Well, I'm always the one to say "wait".
I don't know if other people have been receiving activation keys lately, but the sad truth is, Jorge's last log-on was precisely one month ago and his last post was almost three.
We're beginning to see "vance miller is a spammer" and crap like that all over again, which means nobody is even cleaning the place up.

I don't know what's going on, but I have to admit... it's not looking good...

skagon i laughed so hatd i almost pee'd myself. sorry skagon, but WAIT my ass.

Chucky was complaining of something similar a few months ago but meanwhile Jorge dropped by and made a few posts. This is too neat a product to let go and Windows 8 is uuuglyy... Touch screen technology for that matter will have great use in a lot of situations, but some tasks cannot be done with it. Anything that requires graphic precision (image or video) or even coding, will never be made on the go, in smartphones. Turns out the industry is all taken over by this Internet of Things that development is going to it (that and cloud computing). I don't know what Jorge is working on, but this arrangement of having an operating system as the engine, and customizations to my taste, my habits, my preferences and my work methods, should become mainstream, in the process creating an industry of developers and graphic artists and consumer choice.

Heh. True. Microsoft is not renowned for vision.

Yeah, we both were concerned. In fact, we've been concerned for more than a year now. But we've kept it either in the (closed to the general public) "beta" room or between us via PMs.
However, the situation has become untenable.
Jorge himself had said in the past that he'd want more activity from users in the forum, rather than expect of him to reply to all posts, solve all problems and answer all questions. Some of us tried to oblige.
But the major issue here is, how can we actively participate, when we don't know what's going on? When we have seen no sign of life for over a month? When none of us have any other means of contact (like personal e-mail, phone number, instant messaging, anything).

In the past, I had suggested him selecting a couple of people, either from us 'regulars' or some of his friends, to be 'moderators' in here, or even administrators (I don't know), and to keep in regular contact with them.

[I know from experience that this 'model' works, because it's happened with me in the past. I started as a simple member in a forum (lcdstudio if you must know), started talking regularly with the programmer, became moderator and finally full admin. Now, I'm the one running the forum, since the owner/programmer rarely appears, for his own reasons. But we still talk regularly, so I know what's going on.]

In any case, it's obvious that there's a major problem here, only no one knows what it is. There hasn't been any release for over a year, (the last update I downloaded was on March 12th, 2012) and in that same period Jorge has made no more than 20 posts in here (excluding the "your license was sent" answers), with huge gaps between appearances.
I don't even see a point updating my license, since there's nothing new on the horizon.

To sum it all up, yes, he may have other problems in his life, maybe things he doesn't want to make public. I totally and wholeheartedly respect that. Moreover, it's his own 'project' to kill any time he wants.
I just find it disappointing that the only thing we've been told is a couple of "sorry"s and a few lukewarm promises; in the end, we're all left hanging.
I'd find it more decent of him to come here and say "listen, peeps, it's all over" or "I've got other problems on my mind, winstep is on freeze" or **something**.

In fact, I'm not even sure why I keep checking this forum three times a day, still...

Perhaps in November last year I emailed Jorge basically asking his view of to where the industry was moving. My concern was that Xtreme might be discontinued because of my erroneous belief that it wouldn't work with Windows 8. I hate Windows 8 and love to work with Xtreme. I didn't get a reply but then coming here, I got across Chucky's post about how Jorge was MIA. However, I saw posts from Jorge after that.

Jorge may be (and this is me speculating) in a developmental dilemma. I hinted at that when I mentioned smartphones and cloud computing in the previous post. Unless your company can pull a lot of weight (Microsoft, Google kind of weight), any developer has to be aware of trends and what they mean for the future. Has he been getting new costumers on a regular basis? Does he see a lot of enthusiasm out there in making new skins for Xtreme? He may be out on a limb learning touch screen technology so he can adapt his products to tablets.

But these considerations, and others we could make, like you point out are just speculations and not particularly useful. Eventually Jorge will have to tell us how we can help him, if indeed he wants our help.

I think this is a great product and though I haven't gone yet through the existent wishlist there's a bunch of things that I'd be crazy to get bundled with Xtreme. As a newbie it's hard for me to understand how customizations like these do not become mainstream. On the other hand Jorge started this in 1999 and this forum contains threads that hark back to 2004. It is impossible to read, guess, imagine what's in his mind.

The only reason I can think of for him not to produce a clarification is if he was hanging very heavily with some choice of direction, and the mere clarification would introduce extraneous information, hampering the ability to change his mind. Third party large contract: announcement "I'll be in only once a week"; Family, private situations: announcement "I'll be in only once a week"; Updating knowledge, learning new technologies: announcement "I'll be in only once a week".

Unless he is simply depressed or everything combined.

Though I am new here I'll gladly volunteer to help out in answering questions within my event horizon. I mean, whatever that doesn't cause my buffer to overflow.

LightningBolt, i'm going to be blunt. you come here make 6 post and act like you've been part of the community family for years. DON'T!

Sounds like a certain "child" we know.

Some day he may grow up. Now that would be scary.

LightningBolt, these two morons would be our resident spammers/trolls, just ignore them.

Food for thought:


Note: I'm not taking sides and I'm not implying anything about anyone.

Amen.

I'll just be lurking in the background then. Beware that everything you say will be reported to Homeland Security, gotta tell ya.

it's called stalking.

Don't say. Really?

now your trolling besides stalking