On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, Richard Rauch wrote:

> That would be nice, if I could do PCMCIA.  (Am I right in remembering that
> there are PCMCIA interfaces that you can put into regular desktops?  If
> so, roughly what do they tend to cost, and do they work with NetBSD?)

  Yes, the front-accessable versions run about $60, however you may need
to buy one online since at least around here none of the retail stores
have them.  I have had trouble with Antec and Actiontec versions (the
Antec one didn't work at all (which I later determined was bad hardware) 
and the Actiontec only works if you turn off isapnp). 

> I thought that the ability to swap ``digital film'' cards was fairly
> standard.  (The Olympus D-360L uses ``Smart Media'' cards, which I think
> are non-volatile---they have to be non-volatile if you take them out of
> the camera to put them into readers.)

  I would strongly recommend one that at least has compact flash (and
possibly PCMCIA ATA Flash as well).  The other varieties are much less
widely used and only available in smaller capacities.  Also, all handhelds
and many palmtops support compact flash, while only a few palmtops support
other varieties.  You may also want to check for compatibility with the
IBM Microdrive, which is a CF size hard drive available up to 1GB.  The
smaller sizes use more power than standard CF cards, so a few older
cameras did not support them.  Most new ones should, but you may want to
check anyway.

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@pgh.net