I really agree with Mr. England.
 
>ImageSpace, the confocal software from Molecular Dynamics (MD) is a very
>powerful tool for confocal data handling. On a minimally configured SGI, -
>anything from a Personal Iris to an O2 - you get the leanest, meanest set of
>software functions which are totally relevant to the needs of the confocal
>community. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! ImageSpace has helped a lot of researchers
>maximise their investment in a CLSM by making it easy to get results from
>the data from their BioRad, Zeiss or Leica CLSMs. Investment in a cheap SGI
>and ImageSpace did the trick.
 
I compared all the available confocal systems two years ago to choose one
that fits our purpose: reconstructing labelled axons in the Drosophila
brain from 150-200 serial confocal sections (each 0.4-1 microns). I brought
my preparations to the sales offices of Leica, Zeiss, Biorad, MD, etc., (in
Tokyo all of them have their Japanese headquarters) and asked the
technitians to take confocal pictures and show the best reconstruction they
can produce. All but MD cannot make satisfactory reconstructon. Biorad
arranged to FTP the data to a SGI Indigo to use the VoxelView; the result
was disappointing. The ImageSpace of MD, on the other hand, generate very
nice reconstruction images without demanding lots of knowledge about the
computer systems and three-dimensional computation.
 
Some competent 3-D software guru may not find ImageSpace powerful of
flexible enough. But for the majority of people who just want to get
good-looking stereographs from their serial sections, ImageSpace is by far
the easiest and most powerful 3-D software.
 
Although 3-D reconstruction is one of the most promissing applications of
CLSM, other companies have simply ignored this potential and have been just
offering just bare-born 3-D function as their stock configuration. The
effort of MD in the mean time should be awarded.
 
>hard work. You as scientists realise that intellectual property must be
>protected as vigourously as material property. If you spent 10 years
>developing a *unique* system for 3D imaging (many either do not know or have
>conveniently forgotten that the Sarastro was the only CLSM offering 3D
>imaging of confocal section series in 1987 and for a good number of years
>onwards)
 
Yes, this is what we should better acknowledge, I think.
 
 
>Finally, I find this community's vitriolic reaction to MD's efforts to
>protect its patent most disturbing. It is clear that many have
>misinterpreted MD's actions as an unjustified attack on the individual's
>right to freely create and distribute software. This assumption is
>incorrect, it has never happened. Then, on this premise, some have gone so
>far as to suggest boycotting MD's other products. This is hysterical. It is
>obvious that there are many who are uninformed of the situation, and are
>jumping to conclusions.
 
I also found this disturbing. To blame MD, we need evidence that MD is
really harassing individual programers who just want to offer good
freeware. Without this, we shouldn't go too far.
 
This is my personal opinion, and I have no connection with MD except that I
bought a Sarastro CLSM system from them.
 
Yours,
 
Kei
 
------TU NE CEDE MALIS, SED CONTRA AUDENTIOR ITO.------
  ITO, Kei
  ERATO, Mitsubishi-Kasei Institute of Life Sciences,
  194 Machida-shi, MinamiOoya 11, Tokyo, Japan
  email : [log in to unmask]
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