Rick’s Short Circuit: The disconnected governor, Kodachrome vs. cell phones

Are we too connected? It seems that disappearing South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford just needed some offline time. The Wall Street Journal quotes his spokesman Joel Sawyer downplayed as saying, "We’ve been under the same state Constitution for over 100 years, and I’m fairly certain that for most of that time governors didn’t have cellphones."

“Kodak to Take Kodachrome Away,” reports the Wall Street Journal, adding, “…Eastman Kodak Co. said Monday that because of plunging sales, it is ending production of the film it first introduced in 1935. The company said the final batch of the slide film, known for its rich colors and clarity, is being manufactured now in Mexico and that supplies should probably last until the fall.” The New York Times comments on alternatives that photographers are using: “Shawn Rocco, 37, is a professional photographer. He shoots a Motorola E815. Yes, that’s a cellphone.” The Times adds that “Mr. Rocco now finds himself celebrated as the ‘cellphone guy,’ a distinction he eagerly nurses through his Cellular Obscura blog," which sports the tagline “Exploring the world with the Kodak Brownie of the digital age.” The Times adds, "His aim is not to win Canon-carrying professionals over to the Motorola E815, already an ancient relic in the constantly churning mobile landscape. Rather, it is to escape…what he calls the ‘megapixelmania’ of contemporary photography….”

Has your "position" been "impacted" in a "restructuring brought on by business decisions”? Have you become "a solution" available to connect with an employer who has a "pain, need or opportunity" that you can "satisfy”? The Mercury News tracks the experiences of three such people, its Pink Slip 2.0 participants.

Yesterday on EDN.com and TMWorld.com:

• Intel, Nokia ink broad mobile alliance

• Geotest teams up with JTAG Technologies on functional, structural test

• Sustainable recovery coming in 2010, Gartner reports

• Electronics supply chain sales still waiting for an upturn, IPC reports

• Goepel’s System Cascon now features automatic program generator

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