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Comment by gzalo | Hacker News Reader

My guess is that an employee wanted to use it as a webcam via hdmi and was annoyed by the time limitation, so they fixed it themselves :P

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My guess is a major client got pissed about this reported it ages ago it got no trancation. The client is currently super pissy about other things and mentioned this in their list of greivances and it gets fixed now because Nikon is worried that the client will go elsewhere.

One employee wouldn't have that much freedom to release patches like this. Or maybe he is an old guard that was annoyed by the time limitation and no one was able to say no to him

Don't forget it's a Japanese company. Which, as I understand, has a culture where people can't get fired, only promoted to positions where they do nothing and are out of people's way. Maybe it was one of those people.

Japanese companies are also stereotypically drowning in bureaucracy and have strict adherence to hierarchy. Maybe it was a manager that got annoyed and had an underling do it?

That sounds about right. But how come a manager having a 10 year old camera and not a newest model?

Rolling stones gather no moss.

Sometimes, you just love a device and don't want to use something new. I still shoot a 5DmkII, and there's really only one feature that is available in the newer models that I'd love to have on my older body (specifically number of focus points). I've used all of the models after that including mirrorless, but this older body still my fave.

So the 10 year old camera isn't that strange to me.

Fax machines are still regularly used for business purposes in Japan.

While uploading some trip photos at an Akihabara cafe in 2018, I noticed that my laptop at the time (a used Dell XPS from 2015) appeared significantly newer than the laptops of the other patrons. There were even a couple of integrated trackballs, which I haven't seen in a laptop since the late '90s. I also suddenly realized I was a bit under-dressed in a plain polo shirt and slacks.

Panasonic Let’s Note machines look ancient but are packed with the latest processor/memory guts.

Let's note has circular trackpad (It's traditional design, IMO it's bad now) so maybe OP mistook it for trackball. There's no laptop with trackball within a decade AFAIK.

Not mistaken. There were both circular trackpads and a couple of trackballs.

Like this: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8466/8080447493_c11ce3c520_b.j...

Such model exists until around 2000 but no longer exists. I suspect that you met old laptop enthusiast group at the cafe since it's Akihabara.

Promoted... with increased pay?

I don't know if it's still true but at one point it was said that unlike in the US, the corner office was a mark of shame, because you go into that office, you close the door, and from then on your interactions with the rest of the employees are curtailed.

You get that office not because you've done things they thought were great, but because you've done things they thought weren't and they want you to slow your roll. You're a fish in a bowl.

Nikon D71000 DSLR here with 17-55mm on wall-mount, connected Elgato Cam 4k dongle, so this exact model with a solid lens is my current webcam. I had to adjust the exact setting mentioned there so it doesn't time out during long calls and it works great. I think I will skip this Super Important Firmware Update but I love someone's determination on getting it fixed.

17-55 as a webcam? Ouch, such a fine lens, hurts it being used like that.

EDIT: Not that I have any issue with it, I just have very fond memories of it, sorry if I didn't phrase it well. :)

It is a fine lens indeed, replaced in my wife's Z6 by even finer one, and thus rendered useless, except to make exceptionally nice pictures of me on zoom calls! Which I get lots of compliments about too.

Could also have been a task assigned to a junior engineer or something, to see how they handled such a project - one with real world stakes, but minor ones.

Alternatively, could have been a junior engineer doing it of their own accord, to show the bosses what they were capable of.

or it prevents use of 3rd party toner cartridges. (joking)

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