I’m one of the leaders of OpenCog, and I can tell you that these accusations are spurious and bizzare. Regarding installing dependencies and compiling the code, detailed instructions are provided on our wiki. All the major features have been released (as they were ported/cleaned up during 2008 and 2009).
Some interesting features were previously implemented in Novamente but during rushed commercial contracts, in a hacky way that means it’s easier to re-implement them now. Sometimes people have difficulties compiling the code, but we help them if they show up on IRC (I don’t remember Louie though).
I’m in Hong Kong for the OpenCog-related project here (http://opencog.org/2010/10/opencog-based-game-characters-at-hong-kong-poly-u/). I’m a “transplanted Westerner”, originally from New Zealand (moved here about 2 months ago). Available basically any evening.