Larry wrote:
>Graphics Workshop Professional can write the Kodak PhotoCD format, as I
previously posted.
<clip>
>While Kodak has licensed us the technology to create PCD
files – a useful format for high quality imaging – they have thus far
refused to disclose the details of the other bits required to create a
complete Kodak PhotoCD which would be readable by Kodak's set-top players..
>They seem to want to keep this facility for their own authoring packages.
Kodak spent a lot of money in the 80's to develop a proprietary
digital/CD-ROM based "new technology" which we all would recognize today as
"Filmscanning," "Digital Photography," and Oh yes--Photo CD. They priced it
so high at the time that even pro photographers balked, especially the ones
who'd invested heavily in chemical processing machines only a few years
before.
Kodak has a long-standing habit of doing this--they were one of the original
"predator corporations" in the early 1900's (Eastman following the lead of
John D. Rockerfeller), swallowing up U.S. camera manufacturers until there
were only three left--one of which was originally German. What happened next
was they started getting sloppy--They haven't made a good camera since the
Retina in the 50's.
Kodak still works hard to stay "leading edge" in the film manufacturing
business, but their built-in arrogance vis a vis "Our Way or No Way" hurts
them, big-time. Result--400+ Rochester workers laid off in December, more to
come. The reason it's sad is, it didn't have to happen--but management
attitudes made it inevitable. Microsoft et al, take note.
--LRA
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