Re: [photo-3d] Not buying a computer

[Mike Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Dr. George A. Themelis" wrote:
> 
> Well Mike, you made the BIG mistake to compare the
> Stereo Realist camera with an old computer in a stereo
> photography list!!!  You could have not picked a worse
> combination to make your (otherwise valid) point.

George, you made a BIG mistake taking on a computer
argument with someone who has been designing microprocessor
based systems since 1973.... (when I started work for Intel's
largest customer at the time).

I love a challenge.... let's see what I can do....


> car, but I don't think I know anyone who would rather
> use a 20 year old computer!!!  My $2500 Zenith 8086

I don't know anyone who'd rather use a Realist over an
RBT S1.  Do you?


> with its 640K RAM, 5 1/4 floppy discs and the extra
> $500 10MB hard drive is collecting dust in my
> basement.  I have kept it for sentimental reasons.  Do
> you see any practical use for it???

1.  It will work as well now doing what it was made for
    then.  Same as for the cameras you speak about.

2.  The instruction set of that 8086 (I once designed the
    world's highest performance emulation system for that
    processor, but that's another ancient story...) is nearly
    identical to that of your current 1-Ghz Pentium III
    (assuming that's what you're running).  Absolutely 
    identical if you run DOS on that Pentium (which you
    can).  They will BOTH run your 8086's software
    identically, only difference is the the Pentium will
    do it a lot faster (which is faster to take ten pic's,
    your S1 or your Realist?).

The big difference is that you expect MORE from a computer
now than before, while expectations of the camera hasn't
changed as much, even though the realist, as a new product,
would fail miserably in today's market because expectations
have indeed grown, even if by less an amount.  Sorry to have
to say this, but even a ten-dollar P&S camera has an easier
user-interface than the Realist.  Even promotional freebie
cameras don't require separate cocking of the shutter. Say
"so what, it can still take pictures!"?  Well, that
old computer can run word processing and spreadsheets, and
other things too!

You may argue relative magnitudes of differences, and there
is room for judgment there, but in terms of the 
comparison's point, my assertions were sound.


> My Zenith is a big ugly box.  Even aesthetically it is
> a failure.

It is capable of computing anything that your new one
can, it'd just be (much) slower.  Yes, your new machine
has many more peripherals connected to it, but those things
*could* have been connected to your old one.  My dye-sub 
printer could hook up to that old machine.  In fact,
it is very likely that your current machine has
hardware expansion slots in it that are identical to 
your old 8086 machine.  You probably could take an
expansion card from your 8086 machine and put it into
your new machine and have it work (in an ISA slot which
has been trying hard not to die and go away).

> 
> George


Mike K.


P.S. - I know someone (an old timer engineer) who as of at least a couple
       years ago still was using a PC-XT machine (slower than your
       8086) as his main machine at home!  He just uses it for text
       editing, and really, that's all that is required!  He probably
       yells much less at his editor than many yell at Microsoft Word!  :-)



P.P.S. - Old klunker PC's like your old one, I understand, are still being used
         in some places for educational purposes (due to their free
         availability).  If still true, there *might* be more klunkers
         "like" yours in actual use than there are Realists in actual
         use.  Frightening, but might be true (worldwide).