Uniformality- that's the ticket

[Derek McGowan]

How can anyone hate competition? Especially in America, the nation where NFL football games are consistently the top watched broadcasts? Where we send girls to soccer and gymnastics and boys to karate and pop warner, as soon as they are old enough to walk. Where we compete in pick-up games and video games. Where guys rev their engines at neighboring cars while waiting at lights. Where desperate shoppers physically compete with one another on Black Friday in the aisles of Wal-Mart for that last Monster High doll.

I personally love every bit of it. It makes us stronger. It propels us forward. The tears following a loss become the determination at winning the next deal. It gives us a great variety down the cereal aisle. It gives us smaller and faster phones. Okay, so the phones are now growing larger now but so what. I love it in business; I love it in sports. I love it in The Battle of the Bands; I love it in The Last Comic Standing. I love it in courting, well maybe not (I’d prefer to just get the girl).

But…. There are times where I don’t love competition. In fact, I hate it in some situations. Situations like “file formats,” “protocols,” and “form factors.” What am I talking about? How about how many picture formats there are, let me count the ways…

Well, we have JPEG/JFIF, JPEG 2000, Exif, TIFF, RAW, GIF, BMP, PNG, PPM, PGM, PBM, PNM, PFM, PAM, WEBP.

And ….

RGBE (Radiance HDR), IFF-RGFX, JPEG XR (New JPEG standard based on Microsoft HD Photo), TGA (TARGA), ILBM (IFF-style format for up to 32 bit in planar representation, plus optional 64 bit extensions), DEEP (IFF-style format used by TVPaint), IMG (Graphical Environment Manager image file; planar, run-length encoded), PCX (Personal Computer eXchange), ECW (Enhanced Compression Wavelet), IMG (ERDAS IMAGINE Image), SID (multiresolution seamless image database, MrSID), CD5 (Chasys Draw Image), FITS (Flexible Image Transport System), PGF (Progressive Graphics File), XCF (eXperimental Computing Facility format, native GIMP format), PSD (Adobe PhotoShop Document), PSP (Corel Paint Shop Pro), VICAR file format (NASA/JPL image transport format), CGM, Gerber File Format (RS-274X), SVG, AI (Adobe Illustrator), CDR (CorelDRAW), HPGL, introduced on Hewlett-Packard plotters, but generalized into a printer language, HVIF (Haiku Vector Icon Format), MathML, MetaPost, Myv vector format, NAPLPS (North American Presentation Layer Protocol Syntax), ODG (OpenDocument Graphics), !DRAW, a native vector graphic format (in several backward compatible versions) for the RISC-OS computer system begun by Acorn in the mid-1980s and still present on that platform today, POV-Ray markup language, PPT (Microsoft PowerPoint), Precision Graphics Markup Language, a W3C submission that was not adopted as a recommendation., PSTricks and PGF/TikZ are languages for creating graphics in TeX documents., ReGIS, used by DEC computer terminals, Remote imaging protocol, VML (Vector Markup Language), WMF / EMF (Windows Metafile / Enhanced Metafile), Xar format used in vector applications from Xara, XPS (XML Paper Specification), 3D vector formats[edit], AMF - Additive Manufacturing File Format, Asymptote - A language that lifts TeX to 3D., .blend – Blender, COLLADA.

And……

.dwf, .dwg, .dxf, eDrawings, HSF, IGES, IMML - Immersive Media Markup Language, IPA, JT, PRC, STEP, SKP, STL - A stereolithography format., U3D - Universal 3D file format, VRML - Virtual Reality Modeling Language, XAML, XGL, XVL, xVRML, X3D, .3D, 3DF, .3DM, .3ds - Autodesk 3D Studio, 3DXML, X3D - Vector format used in 3D applications from Xara, EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), PDF (Portable Document Format), PostScript, a page description language with strong graphics capabilities, PICT (Classic Macintosh QuickDraw file), SWF (Shockwave Flash), XAML User interface language using vector graphics for images., MPO , PNS, JPS The JPEG Stereo…. (These are all real formats)

I wouldn’t have a problem with it if it wasn’t for the fact that many programs and some websites ONLY accept entrants in their personally format. That type of thing just burns my biscuits! Why don’t the companies get together and agree on one format and roll with it. They can still compete on functionality of the software.

What about the people who bought all those HD DVDs? That sucks. Just because some companies wanted to have a shoot-out over their personal proprietary systems, a large segment of the populations has a crate full of trash discs and probably multiple trash set-top boxes. I’m glad I didn’t participate in that crap and I’m glad the Beta/VCR shoot-out was finished before I could make the purchase.

So here I am minding my own business, and my phone is getting low on battery. Time to charge. No problem, let’s grab a USB charger.

Hmm ok, no problem.

HUH??!!

What the hell?? Why do I have to deal with this!!

Ok, ok I’m calm… just going to settle down, fix me something to eat in my new pan I just bought.

Brand new! Ceramic, anti-stick, green…. This thing is smooth as butta and no need to spend the extra money on the lid because I have another 12” pan with a lid.

