I am aware of the rumours surrounding development of infosystem alpha, so let me take this opportunity to settle a few facts for the record.

Yes, the originally stated fall 2010 completion date is now impossible to achieve. Contrary to what you may have heard, we do not possess a time machine, and have little interest generally in fouling up causality just to ship a product on time.

At the moment, our anticipated release target is “when it’s done,” and not a moment sooner. We still plan to launch in the three pilot locations mentioned in our initial announcement. Infrastructure deployment in Canary Wharf and Kikowani is proceeding on schedule; work in Mifune, though briefly suspended due to the March earthquake, has now resumed.

We’re also taking the time to enhance security in the wake of several network intrusions we suffered earlier this year. So far, these improvements have mostly taken the form of firing personnel who were stupid enough to fall for social engineering attacks, or incompetent enough to get caught conducting internal subterfuge. If you’re going to try to backstab your employers, at least make sure you have the skills to cover it up afterward.

Further updates on development progress will be released as time permits. We hope to see you soon, unless you have difficult questions for our executives.

Jacob Campbell
Chief Executive Officer
Ascension Systems

cc: AHC, PL, TMR