From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@mac.com>

Date: October 17, 2008 1:37:40 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Say NO to the new No FireWire MacBooks.


Hi Milton, I notice the Mac Mini & iMacs still have Firewire ports. Would your job still be tenable supporting these computers? I guess the majority of your subscribers are running lap-tops? Mark.

On 18/10/2008, at 5:47 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:


Hi Folks;


Apple has removed FireWire from their new Aluminum MacBooks. If you

care about Astro IIDC, then I urge you to not purchase ANY Mac that

doesn't have FireWire.


Many of you think that it should be "simple" to switch to USB - well I

have news for you, it isn't. I have done this before for companies

under Contract Jobs and I'll share a bit with you on this.


Almost all of of the USB 2 Camera Companies have developed proprietary

non public methods for controlling their cameras. It's very expedient

if you don't have to follow any camera specifications except your own

basic needs, but it makes it a living hell to try and support that

from a 3rd party company. The company has to be willing to share the

low level information with me before I can even begin to work with

their cameras and many of them are not interested for less than 5%

market share (outside of the USA Laptops, that's where Apple is at).


Secondly, almost all of the cameras require a Firmware upload before

the go from being a "user defined" USB device into a Camera, which has

to be done by host software. This means they also have to give me

firmware uploads for each camera (which are included in the

application / drivers which bloats them up) and in many cases, this

changes over time which makes it that much harder to support.


The FireWire IIDC protocol I use for Astro IIDC is an open standard

followed by both Developers (like me) and Manufacturers. That's why I

can write one set of code and support dozens of manufacturers and

hundreds if not thousands of compliant IIDC cameras.


So if you people are not proactive and buy non FireWire equipped Macs,

then Astro IIDC will just "fade away" and you guys will have no Mac

software.


So the writings on the wall, either vote with your wallet and tell

Steve Jobs "I want FireWire" or face switching to Windows for all your

Imaging needs. Here is a link to give Apple Feedback on their new LapTops:


http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html


Thanks in advance..


Milton Aupperle



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