I have to agree with the original poster here - I don't think
he's attempting to box them in to a corner. The fact is that there
are many of us who have somewhat tight schedules we need to meet, and
that some of us based our projections upon Livingston's announcement
that (depending on the person with whom you spoke) the PM3 would be
shipping "The first of October" or "Sometime in October, we're sure."
I think that Livingston goofed a little bit in their (from my
perspective) premature announcement of the PM3 before they'd worked
out all of the bugs in the digital modem code. The arguments we've
seen on this list are a healthy testament to the wisdom of their
typical policy of not proving much advance information -- and I
can't say I blame them, after this mess. :)
On the other hand, re: buy an Ascend, we did go this route.
Aside from the 20-fold difference in setup and configuration time
between the 4004 and the PM3, both boxes seem extremely capable
and *will* do your job. But I kinda feel like the Livingston will
have you smiling while you do it, whereas the Ascend will leave you
combing through a horribly organized 4" thick ring binder that
they call a manual. In retrospect, I'm fairly glad that Livingston
didn't release a buggy product, though if you'd asked me that a month
ago I would have had a very different reply.
-Dave