And now, when at last there is one - 1 - slot available for upload, I can't even decide what I'm going to choose. The best stock photo of course, but we all know how predictable that is   

mailing.. just stick 2x the local postage and stuff it in the closest mail box.  It should get there

I know that will work in Norway, but this is Thailand, and one of the following will happen:

1. Somebody will steal the stamps, put new glue on, and sell them. The person in question obviously has to work at the post office.

2. Somebody will notice that it's a CD, open the package, discover that it's not the latest hit, and throw the CD away.

3. The postman gets a call from his aunt upcountry, who tells him that their buffalo is ill and that he has to come at once. So he throws the post in the canal, takes the bus upcountry, just to discover that it wasn't their buffalo that was ill, but the neighbour's. But since he's there anyway, he'll share a few bottles of local whisky with the neighbour, and return to his work at the post office the next week, just to find that the post boxes are fuller than ever. Then he will... 

So I send it registered   

There are constant rumours about direct uploading to Alamy. Does anyone know when it's supposed to become reality? Burning CD's and shipping them around half the globe is so time-consuming.

Where I live, there's an expression in the local language (Thai), "muan gann". It's usually translated into "same same but different" in English. Something like that.

And it's only $24,995!  What a deal...

Then you need a couple of lenses, which will set you back around the same amount. Still, if I had the money.... no, I think I would have gone for a Leica. Hasselblad is a Hong Kong company these days, managed by Danes and manufactured in Japan. Talk about global economy.

It is a very complicated matter, and unpredictable too. One of the main reasons for not succeeding may even be that people don't trust MS for consistency. Most users don't want annual updates that leaves their one year old software with limited usability at least, totally obsolete in the worst cases.

Still, this is one of the things that MS has become famous for. Just look at the number of operating system, all more or less incompatible, particularly with regards to user interface, that they have released since W95 (95, 98, NT3.5, NT4.0, 2000, 2003, ME, XP and now Vista).

I believe that one of the reasons that people still use fax, is that it's a universal standard. It's "stone-age" technology, and the quality is bad to say the least, but it works. Jpeg has many of the same advantages. Just compare it to movie formats, where everybody have managed to establish their own "standard", which are all more or less incompatible. I'm sure one of them is better than the others, but that doesn't help a lot when I need an abundance of media players on my Mac to play 80% of them.

It's maybe a positive sign that MS understood that they had to rename the format from Windows Something to HD, but as long as they are holding the rudder, they will have a hard time convincing the world that this is for the best of all involved. And the camera manufacturers may be the hardest to convince. Just look at Nikon's attempt to protect NEF, and then you have Sony. I'm surprised that they haven't tried to launch their own proprietary format that makes it impossible to view your photos other than on a Sony TV or mobile phone. Maybe even Sony have learned   

Automatic translations have its limitations, still. Submitting to local agencies, like paxxion.com in Italy, scanstockphoto in Norway and stockphotomedia in Sweden may have it's merits. Although they all probably have international ambitions, the fact that they actually speak the local language, and can use that knowledge in their local marketing, is probably their biggest advantage.

From what I have read at the forums on IS, people are not overly impressed with the translations there either, although their complicated system may (or may not) have the potential of becoming superior to the others (or just continue to be a pain in the neck of the contributors).

MS business concept is just that: first they offer you a product for free, then they charge you for extensions and updates that you need later, when their support for the original version has stopped.

I seem to remember some cases a couple of years ago, when MS suddenly found out that they wanted to charge all camera manufacturers for the use of FAT16 or 32. It's something everybody took for granted as a standard that just existed, but it belongs to MS, and the moment they saw the chance to make money on it, they grabbed it.

What will happen with the new picture format, is that programmers will have to pay license fees that will eventually be paid by the end users: us.

Of course they will do anything to get Adobe in on the deal. It's the only way to secure success for the product. MS can afford to be kind for a couple of years, since they have a few dollars in the bank, but don't fool yourself believing that they are not going to make a profit on this. Of course they will.

They own the operating system (Windows), the web browser (IE), the office package (MS Office), and now they want to control the imaging market as well. The more control MS has, the less competition. The less competition, the easier it is for them to get away with mediocre products (like IE, Outlook and a couple of others).

Unfortunately, capitalism looks very much like communism when it reaches a certain level. It's full control and no choice for us small guys.

Sorry for the rant, but it's my honest opinion.

Jorgen

It means that the camera, if the ISO boost is switched on, will increase the ISO number to allow a shorter exposure time. It's what all of us have done manually for years, but it looks better in the press release, giving it a fancy name.

The problem I have with their upload limits, and also the main reason for starting the thread there, is that I travel a lot. That means that my real upload limit is much lower than the current 20 per week, since I can't take advantage of my quota every week.

So I suggested that they change it to a monthly or even bi-weekly quota. But I've suggested it before, and I don't think they are listening on that ear.

I even think that the current quota, at least to a certain degree, lower the quality of the submissions. Some photographers will send in whatever, just to fill their slots so that they aren't lost.

I just tried to upload five photos. Gave up after two tries. There's apparently something seriously wrong. Download must work though. I had a sale there earlier today.

Like base upload quotas on acceptance ratios in addition to other criteria. That was the suggestion that got the most positive response.

The limits went down again for all non-exclusives a couple of days ago. I started a thread, complaining about it, but as usual, hordes of exclusives joined in and told me how good the new limits are for us all. It's like going to a church were they speak a language that you don't understand. You can hear the shout "hallelujah", but you don't have a clue as to why they are doing it.

On a more positive note, a couple of positive ideas came up with alternatives to the current limits. I doubt that anything will happen, but one can always hope