Macintosh Animation Showcase

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Text File | 1988-04-25 | 19.8 KB | 617 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]

#: 506 S1/General Information 20-Apr-88 15:06:50 Sb: #492-#Device Drivers Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231 To: Michael Macewich 76267,375 (X) There may not be a problem, Mace, but it really depends on which titles you are thinking of using. Discs that are produced according in HSF will all be accessible using the Microsoft extensions. However, if the application that uses the disc chooses to ignore the extensions and requires the use of its own device drivers that cannot coexist with the extensions, then you have the reboot problem. You also have good example of the "not invented here" syndrome, since there are few, if any, functions that the application is likely to need that can't be achieved through the extensions and the manufacturer's supplied driver. My suggestion is to do some digging and find out whether the titles that you expect to be using will work under the extensions (which will also support ISO/9660 in release 2.0) and go from there. Hope this helps. -Ty 1 Reply #: 507 S3/CDROM Applications 20-Apr-88 23:35:14 Sb: #Graphics in CDROM Fm: Joel Diamond 76357,2064 To: ALL I am collecting information on identifying what CDROM products are currently available that include the display of graphics along with text.. I am aware of McGrawHill's Science and Technology CDROm, and Geovision's Window Based Maps of the World.. are there any other CDROM disks out there that have the ability to display graphics and text? Joel diamond 1 Reply #: 508 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 00:32:23 Sb: #481-#Standards Fm: Tom Roscoe 71777,2564 To: rolfe windward 70014,646 (X) There are both good and bad points about SCSI. If you're on the PC bus, it is a more costly way to go. The SCSI interface card is more expensive than a PC bus card, AND the drive is more expensive, since it must have extra circuits to convert fro the native mode to SCSI. Advantage on PC bus is that 7 or 8 drives can be connected to a single I/F card. On other machines, the existance of SCSI means that SCSI hardware can be connected to hardware where no one has yet built a custom interface. Although its not HARD to make a custom I/F card, the problem is that unless it is a closed system, other software cannot be run. For a programming type, getting the NCR card specs & data, and Drive command data, will give a good idea. I don't have short explanation. 1 Reply #: 509 S3/CDROM Applications 21-Apr-88 00:57:48 Sb: #507-#Graphics in CDROM Fm: Tom Roscoe 71777,2564 To: Joel Diamond 76357,2064 How about the Discovery Systems sampler with EGA graphics, text and audio. The grandaddy of them all is the Hitachi CD-ROM Test Disc 3 with 640x400 3 bit plane graphics data. The Hitachi disc was shipped to developers with the original access software. Picture files are converted to EGA or CGA modes, audio is included. There are lots of text files, BUT no access software on the Hitachi CDBIOS disk. 1 Reply #: 510 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 08:25:47 Sb: #505-Software Fm: Jack Ryan 76164,1273 To: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004 The High Sierra specification is online in Data Library 5 - Data Preparation. It is contained in three files that can be downloaded to your system for review. Regards... Jack Ryan #: 511 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 09:04:41 Sb: #503-Device Drivers Fm: Michael Macewich 76267,375 To: Jack Ryan 76164,1273 Thanks for the response. I know enough now to feel comfortable when I talk to title and application vendors. --- MACE --- #: 512 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 09:05:11 Sb: #506-Device Drivers Fm: Michael Macewich 76267,375 To: Ty Wait 76701,231 (X) Thanks, that help a lot. --- MACE --- #: 513 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 11:32:24 Sb: #508-Standards Fm: rolfe windward 70014,646 To: Tom Roscoe 71777,2564 OK ... thanks for your opinion ... I'm interested in the problem primarily because we are building a knowledge base for a library which currently has IBM (actually Epson) work stations but will eventually have some MacIntosh workstations (from a grant donor). The current grant will supply a four (4) drive bank with another four to follow ... so concerns are network support as well as program access and compatibility. I am assuming (as one must these days given the current flux in the marketplace) that some of what we acquire will either not work well (due to various incompatibilities) or will be derived from a standard which is relatively quickly superceded. I am only hoping to keep these inevitable exigencies to a minimum. Thanks for responding ... RW #: 514 S1/General Information 21-Apr-88 15:39:56 Sb: #482-CDI or DVI Fm: Mark Sterling 74335,1677 To: Aegis Development 76067,2500 In a message a few days ago you mentioned that you were playing with a software based