Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca> (02/26/90)
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1098. Monday, 26 Feb 1990.
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 90 15:48 EDT
From: The Man with the Plan <KEHANDLEY@AMHERST>
Subject: Kodak Datashow
About the Kodak Datashow:
It only supports IBM CGA mode, I think (certainly not EGA or VGA or
Hercules), and it is monochrome. Thus, if you need to differentiate
between colors for your application it is not the item to buy. Also, if
your program has blue text on a green background, both may map as black
to the Datashow, making the text effectively invisible.
You should also think hard about the uses you might have for a Data-
show. I really don't like looking at the projected image (but I've only
seen it with a non-halogen overhead projector). I would recommend only
using it for short periods of time (which negates the problem of the
crystals heating up and the corresponding loss of contrast in the
display).
$499 (US) is a good price for the Datashow, though, and I think that DAK
has a good return policy (I saw it work well about four years ago).
There are better models available now (I think Kodak is out of this
business), but they are expensive. I am sorry that I can't quote brand
names (I saw a demonstration, but had little to do with the buying end).
There is a display that does a number of shades of gray and works with
both Macs and IBMs. We are buying one, but it has not yet arrived. The
cost was about $1800 (US). We also saw a color display (IBM and Mac),
which was far from impressive. You would really have to tweak your
program to make the overhead display match the correct colors on your
CRT screen. It only displays eight colors, but there should be a 16
color display from the same vendor within the year. The price for the
color display was really hefty, $4000-5000, I think. A final note: if
you drop any of these on the floor, they break (al- though they may not
look broken).
Keith Handley
User Services Associate, Amherst College Academic Computer Center
P.S. I wonder if I broke the Humanist record for number of parentheses in
a posting. I will work on fixing my style a bit.