Aladdin Tuner 3.0
Company: Aladdin Systems
Estimated Price: $24.95
(free trial download available)
http://www.aladdinsys.com/tuner/macindex.html

For a complete description of this product, visit the Aladdin URL. What follows is a subjective report based on personal usage. If you have a fast Internet connection and a recent computer, you will have a better overall experience with Aladdin Tuner. User comments on versiontracker.com are not favorable, and you may want to read them to supplement our coverage.

I am not wild about the current state-of-the-art of Internet streaming media, but I love the concept: click on a link and listen/watch live radio/television from all over the world. In a future Nemo Memo, I will offer an in-depth summary of my experiences with RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and a few others. Aladdin Tuner is a window-to-the-world of online streaming media, and the Tuner requires such a player in order to deliver content.

My copy of the software arrived via a brief highspeed online download. Installation was quick and effortless. In a few moments I was using the built-in map to locate and select radio and TV stations from a large quantity of domestic and international locations.

The Aladdin Tuner Menu Bar’s Edit/Preferences offer a few supplementary skins, or views, of the main Tuner window. I chose the Palm Tuner for its clean and simple design. The Window Menu contains options for ways to use the tuner, and for different types of streaming and local media. The Help Menu appears to be useless.

Instead, the iSupport Menu is your conduit to Aladdin’s network of support, downloads, and a whole bunch more. I suggest you spend some time determining how you will use the functions built into the Window and iSupport Menus.

The fun begins when you select the World Browser map, which can zoom to any part of the world, in the left half of the Tuner’s primary display area. Once you select a country, state, or province, the right panel lists available stations, by format (news, sports, rock, classical, and several more). QUESTION: why doesn’t the scroll bar respond either to the arrows or navigational keys on my iMac’s keyboard?

Oops. We have a problem. Not all the station or web links are active, but that is typical of streaming media, from my prior experience. Not to worry: use the stations that work, and skip the others, with no hard feelings. RealPlayer appears to be the most resourceful, so I’m using it as my default player. Let me know if you disagree.

I enjoy using the map to place me visually in different regions, and I’m getting used to the non-scrolling list of stations. A person can only watch and listen to so much streaming TV and radio during any given day, so it pays to be choosy. Most of these media sources can be located via other means, but Aladdin Tuner brings them to you in a convenient package.

For me, being able to think “Chicago = WFMT for classical music” or “England = BBC Radio 4 for sophisticated talk” or “France = LCI Live for French television” is a delight. Add the Tuner’s other features and it’s easy to recommend you consider downloading and evaluating it prior to purchase. Aladdin Systems has had a few inferior products over the years, but not many. I look forward to using an improved and expanded Aladdin Tuner with my iMac/SprintBroadband connection.

IMO, this application is best suited to listeners of mainstream music and talk Internet radio who appreciate the Tuner’s straightforward simplicity. For them, MyMac.com rates it:

MacMice Rating: 3 out of 5

John Nemerovski

I was getting a little pissy the other day because here it is, almost the year 2001 and I’m still not living like the Jetsons. Where’s my Rosie the Maid, my AirCar and my Automatic Dressing Machine? Sheesh…MasterCard sent me a new card a few weeks ago with an obscene limit. I could even afford the Jetson’s lifestyle now. But, when I go shopping, all I find is this stupid little robot dog that everyone from Sears to Wal-Mart wants me to purchase, except I won’t because I have no use for it. Where is Rosie the Maid?

I’m Jane Bland, and because I get up and go to work everyday, I now have an unlimited amount of credit.

Which is stupid, really, because I’m not going to use it. Har! I fell into that “credit” trap once (or twice *blush*) before in my life. I’m not gonna do it again. I’m not. I’m not!

I can remember when the only credit I could get was from Fingerhut. They sent me desperate catalogues for months, and they all said, Jane Bland! This Could Be Your Last Catalogue! Don’t Miss This Opportunity For NINETY DAYS SAME AS CASH!!!!!! What kind of concept is that?

Hey, I can’t afford it now, and in ninety days…I still won’t be able to afford it, but by then it will have been used and non-returnable, so I may as well spend the next 24 months paying for an overpriced (fill in the blank) because Fingerhut deemed me “their most valuable customer.” At 24.9% interest. And be sure to mail your payment five days early because if it doesn’t get posted in time…oh dang…a $25 extra fee.

Fingerhut doesn’t sell Rosie the Maid or the AirCar or the Automatic Dressing Machine, either. In fact, this is not a dig on Fingerhut catalogue either, it’s just that nobody does. (I have actually got some cool stuff from Fingerhut in the past. My favorite salad bowl came from them as a premium gift. It’s pretty. I made Anna Mary salad in it for Thanksgiving. But if you’re listening, Fingerhut, you can stop sending me catalogues now.)

Catalogues, they are worse than HTML email, I’m telling you. My favorite part of the day each day is going to my PO Box and retrieving my mail. Some days, I’ll get five catalogues, the gas bill, and a “have you seen me?” insert for the promotional grocery store ads. And what do I pay attention to? Why the catalogues, of course. I got a catalogue the other day full of chocolate and nut gifts. Just looking at it gave me a sugar rush and the amount of salt on those nuts made my ankles swell. I couldn’t eat dinner. All I wanted was those chocolates and nuts.

I’m Jane Bland, and I’m pre-menopausal with unlimited credit. You’d think after all this time I’d deserve more than this.

OK, enought griping and groaning because Rosie the Maid isn’t here. Neither is Astro the Dog (Rastro! tee hee). No, my dog has a swollen eye and thank goodness for that obscene credit limit because I have to take a trip to the Vet in the morning. Of course, Astro (Rastro), if he were my dog, would have a glitch in the motherboard. For sure he would if he were my dog. Sheesh.

It just occured to me, Jane Jetson didn’t have a downside to life. Oh no, Jane Jetson popped out two kids and could still fit into those outfits that were pinched at the waist. Plus, she had Rosie the Maid. Oh wait, I’m mistaken, she did have a downside, sorry. She had George Jetson for a husband.

Jetson! Get In Here! Poor, beleagured George Jetson. (Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a boss like Mr. Slade.) Never caught a break. Well, one break. Jane, with the pinched waist, and Rosie the Maid. Combine those two and you have one perfect break. Except that Jane spent all his money and Rosie had a permanent glitch in her motherboard. Well, at least his AirCar worked.

Well, I’m going on and on about this because it’s the (Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza) season and I’ve been recently subjected to shopping overload. All those people in years past who have helped me out during the season, and now that I have an unlimited obscene amount of credit, I want to repay. How does one do that?

I’ve always ascribed to the notion that it’s fairly impossible to repay a kindness. And that the hardest thing one can do is accept, rather than give. I have been on the receiving end a lot in my life. Fortunately, that has taught me how to graciously receive. Gotta have both sides for a full life, that’s what I think.

Several months ago, a dear friend of mine, who we’ll call Kevin, because that was his name, was driving back from Las Vegas, to attend the funeral of his son’s wife’s sister, who at age 16 had been killed in an auto accident. Kevin was rude, crude, and often lewd, and I loved him because of that..he and his family. He had an engaging nature. Kevin was killed in an auto accident on his drive. His daughter Krystal, age 16, called me the next morning to tell me, “so I wouldn’t have to hear about it from someone else.”

Kevin had been working out of town because his local business had gone tits up. Not because he wasn’t good at his business, but because his business has over saturated this particular area. Everyone in his business was scrambling to support his/her family. (No Rosie the Maid, no AirCar, no Rastro. Happens.) And because of a soft shoulder on a back road, and because he was too stubborn or fat or whatever to wear a seatbelt, he was killed.

Four years ago, when Kevin’s business was doing gangbusters, and I had been “let go of my job” at the first of December with two teens in the house and no hope of a job other than flipping burgers because at the same time I lost my job my truck broke down, and my heat was shut off because I couldn’t afford the gas bill, Kevin showed up on my doorstep with a receipt (be home tomrrow, the guy from Questar is coming to turn your gas back on) and three fifty dollar bills (go give your boys a christmas.)

And this year, because he was such a stupid fucker for not wearing a seat belt (we’re all still pissed at him for getting killed, but he would understand) I get to show up at his widow’s doorstep with three fifty dollar bills and her gas bill paid and say “go give your kids a christmas.”

It’s not often we’re given the opportunity to repay a kindness. Most often, it’s a pass along. You know, I do something for you, you do something for her/him, everone benefits. But this time…this time…I get to repay. What a great Christmas.

Well, I still don’t have Rosie the Maid or Rastro, but I’m having a great holiday. Hope your holiday is too.

I’m Jane Bland, and this is my life. Stay tuned.

Beth Lock

Harmon/Kardon SoundSticks
Company: Harman Multimedia
Estimated Price: $179.95
http://www.harman-multimedia.com

I was a skeptic. Not one to be influenced by hype, buzz, or spin, I was doubtful these trendy new speakers would be worth half their high price, much less deliver the splendid sound promised in glamorous double-page print advertisements. And the wowzer Harman Multimedia high-bandwidth web site! Well, you can judge that one for yourself, when you’re getting all the specs on their SoundSticks.

Earlier experience with an iSub unit was underwhelming, and I was certainly not knocked out by the performance of either the Cube’s or my iMac DV’s Harman Kardon speakers. I had additional concerns:

TechTool Pro v3.0.2
Company: Micromat, Inc.
Estimated Price: $97.98
http://www.micromat.com

Newcomers to TechTool Pro may want to spend a little time familiarizing themselves with this software by visiting the micromat.com URL before reading our subjective evaluation.

I installed and ran version 3.0.1 of TTPro, and had some questions regarding its slow operation. Two days later the v3.0.2 upgrade arrived in CD form (and became available on the Internet), which corrected the concerns I had. Make sure you order and receive TechTool Pro 3.0.2, or download and install the most recent upgrade.

Micromat has been a high-profile “Medicine For Your Mac” advertiser in every print Macintosh publication for years, claiming TechTool Pro is superior in every way to the competition, specifically Norton Utilities. I am much more familiar with Norton than with TTPro, so you can consider me an ideal newbie test case to verify Micromat’s ambitious assertions. Here goes.

INSTALLATION AND OPERATION

I installed v3.0.2 of TechTool Pro, after first lightly reading the 137 page printed manual. Installation and registration were a breeze, including mention of techsupport@micromat.com for any email assistance. When I launched the application, I was advised to reboot from the CD in order to repair my startup drive. (QUESTION: Why can’t TTPro fix from the startup volume, as Norton Disk Doctor does? Is it better to establish a mini-volume on the hard disk, instead of needing to run the software from a CD? ANSWER: “It depends on the volume structure damage as to whether Norton can fix from the startup drive. For more in depth structural problems,” according to Micromat, “you still have to boot from a secondary volume, or the manufacturer’s boot CD-ROM, in order to make the volume that you need to repair inactive. That’s just a Mac OS rule all disk repair utilities have to follow. This is why Norton still makes their CD-ROM bootable.”)

The new MultiTester selected each of the 16 available tests for me, except for Surface Scan. (QUESTION: Why not? ANSWER: “Surface Scan takes a long time to complete, especially if you are running this test for multiple volumes. The checked off tests are ones that Micromat feels should be run. If the user wants to check Surface Scan he/she can in MultiTester. We let
the user decide whether they want this test run initially.”) As the 15 tests progressed, they scrolled from right to left on my monitor. One minor problem was found, which I chose to repair, and trumpets sounded when all the tests finished. You can choose to run tests individually or in groups, in any combination.

Heather picked up a cardboard box full of decorations from the sofa. Absent-mindedly she began to place the objects on the tree. A bauble here. An angel there. Twenty minutes later she startled herself as she realized she was quietly humming a Christmas carol. “It was the right thing to come,” she thought. “I didn’t realize how much I needed this place and the people I left behind.” She turned to see her father with his head tilted to one side in a nap. He had, for the first time she could recall, a slight smile on his face.

Ralph J. Luciani

THE ETHICS OF PALINDRIN ON THE WEB

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DONE

So your web site is finished. It is beautiful, professional, and best of all, it communicates your content perfectly. You even have CGI and HTML scripts in place on a professional business server to track all your customers. These scripts even provides you with a list of all the URLs of the people who visited your site. Your web site is also published in very prominent places, and you are getting an increasing number of hits each month.

So why is it that people are not returning to your site after the first visit? Why are they subscribing to your services and then dropping out at a rate of nearly 100 per cent?

You, my friend, have collided with the very real effect of Palindrin. Palindrin is an ethical dilemma that the better web sites are experiencing, especially those sites that are in e-commerce, although there are many sites which deliver content that are also at fault in this.

IMAGINE A STORE AT THE MALL

Palindrin can be illustrated this way. You go into a new store at the mall. It is a beautiful shopping experience at first. The store is beautifully designed and comfortable. Everything is easy to find and the staff there are so helpful, but not pushy. The items there are the best there is, and there is a giant selection of things. The prices are low and you are happily taking your cart to the checkout, delighted that you found this neat store.

You get to the checkout and your order is rung up, but you find you are not done. The checkout person pulls a gun on you and tells you that you now have to add these eleven items to your basket. On top of that, someone from the store is going to your home to check out things there to make sure you are the kind of customer they want to do business with.

Now, this being a free country and all, would you go back to that store anymore after such an experience? You have just crashed into Palindrin.

THE ETHICS OF PALINDRIN

Palindrin is an ethical problem that any business can find itself involved in, while attempting to ensure its own survival. It is a brick wall your company can run into when it crosses an invisible line in the customer’s mind while that person is doing business with you. It could be a very small thing, like placing the napkins behind the counter and requiring the customer to ask for one. Or it could be how you make the customer feel while giving you their credit or personal information when they visit your web site. They might not even realize how they feel about it, but something occurs within them because of your practice of Palindrin, and they will not be back to your site – ever.

Many of the biggest web sites are guilty of this, and they are also clueless about it. MSN.com is a prime example. Yahoo.com, NYTimes.com, ABCNews.com, and Amazon.com are some others. These actually provide good content in a very professional manner, but they violate their customers in the process of interacting with them. You know what I mean. Your own computer, sitting in the sanctity of your home somehow never works the same after you visit their sites. They have violated your system, running roughly over your data in an effort to keep tabs on you.

Software and hardware companies can also be guilty of this. Have you ever actually read the agreement you must sign when you register “your” software? Have you ever bought a computer with an installed feature or function that you cannot get rid of, no matter how irritating? Palindrin is not just an ethical issue for the Web.

Surprisingly, companies that violate their customers do not stay in that business very long. The sorry thing about it is that most of them never understand WHY their businesses go into the toilet. They broke a prime rule of business that says the customer is always right. Therefore, it is necessary for you, regardless of what business you are in, to build into your web site, and even into your scripts and code, this prime consideration of the sanctity of the persona of your site’s visitors. This must take precedence over your tracking their visits and buying habits, and all the other back door things you can do to them, that you would never do up front and in plain view.

And you thought you were done when you got your web site up. You might be very happy about your site and its contents, but somewhere in all the protective coding you applied to it, you might have crossed the line with your potential customers, which could negate all the good hard work you put into building your site. Palindrin is essentially a violation of the person of the customer, in the customer’s estimation, and it will undo all the good you put into your web site.

How can you fix this? Read on.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL

Palindrin is why so many people are not doing business on the Web. It might be something as small as having to give their address and phone number on line. Most web sites ask for much more than that. They have “surveys” that the customer is required to fill out. The customer is required to register on line before they can see what they came to that site to see. There are hundreds of other examples of this, but all of it is completely unnecessary.

Really, all you need to have contact with a customer or visitor to your site is their name and email address. (Apple.com is an example here.) With just these two bits of information you can do all you need to do in doing business with people. Even if you are selling things on the web, having them sign in with their name and email, perhaps to win something, will give you exactly what you need to make them a customer. You actually don’t even need an expensive and maintenance intensive shopping cart and credit engine on your web site.

Think about it. If your customers want to buy something, at the very least you should provide them your email address where they can request a purchase from you. Much better would be to put your phone number in a big bold font on your web site, and staff that number with a real person, not a computer answering system. Then, over the phone, people will be much happier giving you their credit and personal information to place their order. You have then eliminated Palindrin from their experience with your business on the Web, and your business will flourish.

Most people, in building web sites, forget this cardinal principle of Palidrin. You would not open a real store like this would you? In a real store, or office, it is the person the customer first contacts, that determines their whole experience with your business. Who is the person your web customers are meeting when they want to do business with you? How do they feel visiting your site? Is their experience a pleasant one? Are there any nasty little surprises waiting for them after they visit your site?

Palindrin is a nasty thing in that people who put web content on the Internet never think of its ultimate effect on the visitors to their site. Check your business paradigm. Evaluate how you feel about the person of your customer. Look at the total experience that people have when they visit your site. If you can eliminate all the backdoor Palindrin, they will likely be happy to come again to your wonderful web site, and in time they will become loyal customers.

Questions? Comments?

Email me

Roger Born

Roger Born

I live in Utah, or as I so fondly think of it, as Stepford. There are God cages on every corner and Sundays are pleasant and peaceful because most of the neighbors are in church for three hours, giving testimony and crying and studying scriptures. Which gives me plenty of time to dance naked in the backyard sprinklers if I’m so inclined. I should explain, it’s Southern Utah, the desert. And my backyard has a six foot privacy fence. Sometimes on Sundays in the winter it gets warm enough to sprinkler dance. If I’m so inclined. During the summer, Sunday sprinkler dancing is a given. We all honor God in our own ways.

I’m Bland, Jane Bland, and I mow the lawn when it needs it.

Well I had four days off work last weekend and I did something I’ve never done before in my life. I got up early on Friday morning and shopped with most of the rest of America. I was anxiously awaiting the Thanksgiving newspaper which is the biggest newspaper of the year…oh, not to find out who our next president would be…but for the sale flyers. I woke early and ran down the driveway barefooted in my white nightie (the neighbors…*sigh*…well, they have to be used to it by now, I’m careful to bend down ladylike with my gorgeous ass pointing toward the backyard instead of bending over backward toward the street) for this once-a-year massive newspaper.

Once back inside I savored the fact that I wasn’t at work on a Thursday morning. I put the newspaper carefully aside for later perusal. I fixed my morning pot of yerba matŽ and sat silently on the couch waiting until 8:45am arrived. Yes! hahahahahaha…it’s 8:45am and I’m not rushing madly about fixing my lunch, giving the dogs their “good bye be good girls and watch the house” treat, packing up the iBook, and checking my wallet for cash. No, I was in my glory, sitting on the couch in my nightie instead of going to work. On a Thursday. God was in my box.

This year was a good Thanksgiving. I had many “pity invites” to go eat massive quantities of food because this was the first year in twenty-two years that I didn’t have kids at home. Lots of people get lonely on the holidays. I am not one of them. I mean, I have done the massive Thanksgiving dinners. I happen to hold the current “best gravy maker west of the Mississippi” title. I can lay out a spread. No problem. But I have a secret.

I hate turkey. You’d think I’d like it. Because it’s bland.

I’m Jane Bland…but I hate turkey.

Yeah, that’s right. I hate turkey. I think turkey is one of the suckiest things to eat on this planet. Give me a 3″ thick New York steak any day. Grilled. Outside. In my backyard. Oh even better yet, from a beef I have raised myself, loving it each day and when it’s time, sending it to slaughter. Which I have done before. Feeding it wonderful non-chemically enhanced food, petting it’s head, telling it that it’s going to be food for my winter. Beef are much more ameniable to this than turkeys. Beef know their karma. Turkeys, on the other hand, have an attitude about it.

Oh my, I’ve gone off topic. Back to the sale flyers, but first…

I went to my son’s in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner. Mostly so I could play with my new grandson, who’s starting to get cute. He’s three months old and coos and blows bubbles and smiles so big I’m afraid he’s going to break his face. He loves his Nana (that’s me). We had turkey. I took Anna Mary salad. Here’s the recipe.

cut up some apples and put them in a pretty bowl
cut up a couple stalks of celery, put them in the bowl too
grapes are a nice addition, but optional. be sure to cut them up
add walnut gems, a whole bag
dump in a carton of cool whip (not the reduced fat kind, what the heck, it’s Thanksgiving.)
mix it all up

Anna Mary married my mother’s brother, Eugene. She always whipped the cream fresh. Her salad was better than mine. Eugene’s brother Jimmy Ray was a butcher. He always butchered our beef when I was growing up. That’s how I know from fresh butchered beef.

I’m a fairly bland cook.

OK, the sale flyers. I got up early friday morning and hauled my pretty ass down to K-Mart to get the artificial tree. I got the white one. Because I got there before 11am I got it for $39.95. This week it was in the sale flyers on sale for $59.95 so I’m pretty pleased with myself. Also my mission on this day was to find decorations to hang outside that were not icicle lights. Here in Stepford everyone has icicle lights and I was determined to have something different. I had to dig around on the dusty bottom shelf but finally found the perfect tacky lights; green triple strand swags with red bows. I’m the only one in the neighborhood without icicle lights. Also the only one with white tree.

White is so terribly bland. I’m Jane Bland, and this is the first time in my life I’ve ever decorated the outside of my house.

Well, that’s pretty much my life for this week. I’m still fighting FedEx. I got a letter in the mail from them today. The other people in the office were quite concerned when they saw steam coming out my ears. They told me I looked like Yosemite Sam. Dag nab it.

I’m Jane Bland, and I get up and go to work everyday. Until next time.

Beth Lock

So there I was, shopping in the local Circuit City. I had wanted to buy the Gladiator DVD, as it was at least three of four bucks cheaper there than anywhere else. Then again, the closest Circuit City is 25 miles from my front door, so the cost of gas alone makes the savings nonexistent. I have tried to explain that to Julie, but she just does not seem to get it.

“Let’s just get it here.” I will say at store A.

“But, it is cheaper at store B.” she will reply.

“Yeah, but store B is twenty miles away! The cost of gas in my suburban costs more than the money we will save!” Guys, you can’t win. It is not that it cost more or less somewhere else. It is a ploy to get you to that other store. Want a perfect example? Julie will often buy a pair of shoes, and one of the first things she will mention was how much the sale was, and how much she saved. “They are regularly $49.99, on sale for $19.99! I saved $30!”

Don’t you just love this logic? My reply is “No, you just spend $19.99 plus tax. Your SPENT money, you did not SAVE money. True, you may have spent LESS than you would have without the sale, but you did not SAVE anything!”

You can’t win, guys, so stop trying.

Back to Circuit City and Gladiator. Now, Julie would rather rent the movie, while I actually want to own some DVD’s that I can play at my leisure. Also, one of the only reasons she agreed to go to Circuit City in the first place was that it is right across the street from Michael’s, a huge Arts and Crafts store. She would suffer Circuit City, I would suffer Michael’s afterwards.

Here is the catch. She knows, KNOWS, I will want to look at the Mac stuff at Circuit City. She also knows that I will first find the Gladiator DVD, then, as if an afterthought, say “Well, since we’re here, may as well take a look at the Macs and stuff…” and start to mosey over that-a-way. Following true to form (I am nothing if not predictable) I take a stroll down the “Mac Lane” as I like to call it. iMacs, iBooks, and low-and-behold, they now have the Cube! Well, howdoyalikethat?

But of course, she knows I won’t buy any hardware today. Heck, I have a new printer, new G4, monitor, keyboard and mouse, digital camera, and speakers. She knows all this, so she knows I won’t buy anything. She knows I will look desperately for something, ANYTHING, I just HAVE to have, but she knows there is nothing there I can convince her of that I need. But there is always the SOFTWARE AISLE!

Usually, in a store such as Circuit City, they will have rows upon rows of software, but one small end-cap of Mac items. But I was optimistic. In the hardware aisle, where all the Mac’s were, I noticed something I had not seen in a long time. PEOPLE. There were a LOT of people looking at the Mac’s. A LOT. And many of them actually had Circuit City employees helping them, and TRYING to SELL them an Apple Macintosh! Very strange.

So it was with a lot of hope that I would find SOME Mac things over in the software section. And, thankfully (or not…) I did. However, there is no one section for Mac titles. It is all mixed up with the PC titles. And many times, the box is not clearly marked, so I would have to actually pick up a box, find the system requirements for the game, and hope to find Mac versions of some of the games.

There were a lot of Mac games, but many more children learning titles. Most, in fact, seemed to be hybrid CD-ROMs, learning games which run on both Mac and PC. But the one game I was most interested in they actually had, and on sale to boot! The SIMS!

This is the first game I have actually gone to the store and paid cash for. (Well, okay, you got me there. I paid by VISA, not cash.) Usually, I get review copies of most of the new games coming out. (A benefit of being a writer for a Macintosh magazine for the last five-plus years.) But you know, I really wanted to buy SOMETHING to bring home with me for my Mac, and The SIMS just looked too good to pass up. And yes, the game was on sale.

“Honey” I told Julie “Look, the game I want is on sale! I’m saving ten bucks!”

“It still costs $39.99, though…” she said, but let it go. HA! They hate when you use their own logic against ‘em!

So, after arguing with the checkout clerk at Circuit City that there was indeed a sale sign for The SIMS for $39.99, I almost decided not to get the game. The jerk kept telling me “That sale ended yesterday” to which I would reply “Touch cookies, pal, there’s a sign right over the game saying $39.99, and there ain’t no date on that sign”

He even went so far as to try “Oh, this is the Mac version. That is why it is ringing up at $49.99. Only the PC version was on sale!” Now, I did not even dignify to respond to that one. I just gave him my “Don’t even try it, jerkweed” look. He dropped that tactic right quick, made the price $39.99, and I was on my way.

