This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (132 messages)
Paul, The xiphias products dont need the bookmark device, dont know why you would get an error about them. You should be able to run them from the icon but i recall there were some minor problems with some of the scripts. You should be able to run them from…
Buck, I've seen VR Studio, but not VR Animator at Egghead. There is a demo of VRS over in ComArt Lib 13, Virtual Reality (file is VRSDMO.ZIP, i think). It is a game construction kit too. The demo is basically a single adventure type game. There is another upload that…
Autodesk has had a VR developement group for several years. Many of the initial members (Brickens, etc) have moved on but i understand there is still an active development group. I haven't heard any rumors of near term releases about Autodesk, but there are hints about several VR toolkits being…
Hmm, the only Mac title in the series is TToH Science and Innovation. It's a bit dated, since i think the last update was in 1990. It's a hypercard stack, actually one of the first produced for CD-ROM (originally issued in 1987-88). It's come a ways but the other platforms…
In the ComArt forum Lib 13 (Virtual Reality) is a file VRFRIM.TXT which lists a number of companies involved with various aspects of VR. The VR section of ComArt is fairly active both in the msg board and in the libraries. There is a lot of q&a in the msgs,…
I haven't seen or used The US History on CDROM disk. If it has full text inversion and lots of cross-referencing between the 107 books, it might be helpful. Too often people do this type of 'shovel-ware', simply shoveling data onto a disk, without really adding any useful functions. Being…
Frank, What platform(s) do you have. The TimeTable of History series is available for Mac, PC, Amiga (CDTV), and Sony DataDiscman. Amiga is the most full featured (best sound/animation), PC is next, Mac is editorially behind by a year or two, the Sony version is text only and limited by…
#History disks?
Message #19979
There are several US History disks but i dont think anything that would qualify as a historical encyclopedia has yet been produced. One disk "US History on CDROM", is a compilation of about 107 books on various parts of US history. I dont think it adds any (or much) new…
#19891-
#What should we review?
Message #19978
> I would like to see a discussion of reference works (dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, etc.) that would be of use to me. A graphic artist, in contrast, would probably want to see a review that discusses art collections available in CD-ROM format There are some products that cross over between…
Gerald, To the other technical replys you recieved, let me, as a cdrom programmer for Mac, PC, and amiga platforms add a few notes: 1) the CDTV box is the lowest cost multimedia player you will find. It supports direct NTSC/PAL output, cdrom, great sound, etc. It can also easily…
Kevin, The Bookman is NOT a replacement for the Data Discman. Sony was very worried that it would be percieved as such. The two products are similar in that they both are hand held CDROM readers. However, the differences in physical size, disk size, screen size/resolution, and basic capabilities are…
On the Sony hi-8mm front you might look at the EV0-9650 and new EVO-9850. THe latter is a very new machine (not shipping yet) but it is a full edit deck with all the bells and whistles. I got some info from Jim Rosemary, a Sony Corporate Account rep, who…
#19087-
help buying cd rom
Message #19299
Thanks. You can look for more of these programs in the near future. (Am. Her. Illustrated Dictionary and the Silver Palate Cookbook are currently in production, due last month ). Jerry
Unfortunately, the bug fix is not a driver level that Xetec can fix. It is some odd incompatibility between the way WB 1.3 & WB 2.04 work. We have fixed our code and i will ask about uploading fixed versions to y'all here at tommorrows meeting. TT A&E has been…
Sean, The DataDisc man plays the small cd's. It is mostly a text based system (although rudimentary b&w graphics are possible) with a built in search and menu system. It is limited if you compare it to full CD rom systems, but it is selling rather well. The US titles…
#18847-
Hypertext Software
Message #18988
I have not stayed current on competitive products, especially in the Mac domain. Have you looked in the hypertext forum here on CI$? They are mostly mac oriented as I recall. Jerry
#18876-
help buying cd rom
Message #18987
