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On Tue, 23 Sep 1997 11:26:33 +1000 (EST), Alden S Klovdahl wrote: >On Mon, 22 Sep 1997 Stefan.Tilkov@mlc.de wrote: > >> Will an IBM DVD drive for a 770 also work in "older" models, e.g. the 765? > >why on earth could anyone possibly want a dvd drive?? > >if you travel internationally, to europe, to asia, anywhere else (as i >suspect a higher proportion of thinkpad owners than others do) you can pick >up a local cd-rom - perhaps language, perhaps cultural, perhaps on some >other topic of interest to you, or with some other functionality not locally >available to you - plop it in to your cd-rom drive, and away you go. > >... the cultures of the world, not subject to prior censorship on the basis >of what someone else thinks your interests are (or should be), what someone >else thinks is suitable for you, what someone thinks is marketable in your >home country, are at your fingertips. ...or, at minimum no farther away >than your mailbox. > >now, along comes dvd, and all this changes. dvd disks produced in one global >area will not work in the dvd drive sold to you in your area. so ... you buy >a dvd drive for each area for which you wish to sample the language, culture, >or other offerings? you carry several dvd drives when you travel? > >how can i put it?: buy a dvd drive and support international censorship! > >of course you are really supporting the ability of corporations to charge >the price that earns them the highest profit in each market area. when >markets are geographical distance, when the cost to the prospective buyer >of transporting or converting for local use the product of interest exceeds >the differential sellers earn, then differential pricing to maximize profit >is easily maintained. with a global electronic economy, with high value >items in light, small configurations, transport costs are greatly reduced, >and differential pricing can only be maintained by articfical means, eg, >geographical coding of dvd disks. > >in short, the global electronic economomy is fine, so long as it benefits >sellers, whatever the adverse consequences for buyers. > >alternative views welcomed! > >off the topic? probably. can individuals make a difference? probably not. > >but something to think about when/if you buy a thinkpad again. > >regards, al > > Alden S Klovdahl / alden.klovdahl@anu.edu.au / fax: +61 2 62 49 05 25 > Sociology Arts / Australian National University / Canberra ACT Australia 0200 > > Well, I would never buy a DVD drive unless it has OS/2 and Linux support, otherwise, "forget it"! Paul