Now, some of you may be thinking I had a good time, that I only (!) spent seventy bucks or so. This is the catcher, guys. (And pay attention all you younger men out there thinking of getting married!) While it is a rare thing for me to spend that much money on any two items for myself, it is not unheard of for Julie to do so. And now that I myself have spent this much money, and it is now MY turn to suffer an hour across the street at the Michael’s, the huge Arts and Crafts store. And after making her spend twenty minutes over at Circuit City, proper penitence is at least twice that at HER store, spending at LEAST the same amount of money. Worst of all, I cannot complain about the price of anything. I cannot even do my bored sign, shuffle the feel, stifle a yawn “I want to leave now” act I can usually get away with in such stores. Sigh…

The upshot of all this? Gladiator is a kick-butt DVD. The SIMS is a fun game, one even my six year old daughter likes to play, and seeing all those new Mac’s being fawned over by potential buyers did my heart proud.

So, if you have a Circuit City in your area, you may want to stop by and check it out. They have a good selection of Mac’s, some really good prices, and they may actually try and sell you something. But if your married, you may want to leave her at home, at least if there is an Art’s and Craft store nearby.

Have fun!

Tim Robertson

Mike carefully lowered the last of the anchored rope into the pit. A thousand feet of it. The top of it was anchored to a steel stanchion in the abandoned Gates Habitation garage. The floor had been carefully swept and dusted clean except where a three foot core had been carved from the concrete.

Excavation had gone down twenty feet before finding another layer of concrete. This layer was three feet thick. After vacuuming out the dirt and dust, and sealing the sides of the hole with plasticine, they were ready to make an opening in the top of the dome below.

Using their laser cutter, they had carefully managed to cut a cone shaped hole. attaching steel pinions deep into the plug, they pulled the plug out with an electric wench. Air rushed out of the hole momentarily as Mike and the other intrepid explorers braced themselves for the descent.

An old man lay on a rescue pallet, pale as the color of the curious concrete plug they had lowered to the floor near him. He looked out of place of course, but the fire in his eyes belied his fraile appearance, as he watched expectantly all the labor of his three sons.

Mike came over to his father. “What now, Pops?”

Stevo raised his head to look at his son, who was chewing on his lip ring thoughtfully. “We go down now. The sonics told us the floor of the cavern is eleven hundred feet below, so we take more rope with us to reach the bottom.”

Mike’s eyes widened a little. His pop was really serious! They all had humored him over these last few months, but now, at this point, even his curiousity was becoming aroused. What was down there?

Mike had gone down ropes before, and tying off was an easy task, but he had never racheted down that long a rope before. He got himself ready to go. Jeff and Harry would remain up here. Only his dad would go down with him. He marveled again at his dad. Crazy old man, weak as a kitten, who had some steel hidden in him to do this nutso gig.

“So which of us goes first?”

“Mike, like I explained before, we go together. The rope has tensile of 800 pounds, if you bought the right kind. It will hold us and our gear. We will take the 200 foot rope with us and tie off at the end to go the rest of the way.”

Mike absently rubbed his chin in the manner of his father. “We have the backpacks ready with a supply of food and water. The lumi-lanterns are powered, so what keeps us from doing this? You want me to go down first and look around? I can radio link to you.” Concern for his elderly father was evident on his face.

Stevo sat up on the pallet with effort. “Mike, for a year now we have discussed this. You ride my pallet down, just like I do. You know where to sit above it. We practiced and practiced this. Why do you want to change it now?”

Mike shrugged, brushing his greying mohawk in frustration. No arguing with the old guy who was bent on his foolishness. “So we go.”

They were down to the end of their last bit of the rope they had carried. Mike, sitting almost on top of his dad, who was still strapped to his pallet, realized that he was stuck. Getting down this thing was easy. If they had to go back up, he did not know if he had the strength to do it, to climb over a thousand feet of rope. He would have to leave his dad at the bottom and pull him up afterward.

“Dad? What now? We reached the end.” His dad looked out of it. Mike shinned the light toward his face. Stevo was alert and peering into the blackness around them.

“Shine your light down, Mike. The floor can’t be more than a foot or two below us.”

Mike moved the light behind him, trying to shine it below his father’s pallet. He saw nothing. “We’ve come almost 1200 feet down, Pops. There is no floor I can see down there. We are really stuck.”

“Mike. Drop my light and see how far down it falls. It will stay lit. Then we will know.”

Mike complied, carefully dropping the light where he could see it fall. It landed almost immediately on the floor below them. “Its about a couple of yards down, Pops. We are still stuck. I can jump down, but how am I gonna get you down?”

“Let the pallet down first. Hook me to the rope for a minute and undo the rope to the pallet. It’s about twenty feet long. You can use it to lower me the rest of the way.”

Mike quickly did as his dad suggested, considering he was upside down, carrying a heavy backpack, and working over the huddled form of his father who was secured to the rope under him. The pallet hit the floor. Working the remaining rope into a cradle, Mike placed the loop under his father’s arms and carefully lowered Stevo the remaining distance. Then he followed the rope down.

“Lets get you back into the pallet, Pops.” Mike raised the pallet on its wheels, lifting Stevo into it. Stevo gratefully lay down again, while his son raised the handle. They made a strange pair of explorers.

Mike placed his lantern on his shoulder patch, aiming it out in front. It was time to look this alien place over.

“Raise my head, Mike.” Stevo wanted to see all he could here. He didn’t want to miss any of it, after fifty years of being gone.

Mike called his brothers to let them know they had made it down. He told them he thought the floor must be made of metal, for it made a strange noise as he pushed his father’s pallet in the darkness. Soon they saw a grey wall before them. “What is it, Pops?”

“This is one of those buildings I told you about. I was worried we would end up on top of one of these.”

“There is no doors or windows, just like you described it. We got to find the resting place of your friend, if she still exists after all these years.”

“Once we find that park, she cannot be very far.”

It took them most of a day to map out the opening to the outside tunnel, the park, and the closet where the lights were turned on. Mike and Stevo were greatly disappointed that between them they could not activate the lights from the closet.

Stevo was growing weaker as the hours dragged on. They found more closets in the side of a building near the park, but they were full of dust. Strange that in a pristine city of metal there would be dust in those closets.

“Pops. We been at this for more than a day. I need to sleep and so do you. We will look around some more in the morning. Its time for your pills anyway.” Mike again called on the radio to his brothers, giving them an update.

Stevo wearily agreed, lying back onto his meager bed. He felt utter defeat. Mary, his beloved friend was undoubtably gone to dust. They slept fitfully in the utter quiet of that alien place. Mike’s bedroll did little to soften the hardness of the metal floor at his back.

