[LRflex] Re: Random ruminations on my R9 failure
- From: phamard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:36:10 +0100
This is not fantasy Bill, it is what happens everyday with cars for instance.
Sincerely hope Leica folks are reading your post.
Wish you the best.
phx
----Message d'origine----
>De: William Abbott <wbabbott3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sujet: [LRflex] Random ruminations on my R9 failure
>Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:35:55 -0800
>A: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>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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