257 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
257 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
_Current_Cites_
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Volume 5, no. 5
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May 1994
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Information Systems Instruction & Support
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The Library
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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Contributors:
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John Ober, Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
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Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
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Hypermedia and Multimedia
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Lamont, Judith. "Career Corner: Multimedia Training Opportunities"
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Sigcat DISCourse 8(3) (March/April 1994):1,8-10. -- Multimedia
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once belonged to a rarefied world limited by exotic and expensive
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hardware, a dearth of real-world uses, and few experts. This has
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been changing, and as it does, so do the opportunities for growth
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in this field of the computing industry. In the private sector,
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workers are needed in the field of creating and marketing commercial
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multimedia titles on CD-ROM and in the entertainment industry. In
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the public sphere, expertise is needed in evaluation, implementation,
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and support for multimedia endeavors, often in an educational setting.
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This article gives useful hints on what to look for in multimedia
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training, such as selecting a program with connections to industry and
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government to develop professional contacts as well as gain technical
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skills. Just as useful is the guide to 12 multimedia training programs
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across the country with brief descriptions of the programs, and
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addresses. -- RR
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Millison, Doug. "The 800-Pound Gorilla" Computer Currents 11(24):80-82.
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-- They've been called IBM-clones, until IBM was the one doing the
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cloning. They've been called DOS machines, until Windows. Now Intel is
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hoping you'll just call them Intel PC's. One strategy Intel is taking
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to position themselves centrally to PC architecture is to begin
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designing more than chips; in fact they are now creating some very
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useful hardware-independent multimedia standards, some of them free.
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Intel Architecture Labs (IAL) has teams around the world trying to make
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the PC more user-friendly by creating standards for multimedia, and in
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doing so also hopes to make PC's painless enough to become the consumer
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electronic device of choice in the wired home of the future, contrary
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to predictions of set top boxes and powered-up game boys. Intel has made
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progress in speeding up the bottleneck of old ISA architecture, and much
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easier addition of peripherals and add-ons via Plug and Play. Specifically,
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Intel's contributions to multimedia include Indeo, a system-level video
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compression/decompression technology, parallel to Quicktime, that would
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come free with every PC. This software-only solution will be able to access
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color conversion and graphics acceleration found even on cheap Super VGA
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cards, and will also allow 3-D graphics capabilities. One of the main
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hindrances to adoption of multimedia software and content has been lack of
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standards, so if Intel's multimedia architectures are well-conceived
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everyone stands to benefit. -- RR
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NETWORKS AND NETWORKING
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Dearth, Jeffrey L. and Paul J. Vizza. "Browser's Paradise: How the
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Electronic Newsstand is Redefining the Art of Magazine Marketing"
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EDUCOM Review 29(3) (May/June 1994):12-15. -- Two key staffers at
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The New Republic recount how they created the Electronic Newsstand
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-- the Internet equivalent of the corner magazine and newspaper hut.
