Well, I got it this afternoon. SN 060000016, blue, 12G. I'm happy to report that 10baseT works a treat, with a little dicking around, as detailed on the release CD. I did have to install IE5 to get it to work under NT4, but so far, it's not destroyed my machine like previous versions of IE did.
I've not yet installed the empeg in a car, but I note that the new sled design is much smoother. Should be less of a struggle in the MGB, where the Mk I would pull the plastic mounting round a bit - quality 70s BL manufacturing...
The unit's very much like Mk I at first glance, but the new front panel is very clear, and the buttons and knob get the job done nicely. The 'furniture' round the display means that the display doesn't look as 'lost' as it did on a Mk I. All very purposeful. Looks less homebuilt, which I guess is the plan. In fact, it looks completely 'real', although if it came from one of the majors, I'd have expected some kind of a logo on the plastic, even just an embossing. It's _very_ understated until turned on, when it looks outrageously funky. I may buy a blue front pane for my Mk I. Blue's cool.
The handle's sorted, too. Not a wobble to be seen.
I'd comment on the sound quality, but all I can say is that it's great at home, and, as it's improved over the Mk I, it's going to be fine in the cars. (Neither of the cars I run it in are exactly quiet - we'll see how it works with headphones and an intercom system this weekend, with any luck)
I'll probably have more to say when I've blasted a few gigs onto it. Could be a couple of hours - I'll time it.

Happy, happy Steve.

(I'm not sure the knob shouldn't be dark blue or black. Somehow looks wrong in silver plastic)

I did have to install IE5 to get it to work under NT4, but so far, it's not destroyed my machine like previous versions of IE did.

I noticed the same thing about IE4 vs. IE5 on NT4. I think it's because the IE5 installer allows you to skip the alterations to the UI and the start menu if you want. That's the part that got screwed up so badly on NT when I installed IE4. So, yeah, IE5 is okay by me, too.

Question: Why did you have to install it to get Ethernet working? Was that explained in the dox?

___________
Tony Fabris

> Question: Why did you have to install it to get Ethernet working? Was that explained in the dox?

No, the ethernet section of the manual's a little light. (ahem). There's a perfectly good readme on the CD, though. The hint about IE5 was in the scrolly text box during installation.
I'm currently trying to recover from a synchronisation failure 2.5 gigs in. The player gets lost when it needs to rummage through the database, sometimes reboots, sometimes hangs, sometimes only the knob and top button work. This is new to me, Mk 1 didn't do this, so I suspect that this is transient. Hey, it's a pre-release. Perhaps 5 gigs was too much in one go. I don't seem to be able to recover though. I'll talk to the guys tomorrow.

Steve the slightly confused.

Hum. I suspect this is a beta11 thing, Mike saw it once before. One slight problem is that I don't think the developer image on the CD is the one you want... erk!

You really need to force a database rebuild by deleting the contents of /drive0/var from the developer image, then re-syncing. This should sort out the problem, but logs from the serial would be useful when it's in the "broken" state so we can see what's happened.

Unfortunately Mike "The Master" Crowe is away until tuesday, and he's probably the best person for immediate help...

Hugo

Fair enough. I'm busy now until next week, I guess I'll stick with the Mk I for the weekend (Castle Combe's 50th anniversary bash, going to be good...). I wasn't logging when it all went pear-shaped, but I've got plenty of logs since :)
If it'd help, I can drop the unit in next week some time, or I'll blast the developer image onto it - your call.

Cheers,
Steve

(Playing one song at a time. Stuck in the middle of a Beck CD, Could be much worse :)

Stuck in the middle of a Beck CD, Could be much worse :)

Yeah, you could be stuck in the middle of Hugo's "Teen" playlist.

___________
Tony Fabris

Careful, I'd pay good money to be wedged between Britney & Christina...

...but not as much as for being wedged between two Kim Wildes (sighs).

Hugo

Careful, I'd pay good money to be wedged between Britney & Christina...

Well, if you can make the Mark 3 do that.... put my name down for one now

Geoff
---- -------
Just ordered one of the first Mark 2 empegs...

Well Hugo - at least you are just the right height for such an encounter