Course I heard of all of them. However, all the ppl I work with use Firefox as their main browser, and most of them are computer illiterate. Maybe its just my skool and friends, but Firefox has taken over the browser world 
According to the last
W3C statistics, though potentially slightly inaccurate, IE has a combined 54.8% whereas Firefox has 39.1%. As I said, especially 'newbies' will be using IE, even if many of your friends use Firefox.
Cuz CHDK is so kool and I think everybody should have it. It lets even newbies have some features that they could use (battery indicator, etc). And I know lots of ppl who love cams but are clueless in comps. Anyways, I think everybody should have an easy way to get CHDK, and that is what I plan to accomplish.
Battery indicator, "etc". What etcetera? The battery indicator may be the only useful feature, though I doubt many people actually miss it. Maybe on the S5, where it's slightly late... but it's still not that accurate and it's semi-hard to calculate the actual battery capacity from the current voltage only. The defaults often require recalibration because the values and curves are different for each (battery) model/type. I think CHDK is overkill for just that, but that's me.
People would rather watch a vid than read a documentation. When I looked at the FAQ the first time I was "Oh God, how am I supposed to read all of this!" And as for missing stuff easily, that's why we have a community, to point out mistakes of others, and make stuff better. That's the only way to make a perfect tutorial/video.
Yes, of course it's nice to watch a video. Thing is, it's harder to navigate back/forth through a video than through written instructions, in case you missed something or can skip a step or whatever. Actually reading and having to understand the written text helps people learn what's going on and actually think about what they're doing before blindly executing whatever someone says. Especially things like "click this, then that and that", not mentioning what the "this", "that" and "that" are supposed to do, may cause confusion and is bound to cause a problem somewhere if someone doesn't get the specific windows/buttons you're referring to... and might break the entire rest of your tutorial because the users don't know what's supposed to happen.
Under an hour is the key word. Most people won't spend more than 5 minutes on this unless you get them interested. We need to give them a quick "push" in the right direction. Then once they install CHDK, start seeing the features, they can read documentation, etc. Tell me, out of all the people you know, how many have actually read the documentation to their camera? I know for a fact that less than 5% of my friends have ever gone near it 
What if they first read about the features and then looked at installing it? Given the variety of cameras, firmwares, cards and other possible factors, it's not a good idea to generalize everything into a 5-minute tutorial. Also, I agree that camera documentation is often not read. Maybe that's also why the specific camera type CHDK is currently targeting is called "point and shoot". You just unpack it once so there's no need to put that in the name... but generally they're made so simple that anyone can operate it without much prior knowledge, albeit not using the full functionality. The main difference about cameras and CHDK is that the only things you have to do with a camera are inserting the batteries and a memory card... and then turning it on. The things you stuff in there either fit or don't and if they do, it'll work. CHDK doesn't work that way because a lot of things fit and might not work. The features it adds do require reading some documentation, unless you're a somewhat experienced photographer. I have yet to meet the first complete newbie to explain to me what the diaphragm is and how to operate it, without reading the manual (or documentation on the concept of a diaphragm).
Ok...might not work for you, so you just don't go into the helpdesk chatroom. I will handle it. Also this is needed in order to build a FAQ of problems which users actually have rather than problems devs might think they have. Computer-literate people assume that everybody knows what they're talking about (I know I do 
). That's why we need real-people experience. A helpdesk chatroom is exactly that. I will be in there whenever I can answering stupid questions. No work on your (or anybody else's) part unless they want to. I just ask to put CHDK Chat in an easy to see place.
CHDK isn't food, you won't die without it. If anyone has a problem, he/she can use the forum if it's not been addressed before or even in the FAQ. That's how a FAQ is usually composed or expanded. Seriously, I don't see any need for a chat room other than serving the impatient. Another downside is that everything answered in the chat will not show up on the forums or wiki unless someone actually takes the time to address it. If your counter-argument is 'chat logs'... well, that'll just be another thing for people to search through, which they probably won't.
If you still want to go ahead with it, fine... but please figure out yourself how to advertise it anywhere. Oh, and keep in mind that I don't have any more wiki-editing rights than you... so if you can't do it, I can't either.
Another reason we need a helpdesk. To see how newbies approach installing CHDK. Then we restructure the wiki to that standard. Also, the difference between my guide and FAQ guide is that:
a) People need to know what FAQ is
b) People need to know to look in FAQ
c) People have to search for it in the FAQ
No, that's a reason why the wiki needs to be restructured. Don't solve a problem by bypassing the potential usefulness and 'restructuring' it every time someone asks about it. People should know what a FAQ is, but even if they don't, the wiki states 'Instructions' as alternative name. Should be clear enough. Looking in and searching the FAQ are basic things which everyone should be capable of.
The basics: how to install and use the CHDK firmware
CHDK In Brief - What is CHDK? How do I get started?
FAQ / Instructions - Lots of good stuff here. (Installation Instruction,Supported Camera Models,Troubleshooting etc.)
Firmware Usage - The main CHDK Manual, explaining all the original features.
Allbest Firmware Usage - The new Allbest CHDK builds required a whole new page added to explain the vast array of new features. This is the HELP section. (a work in progress, please help!)
Looks clear enough to me, especially once those four (maybe three) pages have been looked at and cleaned up. I don't see why anyone would miss this information. Maybe another possible addition to the FAQ is a 'general outline of the installation process' at the top, so everyone knows which steps to go through before having to read the rest of the FAQ, where they are explained in-depth. Maybe it's even possible to move these instructions to a separate page... anything is possible.
Mmmm...I suppose...but I would imagine Canon would gain $ from ppl using CHDK. CHDK got me to buy a Canon rather than a Kodak. I think if we (me, a few good writers, a few devs, and some people people ) wrote a nice letter to Canon, explaining everything, and the advantages they would have in fully supporting us, it would solve a whole bunch of issues.
Asking Canon to release their source code please read that thread. This has been discussed before. Maybe you also missed the fact that CHDK mainly exists because of the
intentional restrictions Canon put on their cheap camera models (i.e. several years ago, Powershot series would shoot RAW if requested) to make more money on the more expensive DSLR range. Especially the hybrid/prosumer line competes with the DSLRs in some areas and they'd rather we buy a DSLR instead of postponing that until we really hit the hardware barriers. If they're going to support us at all, it'll mostly not be advantageous to them. While we are still small, they can reap the benefits (us thinking of new features), so the potential loss of revenue makes up for slightly less spending on R&D.
