X-Message-Number: 2872
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Case Report
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 1994 18:36:39 -0700 (PDT)


Hi again!

This is really a message meant for Mike, but since others on the net may have
an even better idea of what to do I'm making it public.

Reading his account of the suspension, we notice the lack of diagrams. IF these
diagrams were first created on a computer, Compuserve has devised a special
standard for sending images (called GIF) which was designed to make these
images visible on any computer with the right software. This includes Macs and
PCs both. Sorry, but anyone out there using Suns will have to find their own
version, but I would not be at all surprised if they exist. I do know that 
versions of GIF software exist for Commodore and Atari, not to mention the
Apple machines.

This means, of course, that Mike could send pictures which anyone could look
at regardless of their computer (the purpose of GIF in the first place). A
quick look at the PC BBSs and Forums on Cserve will allow him to download the 
necessary software.

If the images were not created in a computer, the only alternative I see is to
use a scanner to put them in. Yes, that costs money. It's Mike's and BPs
choice whether or not to spend that money.

If he wishes to COMPRESS both text and images, the problem is harder. The

obvious thing to do is to use one of the OLDER compression standards rather 
thanthe very latest ones. ARC exists on many different computers. Even more have
copies of DEARC, which is the only thing they would need to read Mike's 

writings and look at the diagrams and pictures he also provides. Even 
formattingof ascii text raises problems, but conversion programs are easy to 
write.
Though I sometimes forget to use them when I send, I have some which may help
translation between Apple Apples and PCs or Macs. 

It's important here, of course, to find software which handles a format, and
of course the format itself, on many different kinds of computers. That allows
Mike's pieces to reach the widest audience, at least within cryonics. And they
deserve to do that. Even Macs and PCs are different, and it is absurd to 
speak seriously of working on the net without more intertranslatability than 
presently exists.

Just some comments about how cryonet sendings such as Mike's might be 
improved.
		Long long life,

			Thomas Donaldson ()

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