Unfortunately it's impossible to give timelines. Let me explain why:

- a contributor who is reliable and gets paid for his work may be able to put in 8 hours a day. But since we're completely unfunded and our costs vastly outstrip our donations, chances are we can only afford to pay him for a period of time. Once money dries up, there goes that contributor.

- an unpaid contributor may be able to put in a few hours a day now, but if he gets a job offer, or has a kid, or gets bored, well...there goes that contributor.

In view of this, it would be irresponsible of us to make assumptions and give timelines that we're almost guaranteed to miss as situations and circumstances change. This will definitely change in the future as Monero-oriented operations like MyMonero or Crypto Kingdom or MoneroClub grow and start putting funds back to core development, which will give us stable cash flow, and thus the ability to be predictively productive.

Until that time, it's going to be a bit of a chicken-or-egg scenario.

Just to add to smooth's points - because we can't predict what the fee will be, a transaction is constructed as follows:

1. Create the transaction with the minimum fee
2. Measure its kb size
3. If the fee is correct for the size, it's all done, else increase the fee to match the size and go back to 1

The reason it is done that way is because a change in fee may introduce an additional input, which may subsequently increase the size, and thus the fee will no longer be correct.

Therefore, there's no way to intelligently estimate the fee until the transaction has actually been built.

Thanks for the response. I appreciate your predicament and understand the need to not present unrealistic expectations in the current environment.  My hope would be that at some point the funding, cashflow and stability would allow for some semblance of a development timeline. I know that people with various resources invested in Monero, appreciate knowing at least a rough timeframe as to when something new will be delivered.

Again thanks for your response and all that you do!

You can connect your simplewallet to a public node (subject to some security downgrade considerations). One such node is https://www.moneroclub.com/node. This will require a lot less RAM.
The view key can not yet be used for this, as there are no available tools for this yet. It is one of the intended purposes of the view key, though.

My Antivirus was blocking it without telling me. It had never blocked it before. It had been added to AVG Exceptions previously so I do not know why it is being blocked. Scans are negative.

I am using an old machine that I only use for crypto wallets/cold storage.  I have 6GB but based on my problems I am thinking about buying more

This same exact thing happened to me last weekend when I had to rebuild a windows machine.  Started at 125 days behind. 

LMAO.   That just hit me funny, especially when I looked at your reply in their thread.  Oh I needed a good laugh this morning.

вceм пpивeт, биpжa cryptsy пpиxyeлa, нecкoлькo мecяцeв в иxнeм xyeвoм гoлocoвaнии xmr являлcя лидepoм, ceгoдня peшил зaйти a тaм кaкaятo aricoin, чтo зa xyйня твopитcя? нayк Уя cпpaшивaeтcя гoлocoвaли пpoплaчивaли, ecли эти чepти тaк и нe дoбaвили нaшy cyпep мoнeткy, пepeдaйтe им ктo cмoжeт чтo oни гpeбaнныe xyecocы!!!
пepeвeдитe ктo cмoжeт, зapaнee cпacибo) извиняюcь зa бoгaтый pyccкий язык)

How is the database testing going?