How to get pictures out of Kodak CX6230 with minimum spyware and bloatware? Geek challenge :)

rec.photo.digital

From these two threads, I see concerns about backdoors and bloatware
in Kodak
EasyShare. I have a little Kodak camera CX6230, and I want to get the
pictures
out of it. Of course I prefer not to have Kodak spyware and backdoors.
Now,
I prefer to have the pictures even if I must accept spyware and
backdoors, but
it would be nice to minimize the Kodak spyware and backdoors. I fear
from
my cursory glance over one of the threads, that I will have to accept
some
Kodak spyware and bloatware, but I really have no worthwhile
documentation
(it was a cheap camera, I guess, and the booklet is a joke).

(Threads to which I alluded

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...rnum=7&prev=/groups?q=kodak+easyshare&ie=UTF-

8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26hl%3Den%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...nz&rnum=2&prev=/groups?q=kodak+easyshare&ie%3

DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26hl%3Den%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch


So, in the installation routine for Kodak, what is fewest set of
checkboxes
of things I have to install, to minimize spyware and bloatware, but to
still be
able to get pictures out of it?

I have no "docking station" (I'm not familiar with them).

Again, I would prefer not to have any dumb bloatware process running
all
the time wasting processor time and tying up memory, because 99% of
the
time the camera won't be plugged in, so it would be stupid to have
Kodak
spyware whatnot running when there is no camera connected at all

The only alternative I see is to select some checkboxes in the
installation
routine--below I list the ones available -- this appears to be
EasyShare for
Windows 3.1. I'd also be interested if there is any simpler
alternative where
you just get a nice driver, like in the old days, when you just got a
driver
for device (before spyware became the order of the day for the printer
makers
and so forth).


****

Kodak camera connection software
KODAK 6-in-1 Card Reader
Kodak EasyShare software
KODAK Software Updater
Apple QuickTime

****

It is pretty clear to me that QuickTime is spurious, and can be left
off.
The Software Updater sounds like obvious spyware. But I don't know
about
the first three. I took a shot at installing and only selected the
first
item. It is installed now, but the manual says I should see a camera
icon
in the My Computer explorer window (so I guess they installed a shell
extension), but, well, they seem to lie -- no such camera icon is
present.
Perhaps I was not supposed to select only that option (and the
installer
just is not smart enough to warn me that what I selected will not
work)?
Or is there an exe I can run to download the pictures? I don't want
any
stupid shell extension anyway, as that sounds like bloatware that will
affect me all the time and be loaded 100% of the time.

That is, all I want is a program to get the pictures off the camera.
I don't want spyware, I don't want shell extensions that bloat my
computer
100% of the time (when I use the camera less than 0.1% of the time), I
just
want to retrieve the pictures; I would think this would be what the
public
would normally want.



PS:
I saw this allegation: "The Kodak Updater will get
it for you in the background. " which sounds like there is spyware
that
will go out without my permission over my (pathetically slow) dialup
connection, and that will be really unfortunate, if I can't avoid
that.

PPS:
I may sound cynical, but I've not only seen a lot of spyware, but I
saw
Kodak EasyShare show up over on the net abuse sightings list.


PPPS:
I started to look at kodak.com, but it looked kind of bad; I'm on
dialup,
and it was struggling loading pictures, so I was guessing its another
one
of the sites only for people on broadband. I did get to the Kodak FAQs
popup page (hm, popups, not a good sign), but the "Browse" button
doesn't
do anything. Perhaps they don't support modern browsers? I saw someone
say
that their Mozilla wasn't working on Kodak's site; I use what I think
is
pretty modern Mozilla. (Just checked; Mozilla 1.5).




PPPPS:
So as I guess is obvious, if anyone can tell me how to just download
pictures from a Kodak CX6230 camera without a lot of bloatware and
spyware, I will worship the ground you walk on

 

Simple answer. But a card reader that will read your cards. Attach it
to your computer, where it will show up as a disk drive. Insert cards
and use your file manager to transfer the files to your HD. You may
have to add driver software to the computer if you don't have the latest OS.
This avoids ALL added software, and costs under $10.

 

Oooh, I didn't know that was possible; thanks very much!!!

(I've actually got the software working with one check, but this
idea of a card reader sounds really great, if they're really that
cheap!)

 

(Followup my own message to record an answer I found)

Only checking the first checkbox ("Kodak camera connection software")
turns out to work--like an idiot, I was testing before with my
camera not actually turned on.

I do have a shell extension added now, due to that installation, but
hopefully it is only a dll, which is more lightweight than a fulltime
process running. The drag&drop of files is actually fairly
convenient

 

If you have access to a Fry's discount store, they are. At CompUSA they
run from $20 to $40. Have seen ads for 6 in 1 models as low as $9.95
for the USB 1.1 models. USB 2.0 runs about $10 more.