Re: Kodak buys RSI!!

[Struan Gray <struan.gray(at)sljus.lu.se>]

	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