RomRaider

I've just recently started working part-time for Cobb Tuning doing work along the same lines as what I've been doing for the OS community. This is a great opportunity for me and I hope it can pan out to a long-term career. I also met with the Cobb team recently and was very impressed by their expertise, passion, and work ethic. Many of them (if not all) are car enthusiasts as well. This is a really cool company to work for.

This doesn't mean that I'll just be abandoning the OS community, however. Cobb is cool with me working on some OS stuff in my free time as long as, obviously, it doesn't involve Cobb IP. Really, though, because this is an additional job, a big chunk of the free-time I had used previously to work on OS stuff will now be used working for Cobb, so my future contributions to OS will likely be limited. I'll continue to hang around the forums, investigate/fix any bugs related to my previous definition work, and perhaps work on Learning View a bit. Ultimately, if my work at Cobb is sustainable as a part-time position and Cobb is happy with quantity and quality of my work after the 90-day probationary period, then I'll look closer at phasing myself out of the OS work, perhaps giving others the "push" necessary to contribute.

Anyway, I've had loads of fun working with RomRaider community over the years. I hope to continue to maintain some kind of presence here well into the future and keep in touch with a lot of you. Thanks for your support.

ahh, very torn about this bill...

on the one hand, happy for you, as it seems like this is obviously something you enjoy. to earn a living doing something one enjoys is a blessing indeed!

on the other hand, as far as i'm concerned you've been an absolutely critical part of this OS tuning project, which would be basically stalled in the water 2 years ago without your involvement. you can't f*** leave!!!!

in any event, i wish you well. put it this way: my opinion of cobb just went up.

ken

Big congrats Bill! I had heard a bit of rumbling about this awhile ago and was *really* hopeful that it would pan out!

I should probably add that I am now a part-time employee of COBB Tuning as well. I work at Surgeline doing a little bit of everything I no longer tune OS because of the conflict of interest, but I provide help and assistance whenever possible.

Good luck with your new job.

You've been the backbone of OS tuning for Subarus. I hope everything works out for you.

thanks guys.

Thats awesome news for you! way to go!

Not so awesome news for us, well at least you gave us the group N rom to help ease the pain in hearing this news Thanks for ALL you have done for us!!

Good luck!

Wow, not sure what to think... you definitely deserve to be paid for all the work you do, just sorry it's a commercial company such as COBB that's involved as by doing this they are potentially putting a huge dent in the future of OS tuning - probably at least part of their intention all along. Nice strategic move on their part.

On the other hand, I am truly happy to see all your work being recognised in such a way and that you'll be rewarded for it appropriately. All the best for the future!!

I never guessed you lived in UTAH, and SLC.
That, I am very suprised at.
But I agree w/ your opprotunity, and, you should focus on that. They are gaining ground, and have a huge plateform, from where they stand, I just wonder if, Merchgod, could get some check engine disable support for the Mazdaspeed 3.
I am very suprised how 'raw' AP Racetuner was... Still love RR.
Absubtle
CO

Congratulations! It's great to see returns on all the hard work you've invested!

Of course I am a little sad to hear that our top contributor of ECU and logger definitions now has such a big distraction on his hands, but oh well. Maybe this will motivate someone else to learn the ROMs? Some of us can only hope.

I can tell you that the reality is the exact opposite. Trey has no problem with me continuing doing work for OS as long as I'm not involving Cobb IP. That is not something that I negotiated, but something he was perfectly fine with from the beginning (and actually encouraged). While this could include new development for OS, I, personally, don't think that is something I could realistically do (time and energy-wise). The idea to phase myself out after the probationary period is also my own. I think if I continue to do new ROM updates and such indefinitely, there might not be enough of a vacuum there for others to get motivated enough to get involved.

Congratulations, I guess that's is nearly your ideal job!

I hope someone if not yourself keeps supporting this great idea (RR). If not I will never be able to buy a newer Subaru!

Good luck!

Congratulations Bill, not often a job you enjoy doing comes along - so go for it mate

Although I am a little down from the prospect of you leaving and RomRaider losing a vital member of the dev team, I am also thinking that perhaps Trey will actually want you to continue with OS development and use the definitions you create to get the AP to finally support all Subarus and not just USDM ones, that would then open Cobb to international sales for all Subaru markets - and that equals more money

Or thinking even more outside the box, perhaps they have other intentions of your skills - like the need to go to a straight flash/software based system similar to what ECUTEK has - that would definately save them quite a bit in manufacturing and dev costs of the AP itself

Imagine if Cobb's AP v3 was completely software based without the need for the handset and not much different from RomRaider itself - but with the ability to actually write to the ECU in realtime - if they pay you to develop something like that and provide that software to the car owner too (and not just the tuners like ECUTEK do), then that will be a benefit to the Subaru community in the long run anyhoo

Regardless of what you will be doing there and what their intentions are, I'm sure we'll still benefit from your work one way or another.

Take care and enjoy life - it is too short to not follow your dreams when the opportunity knocks.

Regards
Leslie




P.S. Please please please do some type of "handover" to a capable person to continue working on definitions - without it, OS tuning beyond the currently supported vehicles stops

P.P.S. And if you pass the tools to create the definitions on to Colby, ensure they are released under GPL so that one of the most critical parts of OS tuning doesn't end up as a commercial product.

If you are talking about software based ROM flashing (like Ecuflash), that would be well beyond my skill set to develop. Also, you can already tune in real-time from a laptop with ATR or Protuner software.

If that was the case, Cobb would have a piracy problem. The real value that Cobb provides is software, and by coupling their software with the AccessPort hardware, they practically ensure that everyone who uses their software has paid for it.

If people could use their ECU software and tuning software without the AccessPort, they'd sell one copy and it would be on all the P2P networks the next day.

The integration with their AccessPort hardware is the key piece of their business model, IMO.

Congratulation!
Even though I'm just getting start here I see you have made a tremendous contribution.
I think working in OS is an excellent way to sell yourself/skills to the industry. After all you need to take care of yourself first.
I enjoy using both OS and ATR. And the talent at Cobb just got a lift
Dale