|GG| Dpreview wants to cater to the simple people

John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

But tell me this, Jerry: why is it that kids have the
reputation of being able to operate all these gadgets?

Unlike us they don't have better things to do with their time
than read arcane manuals?

See my longer reply to David on this, John. You are certainly
right, though. If young people can't find it on the Web they aren't
interested in it. Try and get a young person to actually sit down
and read ANY book!

The video recorder flashing 12:00 used to be the classic
example.

The clock can now be set automatically, which should have been
done from the beginning.

To have set the clock automatically would have required a computer,
or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had OR some means
of communicating with a cable or satellite system to actually pick
up the time. Our current age is such that few under 30 can even
imagine what it was like to play with the first Betamax and some
can't even fathom the first commercial digital cameras, and NONE
have any clue what an Apple ][ or Imsai 8080 was!

--
HP, aka Jerry

"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America,
but clearly can't stand Americans? – Sydney Ellen Wade to President
Andrew Shepherd in the movie "The American President

HEMI-Powered wrote:
John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

The video recorder flashing 12:00 used to be the classic
example.

The clock can now be set automatically, which should have been
done from the beginning.

To have set the clock automatically would have required a computer,
or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had OR some means
of communicating with a cable or satellite system to actually pick
up the time.

They way it's done now is that some TV stations braodcast a time
signal along with the video that the VCR can detect and use.

Moot now, of course, as VCRs are just about history.

--
Ray Fischer

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:04:54 -0600, "HEMI-Powered" wrote
in :

John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

The clock can now be set automatically, which should have been
done from the beginning.

To have set the clock automatically would have required a computer,
or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had OR some means
of communicating with a cable or satellite system to actually pick
up the time. ...

It could have been done then as it's done now over the TV signal, and
even fairly early VHS and Beta VCRs had reasonably capable
microcontrollers on board -- that's how unattended recording was
controlled -- certainly by the mid-80's.
--
Best regards,
John
[Please Note: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

HEMI-Powered wrote:
[]
An example of the latter: my daughter's hubby is a gadget
collector. He's got a decent EVF digital right now that he bought
mainly on it's specs and features. I don't know what brand or
model but it doesn't matter. In going over it and comparing notes
with my Rebel, he was a whiz at manipulating all the features at
lightning speed yet he had ZERO idea on how to apply any of it!
He is hardly a dummy, it's just that he hasn't been around
photography at all long enough to know what it is about and apply
his tech knowledge to a different kind of problem.

Don't know if the above is right, as I said, it's just a
perspective on what we're discussing here.

Yes, I've met folks with a similar capability. I know what you mean.

I also accept that we may be less willing to learn new tricks as we get
older, although I might say less willing to learn "unnecessary" new
tricks. After all, time is precious, isn't it?

Cheers,
David

David J Taylor added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

HEMI-Powered wrote:
[]
An example of the latter: my daughter's hubby is a gadget
collector. He's got a decent EVF digital right now that he
bought mainly on it's specs and features. I don't know what
brand or model but it doesn't matter. In going over it and
comparing notes with my Rebel, he was a whiz at manipulating
all the features at lightning speed yet he had ZERO idea on
how to apply any of it! He is hardly a dummy, it's just that
he hasn't been around photography at all long enough to know
what it is about and apply his tech knowledge to a different
kind of problem.

Yes, I've met folks with a similar capability. I know what
you mean.

I also accept that we may be less willing to learn new tricks
as we get older, although I might say less willing to learn
"unnecessary" new tricks. After all, time is precious, isn't
it?

I think that's true, David. But, I don't think that it is that our
brains are slowing down, just that we're more set in our ways and
less willing to take on new risk. Often, but not always, getting
older also means living on less income after retiring, sometimes
very sadly, on Social Security or other government pensions as
one's sole source of money. Then, buying new toys isn't likely to
even be an option.

I'd also agree with your idea about learning what may be perceived
as unnecessary new ideas, techniques, or things. Yepper, if the old
way still works, why invest time and energy, not to mention money,
on new fangled things? grin I know you're taking a lighte view
here so please don't misinterpret my next:

Leave us oldsters alone, we have the test of time and history on
our side! To wit:

"Everything that can be invented has been invented" - U. S. Patent
Commissioner, Charles H. Duell, 1899

--
HP, aka Jerry

"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America,
but clearly can't stand Americans? – Sydney Ellen Wade to President
Andrew Shepherd in the movie "The American President

Ray Fischer added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

To have set the clock automatically would have required a
computer, or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had
OR some means of communicating with a cable or satellite
system to actually pick up the time.

