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 () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2872