compression/decompression technique for displaying video images with a CD-Rom and a MacII. You mentioned that the resolution was 640 x 480 but you did not mention the how many colors (bits/pixel). At 150k/sec the compression/decompression technique must be pretty good. I am not trying to pry but only wondered how many bit planes you were getting. Would firmware compression/decompression provide an advantage? Do you know of any faster digital optical storage devices that are currently available. Interfaces and drivers can be made to suit if such a device exists. Analog devices are not suitable in this case. By the way I have an Amiga and sent for the upgrade to Videoscape 3D and am wondering how close you are to shipping (pant-pant). Answer is optional. Thanks, .....Mark #: 515 S3/CDROM Applications 22-Apr-88 09:05:09 Sb: #509-Graphics in CDROM Fm: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127 To: Tom Roscoe 71777,2564 Keep in mind that the Geovision product requires Microsoft Windows to run, and that Geovision's first releases are bug-ridden. They promise a new version that will run on most configurations with fewer problems; the McGraw-Hill product requires Wyse Technology graphics hardware in order to display graphic images. If you don't have the hardware, you're out of luck. -- Jeff #: 516 S1/General Information 22-Apr-88 13:48:06 Sb: #488-HFS vs. High Sierra Fm: Aegis Development 76067,2500 To: Larry Phillips 76703,4322 Exactly. Write a driver for the ISO/High Sierra format. That would work out just fine... Still need a large HD for authoring though..... #: 517 S1/General Information 22-Apr-88 13:48:14 Sb: #491-HyperCard & CDROM Fm: Aegis Development 76067,2500 To: Noboru Toyoshima 76662,330 (X) Just some demos. The drive goes to the public in May or June? #: 518 S1/General Information 22-Apr-88 13:48:29 Sb: #514-#CDI or DVI Fm: Aegis Development 76067,2500 To: Mark Sterling 74335,1677 (X) The Mac II display is 8 bits per pixel. That's a 300K frame compressed to less than 10K for 15FPS from a CD-ROM. We start with 640 x 480 x 24 bits. Create a "best fit" pallette, generate 8 bit images and clean them up numerically. Then compress. Works O.K., get's better with each revision. 2.0 VideoScape is just waiting for printers on 63 page additional docs. Should be out any day. 1 Reply #: 519 S1/General Information 22-Apr-88 16:10:13 Sb: #496-Hello! Fm: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216 To: Joel Nagy 76701,232 The Image Club disc works well for me, as I do a fair amount of desktop publishing. The customer service I received from the company was excellent. Greg K. at Image Club spent about an hour with me on the phone, fixing my system files which were out of whack. The contents of the disc itself varies in usefullness, but such is the nature of clip art. However there are hundreds of beautiful drawings, that print out very well at 300 and 1200 dpi. Also, the fonts on the disk are top notch. I recommend the disc highly and without reservation. Hope this is helpful... Regards, Len Kaltman #: 520 S4/Adding CDROM Access 22-Apr-88 22:21:39 Sb: Amiga Driver Fm: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004 To: Larry Phillips 76703,4322 Larry, you want to joint effort the ISO/HS driver? Give me a call if you do. But wait 'till AFTER DevCon. #: 521 S1/General Information 23-Apr-88 01:55:30 Sb: Your Forum! Fm: Matt McConnell [MIW] 76545,2671 To: *SysOp Hello, You may wish to notify Database Administration [70006,2016] of a error I have found. Your forum is not listed in the CompuServe online index (G INDEX). It is also not listed in the find feature as either FIND CDROM or FIND FORUM. Plus I can not find the CDROM Forum on any DISPLA page. Lastly The CDROM Forum is not listed on the Forums menu (G FORUMS). I do hope this information will help You. Sincerely, Matt. P.S. -- If You don't mind could You send me a ACK of this message via EasyPlex. ThankYou very much! #: 522 S3/CDROM Applications 23-Apr-88 10:16:21 Sb: #473 OED Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132 To: 71777,2564 (X) Thanks, Tom. I'm getting an Amdek soon. Yes, as you said, the computer is more a factor than the drive. Lots of my friends' machines (including PS/2 30 and an IBM AT) have failed to run PC-SIG CD-ROM on an Hitach drive, so I'm very afraid there actually exists a matching problem between the computer and the CD-ROM software (or, more exactly, the interface which is too slow). #: 523 S3/CDROM Applications 23-Apr-88 10:17:29 Sb: #490 OED Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132 To: 70135,141 Thanks, Earle. Yes, you hit the point. The price is too high for an individual to buy. If I open the package and it happens not to run on my system, then disaster! The reason I'm interested in this OED CD-ROM is that normal printed OED (which I have) is too heavy to handle daily and heavily (sorry the pun), and occpies the great space in my not so large (in fact, small) study. Re price, in Japan OED sells for around $2000, so for those who don't have it, it's a