CompuServe Messages

Hi again Ed, >> I haven't haven't experienced any of the SCALA wannabes. I saw MediaPoint (that's the name) and it looked pretty good although if I recall correctly it crashed when it was being demonstrated (but then again, so did Scala the first time I saw it). Like I said, MP was good because it was freely distributable and cheaper. >> Interesting ideas about CDs and MM consumers, but let's face it – the >> CD is nothing more than a large, slow storage device. Yes, with 650MB on it. That's why. I purchased Borland office for my laptop and it came with 22 HD diskettes. When I installed it I would have appreciated having a CD. <G> Also, with QuadSpeed CDs the transfer rate is up at 400KB/sec–still slower than the 1-6 MB/sec with SCSI but it is getting there. >> All of this from a couple floppy disks — it's frightening to think >> what they could have done with the storage space of a CD! I worked for a company that offered diskette based MM publishing. Although not entirely fast nor fancy the products was able to get upto 100 8-24bit pictures on one diskette, along with the freely distributable player. BTW, this was Windoze based. >> Hummm, maybe we ought to due a consumer MM thing for the Amiga… Sure! Do you know anyone with a couple hundred thousand dollars? >> when you said the Director does object oriented animation, that >> suggests to me that the images are vector based graphics verses >> bit-mapped. Director supports vector (QuickDraw as they are called on the Mac) graphics but normally only bitmaps are animated for the reason you suggested. "Object oriented" (I'm not sure if that is the exact term to use) in this context means that each element in an animation is a unique object (called a sprite). You can create an animation in a similar way to making one in DPaint by dragging the sprite around like a brush. However, the difference is that the animtion can later be changed because it is not a fixed bitmap. >> I don't think double-buffering is a hardware thing, I think it is more >> of a software thing. I thought double-buffering meant nothing more than >> dedicating a chunk of memory to create a screen image and then pump-it >> full speed to the display memory to avoid slowly drawing on the screen >> in psuedo-real-time. Of course I could be all wet! Yes, you are correct but I seem to recall that on the Amiga the ability to display the hidden screen is a hardware thing, specifically the Blitter which I think copies the buffer to the screen while a new buffer is created. Perhaps a programmer can clarify if this is the case. >> The Media Control Interface sounds interesting. Basically it is shared libraries but Rexx would be nice. (That is why I am currently trying out OS/2.) Datatypes is simply done by using the extension of the filename, eg. *.GIF, *.JPG, *.AVI etc. >> How long the IICS been around? 1983 or '85, I'm not sure which. >> Is this a group that is really interested in the technology (and it's >> advancement) or just folks that are trying to use existing solutions to >> met current needs? Yes! (Both) <G> IICS members can and are from all walks of multimedia life: we have technical people, s/w developers, authoring people, video developers, advertisers, artists, and yes, even a few Amiga people (although it is mainly Mac & PC). >> Cleveland is a little haul for me, but you never know — do you have a >> schedule for meetings? They may have a schedule but I don't know. The contact i have is Sandy LaCorte at (216) 777-7139. >> How does an "outsider" get a look at the newsletter? If they have a newsletter then you might get one by going to a meeting or requesting a copy. My newsletter is in the Multimedia forum (GO MULTIMEDIA) in the IICS section. It comes in Text, GIF and PostScript formats. Just do a search for my user id. >> Congrats on using your Amiga for something other >> than the two approved solutions <grin>! Thanks, sometimes it is more of a pain, however. (ie. getting printing) Andrew ICAM — ActiveMedia Development / IICS "InforMedia" Newsletter Editor Gliding in from Toronto on AutoPilot…