I’ll just use that one : )

Do-diddo, diddo…. What…..

: (

WHY DOESN”T IT FIT??????????????????????????????????????????????

How the hell the manufacturer gain an edge (win the competition) by creating proprietary LID SHAPES??

And while I’m at it, did you know there were 8 different memory stick form factors? And why if I buy a XBOX video game, won’t it work on PlayStation? I already bought your particular console, you’ve won that competition, but now I can’t play my favorite game over my friend’s house because they have the opposing console? What kinda $h!t is that?

Let’s not forget about everyone’s favorite shopping experience (it is the holidays right). Both these sweaters are XXL

Okay, I’m done. You’ll get no clothes from me my nieces. I hope you will be satisfied with a best buy gift card… even though you are only 9 and 7 : (

PS You know what else makes me sick- batteries. I know the different sizes provide a different amount of voltage but how many times have you grab a fresh pack of AAs from the store only to get all the way home and realize you really needed AAAs!

@%$#&^%(*&^

[anthony]

Derek, You lost me after JPEG RAW GIF and TIFF - you get my respect for knowing WTH the rest is or does. Indeed what are designers thinking of? an explanation could be rather than to "uniformalize" and be content with a small part of the market, each is looking for dominance. But they're getting the market pissed off as you say, and all it takes is for two big manufacturers to agree on a single standard and they could clean up.

Come to consider, it surprises me that the camera makers have standardised on the SD memory card.

I have a drawer of AAA's I'll never use grabbed too hastily: wanna swap?

[Mikee]

Hmmm. Lack of quality pisses me off more than lack of uniformity. A toaster made in the 40-50's could be a hand me down. Lucky to buy one now that lasts two years. How many coffee grinders have you gone through? Throw away technology...blaaa. In a thriving, free, future society quality will be the watchword. (And everything will be wireless.) Everything will be personalized, people are more likely to want unique, not uniform.

[anthony]

Yep, I took over my mother's fridge - an imported 'Admiral Duplex', made in the USA 40 years ago - still looking and working like new. A fridge repairman told me that many modern ones blow their compressors in a year or two and have to be scrapped.

[jts]

There is to some degree a conflict between innovation and standardization. But this problem tends over time to get solved by the free market.

For example in the 1980s, if you had an Atari computer, you needed an Atari floppy drive (hard drives were not yet invented). If you had an Amiga computer, you needed an Amiga floppy drive. Same for printers. Etc. The things you attached to your computer had to match your computer. Now in 2013, you can buy a hard drive or whatever and usually it will work with any computer. This is standardization brought about by free market. Not by force, as it would be if it was brought about by government.

If standardization was made by government, companies would be prohibited by force of law from doing something different, maybe a fine or jail. In a free market there is no such prohibition; you can innovate as much as you want, but you need to do a good job of innovation to be able to justify creating a new standard (make money). In a free market, companies are not forced by law to adhere to a standard; they do so because it is to their advantage.

Standards are created in a free market by one company doing something better than anybody else. For example in the early days, Hayes made the best modem, so Hayes became the standard for modems. Epson made the best printer, so Epson became the standard for printers. It works the same way for software. Borland's Turbo Pascal was superior to Microsoft's Quick Pascal. Turbo Pascal redefined Pascal.

In the Linux world, there are a bunch of package management systems in competition: DEB, RPM, etc. These solve the problem of "dependency hell". I remember dependency hell and I'm glad it's gone. In the old days you wanted to install a software package; it required dependencies (more software packages to make it work); dependencies themselves can have dependencies; and all these must be the latest version; and installed right; and if one thing is not installed or not installed right, the whole thing doesn't work. You spent a major portion of a day and then gave up. After a few experiences like this, you didn't bother. The modern way, with DEB for example, you watch in amazement as it finds everything for you and uninstalls old stuff and does everything right, and it works every time. No more dependency hell. Now it might be even better if there was only one package management system instead of a whole bunch in competition. But always someone comes up with a new idea. Some day someone will come up with an idea that will blow all the competition completely out of the water and it will set a standard.

On the one hand, standardization is good. On the other hand, innovation is good. But innovation sometimes is in conflict with standardization. Solution? Leave it to the free market.

[Selene]

Hmmm. Lack of quality pisses me off more than lack of uniformity. A toaster made in the 40-50's could be a hand me down. Lucky to buy one now that lasts two years. How many coffee grinders have you gone through? Throw away technology...blaaa. In a thriving, free, future society quality will be the watchword. (And everything will be wireless.) Everything will be personalized, people are more likely to want unique, not uniform.

The phrase was quickly taken up by others, but Stevens' definition was challenged. By the late 1950s, planned obsolescence had become a commonly used term for products designed to break easily or to quickly go out of style. In fact, the concept was so widely recognized that in 1959 Volkswagen mocked it in an advertising campaign. While acknowledging the widespread use of planned obsolescence among automobile manufacturers, Volkswagen pitched itself as an alternative. "We do not believe in planned obsolescence", the ads suggested. "We don't change a car for the sake of change."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence