#User Picture Directory
30 messages in this thread
Since the Amiga is such an excellent graphics tool, and digitized images
have become so popular, I'd like to propose that Amigaforum establish a
section for digital images of the members and sysops. Several services
that I'm aware of are getting together "yearbooks" or pictorial
directories. These are usually compiled from photos sent to some kind
"volunteer," and the participants financially subsidize the preparation.
Presumably, most of the members of this forum are Amiga owners, and again
presumably, many own software that can display IFF format graphics files,
or could download some from Amigaforum. So, it seems logical that we could
have an online yearbook.
Unfortunately, at this time I do not own any digitizing equipment, but
maybe soon…and maybe some others might be interested in volunteering the
services of theirs…
I don't know, maybe this idea will fall flat, but it sounds rather
interesting to me. I'm not a big CB'er, but don't they have some sort of
picture files of users? The advantage for us is the common machine, and
the common availability of the necessary software.
Anyone else interested? Sysops?
Paul;
The CB pictures are in a CIS graphics protocol called RLE, which works on
almost any machine with at least a 256 by 192 graphics display (makes it
real easy to share – black and white, too). Anyway, sounds like a fun idea
to me; I might even volunteer my digi-view to do a few pictures now and
then, too. -Doug
Doug,
Mayhaps, if this thing catches on, someone would do an IFF<->RLE converter, so
that pictures could be swapped between our forums, allowing even more users
access to both.
Rick
Rick;
That's certainly a possibility. In low res mode, RLE's 256×192 isn't all
that much smaller; of course, it would be black and white on the RLE end, so
we'd have to keep that in mind.
But heck, I'd get the Amiga side going before I start to worry about such
things as RLE; the world could change in the next six months.
-Doug
Yeah, what hurts RLE is the fact that it's binary, either off or on… so if
you want grey scaling you have to dither, and that hurts the apparent
resolution.
Actually some of the high res RLE stuff I've dumped out looked pretty good…
you could almost believe it was a real picture if you'd cross your eyes and
squint.
Going from RLE to Amiga would be trivial or difficult. Trivial if we just did
a one to one translation. Difficult if we took time to decipher the dithering
and truly greyscale the output.
Going from IFF to RLE would be pretty straightforward too; just need to work
out the dithering algorithm.
I agree, let's get this ball rolling first, but let's keep this idea in mind
too.
Rick
With RLE you lose all detail — it's like going back to VIC-20 graphics. What
would be nice is for a term program to be able to READ (from the DL) an IFF pic
and display it in real time.
Yes, although I still believe that IFF->RLE would be useful, and it would be
interesting to see how well IFF->RLE could be done.
Absolutely, I want to see realtime IFF display, with simultaneous optional
storage to disk.
Rick
OK! OK! I get the hint!
Jim
I like the idea — People Pics. The problem is in the actual digitizing.
I, like probably many others, have no facilities to do this. If someone
would volunteer to digitize pictures for people who mailed them to them we
could put together a 'yearbook' of our own.
I don't know how long or involved the digitization process is, but, if we
could come up with 3-4 (or more) people willing to do this something might
be done to compensate them for their time and effort. We could post a list
of the 'good samatarians' listing an address to send the photographs to. A
person would send them 2 disks plus a self addressed stamped return
mailer. The person doing the digitizing would keep one disk, stick the
file on the other, and drop the mailer into the mail. Sound reasonable?
I suggest Infominder format for the yearbook. I bet we could get six
recognizable likenesses per screen, with a little Infominder Tidbit about
each visage.
I have been dying to do something practical with my Infominder compiler.
That's a good idea in general — but it presupposes that everyone has
Infominder!
(Still the problem exists tho — getting the pic digitized in the first place)
A world where everyone has Infominder is not such a bad world. Terrapin
produced a liscensed distributable version of Infominder for C=A's
developer documents, I bet they'd be approachable for a version for CIS
Yearbook.
I like the idea Paul! Especially since the Amiga is such a good medium for
displaying "almost analog" pictures, ie. HAM digitizations.
The only problem I forsee is finding a few people (the more the merrier)
around the country that could do the digitizing. It would be fairly easy
for those in large cities to find someone nearby who could do the
digitizing, but for those who can't for one reaon or another, a
digitization of a photo would serve quite well.
As for those doing the digitizing remotley, there could be some small reward
for it.
One thing though, are you sure you want to see my ugly mug? <grin>
Regards, Larry.
Larry, You can count me in. Have already started digitizing 'mugs' around
the office. Have done wallet-sized to 11×14's as well as negatives…. fun
stuff! By the way…. for anyone buying a Panasonic WV1410 for their
digiview… a reminder that the camera comes with a little switch inside
set to the LINE vs. INTERNAL sync …. ya need to set it to the INTERNAL
position. In the LINE postion you get little 'icicles' in the picture due
to the vertical scan technique used by Digi-View. best, Rick
Rick, should I "count you in" as a digitizer to the membership? Digitizer
to PA? to West ChestY{r? Or as an uploader of your own and co-workers
pics?
Regards, Larry.
Larry;
What the heck, might as well count me in on the digitizing club for the West
Coast (I'm in Los Angeles). Might as well get the ball rolling, ey.
-Doug
Doug, I'm in LA too-Venice. Where are you?…Dave
Dave;
We're neighbors, then. I'm just east of Santa Monica in Westwood, a stones
throw from UCLA.
On a totally unrelated topic, would you happen to know if an Amiga Users
Group in the L.A. area anyplace? I'd like to meet a few other Amiga users face
to face and see if they fit the mental picture. (IBM users sure do; the last
IBM Users Group meeting I went to was a sea of blue blazers and men holding
large manuals! And Mac users… well, they have a class unto themselves
altogether.)
Doug
Doug, what do Amiga users look like? I work with 5 of them at NBC in Burbank.
I don't know of an Amiga users' group. Jut got mine in fact about three
months ago. We could get together somethime, if you like, give me a call at
823-8319…Dave
Dave;
I'll give ya a call first free minute I get.
Doug
I work nights so make it late in the afternoon Mon thru Thurs, OK?…Dave
Dave:
There is an L.A. users group. Met one of the members last month. Long
way from San Diego right now but can give you the name and address when I get
back (probably sometime next week).
73s,
bill
Doug,
I don't know what's near you (I'm a right coaster), but we have four
listings for California… heck, I'll just run down the cities:
Bakersfield, San Fracisco, Milpitas, and Stockton. Probably none of these
are near you, if your luck is like mine. 8)
If any of these look likely, you might want to scan USRGRP.LST in the DLs,
which gives further information on all of these.
Rick
Rick:
I am astonished! You just sorta think that groups such as L.A.'s and
San Diego's would be listed. I will have to get those to you when I get back
to So. Cal. 73s,
bill
Bill,
Hey, super, do that! Give me all the info you can which is asked for by the
form in the DLs, and I'll add them to the list. Thanks a million!
Rick
Yep, as a digitizer. Rick
Thanks Rick,
Adding your name to the list.
Regards, Larry.
Larry,
My DigiView has, as of late, been collecting a bit of dust. You can
include me on your list of digitizers. One point I'd like to make though,
is that full sized pics take lotsa space. Having 300-400 (how many forum
members do we have here?) pictures in one spot would be rather ridiculous.
How about 1/6 or 1/8 frame images, which could be setup in alphabetical
collections, ie 1 frame contains 6 (or 8) pictures from any sorted list we
might happen to have. If the thought of having the pictures that small is
worse than thinking of the file storage for that many frames, then
disregard this suggestion. Anyway, if this gets off the ground, lemme
know!
Ewan
P.S.: I'm working on a project, actually a continuation of a rather old
project, to manipulate LANDSAT images on the Amiga. Many of the routines
involved would make it a snap to go from RLE<->Amiga. If we get REALLY
into this picture thingy, I could extract the necessary stuff (or just whip
up a quickie, it pretty simple image processing). My first attempt at this
was turning Mac digitized pics into Amiga grey scaled pics in basic. 5
lines (although 5 hours per 640×400 rez, he he). Now down to around 15
secs in Modula… Again, lemme know whatcha think!
Thanks Ewan. I'm adding you to the list, and I'm sure that with the response
this idea of Paul's seems to be getting, that we will indeed go ahead with it,
if not in a section by itself, at least with readily identifiable pictures in
one of the libraries.
The details will have to be worked out as to size of images, etc.
Thanks again.
Regards, Larry.
Paul,
That is an _excellent_ idea, and one which I will stand firmly behind (er,
firmly behind the _camera_, actually…)
Yes, there is PD software right here in the DLs which would allow anyone with
an Amiga to view pictures of this sort.
CBIG and the pictures forum each have picture DLs, the former including mug
shots of forum members. We can view these pictures using AHost. The thing is,
these pictures are in RLE, and are very low resolution relative to what can be
attained with the Amiga.
I for one would love to be able to see some nice color HAM pictures of some of
the people I chat with regularly. Count me in for moral support and anything I
can do from a sysop standpoint.
Rick