bargain. Another reason I'm interested is that, using this, I can search the citations by the date or by the author. However, that's only what catalog says. Well, if I get one, I'll report here what it does. At the moment I'm not yet decided, hearing all booings. I really wish it's under $500! #: 524 S1/General Information 23-Apr-88 16:19:46 Sb: #Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 To: ALL A few days ago I read a big article in a local newspaper (Daily News, New York) about an announcement from Tandy Corp. which should have a big effect on CD technology! According to the article, Tandy released information on a new ERASEABLE laser disc technology which they will be bringing into the market in the next 12-16 months. It is supposedly the size of a regular CD disc, which can be erased and re-written to repeatedly (no WORM technology here!). Its predicted to sell for less than $15 per disk and approximately $500 for the drive! The article predicited that this new technology will be as important as VHS! I checked the date on that article a few times to make sure that it wasn't an April Fools article (it wasn't) and logged onto CDROM to hear the latest. I'm amazed that NO ONE is mentioning it! Is my newspaper having LSD flashbacks or is this for real? It was called Tandy's Thor CD technology. ANyone no any more????? -RSL- 2 Replies #: 525 S1/General Information 23-Apr-88 16:24:59 Sb: New user Fm: Benjamin Orlowitz 71571,457 To: All Being new to the Mac and this cd technology, I'd like to find a few of the more useful cd rom applications, the hardware, and the software required to use these applications, and the approximate cost of the items. Thanks! #: 526 S1/General Information 23-Apr-88 18:30:57 Sb: #524-#Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: BOB DISTLER 76276,1460 To: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 (X) Roy The Los Angeles Times had some info. Fri and today (Sat) about that drive. . 1. Within the next two years a $500 recorder-player with eraseable disc (under $10) that after recording can be played either on the Tandy or any other standard compact disc player already on the market. This says the disc are "AUDIO CD" standard. . 2. No word on how many times the disc can be erase. While 1000 is a lot for audio it would not make it for a computer(data). . 3. Within THREE years a unit to store computer data. . 4. To me the bigger announcement was the PS/2 clone billed as faster more powerful and less expensive then IBM is to be "shipped in July". . Bob Distler 3 Replies #: 530 S1/General Information 24-Apr-88 02:25:32 Sb: #526-Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Singing Electrons/Tom J. 73717,2261 To: BOB DISTLER 76276,1460 (X) The word I read was that they had not determined a limit to number of writes, with the implication that the number would not be a significant limitation. Pretty impressive- this breaks a lot of things wide open. -TJ- #: 531 S1/General Information 24-Apr-88 13:46:28 Sb: #526-#Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 To: BOB DISTLER 76276,1460 Bob, I'm no industry Guru, but if this Thor technology comes to market, it will shatter the ancient software vs. hardware battle (more people will buy CDROM players when there's more cheap software, but software manufacturers won't invest in more software until there are more players out there, and thereby more buyers! This event strikes me as the second most important event to happen to CD technology since its own development (am I being too over zealous)! I don't remember reading about anything like this being developed by any other company. I can't wait to see the specs! Hell, I'd even settle for write=1000 read many!!!!!! -RSL- 1 Reply #: 532 S1/General Information 24-Apr-88 16:13:47 Sb: #498-kurzweil Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467 To: John McCormick 76360,44 John, Westlaw and Lexis CD-ROMs are inevitable, but the question is when will they be ready to "cannabalize" their rip-off dial up services. I think someone's going to get rich on legal database CD-ROM before they offer serious alternatives to their $100/hr business which brings them $150 million/year. Hope it's me! Re scanners: are you happy with CompuScan and IOC in areas other than paper feed? Accuracy? Speed? What prices? Are they flatbeds or sheet feeds? Thanks, Mark #: 533 S1/General Information 24-Apr-88 16:27:10 Sb: #524-#Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467 To: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 (X) I read in L.A. Times that the data capacity is 100 MB - which is quite a bit for most traditional microcomputer applications - BUT is the lowest I've heard for optical media. I suppose that the capacity will grow to match 600 MB CD-ROM standard after awhile. 