I doubt it would be easy to get into the underlying structure of any of the current GUI systems (Mac/Windows). It is hard enough for us programmers to figure them out sometimes . (say, does your speech thing handle emoticons (smilely faces like 😎 ?) Then there are the graphical…
There was an odd bug in the interface shell system that causes the problem you have seen. There are new versions of the TimeTable products that have been released lately with the bug fixes (latest versions went to C= fryday) These disks have the UK version of the database as…
How does Hi8 mode do the video and audio recording? Is video broken down like SVHS? i know there are several different audio methods, AFM & PCM. Can you shed some light on these? Thanks, Jerry
The Xiphias titles (TimeTable of History series, Silver Palette Cookbook, AH Dictionary, and Grolier's Encyclopedia) all contain an icon that should run them from the standard desktop. I recall there was a problem on one of the titles that had a bad script associated with the icon. You can run…
> you can read a WORM in a CD-ROM drive No. They are very different 'standards'. The data is not recorded the same way or even in the same places. I wish it was different. Jerry Isdale
Try the HELP button on the top menu (or leave the top menu alone for a few minutes). You should see a slide show of various screens and hear the audio. If you dont hear any audio, check the date on the ttsi.exe file on the cd. If it is…
I'm terribly sorry you were mislead by that sticker. Software Toolworks is responsible for the distribution. Does your version of the product actually use the cd-audio? If so, please let both me and Software Toolworks know. There are other cd rom products that require the soundblaster. It is part of…
I haven't used one of the commercial packages you mention for generating a hypertext cd-rom, but i have created several cdrom hypertext titles. Actually, the titles i have worked on are more of a cross between hypertext and conventional text retrieval. The disks are those produced by Xiphias and do…
Mi Font Assistance?
Message #49765
A few months ago some folks here suggested using the Mirror Image program MI Font to convert Macintosh fonts to Amiga fonts. I believe one of those was an employee of MI. Well, we bought the beast and after a frustrating time installing the program (a convoluted process that is…
Xiphias can be reached at (310) 841-2790 I dont know the prices, i just write the code 😎 Jerry Isdale
The Xiphias titles contain all sw needed to run them. There was some compatiblity problems with Workbench 2.0 with some of the titles, i dont remember what that was. We have corrected the problem in currently shipping versions. Commodore was also seeking to fix WB to be compatible. I'll be…
#New Xiphias PC Titles
Message #18314
Xiphias has announced two new titles in the Time Table of History series for the PC are ready for delivery. Distributed by Compton's, the two new titles are the TIME TABLE OF THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT and the TIME TABLE OF BUSINESS, POLITICS AND MEDIA. The original title in the…
the wife's name is Mary Ann. She is the green thumb in the family. The house was barely more than a desert before she arrived. Now i've got a jungle! (and a very wet one lately 😎 Jerry
congrats! I just got the news on my expected child, it will be 'Edward Ian', a boy, due end of june. will be our first. we too were out shopping for baby furniture today! Saw some great crib/dresser combos that turn into beds as the kids grow. Expensive but nice.…
we had some rain back between the holidays but nothing since. Around New Years we came back up to 'normal to date' range, but have fallen way down since then. I heard on the news we need about 2-2 1/2 inches each week for the remainder of the season to…
CBM is definiately working to get CDTV marketed in Japan. But they are not marketing the company to be purchased, just boxes to consumers (i got a 3day trip to tokyo out of CBM last december) Jerry Isdale
#virtual reality studio
Message #15561
There is a very interesting program for the PC called "Virtual Reality Studio". It allows construction & playback of 3D modeled worlds with interaction. The documentation has AMIGA splashed all through it, as the program supposively runs on your favorite platform. Anybody seen it on the Amiga, Comments? There are…
I'd love to get an update to my version. When I transfered that tar file from UNIX->MAC->PC something got lost and I cant untar! I can read the file in Brief but dont want to tackle manually unpacking it (grimace) There is also a project at USC (Peter Danzig, danzig@warthog.usc.edu)…
