog food, with the Black Dog logo on the front and verbiage exclaiming, "NOW with sample bytes of juicy CODE." The reverse side of the bag contains Ingredients ("Serving Size: Fits in your hand") (see Figure 2), Contents (the device specs), and an obligatory product warning ("Some engineers may have been harmed in the making of this product"), as well as information on the coding contest. Inside the bag is a small, black box that holds the beloved beast, graced with a black dog collar with steel spikes (see Figure 3). Quite an impressive presentation for such a quiet little product.