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Macintosh
by By John Willner, willner@earthlink.net - December 02, 2000 at 23:22:37:
MacWorld-San Francisco, coming up on the second week of January, was a topic of discussion. Two people can represent the NOCCC Mac SIG, at that conference. This includes invitations to sign up for various breakfasts and sessions (with limited seating). Usually Steve Jobs gives an address that is worth watching because he is very interesting to listen to and because any new product announcements will be given at that time. Adobe provides one breakfast, and Apple provides another. MUG attendees usually benefit from giveaway products, some being quite valuable. For example, last year Adobe gave every MUG representative a copy of GoLive. That web creation program retails for over $300. Apparently, MacAddict is going to provide another breakfast this year and that one might be a new adventure.A report was given on Stoneware software written for OS X and demonstrated on the Beta version of this operating system. Even though the software is in a preliminary state, no crashes were experienced throughout this demonstration. OS X provides a marvelous integration capability within the operating system itself (as opposed to tying separate application packages together). The suite demonstration included six applications that played together flawlessly. The speed and solidity of operations were something to behold. Evidently, the delay in releasing OS X is allowing more than a thousand developers time to perfect their products (and there are some misinformed souls who actually believe Macintosh has no software). These new apps represent a revolution in the way computing will be accomplished in the future. Incidentally, they tend to take full advantage of dual processors and DSPs.
Digital movie-making continues to be a subject of considerable interest. The general consensus is that iMovie is an outstanding product with many easy to use professional features. The pros and cons of VCR versus CD and DVD output forms were discussed, especially when writing, graphs or when other fine material is to be captured and viewed. Tradeoffs exist between movie length and various compression methods that have an effect upon quality. Moreover, cross-platform playback equipment is another issue with several available schemes. In general, television resolution is O.K. for soap operas and football games, but inadequate for finer viewing applications. Clearly, TV is the most widely available playback form, despite all of its present playback limitations which are accentuated when VCR tapes are used. High definition television would be more acceptable, but its arrival is still speculative. Playback on computer monitors can be very good, although image size is another factor. We watched a demonstration of an Apple recording made with iMovie that was projected onto a pull down screen. While not full screen in size, the quality was comparatively good. Any remaining jerkiness is a function of processor speed. What we saw was very good using a computer with 333 Megabyte CPU. However, the numerous compromises available stir our imaginations.
Claire LeMire demonstrated Myst and Riven on the G3 Powerbook computer and LCD projector. These are two challenging games that have very good artwork in them. Apparently, both programs select the color ranges required automatically.
At the next meeting we will probably talk more about MacWorld, assist anyone needing help, and review other topics that interest the group.
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