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Originally created to attract new subscribers to The New Republic,
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it has since grown to include the tables of contents, selected articles,
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and general information about more than eighty magazines, including the
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New Yorker, Discover, National Review, Outside, American Demographics,
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Yoga Journal and others. This article is a brief and interesting case
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history of a commercial use of the Internet that avoids mass-distributed
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advertising. -- RT
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Hahn, Harley and Rick Stout. _The Internet Yellow Pages_ Berkeley:
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Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1994. -- Harley and Stout have created what is
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already becoming one of the most popular references to Internet
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resources. Their _Yellow Pages_ has a comprehensive table of contents
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and index and follows the general model of yellow pages with alphabetic
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subject entries. In addition to lists of Newsgroups and Discussion lists,
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which are available in many other resource guides, the authors have made
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this guide enjoyable to browse. There are sample images with their ftp
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sites, excerpts from discussion lists, Frequently Asked Question documents,
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and other tidbits scattered throughout. Though no guide can be truly
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comprehensive, this one comes close and will work as a starting point for
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some time. Note that there is virtually no instructional information here,
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only pointers to resources. -- JLO
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Hawkins, Brian L. "Planning for the National Electronic Library." EDUCOM
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Review 29(3) (May/June 1994):19-29. -- Hawkins' well-written analysis points
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out that the Library and Academic Communities at large have no
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well-articulated plan to create the global electronic library of the
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future. The historical and organizational reasons for this are described
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but the focus of the article is on examining the range of possible
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structural and organizational models that could be adopted to move toward
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the large-scale electronic library. While not everyone may agree with the
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author's endorsement of a nonprofit corporation model, his call for careful
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thinking of the constraints and opportunities facing academic and library
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use of new technology is worth the time. -- JLO
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Jaffe, Lee David. _Introducing the Internet: A Trainer's Workshop_
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Berkeley: Library Solutions Press, 1994. The first in the new Library
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Solutions Press "Internet Workshop Series," this work will be particularly
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useful for those already familiar with the Internet who must now
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teach what they know to others. The book provides a textual overview of
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what a trainer might want to cover in an introductory Internet class in
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addition to guidelines on how to structure the class and advice on how to
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deal with tricky segments. The book also provides supporting material in
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the form of sample handouts including a glossary, a bibliography, e-mail
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guidelines, and a list of selected telnet and FTP sites. Among the more
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valuable aspect of this workbook are the sample presentation slides that
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are included. Users are encouraged to make overheads from these simple,
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graphically effective slides; the PLUS edition of _Introducing the
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Internet_, includes diskettes (viewable on either Mac or DOS-based
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computers) containing a PowerPoint presentation of the slides which users
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can adapt to their own personal style or to a specific teaching situation.
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The instructional infrastructure provided by Jaffe's book will save anyone
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new to teaching the Internet hours of time and stress. -- MP
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Kelley, Brian. "Publishing Information Globally: Becoming an Information
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Provider on the World Wide Web." Available via World Wide Web at
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[http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ucs/people/BKelly/aberdeen_paper.html] in postscript
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and rich text (RTF) format. -- Kelley has taken his experience from the
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University of Leeds and produced a paper that not only describes their
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experiences in mounting World Wide Web information, but also provides an
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overview of the technology and of the issues involved. With figures and
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reasonable section headings, this material could be adapted to help explain
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the Web to others or to plan the development of a Web server. -- JLO
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King, Kenneth M. "BITNET III: The Spirit of Cooperation Continues," EDUCOM
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Review 29(3) (May/June 1994):41-43. -- In this brief piece, the executive
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director of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN)
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outlines plans for the third major stage of BITNET development. Included is
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a project to build a "global dial-up networking infrastructure" that will
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enable traveling faculty, students, staff, and alumni to dial into their home
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institution with full Internet connectivity through a local phone call. -- RT
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Krol, Ed. _The Whole Internet: User's Guide & Catalog_ 2nd ed. Sebastopol, CA:
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O'Reilly & Associates, 1994. The second edition of Krol's very popular book
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continues to be a valuable Internet reference tool for the beginning or
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intermediate user. This edition is more substantial (a third larger) and
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even more useful than his first. In it Krol has answered one of the only
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criticisms of his first edition by including an appendix called "UNIX Primer"
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designed to be used as a tutorial for those not familiar with the UNIX
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operating system. Krol has also added a section in the chapter on electronic
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mail about Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) which enable one to
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attach non-text files to e-mail messages. The MIME example given uses the
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popular e-mail program pine. The entries in the catalog have been updated and
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have almost doubled in number and include telnet, ftp and www sites for
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everything from aeronautics to the Internet white pages. -- DR
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Robison, David F.W. _All About Internet FTP: Learning and Teaching to
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Transfer Files on the Internet_ Berkeley, Library Solutions Press, 1994.
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Another in the "Internet Workshop Series," this volume, designed as both a
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textbook for students as well as a manual for teachers, offers a lucid
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overview of Internet FTP. As a tool for students, the workbook includes a
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description of FTP, a series of exercises, sample FTP sessions as well as
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a glossary, a list of commands, and a list to archie sites. For the
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instructor, the text of the book can serve as a guide for what to cover in
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a classroom lecture and the glossary and other lists can be used as
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handouts. The section of sample presentation slides are designed to be
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copied onto transparencies and presented during the lecture; the PLUS
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edition of the book includes a PowerPoint version of the slide
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presentation on disk (for either Mac or DOS-based computers) and
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instructors are encouraged to adapt the slides. Also valuable is a
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section that provides tips for trainers and a lesson plan, divided into
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modules that allow instructors to pick and choose according to their own
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needs. Robison notes that FTP tends to be one of the more difficult
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aspects of the Internet for students to understand; his book, however,
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provides a clear and accessible explanation of this sometimes
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overwhelming topic. - MP
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OPTICAL DISC TECHNOLOGIES
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Breeding, Marshall. "The Lay of the LAN" CD-ROM World 9(5) (May 1994):
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54-57. -- CD-ROM networking expert Breeding discusses the plethora of
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networking options for CD-ROMs, seeking to match capabilities and
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features with performance expectations, organizational requirements,
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existing networks and budget considerations. Included is a fact-filled
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sidebar outlining 'notable networking products.' -- TR
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Hyon, Jason. "A Standard for Writing Recordable CDs" Sigcat DISCourse
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8(3) (March/April 1994):1, 3-7. -- Typical of nearly any discussion
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of standards, this article is a fairly technical description of the
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international standard which allows updates to recordable CDs while
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maintaining cross-platform data exchange. The existing standard for
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CD-ROM (ISO 9660) does not support the feature to incrementally add
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information to a CD-ROM disc, generally known as multisession capa-
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bility. This limitation has been a major problem since the advent of
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Kodak Photo CDs, which allows one to add a new set of images to an
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existing disc. CD-R systems only would allow companies to produce
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limited-run CDs of specialized information. The desirability to simply
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update existing CDs with new information, rather than having to scrap
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the lot each and every time, provided the impetus for this new
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standard. -- TR
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Sengstack, Jeff. "On a Roll" CD-ROM World 9(5) (May 1994):42-47.
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-- Sengstack sings the praises of CD-Recordable capabilities,
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encouraging readers to become electronic publishers with CD-R
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systems retailing for less than $4000. This article provides six
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reasons why CD-Recorder systems make sense: for archiving purposes,
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recording music, multimedia training, storing photographs, software
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testing, and replication service purposes. -- TR
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EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
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Gibbs, W. Wayt. "Gray Matter" Scientific American 270(5) (May 1994):114.
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-- With the progress of the digital age, paper is seen as still
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important for its ease of use and portability (all the hard- and
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software needed for decoding is kept tidily in the human head); but
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paper is also seen as merely the messy debris left in the trails blazed
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by digital authoring tools. Paper is given form by digital media, but
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can give nothing back....or so it seemed until Xerox PARC looked into
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the issue. Xerox PARC has introduced "self-clocking glyph code". Glyph
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code is a way of printing tiny slashes so that they encode data in a
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binary fashion, just as digital electronic media. The pattern of forward
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slashes, back slashes, and spaces form a fine gray patch and can encode
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any dat recordable on a diskette, even in encrypted or compressed form.
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With error correction written in, a paper's information could be
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reconstructed even after shredding. Scanners are used to get the
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information back into digital form. Proffered uses for glyph coding range
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from new shipping dockets and invoices rich in information, and sparse
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in errors, to chart printouts that retain all detail of numerical data
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in gray shades. Xerox and Microsoft are working to see if glyph codes may
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help to integrate fax, printer, computer, and copying technology. -- RR
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 5(5) (May 1994) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (C) 1994 by the Library, University of
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California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
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of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this
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publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
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product.
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To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with
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your name. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by
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journal to their collections at no cost. An archive site is
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maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites
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[URL:ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires
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permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following
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ways:
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // trinne@ucblibra // (510)643-9494
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