Re: [tlug] Linux / MacOS X and dv cameras

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

On 7/21/07, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
> Lyle H Saxon writes:
>  > Yeah - and there was even a special Brand-W version for NEC that
>  > produced files incompatible with everyone else!  For computers, NEC is
>  > at the very top of my "Do Not Buy!!!" list!  Sony is second.
>
> I don't think I'd go that far.  Do you remember Toshiba's 3-speed 3.5"
> floppies that defaulted to 720kB and 1.2MB formats?

No, I don't remember that.  I very stupidly bought a word processor
that I used until 1996, when I got my first used computer.

> *All* the Japanese makers did that kind of stuff (including your buddy Hitachi,
> IIRC they had displays with some "super-VGA" format that only
> Hitachi's version of DoS/Windrows could access).

Well, maybe they did, but in eleven years of mixing and matching used
and new parts with stacks of computers both at work and at home,
*only* NEC has consistently caused compatibility problems with memory
boards that are supposedly the same specs as other manufacturer's
boards (and yes, I admit that there is a black magic factor with
memory boards, but NEC has been worse than everyone else), and I
personally experienced the incompatibility of NEC's file formats at a
time when all the other manufacturers of equipment running brand-W had
no such problem.  As for HItachi being my "buddy", I don't think of it
as a living individual, but I've had very good luck with their
machines.  My refrigerator is 19 years old; my vacuum cleaner is over
20, etc.  And the micro-tower computer I recently bought is the best
designed small box I've seen to date.  Have you had bad experiences
with Hitachi products, other then the floppy example you mention?

Well - okay, I haven't used all manufacturer's computers, but I've used these:

Compaq
Digital Equipment Corp.
IBM
Dell
Hitachi
Fujitsu
NEC
Toshiba
Hewett-Packard
Micron
Acer
Epson
Sony
- and a few custom boxes

The quality of components and construction of NEC computers is better
than some other things out there, but when it comes to swapping parts
for Frankenstein boxes, I still say NEC is #1 on my "Do Not Buy" list.

> But running unauthorized programs on somebody else's computer is a
> different level of evil.

I agree, but the main reason I don't want to buy a Sony computer is
based on what I think about their hardware, irrespective of what the
entertainment division has done.

Lyle