#text retrieval software
Message #17325
> I'd check with folks involved in the 'WAIS' project… Dow Jones and the Connections Machine people The source code for the WAIS system was available via Internet FTP last year. The names i have for this are: Brewster Kahle (brewster@think.com) Harry Morris (morris@think.com) Jonathan Goldman (jonathan@think.com) Their Wide Area…
Have you considered one of the AppleTalk bridges for the PC? That might even let the Amiga talk to the Pc. But then the might not handle the proper text file conversions. JI
First you probably want to make a One-Off of your data to test that you have all your resources correct (and test speed of FoxPro, etc running from CDROM) There are a number of such services available from the mastering houses as well as specialized One-Off services. Of the latter…
>> "NCSA Telnet" public domain networking packages for the Mac and PC? Dont think I've seen anything on their stuff. What sort of wire/interface does it use? Seeing the ethernet-TCP/IP-NFS system work almost makes me want to set one up at home. I've got a Mac/Pc/Amiga 3monitor desk and use…
the old ZOO format is available in source code and runs mac/unix/pc. The Austin Code Works sells a floppy of PD compression tool source, incl zoo, arc, lharc, etc. I remember an UNSIT program for the amiga that read (but didnt create) Stuffit format files. The format of Stuffit V1.5…
#16945-
SONY Data Diskman
Message #17005
The data diskman supports minimal graphics and I'm not sure if any titles really do anything with it. They are selling extremely well, however! We've got a fairly large library of titles at Xiphias (over 25) that Sony sent us, but I've yet to sit down and use one. I…
You dont even need to tear apart a watchman. There are small color video LCD systems available as add-on viewfinders for camcorders. I also saw a bunch of lcd televisions when I was in Japan last december. Some had detached displays with receiver in a sperate box (all smaller than…
There has been alot of disscusion here and in the Multimedia forum on the merits of the various NEC/DAK/SONY bundles. These three different bundles have different drives and titles. Whether the drive is MPC-compliant or not is a hot issue. It depends mostly on the buffer size of the interface…
Matt did an excellent summary! Just to answer your last question, Look into "CD-Rom Professional". It is a Quarterly publication with a high cost ($86/year). I did however, find a card for it in one of the card-packs for a much cheaper rate ($35??) – Jerry Isdale
As others in this thread noted, the small disks are ISO standard. However, the reason they wont work in a regular CDROM system, even with the special carrier, is that the interface and retrieval engine for the Data Discman is in ROM in the player. The disks contain only data,…
It was a TV ad, the kids appeared to be about 8-10. I'm not that good a judging ages, my kid is still 6 months away. (big grin> – jerry
There is an interesting keyboard called "The Miracle" that hooks up to nintendo (also pc and amiga computers). It has a training program that teaches piano by using the keyboard as a game controller. (Play this scale/sequence & advance your character/score). I played with at the January CES and thought…
There used to be a decent set of publications from DDRI, Inc of Falls Church VA. They published "CD-Rom EndUser" and a bunch of others including a listing of titles with blurb/review for many. My info is dated March 1990 and I failed to enter a subscription "free to qualified…
There are a number of different companies that provide near-turnkey CDROM production. You provide the data, they provide the disk. It gets more complicated when you have images or multiple databases, etc. Some of these companies are quite active in this and the Multimedia forum. to name names: Nimbus Information…
Gad. I do NOT want to use tri-graphs, nor do I want to program in Kanji (or one of the 3 other Japanese character sets). What I need to do is handle kanji (and the other char sets) text on an Amiga. I could fake handling the characters, but I'd…
multiByte char (kanji)
Message #16183
I am looking into the possibility of porting an application to a mulit-byte character language, specifically Kanji. I need to locate a good C compiler for the Amiga that support this. Does anyone have some experience or views they would like to share? – Jerry Isdale
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