Hmmm maybe digital cameras should be fitted with bog standard serial ports -
which electronics engineers are, rightly, ever loathe to give up as you can
always enable two serial devices to 'talk' to each other and exchange data
with just two lengths of wire - and a bit of programming.
Allan
PS No trees were harmed in the sending of this message and a very large
number of electrons were asked their permission to be terribly
inconvenienced. (And threw a party for them afterwards for being really cool
about it).
Disrupting the unnatural balance that you, as a conscious human being and a
confused mass of energy, have created.
-Disturb the mind -
>From: Steve Dropkin <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [OM] Re: The new digital discourse [was: Looking back and forward]
>Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 03:20:11 -0600
>
>
>Christos Stavrou wrote:
>
> > On 26/12/06, Steve Dropkin <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> In the "old" days, the product was as much about engineering and
> >> quality as it was features. Nowadays it seems that marketing and
> >> economy trump both of those, and items are made obsolete just
> >> because their continued use threatens corporate income streams.
> >
> > [snip]
> > All that, to such extent, that it's rather clear what the rationale of
> > the producing companies is right now: Everyone must owe a digital
> > camera very soon... And of course must change it in few years or
> > months again!.. (otherwise how the profit will come through, apart the
> > new/old recipe of using cheap and child and other well exploited
> > labour in south east asia?)
>
>IMHO, this emphasis on income through "new" product is not limited
>to cameras. There is tremendous market pressure to sell more product
>of any kind. Selling someone an item they can use for a couple of
>decades does not meet that directive. Therefore the product must be
>made obsolete or made to fail in a reasonable amount of time, or
>there must be an overriding new feature that is a "must-have": more
>pixels or anti-shake or a different color or a new flavor. In the
>case of computer-related electronics, the state-of-the-art advances
>quickly enough to obsolete products, as well.
>
>At my desk I have an Apple QuickTake digital camera; it's about ten
>years old. Owing to changes in the connections offered on computers
>and the fact that the driver software stopped being produced a few
>years after the product was discontinued, it is not possible to take
>pictures with this camera today and see those pictures on a
>reasonably current computer. If I want to use this camera, I'd have
>to find an old Mac or Windows PC which has the appropriate ports, OS
>version, and floppy drive (!) on which I can install the software
>needed to transfer the pictures.
>
>OTOH, 30 years after my OM-1MD was introduced, it takes as good a
>picture as it ever did and I still can buy film and processing
>readily. I think my E-1 can last, physically, as long as my OM-1
>has. But being able to use it in 30 years -- that's a whole
>different thing.
>
>Steve
>
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