Mike contemplated as he dozed off. He was utterly devoted to his father. All his life he had heard of this alien city and had dreamt of exploring it. The reality of being here was quite different. His father was near death, but was driven to find his friend. New developments in the Continuum had driven them both to find this place and make the dangerous descent into the unknown. Who could have forseen that there would be nothing here.

Once the World Computer Consortium had grown beyond even the awesome power of this place, the city had been abandoned. Other, more human structures and edifices were built by man to replace all this. It had been abandoned and forgotten for twenty years. Only the few people who had the need to know had ever known of its existence.

The Continuum continued, chaotic, boisterous, noisy and alive with the melieu of people’s thoughts and ambitions. Pockets had formed within the Continuum, of people who were bent the same way. Each group had their own world view, convinced of their own rightness of purpose and destiny. These became the new nations of Man as the old national lines blurred and were abandoned. Pockets of humanity, each ignoring the others.

Man was introspective at this point in his history, much more than he had ever been, for he had always been centered on his own devices. Now, with almost all the population of the planet getting standard implants and gaining access to the virtual net, everyone was becoming part of a great world wide commonality. Little of anything was being done in the real world, except as necessary to sustain the furnishings of civilization.

Access was the same for everyone. Those who could not read were taught by the automation programs of the Continuum. Those who were not able, because of disabilities or whatever reason were given alternate methods of access. Even the blind or the deaf had complete access. The virtual world had become the real world of Man.

The languages were no longer a barrier to Man. The Continuum converted the speech and writings of anyone to whatever language used by the user, on the fly. It was as if everyone spoke the same language in the Continuum – the native language of the person using the Web. Therefore, each person viewed the new virtual world as his own.

“How you doin’ Pops?” It was a rhetorical question. Mike knew his father did not have long now.

“I am fine, Mike. Just fine. I have an idea, in fact.” Stevo got up on one elbow and smiled. His eyes burned with an alertness that his son had not seen before. Is this how death was?

“What is there left for us, Pops? We have been all over this empty place. It is dead.”

“Perhaps not. I think we should take some of that dust from the place where we think those touring bodies used to be, and try to use it to bring this place to life.”

“I don’t understand, Pops. What do you propose?”

“Lets get over to the building where we found those closets in the wall. I want to take a quantity of the dust on the floor from each of them.”

“What is so important about that dust, Pops?”

“It really isn’t dust. It is clumps of Nanocites, which are tiny mechanical creatures, incredibly small. It was these that made up the body of my friend, Mary, and others like her. We might be able to use this dust to reactivate the power to this city.”

Willing to do anything for his father, Mike readily agreed to try. They took their empty food containers and filled them full of the dust from the floor of each of the closets, and carefully carried it to the end of the city near the tunnel, looking again for the closet containing the power switch.

When they had found it, Stevo applied water to his hand and placed it in the container with the dust. There was barely enough room for Mike and the pallet holding his dad to fit in the tiny closet where the power switch was. All Mike could see was a blank panel on one wall of the closet. He put water on his hand like his father, and placed it in the dust.

They both put their hand on the panel on just the place his father indicated before. Nothing happened. Stevo wiped his hand off on his tunic. “Let’s try it again, shall we?” He wetted his hand as before, and dipped it in the dust again, getting a good layer. Mike did the same, and they both placed their hands on the panel again.

Suddenly light came through the door! Stevo took heart that perhaps this would work after all.

Mike and Stevo shielded their eyes from the daylight glare of the ancient city, now fully powered. Mike turned off their lanters and pushed his dad’s pallet down the street toward the open area where they came down. Stevo now spoke to his other sons on the handheld, telling them excitedly of their accomplishment. He told them that they were all right and to wait until he could get the tunnel open again for them to come in that way.

Stevo knew his sons would do whatever he needed, for as long as he needed it. He felt the quiet pride any father would feel, knowing his children were competent and successful in what they were doing. Mike was the oldest, the firstborn of his wife Beth – his pride and joy.

Stevo was well past middle age when the young reporter had come to see him at his home. She was so intuitive, guessing a lot of things about his role in the formation of the new regime. The fact that there could be reporters, and free speech was something new and exciting. He was quite taken with her, and she was very interested in finding out all she could about how everything opened up into freedom so suddenly.

They discovered that they had a common love for liberty and free thinking. Whereas before, no one was open about their opinions for fear of the thought police, now Beth and Stevo spent hours talking about all their common past and the exciting possiblities of the future.

It was not long that they were looking for a place together. Her stories sold well to the publication sites and his new job as an Apple rep paid handsomely. Having children no longer required permission from the State, so after they were married in a virtual ceremony, Mike came along almost at once.

Stevo stopped his revery, startled. Fifty years! Beth had died a year ago. Stevo and his boys were still bereft of her. She had been the core of their family.

Once she was a wife and mother, she had given up her career to devote herself to her boys. Stevo finally told her about the Continuum and about Mary R147. She was incredulous, thinking at first he was jesting, but she relented and accepted what he was telling her, even though it was so farfetched.

Who could believe molecular implants that connected people to alien computers that were self aware. The commercial implants people wore were small, but nothing like the size Stevo was telling her about. She used the Continuum as did everyone else, but there was no one there but other people. Privately, she was very glad never to have met a thinking, living machine. That was too much for her to imagine. Beth had been very glad they were all gone. Of course she never wrote about any of this. Who would believe it anyway?

Mike believed. Stevo and Mike were close. Mike looked like his mother, which made him more endearing to his father. But their thoughts were alike. Mike liked the idea of a living Continuum. He even dreamed of meeting Mary some day. His ideas about her were much more romantic than Stevo’s. Stevo knew first hand about her Otherness, and there was nothing romantic about that.

They reached the building with all the closet doors once more, which they could see well lit next to the open space. The light was very much like sunlight, but they could not tell where it was from except it was overhead.

Stevo felt strange. It was as if he was feeling some strength returning to his worn out body. Perhaps it was the excitement of finally being here once again.

Mike opened the first closet-like cubby. There was still dust piled in a heap at the bottom. One by one he opened the long line of twenty doors. If this was where Mary R147 went, she was no more.

Frustrated with the situation, and with the wait, Stevo sat up on his pallet. It was wobbly on its rickety wheeled struts. He thought he could put his legs down and stand up. Stevo quiety, slowly, walked over to his son, who was looking in the last closet.

“Mike.”

Mike jumped! He had not expected anyone to be behind him, much less his father. “Golls Pops! Whatter you doin up? You like to have got me to wet myself!”

