AMD64 - Directly Connecting Your Imagination to Reality By Charlie Boswell Each generation of new technology assaulting the digital content creator typically comes with elaborate promises about how it?s going to change lives. Sometimes that?s actually true -- but not always for the better. Non-linear editing systems brought the number of ?workarounds? to new heights ...Read More »

How Much Time Does Apple Have? By Dave Nagel Set sentimentality aside. Set aside the pride and the unfounded fears and all of the little irrelevancies I've seen people worrying over for the last five days about Apple switching to Intel. Focus, instead, on the big one: Will there be a Mac platform in two years? The answer to that will depend on whether Apple sticks to the plan announced at WWDC. If it does, then by this time in 2007, you will be doing your computing on a Windows box. ...Read More »

Where Has All the Imagination Gone By David Hague From motor sports commentary, technology shows and even a DJ for a short time, I love radio ? its immediacy and intimacy. Much friendlier than television in many ways. But now, with digital radio on our doorstep, is it not time to take a step sideways and have a look at one aspect of radio that to me at least, is almost an embarrassment? ...Read More »

If Someone Is Stealing from You, Give Them More By Guy Wright A few years ago, during all the RIAA assaults on Napster and threats of lawsuits against people who downloaded music, I was having a discussion about piracy with a musician/writer friend of mine, Andy Grossberg. He said to me, ?Rather than trying to sue everyone or get stricter laws passed against piracy, what the music industry aught to do is give people better reasons to buy discs.'' Apparently someone must have had a microphone hidden somewhere in that basement and took notes, because that's what Silverline Records is doing. ...Read More »

Four Paths to Artistic Success By Jeffrey P. Fisher Many musicians try to do too many things at one time. It's a plague that affects many creative people. I feel it's the side-effect of the creative spirit -- helpful when you require the muse and destructive because you never finish anything (or burn out trying). Here's a suggestion. Divide your creative life into four distinct parts. ...Read More »

Ultra Size Your DSL By Stephen Schleicher One thing that you have probably figured out by now is that I and many other DMN staffers have broadband in some shape or form, and we love it. When we lose our broadband access, we get very upset and can?t understand why we have to suffer in the dial up wasteland. Having opened the DMN Central Division in recent months I have been forced to be in that wasteland (figuratively and literally) many times, and it got me thinking, has broadband been forced down our throats? Is the world really ready to accept broadband in all its glory? ...Read More »

The Costs of Censorship By Charlie White 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 »

Are There Vultures Among Us? By Max Kopsho It's almost impossible to do anything today without thinking of the current economic situation and even more difficult putting out of mind the recent tragedies that struck our nation in New York, Washington D.C. and in Pennsylvania. I won't even try. So let's talk about what I've noticed since then. ...Read More »

What We do Really Does Matter By Denise Harrison Before this week, perhaps we thought how important good AV systems are to making a rock star look and sound their best, or a corporate CEO come off with authority and as a great communicator. Today I realize the much greater significance of the industry and everyone involved. I know our government officials are thankful for the tools available to them at at this moment. ...Read More »

Undeserving Credit By John Virata Last week I found out that I got scammed. The ideas, the words, the paragraphs and the phrases that I get paid as a journalist to submit into Cyberspace, were purloined by an unscrupulous person masquerading as a journalist. This thief stole my writing (A review of Adobe's Photoshop Elements that appeared on DigitalProducer.com in late June/early July) and put his/her name on it, submitted it as his/her own work to Digital Photographer Magazine, which proceeded to print it in the November 2001 issue on page 24 ...Read More »

Sans-Buffy By Stephen Schleicher 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 »

State of the Art: OS X for Designers By Dave Nagel 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 »

State of the Art: Flash Is Back By Dave Nagel 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 »

Guest Opinion : The SGI We Really Need By Paulo de Andrade 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 »

SIGGRAPH 2001 Roundup By Dave Nagel 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 »

Back in Black By Dave Nagel 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 »

State of the Art: Is Streaming Dead? By Dave Nagel 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 »

State of the Art: The Publishing Fiasco By Dave Nagel 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 »

Talkin' Smack: Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? By Dave Nagel Most of you know me as a good man. Some of you might even refer to me as a holy man. Perhaps you're right. However, recent evidence would tend to indicate that I may have fallen out of favor momentarily, a direct result of comments made in last week's column. Here's what happened. ...Read More »

Talkin' Smack: The God OS By Dave Nagel Is there a God? It's a question that might seem a bit out of place in this oft-jovial, sometimes sardonic editorial page, and I'm certainly not intending this to be in any way blasphemous by asking it here. After all, I'm as opposed to drowning in a lake of fire forever as the next guy. Nevertheless, the question is a relevant one for these pages, and, at the risk of exposing my own hubris, I intend to explain this relevance and answer the question in 1,500 words or fewer. ...Read More »