Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
- Subject: Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
- From: Tom Lianza <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:54:25 -0400
- Thread-topic: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
Just so there is no misunderstanding here: What got published was second or
third hand information that was possibly released in violation of an NDA.
From this source, a perception developed that we, X-rite, were somehow
trying to limit the product for our own uses, which was completely untrue.
>From this, we see a demand to contact your X-rite representative and raise a
great flag of rebellion. I tried to intelligently point out to those who
can read, that there are significant issues which take time and resources
to finalize, that are not available at the moment. The new technology is
not trivial to implement. We also have two separate implementation paths,
one for OEM¹s and another for Developers, both internal and external. The
documentation for the second path was recently completed but to be frank, it
is hard for me to follow and there is steep learning curve because of all
the issues I posed earlier in the post. The policy that is mentioned at the
release of the product is not necessarily a policy that covers the life of
the product. X-rite¹s ³self-perceived immediate interests² are making sure
that we don¹t get swamped by developer issues that overwhelm the technical
support team which will then lead to poor implementations in the field.
Now with my comment about ³uninformed²: the filter issue you referred to
was a GLASS filter not plastic filter issue and it was cured many months
ago.
Regards,
Tom
On 8/19/11 10:19 AM, "MARK SEGAL" <email@hidden> wrote:
> "Reality" is perceived by different people in different ways depending on,
> amongst other things, at which end of the spectrum they happen to sit, what
> their interests are, and how these matters affect them personally. While some
> peoples' reality is other peoples' snark, we'll see over time which
> perspective prevails. And if there is really critical misinformation out here,
> maybe the company needs to do more to correct that. Over the years of
> corporate history, the demise of bigger fish than XRite started when they just
> couldn't truly and seriously see beyond themselves and their self-perceived
> immediate interests.
>
> Mark
>
> From: Tom Lianza <email@hidden>
> To: Ernst Dinkla <email@hidden>; Karl Koch <email@hidden>;
> email@hidden
> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 9:55:03 AM
> Subject: Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
>
> To all,
>
> It's hard to respond to so many erroneous opinions at one time, but I will
> make some general comments.
>
> 1. OEM products. When an OEM purchases a product from us, it is their
> product. There may be manufacturing differences, there may be firmware
> differences. Most important, X-rite cannot make a change to the product
> without specific agreement with the OEM. We can, and often do, make changes
> in the retail line of products. OEMs make specific volume commitments and
> often invest a significant amount of R&D and supply chain cost to implement
> the product in their product line. They also service the product. Some
> display vendors put the calibration software in the display. They have
> every right to insist on absolute customization. When I designed the Sony
> Artisan hardware I had to use a completely different strategy for
> suppression of static because their standards exceeded the FCC and European
> standards of the time. We also had to re-engineer the cable so that the
> insulation could be physically consumed. This required a change in the
> production techniques of the cable and very specific testing for impurities.
> OEM's invest heavily in their products and they need to protect that
> investment. They are not screwing the consumer. Comments like that
> indicate a total ignorance of the position that OEM's are in.
>
> 2. The small developer- Independent developers are an important part of our
> business. The question is: who supports the hardware product? A developer
> like Graeme Gill "cracks" our products at "arm's length". In the US, this
> is completely legal and has been defended in court many times (the DOS BIOS
> is a good example of how this worked). He applies his technology to a
> product that was legally purchased through retail channels. What would be
> illegal would be to make copies of our software and sell it using the
> cracked technology or to ship our drivers, unlicensed, to the field. In the
> life a given hardware product, independent software developers will make
> many upgrades and not all of them will be free. We make money on hardware
> once, and that piece of hardware is an "enabler" for many other companies
> over the course of its lifetime.
>
> I believe that there will be a mechanism for independent developers to use
> the latest technology colorimeter, purchased through retail channels, but I
> need to confirm that. Understand that the latest technology products are
> significantly different than the earlier products and do require a certain
> amount of training to implement properly. It's not in anyone's best interest
> to open the technology to everyone who thinks they are a developer until we
> understand the support and training costs. Not everyone is a Karl or
> Graeme. Is it in the consumers best interests to have poor software
> implementations of new hardware technology? Should we make exceptions for
> certain developers who may have the knowledge and not allow other developers
> into the fray? How do we make sure that an iSV product doesn't kill a
> retail product by overlaying different dll's or packages? How do we cover
> release of information that is currently under application for patent? How
> do we inform ISV's of changes that are warranted by changes in operating
> systems. How do we justify the costs of system support to the ISV community
> given that we make money only on the sale of the hardware item? There is
> nothing nefarious here, it just takes time and resources which are not
> available at the moment.
>
> Third hand comments about internal corporate policy (which, by the way is
> probably covered by NDA) such as those from Mr Wagner, should not generate
> the frenzy of nonsense that we have seen on this list. Snarky and
> uninformed comments like those of Mr. Segal add nothing to a solution to the
> issues of ISV support. I hope that you all have a better understanding of
> the situation and we can end this mindless thread started with third hand
> information taken out of the context of reality.....
>
> Regards,
> Tom Lianza
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8/19/11 6:25 AM, "Ernst Dinkla" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>> > On 08/19/2011 09:57 AM, Karl Koch wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> *snip*
>>> >>
>>>> >>> If the communication interface for the Dreamcolor versions could be
>>>> cracked
>>>> >>> I
>>>> >>> suppose that ccmxmake could adapt the filtering sufficiently for other
>>>> >>> monitor
>>>> >>> types. There may even be some experience on adaption with the NEC
>>>> variety.
>>> >>
>>> >> <irony> I´m not quite sure, cracking software or communication
>>> interfaces is
>>> >> quite legal</irony>
>>> >> Looks like that´s what had happened in ccmxmake, bt it can well be that
>>> >> Argyll
>>> >> has permission to do so.
>> >
>> > Let me rephrase that to: "an alternative driver created for".
>> >
>>> >> *snip*
>>> >>
>>>> >>> The current policy is bad for consumers and is anticompetitive.
>>> >>
>>> >> I don´t think so! On the contrary: This policy (with which I don´t agree
>>> >> either,
>>> >> but it´s X-Rite´s decision and none of my business) will encourage
>>> >> competitors
>>> >> to develop, manufacture and sell new instruments without these
>>> restrictions.
>>> >> And
>>> >> thus we will have a competitive situation not only in the field of
>>> software,
>>> >> but
>>> >> also in hardware. This will break X-Rite´s monopoly and they have
>>> begged
>>> >> for
>>> >> it ;-)
>> >
>> > My thoughts too. Too much good CM software around that needs compatible
>> > hardware. What came to the surface in hard- and software so far from
>> > the GM + M + X merges is not convincing. Including more restrictions on
>> > its use + applying absurd new restrictions on the software it had to
>> > replace. What looked like a potential monopolist some years ago could be
>> > a niche player soon enough with this policy. A policy that Apple might
>> > exploit successfully but not X-rite.
>> >
>> > A redesign of for example the SpectroCam could have a bright future,
>> > bundling it with a nice colorimeter for monitor calibration would
>> > overcome the US patent issue too. Add something like Argyll's ccmxmake
>> > and that bundle delivers more than the sum of two devices. Barbieri is
>> > still alive, the Spyder colorimeters improved a lot and with a Chinese
>> > CM software company running now it would be surprising if there would
>> > not appear some hardware from that part of the world too.
>
>
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