| Kodak buys RSI!! [message #21848] |
Mon, 25 September 2000 00:00  |
Pete Riley
Messages: 12
Registered: June 1998
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Junior Member |
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Hello IDLers,
What's the word on the street? This is news to me. A couple of questions:
1. Why does Kodak want RSI?
2. Given the answer to 1., what does this *really* mean for the future of
IDL?
To speculate wildly, I would guess that Kodak needs a specific aspect of
RSI - perhaps Rivertools or ENVI for some application of field they are
moving into. Whatever it is, it's cheaper for them to buy an established
application and mold it to their needs (and the irony of it if they only
want Spyglass!). Now unless they've suddenly moved into the market of
scientific analysis and visualization, I'd say this is a very bad thing for
most of us.Of course I hope I'm wrong. I wonder whether we can get a refund
on our maintainance contracts?
-Pete
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| Re: Kodak buys RSI!! [message #21886 is a reply to message #21848] |
Fri, 29 September 2000 00:00  |
Nigel Wade
Messages: 286
Registered: March 1998
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Senior Member |
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Struan Gray wrote:
>
> If IDL was killed tomorrow I would still have the working version
> I currently own, and although switching to another package would be a
> pain, it's hardly the end of the world. So congrats to D. Stern for
> cashing in on all his hard work, and I'll wait and see what happens
> next.
>
> Struan
But that's only a solution until you upgrade your OS and find that
the current binaries no longer work. Or you upgrade your license server
and need new license keys.
I certainly hope they continue to maintain and develop the core IDL
package. That's the one we rely on here. Switching to any other package
would be a major headache for us - our routine day-to-day data
processing and graphics is built on IDL.
We will be keeping a close watch on developments at RSI/Kodak.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail : nmw@ion.le.ac.uk
Phone : +44 (0)116 2523568, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555
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| Re: Kodak buys RSI!! [message #21896 is a reply to message #21848] |
Thu, 28 September 2000 00:00 |
Andy Loughe
Messages: 174
Registered: November 1995
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Senior Member |
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Struan Gray wrote:
> If IDL was killed tomorrow I would still have the working version
> I currently own, and although switching to another package would be a
> pain, it's hardly the end of the world. So congrats to D. Stern for
> cashing in on all his hard work, and I'll wait and see what happens
> next.
Let's hope IDL isn't killed tomorrow... my superiors at NOAA
*just* purchased a site license!
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| Re: Kodak buys RSI!! [message #21897 is a reply to message #21848] |
Thu, 28 September 2000 00:00 |
Struan Gray
Messages: 178
Registered: December 1995
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Senior Member |
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I can see plenty of reasons why Kodak would want to buy RSI's
technology to use internally and to offer to others in the form of
packaged solutions. I can't see a compelling reason for them to sell
me a 4th generation programming tool.
That said, this is hardly a major bet-the-company investment for
Kodak, so in practice pretty well anything could happen. The
photographic arm seems to be in headless-chicken mode at present, but
perhaps, like Baldric, they have a plan.
I don't often disagree with David, but I'd say ION is probably the
rough diamond hiding in RSI's crown (VIP is another matter: as Bob S.
said, it is a very poor copy of Labview). Despite Kodak's interests
in medical and scientific imaging they have always made the bulk of
their money from consumer photography. It's pretty clear that
supplying analogue film for snapshots is not a long-term solution.
Digital photofinishing over the web will probably take over, and that
means image processsing for the masses, if only to crop,
colour-balance and add captions.
If IDL was killed tomorrow I would still have the working version
I currently own, and although switching to another package would be a
pain, it's hardly the end of the world. So congrats to D. Stern for
cashing in on all his hard work, and I'll wait and see what happens
next.
Struan
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