Re: Open Microscopy Initiatives?

Sorry, I got it wrong.
I thought you were looking for a new microscope at the first hand.
for a standardized interface I must admit that I am not a friend of
standards in R&D.
I rather prefer a broad palette of manufacturers and parts, even if
they are not always exchangeable.
You refer to HTML as a standard.
Well, the good thing about HTML is that most texts are readable even
if the people using it don't care about these standards. By the way,
you have alternatives like pdf, ghostscript, doc, rtf, odf, printed
books...
I srongly disagree with your idea, that any government, -especially
the US government- should control how to steer my microscope.
All good standards like DIN and later ISO come from the industry side.
(It was an american craftman's idea to standardize screws, if you
shouldn't know, and not the idea of any government). The good thing
about these standards is, that you get standard, when you buy, but you
needn't to buy standard.
So a standardizing initiative must come from users or from industry.
Now the first thing to do would be to define a standard.
Believe me, every enterprise building hardware has predefined
standards.
And standards can be subject to changes. (We have HTML version 3, by
the way...) This is what you can see, when an obsolete interface is
removed from a microscope.
These people even provide you with documentation? So they have
standards!
But I don't want microscopes standardized to the freeze as I don't
want standardized cars, because this is the best way to stop
development.
Remember the rules of evolution and keep in mind the diversity...
We have enough standards like NA, light intensity, coverslip thickness
is standardized by DIN, didn't you know? So all the things that have
to be interchangeable -the specimens- can be moved from one
microscope to another. Ther rest is "gusto" and competition and I hope
it will stay like this.

yours, heini
.

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