State of the Art: The Publishing Fiasco
In case you hadn't noticed, publishing has found itself in a rather sorry state of late. And I don't mean just Web publishers, but everyone—from the giants of print publishing to newsletter producers to independent contractors who depend upon the publishing industry for their livelihood. Bad times all around, financially speaking. ...Read More »
State of the Art: Is Streaming Dead?
I lie to you not. I went out to the Streaming Media West convention in Long Beach last week (against my better judgement, but I'll get to that in a moment). This is one of those shows where practically the only companies in attendance are there to beg for venture capital. You know the kind. (I went on at length about this around last Internet World. Streaming Media West is the same thing.) So, anyway, after I get done at this show, what do you suppose I find on my windshield when I reach the parking lot? ...Read More »
Back in Black
Less than a year ago, Corel Corp. seemed on the verge of ruin. Its profits were non-existent; it had just splurged on the acquisition of a number of creative products from the company formerly known as Metacreations; and its directors had released a statement saying that the company would be out of money unless it could merge with Inprise/Borland, another software company. The merger never happened. ...Read More »
SIGGRAPH 2001 Roundup
Another SIGGRAPH has come and gone. This year's show was smaller than last year's, with several exhibitors dropping out and with attendance seemingly down. (Actual attendance figures haven't been published yet.) What does this say about the animation industry in general? Of course, the industry has hit some hard times, and so some exhibitors opted to save a little money by not showing up or by taking on a diminished presence this year. But for those who were there, the enthusiasm for the business has not diminished one bit. I, for one, was left with a sense that we're about to experience a turnaround, from both a user and technology perspective. ...Read More »
Guest Opinion : The SGI We Really Need
SGI is one of my favorite companies. Their computers have fueled the entertainment industry for years, and they have played a major role in the development of the computer graphics industry that we have today. Unfortunately, SGI's presence at Siggraph 2001 was, to put it mildly, "interesting." They were showing their brand new O2+ workstation, a powerhouse that would have made a lot of people drool a decade ago. At the time, this 350 MHz RM7000ATM processor-based workstation with 256 MB SDRAM, great graphics and a starting price of "only" $7,495 would have prompted people to sell their cars, mortgage their homes and even divorce their spouses just to get one. ...Read More »
State of the Art: Flash Is Back
Not too long ago, I went on a bit of a tirade against Microsoft for failing to deliver the Flash plugin with the basic installation of Internet Explorer for Windows. After all, if it could happen on the Windows platform, the same fate couldn't be far off for the Mac platform either. But now (as of last week) Microsoft and Macromedia say Flash Player 5 will be distributed with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, which is scheduled for worldwide availability Oct. 25. ...Read More »
State of the Art: OS X for Designers
If you're anything like me, you were out early Saturday morning—despite the throbbing pain in your head and the cottony taste in your mouth—rushing to the nearest computer retailer to pick up the latest release of Mac OS X, version 10.1. I know that not all of you are Mac psychofanatics and that a pretty decent-sized chunk of you don't even use a Mac at all. Nevertheless, Mac users do make up significantly more than half of the the total users in this particular creative space, so the question of switching is a relevant one. ...Read More »
A look at the week from The Peddie Report-Is AMD's Latest CPU the Fastest?
Jerry Sanders invited us off to San Francisco to see his full frontal attack on Intel's Pentium 4 and to fire off a few rounds in the Megaherz war. We were so excited, we leapt out of bed on Monday and rushed into town only to find out that the event was actually on Tuesday. Our whole week has been kind of like that. ...Read More »
Mac OS X, Windows XP: Editing Utopia?
Something wonderful is happening in the world of computer operating systems -- something that will change digital video editing at its core. I’m talking about the debut of Mac OS X 10.1 and Windows XP, two operating systems that will dramatically improve the way we do things by finally laying a solid foundation for increasingly sophisticated video editing and compositing on both Macs and PCs. ...Read More »
Sans-Buffy
Throughout time, the fall season has always been one people could look forward too as a time of happiness and celebration. Not because of the harvest and plenty of food to last the hard winter, nor the pretty colors and crisp clean morning air. It isn’t even all the Halloween candy, or the fact that the start of the fall season marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping rush. The best thing about fall is the new television season. ...Read More »
Welcome to DSL Hell
Five years ago, the promise of DSL captured the imagination of tech heads everywhere. What a concept: High speed, broadband Internet access, through conventional phone lines! There would be few installation worries, no new wiring and soon, the whole world would be hooked up with fast connections to what was then called the Information Superhighway. Did that pan out? Not exactly. ...Read More »
OS X for Designers
If you're anything like me, you were out early Saturday morning—despite the throbbing pain in your head and the cottony taste in your mouth—rushing to the nearest computer retailer to pick up the latest release of Mac OS X, version 10.1. I know that not all of you are Mac psychofanatics and that a pretty decent-sized chunk of you don't even use a Mac at all. Nevertheless, Mac users do make up significantly more than half of the the total users in this particular creative space, so the question of switching is a relevant one. ...Read More »
SIGGRAPH 2001
SGI is one of my favorite companies. Their computers have fueled the entertainment industry for years, and they have played a major role in the development of the computer graphics industry that we have today. Unfortunately, SGI's presence at Siggraph 2001 was, to put it mildly, "interesting." They were showing their brand new O2+ workstation, a powerhouse that would have made a lot of people drool a decade ago. At the time, this 350 MHz RM7000ATM processor-based workstation with 256 MB SDRAM, great graphics and a starting price of "only" $7,495 would have prompted people to sell their cars, mortgage their homes and even divorce their spouses just to get one. ...Read More »
The Future of Creating Photo-Realistic 3D Web Images
3D markets are opening up rapidly as computer power increases, 3D engines proliferate and bandwidth increases. However, growth in many of these markets is limited by an inability to create photo-realistic content quickly. ...Read More »
The Costs of Censorship
Censorship. It's always directed at someone else. Here's a variation on an old saying: Don't censor him, don't censor me. Censor that fellow behind the tree! Editors, unite! Let's let The Real World show its sometimes-ugly face. Who knows -- we may just be able to enlighten our entire society. ...Read More »
Virtual Actors
I was able to slip away for a few hours this weekend to check out the highly anticipated and hyped Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. One of the most hyped aspects of this movie was the implication that virtual actors would put real actors out on the street. While Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a huge leap for 3D movies, I don't think SAG and AFTRA have too much to worry about right now. ...Read More »
Garbage In, Garbage Out
There’s an old saying in the industry: Garbage in, garbage out. It couldn’t be truer for DVD encoding. All DVD producers want their shinny discs to look great. After all, one of the advantages of the medium is to offer viewers virtually the same image quality that you and I can see in the studio. And DVD makes this possible for the first time ever. ...Read More »
OS X: If You Build it, They Will Come
by John Virata April 2, 2001 It has been a week and a few days since Apple Computer released Mac OS X, the company's replacement for its operating system that has essentially gone unchanged (sans the tweaks from System 6x to System 7x) since 1984. News groups on the Internet, and the creative and mainstream media have taken cursory looks at the Unix-based operating system and have come away with mixed results. On ...Read More »
The AMD Alternative
Just a few short years ago, Intel was King of the Windows mediaworkstation world. Many called it the Wintel juggernaut. A few other wannabees tried and largely failed in unseating Intel as King of the processor front. National Semi, Digital's Alpha, and Cyrix tried and failed. Advanced Micro Devices tried and tried and tried. It just never gave up. Well the company's persistence has paid off. ...Read More »
