[LRflex] Random ruminations on my R9 failure
- From: William Abbott <wbabbott3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:35:55 -0800
Hi all,
I realize I am presuming quite a bit in presenting these ideas, and
ask for your forbearance in advance; here are two ruminations on my
R9 failure, one from the past, which illuminates my thinking to this
day, and one about what I believe "should be." They are both
rhetorical and require no answers, but I welcome your comments.
I was reminded of a dichotomy I first recognized, in a blinding
glimpse of the obvious, some fifty years ago. I was in charge of a
large ship's steam-turbine propulsion plant and we had to repair a
turbine bearing that had begun to run a bit too warm for comfort. The
failure mode was obvious, but the time-honored fix took considerable
careful labor; experienced, manual dexterity; and much time to
complete, more than a day in all.
A short while later, the ship's search radar failed, and the captain
asked the man in charge how long it would take to fix it. He told the
captain, "It will probably take less than an hour to fix, but I can't
tell you how long it will take to find the fault; it may take a day
or more." The fault did take more than a day to locate, but it was
then fixed in about fifteen minutes.
The contrast was striking. The bearing was easy to diagnose and
difficult to fix; the radar was difficult to diagnose but easy to
fix. The first I thought of as "visual technology" (you can literally
see the problem, albeit with a thermometer), the latter as "mental
technology" (you have to locate the fault mentally).
My R9 failure tends to be towards the latter case, as do many digital
camera failures, I suppose.
Which led me to this thought: While I was experimenting with my
camera, trying to see what the limits of the failure were, it
occurred to me that what I really needed was to be able to connect
the camera to my computer, with the Leica-provided FireWire cable, as
if I were installing a firmware update, and run a diagnostic program,
downloaded from Leica, to diagnose and confirm the failure, and then
send the results to Leica or follow the diagnostic program's directions.
Or, better yet, plug in the camera and then call up a Leica website
on the internet and have a Leica computer somewhere in the world
remotely run a factory digital diagnostic program on my camera from
afar.
I fantasize (and I stress, fantasize) that when my camera arrives on
the repair bench in New jersey, it will be connected to a digital
test set to diagnose its condition.
That connection might just as well be done over the internet as with
a one-meter long cable a continent away from my home in California.
With all best wishes at this festive season, and always,
Bill
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