Stevo grinned. “I have an idea, Mike. Lets try something.” Mike watched his father go into the first cubby and sit down in the dust, bringing hands full of it over himself. “You do the same, son. Go to the next one and do what I am doing.”

Mike complied, wondering what had gotten into his Pop. He thought Stevo’s color was improving, or perhaps it was just the bright light of the cavern. “Why are we doing this?” They moved again to the next two closets, trailing nano dust as they went.

Stevo stopped what he was doing and suddenly lay down on the metal floor of the cavern. Mike rushed over to him, fretting that he had allowed his father to be so active.

Stevo was quiet, but his vitals were steady. He spoke in hushed tones to his son. “Mike. I am feeling better because some of these nanocites have gotten into me. I suspect they are policing my body and helping remove some of the damage that old age has caused me.”

Mike was wide eyed at this revelation. “Pops, will this happen to me?”

“Yes, Mike. The first sign will be that your hair will all grow out again.”

Starring even more, Mike took a step back. Seeing his face, Stevo broke into a wide grin, giving away the joke.

“Oh no! Pops, you got your humor back! There will be no living with you now!” Mike grinned sheepishly at his father’s little joke.

“Seriously, Pops. Will the same thing happen to me?”

“I do not know, son. These things were attuned to my body once, but I do not know how they will react to someone else. They might, you know. The way we can tell is that you and I will be able to communicate without speaking. We will have to see. But I have another idea.”

Stevo got up and strode down the street back toward the tunnel. Mike ran after him. As soon as Stevo got to the last building he placed his hand just so on a certain place on the building. Going to the next, he did the same thing. Mike could just tag along, waiting patiently for his father to explain what he was doing. It did not take long to know.

“Mike! Listen to the sounds around us!” Mike heard his father speaking to him in his head! he sat down on the metal floor, put his head between his knees and shut his eyes. Didn’t help. He was seeing a blue area all around him while all his father’s thoughts rushed around like insects. He caught a vision of Mary, then a forbidding man named Lerno, who was somehow dead. He could not keep the thoughts from coming! He got up and ran to his father, taking him by the shoulders, shaking him.

“Pops! Stop it! Stop it now!” Mike was becoming more afraid by the minute.

Stevo turned in shock, hearing his son’s voice in his head, much louder than the shout in his ears! “We can transmit our thoughts! We can hear each other’s thoughts! Amazing!”

Mike had a look of rising terror on his face. “What are we gonna do now, Pops?”

Roger Born

I have owned a fair number of Macintosh models, and have liked/disliked each for different reasons. For instance, I disliked my LCII because I purchased it right at the same time Apple was rolling out the PowerMac. (For those new to the Mac world, there were Macs, such as the original Mac, LC, Quadra’s, Centras, etc… and then there came the PowerMac, based on the new PowerPC chip from Motorola) So thereafter, each and every new program or game I wanted, of course, required a “PowerPC” Mac, thus leaving me out to dry. The LCII also had anemic memory (4MB) and Hard Drive (80MB) But all in all, I still loved that machine. In fact, My Mac Magazine (which grew into mymac.com) started life on that machine.

Next came the Performa 6300CD. This was a very fast machine at 100MHz, powered by a 603e chip. This was a great computer at first, but shortly after buying it, the Macintosh Clones came out, and I quickly realized what I could have had, had I waited a few more months. (Don’t let this tale deter you, though, from getting a Mac now, thinking something faster, better, and cheaper will come out. It will, but you never get anything new playing the waiting game) In hindsight, buying a clone would have been a dead-end, but so was that 6300CD. It could not be upgraded in anyway, and its chip set was faulty. (Though Apple has never admitted it, I still think that the first crop of 603e chips were for the most part defective. I went through 3 motherboard replacements before getting a stable one, and I know MANY others who had very bad luck with the 6200-6300 series. Probably one of the worse design and function Macs ever made)

Recently, I had been using a PowerMac 6500 running at 250MHz. This computer was nice. It sported two PCI slots, which I upgraded with both a Ethernet card and a USB card. This model also used the 603e chip, but within a few months of purchased, I upgraded it with a 320MHz/1MB backside cache G3 card. In this configuration, I used the machine for two years.

But it was time for a change, and an upgrade. (And not just because the dog knocked the motherboard down a flight of stairs while cleaning the computer either) It was time to get a Mac which would allow me to move into the future, Mac OS X (not beta), as well as being more expandable, powerful, and able to accomplish all the task I use it for quickly.

Time for a G4!

Went I first started looking, I already knew what I wanted, but it took me a while to convince myself to actually do it. While the 6500 was dead thanks to the stupid dog, I would carry home my PowerBook from work every night. The PowerBook in question is a “Lombard” model, 400MHz G3 with a few hundred MB of memory. This is a fine model, durable, very usable, and sports all the ports I want, save Firewire. (But it does have SCSI, which is much more important to me than Firewire at this point) But this was a pain, hefting the PB back and forth everyday. So while I knew I needed a new Mac, I was still torn about getting one.

Finally, however, I settled on a G4 DP 500MHz model. After adding in a new 19″ monitor, speakers (more on those later) and a SCSI card, the new Mac is running like a dream at home.

It is funny. I use G3′s and G4′s all day long at work, on big 21″ monitors. So speed and size should not have felt all that different. But your setting when using different machines make all the difference. I was USED to a 15″ screen at home, running a much slower machine that at work. In my home, the 19″ monitor seems HUGE. The speed of the G4 is incredible, compared to the 6500 with the G3 card. At home, I would use different programs than the ones at work. Do different tasks. So speed-wise, I never really noticed all THAT much difference from my 6500 to the work powerhouses. Now, with the G4 at home, I am amazed.

One of the first things I did with the new Mac was upgrade its memory. Now running over 300MB, I can handle pretty much any application without fear of running out of memory. At the time I am writing this, memory is dirt cheap, and looks to be even cheaper in the near future. So this was not a real expensive upgrade, though it is the most important upgrade any computer user can make. Memory is key. You can never have too much, but you can often have too little.

I could have kept the 15″ monitor I used with the 6500. It is still fairly new, as the original monitor I purchased with the 6500 broke down, and this is an Apple replacement unit, only two years old. It also holds the speakers, something I had not thought of before I got the G4. But I wanted something larger, and for less than $400, the NEC AccuSync 90 fit the bill nicely.

A SCSI card was a must for me, as both my scanner and CD burner use SCSI. Those both work great, and I saw no need to replace either unit. And a SCSI card can be had for less than $50 if you shop around.

