[ technology Category ]
July 26, 2002

Too much M5 Technology?

If you ever watched the original Star Trek episode "The Ultimate Computer" there is a scene where the out of control M5 computer is about to destroy a robot spaceship to which Dr. McCoy utters the memorial line "Fanastic machine this M5, there is no off switch."

I keep this quote in mind while I am playing around with my new Aiptek Pocket DV digital camera, I noticed that the manual says that if the camera not doing nothing for 30 seconds it will turn itself off.

Granted the unit is kind of cheap but I am wondering why not throw in a switch that is capable of manually turning the unit off.

I feel that for a camera turning itself off is really a bad thing because there are times that you need to get ready for a shot but the subject is not ready and perhaps the subject is not going to wait for you to reset the camera after it's turned off.

I wonder if the more expensive digital cameras do have an off switch?

Posted by Helen at July 26, 2002 10:19 PM

Comments

 
Posted by Haken on July 27, 2002 3:52 AM:

My digital camera, a Toshiba, has an on/off switch. It too has a 1 minute (configurable) self-shutdown that occasionally annoys me when I want to take a different picture the following minute, but not the minute before.

The funny thing about this little feature is that, to me anyway, the camera expends more energy going through the whole shutdown/re-initialization routine than if it had just stayed on for another minute more before my next shot.

Funny thing about hi-tech gadgets, sometimes I wonder if they're too smart for their own good. Either that or the designers of these little wonders feel everyone else is inferior. Oh, stupid me, can't find the off switch if there was one.

 
Posted by helen on July 31, 2002 7:51 PM:

I was trying to put my camera through it's paces and a couple of times the camera got stuck while taking a picture.

The only way so far to unstuck the camera is to remove the batteries from the camera since there is no off switch nor a reset switch. Trouble is if you remove the batteries you lose the photos.

And I tried to attempt to transfer the photos from the camera to the PC first and the PC couldn't see the camera.

Post a Comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember info?



« Jeremy Harris' Other Shoe | Cartoons and Life »
[ HawaiiAnswers.com - You ask, Hawaii answers. ] [ HawaiiAnswers.com - Hawaii's first online news source. ] [ HawaiiAnswers.com - Let's talk story. ]
Main Page  ::  © 2002-2004 HawaiiStories  ::  E-Mail