P3D Dreams & Reality...

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Our hobby is loaded with stories of people dreaming exciting things
just to see them remain dreams because of something called cost.

We have all dreamed about the ideal stereo SLR camera, yet we
have not convined any manufacturer to make it and sell it for
$350.  Instead, we are buying (or dreaming about buying) $3000 
RBT cameras and projectors... Another dream:  A modern
2x2 viewer with internal illumination and achromatic lenses
for $100-$150.

Anybody remembers the Leep wide-angle camera system?  Sounded
like a nice idea... but it remained a dream at the cost of
serveral hundered dollars for a few unfortunate investors.

The SIRDS idea that started the discussion is another example
but in reverse.  The people who thought of the idea would not
dream how profitable it would become.  Who is to take the
credit?  The person(s) who thought of it or those who made
it a commercial success?  Some other ideas that worked:
View-Master, Realist.

>we travel to the moon and planets and even find other planets 
>around distant suns, but can't get a MAC computer to run a copy 
>of DepthCharge...

And who cares?...  Sorry to sound mean but obviously I don't care.
If there are people who care then why don't they do something
about it?  Is it a matter of dreaming up a solution, or getting
down to do the work?  If there was some profit to be made or
glory to be obtained, I am sure plenty of good, hard-working 
programmers would be working on it...

-- George Themelis


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