The biggest drawback, however, was the sound quality. As I have written in the past, I am an audiophile. I love great sound. Be it a Beetle’s song or the explosion in StarCraft, I want the sound to, well, sound great! And while the speakers in the 6500 were nothing to brag at, they were listenable, for a computer. The 6500 sports a built-in sub-woofer, while the mid-high speakers were in the monitor. Not the best sounding, but I figured “This is a computer, what do I expect?” If I wanted to listen to music, I would play a CD over my home audio system.

When the new G4 arrived, I realized the only speakers connected to it was the quarter-sized speaker in the front of the tower. It sounded horrible. So new speakers jumped WAY up on my list of things to buy.

I read John’s review of the Monsoon iM-700 flat panel speakers with great interest. They sounded just like what I was looking for. However, I opted to go with the better M1000 series. These are very stylish speakers, but the SOUND QUALITY! WOW!

I teased myself. The first thing I did, after connecting them, was to put in “I am the Walrus” (Beatles) in my home audio system, and took a listen. My home audio system, if I can put modesty aside for a moment, sound great. But I wanted to compare, perhaps unfairly, how good the Monsoon’s sounded.

Wow.

Wow.

THESE are COMPUTER SPEARKERS!?! Good god, they sound better than most people’s entire home audio system! And while they could not touch my home audio system, it was damn close! Color me impressed.

So how do I like the G4? Well, let me put it this way: I have been writing for My Mac since 1995. This summer will mark 6 years of writing, month after month, about the Macintosh. This new G4 is the fastest computer I have ever used. It should be, but that is true every time I get a new Mac. But this one just seems, well, FAST. SUPER FAST. The large 19″ monitor makes a HUGE difference. The speakers are simply unreal. To put it simply, I have been inspired. And it has been a LONG time since any new Mac has inspired me. Sure, at Macworld Expo, I am sure my computer will be bumped from the “Fastest Mac On The Block” category, but you know what? I don’t care. The new G4 DP 500MHz is a dream machine. And I could not be happier with it, and all its toys to go with it.

Tim Robertson

Hash Animation Master 7.11
Company: Hash Inc.
Price: $199.00

http://www.hash.com

Oooh! have I got something neat for you guys!

“Bill! where ya been?”

Sorry I haven’t been around in awhile… you know, the usual… buried in work, wife had a kid, that sort of thing.

But anyway, have I got something neat to tell you guys about!

“Well… spill it!”

OK, ok, it’s Hash.

“What? Go into selling drugs?!”

Nonononono! Hash is a program! Another 3D program.

So, what’s so great about it?

I’ll tell you in a minute. But first, the statistics. You get:

Hash Animation Master (Hash Inc.)
Program CD-ROM (with lots of nifty stuff on it)
Manual
Sample CD-ROM full of artists’ and animators’ works
Registration Card
and…
a box (whatta deal!)
Cost: $199.00

Now, as most of you know, I have the working theory of “low overhead, high income, and the biggest bang for your buck.” And while I was pleased to find some great stuff I could tell you about, this is probably one of the biggest finds I’ve ever found!

“Whaddaya mean?”

Well, I’ve been looking for a good 3D character animation program for some time, and although I’ve found some good 3D modelers (Strata Studio Pro, etc.), I had yet to find a good REASONABLY PRICED Mac-friendly 3D character animator and modeler.

Until now.

This is a modeler built for artists, not tech-heads. It utilizes splines (as does Illustrator and Freehand) to create its 3D models, as opposed to the more common polygonal constructions (lots of tiny triangles woven together to create surfaces). Using slines means it can keep large model sizes small and also make it easier to build complex, continuous models (like a person) without all the hassles associated with a traditional poly-based modeler. The only “downside” of this approach is that people like myself—already familiar with a poly modeler—now have to “Think different” about how to construct things. This meant I was obliged to read through the manual (sorry, this is not a “jump in and go” application), and I emphatically recommend others do the same.

I thought it was a little odd that you had to go nearly halfway through the book before you even started to learn how to use the modeler, but the reasoning behind this is simple and solid: Hash wants you to think carefully about what you want your character to do before you begin to build it. Plan first, and you won’t waste any more drive space, effort, or time than is necessary. Modeling can be a complex process, so they rightly feel that people should have a game plan.

Unlike other spline-based modelers, Hash has no available primitives (cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones), and therefore you must build everything from the ground up (this would be a nice feature to add to the next release). What it does have, though, is “patches”!

“Patches?”

OH YEAH!! SPLINE PATCHES AND PATCH HOOKS!!!

“What’s that?”

Glad you asked! Patch hooks are for joining two different models (like an arm and a hand) together into one seamless model (a wrist) so it looks more natural than having them just “shoved” together. A Spline Patch is just that: 3 or 4 splines joined together to make a “patch,” or flat surface.

The tutorials are quite good with one notable exception being the Focke-Wulf tutorial (a bit of advice, don’t try to join the wings to the fuselage as they show in the book; the writer apparently forgot that anyone doing it is a “newbie” and not a seasoned expert) which lacked some information necessary to complete it as shown.

The renderers are great (though I felt Strata’s were better), and I must say that one of the best additions was a “toon” renderer. You know, you ever get an itch to take your 3D model and make it look like it was hand drawn just so you could freak out the fine artist-types who think that anyone who uses a computer to “make” art is evil? Well, just use the toon renderer on your animation and then show them a video tape copy of it. When they compliment you on finally “abandoning all that is evil,” you can then have the distinct diabolical pleasure of telling them how it was really done.

Texture mapping can be a pain (especially when dealing with faces), and one of the nice features that Animation Master has is “flatten,” which flattens your model so that you can export a picture of the flattened model for making a more accurate texture map.

As I have been extremely busy lately, I haven’t had as much time to deal with animating figures as I would like, so I’ll probably be writing an addendum column on this subject in the near future. But for now, I’d like to say that there are some truly impressive things about this company that the software giants could learn from: tech support and bug fixes.

When they say tech support, they mean TECH SUPPORT! They never talked down to me, and I haven’t had one bad experience getting them to answer my stupidest questions (ok there was that one time I called up doing “The Brain” from “Pinky and the Brain”)…

As far as bug fixes are concerned, I can’t remember finding a more responsive team! They released v7.1 in May or thereabouts, and as of this writing they were up to 7.1l. If they find a bug, a fix is up in about a week or less, with none of this “it’s not our program, it’s obviously you” crap (HELLO, ADOBE, ARE YOU LISTENING?!?).

So, listen, I’d strongly go to http://www.hash.com and check this product
out! It’s definitely a 9.5 on the Very Cool-O-Meter, which when converted corresponds to a MacMice rating of 4.5. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Ciao for now!

MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5