peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (05/10/89)
> Can a PC AT process a newspaper? Surely. I'm sure an Amiga could. It's not that much more powerful... the main advantage it has is the richness of the standard audiovisual tools. If you don't try to shove too many pixels around all at once, and don't overwhelm the CGA display, the PC should do just fine. Why stop at video? How about sampled sounds? Music? Multimedia news. > How do you deal with different terminal types? Organise the news interactively. There's no point staying with a static display on a dynamic device. Hypertext-type links. Multimedia news. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.
vail@tegra.UUCP (Johnathan Vail) (05/12/89)
In article <4131@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > Can a PC AT process a newspaper? Surely. I'm sure an Amiga could. It's not that much more powerful... the main advantage it has is the richness of the standard audiovisual tools. If you don't try to shove too many pixels around all at once, and don't overwhelm the CGA display, the PC should do just fine. Why stop at video? How about sampled sounds? Music? Multimedia news. > How do you deal with different terminal types? Organise the news interactively. There's no point staying with a static display on a dynamic device. Hypertext-type links. Multimedia news. Yes Yes Yes, and it will happen but not with computers designed almost 10 years ago (over 5 at least). Think in terms of tomorrows computers. Think about something like a NeXT with more memory for real cheap. Thats the minimum necessary. It will happen. Wait and see. "Cel-e-brate, the being right, of the doing right, of your heart" _____ | | Johnathan Vail | tegra!N1DXG@ulowell.edu |Tegra| (508) 663-7435 | N1DXG@145.110-,145.270-,444.2+,448.625- -----
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (05/13/89)
In article <499@atlas.tegra.UUCP>, vail@tegra.UUCP (Johnathan Vail) writes: > Yes Yes Yes, and it will happen but not with computers designed almost > 10 years ago (over 5 at least). Think in terms of tomorrows > computers. Think about something like a NeXT with more memory for > real cheap. Thats the minimum necessary. It will happen. Wait and > see. An Amiga *is* something like a Next but for real cheap. I'm not sure how much memory is needed... the real cheap part is more important if you're going to have something as common as a newspaper on it. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Personal: ...!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.
Doug.Thompson@p101.f162.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Doug Thompson) (06/05/89)
In a message of <13 May 89 03:47:42>, <Johnathan Vail> writes: > In article <4131@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > > > Can a PC AT process a newspaper? > > Surely. I'm sure an Amiga could. It's not that much more powerful... > the main advantage it has is the richness of the standard audiovisual What does a newspaper need that this newsgroup doesn't? A newspaper is text. Indeed, many newspapers are produced with PC XTs. Displaying text is within the capability of almost any computer with a mass sotrage device. > Organise the news interactively. There's no point staying with a static > display on a dynamic device. Hypertext-type links. Multimedia news. > Yes Yes Yes, and it will happen but not with computers designed almost > 10 years ago (over 5 at least). Think in terms of tomorrows > computers. Think about something like a NeXT with more memory for > real cheap. Thats the minimum necessary. It will happen. Wait and > see. I agree that we should think in terms of tomorrow's computers, and they are gonna be awesome. But the PC AT of today is not so very different than the whatever of tomorrow. One thing that is important to remember about computers is that, for the most part, anything that can be done with any computer can be done with any other computer. You will find differences in speed. Hypertext does not require a great deal of memory. A humble PC can handle it quite well. Yes, with more powerful computers you can speed things up, but a screen write that is 1/80th of a second vs one that is 1/8th of a second does not make a lot of difference to the user. While colour and multiple fonts and other such graphic capabilities may enhance the attractiveness of a text display, it's enhancement of the value of the text to the user is marginal. Which is to say you can get the bulk of the content and value with very simple tools. For instance, a model T Ford is neither elegant nor fast, but it will get you from one side of Manhattan to the other just as quickly as a Porshe, and somewhat less quickly than a horse. I think the major technical breakthrough for newspaper and other bulk information dissemination via computer lies in quick transmission (fast modems, etc.) and cheap mass storage, (hard disks, or optical disks). How cheaply/quickly you can move it and how much you can store are much more significant than whether you are using an Intel 8088 or a Motorola 68??? as the cpu to organize the presentation to the user. You can get quite useful results with quite primitive hardware. =Doug -- Doug Thompson - via FidoNet node 1:221/162 UUCP: ...!watmath!isishq!162.101!Doug.Thompson Internet: Doug.Thompson@p101.f162.n221.z1.FIDONET.ORG