X-Delivery-Notice:  SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender.
Organization: UAB Photo & Graphics
X-pmrqc:      1
X-mailer:     Pegasus Mail v2.3 (R3).
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pagemakr
Date:         Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:48:22 CDT
Reply-To:     Jeff Bone <JBONE@DOPIG.UAB.EDU>
From:         Jeff Bone <JBONE@DOPIG.UAB.EDU>
Subject:      Report on SIGGRAPH '92
X-To:         PAGEMAKR@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU

As I promised here are a few of the highlights from my week at SIGGRAPH '92:

- Aldus showed and sold Intellidraw like I've never seen before.  You had to
  wait in line to get a chance to try it "hands-on."  But the wait was worth
  it.  Anyone who needs an "intelligent" drawing package that you can learn
  in an afternoon, teach your work-study the next day, and design your dream
  house in by Saturday and have the sale flyers for your old house ready an
  hour later, need this package.  It is slick and at retail $199 a bargain.
  At $89 Educational it should be a crime not to own this package.  My Aldus
  rep says they sold over 1000 copies on the floor in just two days.

- Quarterdeck showed Deskview/X and made you wonder why Windows didn't work
  like this.  Imagine working on Framemaker running on a SparcStation, while
  working on Excel under Windows, and FoxPro in DOS all at the same time on
  _DIFFERENT_ machines but from _YOUR_ desktop.  No joke!  The X-windows in-
  terface gives you the ability to control apps running on other X-windows
  stations including Macs, PCs, and UNIX boxes.

- Frank Romano (publisher of TypeWorld, Computer Artist, and the Pocket Pal)
  could be the best DTP seminar speaker I've ever heard.  You could get the
  notes but it wouldn't help much -- he's just like an editor should be, most
  of it is in his head.  Among many of his topics one that was most intriguing
  was his desire to redefine the concept of a printer in light of the new
  developments in press technology, high-volume laser printers, and on-demand
  printing.  Another subject that he surprised us with is his stance on copy-
  right of typefaces -- he believes that typefaces shouldn't be copyrighted,
  the methods of creating them should (this is similar to the Adobe argument).
  Therefore everyone can have the same font names, but if a vendor A can prove
  that the byte order of vendor b's Goudy is the same as theirs he can sue.

- Regardless of what the PC press says, there were more Macs in booths than
  PCs (of course SG Indigo's outnumbered Macs 10 to 1).  Some of the cooler
  Mac apps included soon to be shipping SoftImage (pronounced Soft-eh-mahge)
  which brings some really incredible 3D animation to the Mac platform.  Soft-
  Image has had the number one 3D animation package on Silicon Graphics ma-
  chines for the last couple of years (their work includes the new beer comm-
  ercial where the couple's clothes change styles before your eyes).  Silicon
  Graphics ruled though, showing everything from FrameMaker to PhotoShop run-
  ning on the Silicon Graphics Indigo.  For $25,000 (about what you pay for
  a Quadra 950, 128 Meg RAM, 24-bit 21 inch, and big HD) you can get an Indigo
  R4000 (the fast new one) with 96 Mb RAM, 19 inch 24-bit, OS, Illustrator,
  PhotoShop, and FrameMaker.  Let me tell you, you'll never see a progress
  indicator in PhotoShop either, heck sometimes you won't even notice the up-
  date - you'll just flip the UNDO/REDO to see difference.  I played with a
  28 Megabyte 24-bit scan faster than our Quadra can work with a 500K grey-
  scale image.

- Augmented Reality is becoming the buzz word in high-tech circles now some-
  what displacing Virtual Reality.  Crystal-Eyes showed their new virtual
  desktop to the Mac, Windows, and Motif.  Essentially you wear a set of eye-
  glasses with tiny high-res heads-up-display systems mounted on the frames.
  This is "magically" controlled by your PC to augment your current CRT to ex-
  pand your working area.  Imagine having a two page 11x17 layout in actual
  size where only a portion shows on your CRT (the highest-res workspace), but
  the Crystal-Eyes show the rest of the layout in virtual space expanded out
  from your monitor.  Turning your head doesn't foul up the composite since
  the computer fixes the layout in space where it should be.  So turn your
  head or eyes to the right and only more pasteboard comes into view.  Event-
  ually they believe this will be used to augment PDAs and even wristwatch
  computers, nevertheless it's a neat way to turn your 14 inch monitor into
  a 21 inch monitor for only ten times as much. :)

- Sad but true, Pixar (the company that Lucasfilm created to do those
  incredible visual effects and the Lifesavers and Listerine
  commericals) had a booth the size of a broom closet.  Three years ago they
  had a showroom space large enough to create a 150 seat motion-controlled
  theatre.  They say they are only a software company now, but if you've
  ever used ShowPlace or RenderMan for the Mac you wonder how long that will
  last too.

- Finally, QMS (one of Alabama's own) my be rising to the top of the desktop
  printer market with their new 600 dpi 11x17 entry.  It looked and performed
  very very well.  Some of their plain paper 600 dpi halftones looked as good
  as our old BirmySetter.  The price is right too, less than $7,500 for the
  full blown unit (enough RAM to do 11x17 600dpi, extra paper tray, EtherTalk
  interface, etc.).  The unit starts at $4495 and can do 8.5x11 600dpi or 11x
  17 300dpi.  It's a true 600dpi too!  It looks like just the thing for the
  multi-Mac or multi-PC workgroup for comps and low-end camera-ready work.



----------------------------------------------------------------
** Jeff Bone                                <jbone@dopig.uab.edu>
** Electronic Imaging Coordinator             AppleLink: jbone
** Photography and Instructional Graphics   205.934.4396 voice
** University of Alabama at Birmingham      205.934.3749 fax
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU