All About Access

Do you remember the DECtalk Express, the only decent external speech synthesizer we had available to us before the advent of software speech synthesis? Sure, getting a DECtalk Express required coming up with 1000 bucks, but the quality of the speech justified the expense. I have two of them in my possession, and they still work! Well, that’s not entirely accurate. One works as long as I sit very, very still because I managed to snap off a piece that is (was) on one end of the serial cable. Thus the synthesizer keeps getting disconnected. The other works using the damaged cable, but its own cable went AWOL long ago. So I have $2000 worth of equipment, $1000 of which is currently serving as an amusing paperweight, and $1000 of which is flakey at best.

If you don’t remember the DECtalk Express, you’re probably wondering why I don’t just run out to my local computer store and pick up some replacement serial cables. The thing is, I can’t. You see, Digital Equipment Corporation, in its infinite wisdom, created its own special serial cable for use with this synthesizer: On one end there’s a standard 9-pin female connector, but on the other end there is an RJ12. Only it’s not an RJ12. As I learned recently, it’s an “RJ12 MMJ”—a special creation brought to us by Digital Equipment Corporation. I would order replacement cables from Digital were it not for the fact that they went bankrupt a number of years ago. So what does one do??

I tried looking around for serial cable wiring diagrams—and found plenty— but so far haven’t come up with anything for DB9 to RJ12. And even if I find the appropriate diagram, I would still need to track down and order the proprietary RJ12 MMJ connector.

I did find a company that sells an adapter that sounded like what I need, but the product arrived today and is only part of the puzzle. I called to inquire. After reminding me that I was dealing with 20-year-old technology made by a defunct company, and then listening to my plea for assistance, the gentleman on the other end of the phone took pity on me and said they would make me the missing piece (bless him!).

Regardless, this is taking far too much of my time, energy, and money—and none of it would be necessary if Digital had simply gone with a standard serial cable rather than this proprietary nonsense….

So why am I telling you all of this? Admittedly in large part because I feel the need to vent. But also because it is yet another reminder of why proprietary anything is bad—be it a cable or a file format. When we depend upon a single entity for access to our items in perpetuity, we’re asking for trouble: One never knows what that entity might do down the road, or if that entity will even continue to exist. Relying upon standards that are not just open, but created and supported by multiple entities, is the only way to go.

Technorati Tags: DECtalk Express, proprietary formats, ODF, Open XML

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 3:33 pm and is filed under OpenDocument Format. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.