1 Reply #: 534 S1/General Information 24-Apr-88 19:44:44 Sb: #526-Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004 To: BOB DISTLER 76276,1460 I think 1000 re-writes would be fine for computers, after all, we're considering write-once, write 1000 times has gotta be better. #: 535 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 01:09:35 Sb: #TANDY CDROM Fm: RICK MILLER 72637,1124 To: ALL I'LL KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE AND INTRODUCE MYSELF AS A NEW MEMBER. I HAVE AN ATARI 520-ST. CAN ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THE NEW CDROM ANNOUNCED BY TANDY? I THOUGHT THAT I HEARD, ON THE RADIO, THAT IT IS AN ERASEABLE CD?? IS IT NOT A WORM??? 1 Reply #: 536 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 03:19:22 Sb: #535-#TANDY CDROM Fm: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 To: RICK MILLER 72637,1124 Rick, If you look back thru the week's Online Today news, (g olt-90, choose last week, I think, maybe gone by now), there was some articles on the THOR-CD ROM stuff. Also the official Tandy announcement is in THORCD.TXT in DL14 of the TandyPro forum. I popped in here cuz I figured this would be where all the info is, but don't see any (yet). Basically, it's compatible with normal CD players, meaning it has applications for audio right now. Video and data later. The recording industry of course has already gone bonkers... this means you could go over to a friends house and copy off all his CD's, which understandably has many in an uproar! Right now, you can only write over (erase the old data) about 40 times, tho. Maybe that will change some by the time it gets to market (18 months they say). They're also gonna license the technology out. Tandy has just rewritten the rules for a lot of the CDROM market! 1 Reply #: 537 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 04:14:22 Sb: Hello message. Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132 To: All Hello, all! Sorry to be late in introducing myself, who has asked about OED CDROM a while ago. I've recently been interested very much in CDROM applications, mainly reference works that will help my study. My specialty is poetics (in English, Provencal, Italian, etc.). So a multi-lingual version of Microsoft Bookshelf would be very useful to me. In Japan a company called Sanshusha published such an application, which contains a dictionary for seven languages. Also I am interested in language processing by computers. I've devised my own way of compiling a concordance to a body of text. I compiled two such concordances. One of them will be perhaps out soon. So I'm also looking for a suitable place to talk about these matters. Have literary scholars gathered around some place in CompuServe? Any suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks. #: 538 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 08:21:50 Sb: #518-CDI or DVI Fm: Mark Sterling 74335,1677 To: Aegis Development 76067,2500 Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that a 30:1 compression was possible. I assume that something is lost but 8 bits/pixel sounds pretty good. Thanks for the V3D info also. .....Mark #: 539 S4/Adding CDROM Access 25-Apr-88 10:49:29 Sb: FORTHPLAY Fm: Tom Roscoe 71777,2564 To: SYSOP Would appreciate it if you could remove Forthplay from the download area. Forth code is traditionally distributed in source code form. Since the Source file is rather ragged, I don't believe it is of CompuServe quality yet, although the program does work on multiple drives. Forth'ers can still do access based on code in the Forth forum, and the hardware command information. Thank you, Tom #: 540 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 10:59:41 Sb: #531-Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Singing Electrons/Tom J. 73717,2261 To: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 Agreed. This development, providing it works out according to the publicity, will make CDROM 100 times more viable. -TJ- #: 541 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 11:17:40 Sb: #536-TANDY CDROM Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227 The more I read about the new Thor CD technology, the less fantastic it sounds. Presently, according to this message base, it hold 100 megs instead of 500 megs, it can only record sound at this time, and can only be re-written 18 times. I will go to TandyPro Forum and download there official announcement for Thor CD technology. I hope that by the time it's available to the public its specs are improved! -RSL- #: 542 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 11:17:50 Sb: #533-Tandy's Thor CD Advance? Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 I hope that they're able to bring up the information density to a par with CD-ROMs. We probably won't see any products using this technology for the next few years, so I hope they can improve on the specs I've recently read! -RSL- #: 543 S1/General Information 25-Apr-88 11:18:02 Sb: Thor CD announcement Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025 To: ALL I just downloaded the announcement from Tandy about their Thor CD technology. It seems to be big on hyperbole, and promises for the future, and short on actual specifications. I hope this technology approaches its promise! -RSL-