They way it's done now is that some TV stations braodcast a
time signal along with the video that the VCR can detect and
use.

Moot now, of course, as VCRs are just about history.

Maybe, maybe not, or at least, not always. Look at the recent
problems so many electronic devices had with changing to Daylight
Savings Time or back to standard time after President Bush
modified the dates by a few weeks in spring and fall. Devices
that had the dates in ROM or something else not easily modified
on the fly now get it wrong every year.

VCRs per se may be history, but VHS tapes are still alive and
well and many brands/models of modern DVRs include a VCR-style
VHS tape reader and even a writer of tapes. I have two. Although
quite new, only a couple of years, they cannot get date and time
information unless they are set up to receive it either from a
broadcast signal - rare hereabouts - or from a commercial signal
like cable TV or satellite TV.

But, before you denigrate things old, remember that you, too,
will get old some day and I doubt you want to be made the fool
just because you no longer keep up with the times.

--
HP, aka Jerry

"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America,
but clearly can't stand Americans? – Sydney Ellen Wade to
President Andrew Shepherd in the movie "The American President

John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

The clock can now be set automatically, which should have
been done from the beginning.

To have set the clock automatically would have required a
computer, or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had
OR some means of communicating with a cable or satellite
system to actually pick up the time. ...

It could have been done then as it's done now over the TV
signal, and even fairly early VHS and Beta VCRs had reasonably
capable microcontrollers on board -- that's how unattended
recording was controlled -- certainly by the mid-80's.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda, John. I live in the world of reality and
am not terribly interested in uselessly burning up energy
contemplating what might have been. I need to deal with what is
and move on with my life.

But, going back in time to the days of Betamax and early VHS
recorders, yeah, they had primative electronics and some may have
had primative computers. But, in those days, memory was ultra-
expensive, and anything computer was also pricey. So, designers
spent the available computing resources on providing the service
customers were paying for and had some romantic notion that
people were bright enough to set to time when the machine was
unplugged.

This silly debate is yet another sign of the degeneration of
society today into some perverted form of instant gratification
where people try to blame others for their own laziness or their
own failures. Yeah, I like power windows on my cars same as most
people do, but why is it automagically true that anything the way
it once was is described only in pejorative ways?

--
HP, aka Jerry

"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America,
but clearly can't stand Americans? – Sydney Ellen Wade to
President Andrew Shepherd in the movie "The American President

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:30:46 -0600, "HEMI-Powered" wrote
in :

... Look at the recent
problems so many electronic devices had with changing to Daylight
Savings Time or back to standard time after President Bush
modified the dates by a few weeks in spring and fall. ...

Actually Congress -- Dubyah just signed it into law.
--
Best regards,
John
[Please Note: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:34:43 -0600, "HEMI-Powered" wrote
in :

John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

But, going back in time to the days of Betamax and early VHS
recorders, yeah, they had primative electronics and some may have
had primative computers. But, in those days, memory was ultra-
expensive, and anything computer was also pricey. So, designers
spent the available computing resources on providing the service
customers were paying for and had some romantic notion that
people were bright enough to set to time when the machine was
unplugged.

No, they were engineers, and it just never occurred to them that other
people might be different.

This silly debate is yet another sign of the degeneration of
society today into some perverted form of instant gratification
where people try to blame others for their own laziness or their
own failures. ...

No offense, but that's nonsense.
--
Best regards,
John
[Please Note: Ads belong *only* in rec.photo.marketplace.digital, as per
http://bobatkins.photo.net/info/charter.htm http://rpdfaq.50megs.com/]

Ï "HEMI-Powered" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
...
John Navas added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

But tell me this, Jerry: why is it that kids have the
reputation of being able to operate all these gadgets?

Unlike us they don't have better things to do with their time
than read arcane manuals?

See my longer reply to David on this, John. You are certainly
right, though. If young people can't find it on the Web they aren't
interested in it. Try and get a young person to actually sit down
and read ANY book!

The video recorder flashing 12:00 used to be the classic
example.

The clock can now be set automatically, which should have been
done from the beginning.

To have set the clock automatically would have required a computer,
or a more capable computer, than the early VCRs had OR some means
of communicating with a cable or satellite system to actually pick
up the time.
In Europe, there is such a system. From a central long wave transmitter, in
Frankfurt/Main (germany) the time is being transmitted. I have a "weather
station" with such a clock, even in Crete I can receive the signal and the
clock shows (usually) the correct time
Our current age is such that few under 30 can even
imagine what it was like to play with the first Betamax and some
can't even fathom the first commercial digital cameras, and NONE
have any clue what an Apple ][ or Imsai 8080 was!

--




--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr