CAREER ADVICE Pearls still forming. Come back again sometime! THE INTERNET Many of us know the joy of using email to communicate with friends and colleagues in distant places on different schedules. However, this new-found freedom comes with its own share of complications. The internet is a wonderful thing. Designed by the Defense Department to provide uninterruptible communications, it has become a global network for every one. However, with all the excitement over web pages and global access to millions of people and resources, it's easy to overlook one very important fact: The email protocols used on the internet are designed to transmit text messages. That does not mean things like programs or data files, including Lightwright show files. As you might have guessed, I've gotten a lot of calls from people trying desperately to use a Lightwright show file someone tried to send them via the internet. If you've ever received internet email, you know the extensive headers and footers that surround your text message. These headers and footers help steer the message to its final destination and document the path the message took along the way. Because these headers and footers are added to every message, things like Lightwright show files are messed up whenever they're sent as internet email. In order to transmit programs and data files, they have to be translated into special encoded formats that look like plain text messages to the internet, but which can be decoded by the recipient back to their original form. A number of different protocols and encoding methods are available, including FTP, binhex, and uuencode. Unfortunately, each of these has its own foibles that keeps it from being a good general-purpose solution. FTP is used to download programs and data files from web sites, but unless you have write privileges you can't use it to upload, and in any case it can't be used to send files to email addresses. Binhex works pretty well, but only on Macs. Uuencoding works on both Macs and PC's, but if a file is large it may need to be broken down into shorter email messages, which then have to be stitched back together again by the recipient. While some mailing programs can automate the whole process, you can't assume that the recipient will have the tools and know-how to come out of the experience with a usable file -- as those desperate phone calls demonstrate. So what's the solution? I think everyone in our business should have an America Online account, if only for use in an "emergency". I know there are people out there who think AOL is the devil incarnate, who loathe its interface and everything about it. They've jumped ship and switched to pure internet providers, where they are very happy -- until they have to exchange Lightwright files with a mere mortal who doesn't understand uuencoding or anything more complicated than "attach file" (if that). The single greatest virtue of AOL is that all you have to do to send another AOL person a Lightwright show file is to compose a message and attach the file to it. All the recipient has to do is read the message. AOL takes care of the whole messy business of uploads, downloads, protocols and compression, leaving you free to concentrate on work. What if you have AOL and the other person has a different service such as CompuServe or a standard internet provider? It's often a mess, because the connections between each of those services is an internet connection with all the resulting problems. The simplicity comes only when AOL subscribers exchange mail with each other. On the other hand, if everyone avoided using AOL entirely, then we'd all happily .zip our Lightwright files, attach them to email messages, and send them on their merry way! COMPUTERS OK, I'll wade in to the fray, but remember: These are only my opions, not Holy Writ -- so don't come flaming my way if you don't like what I'm about to say; if you disagreee, post it on your own web site... John McKernon's Rules for Buying Computers Always buy whatever kind of computer your friends have. If they have PC's, buy a PC. If they have Macs, buy a Mac. If you don't have any friends, buy a Mac. The point is, you're going to need advice from time to time, and the ever-so-friendly salesman at Dell Computer or Mac Warehouse just simply won't be there when you need them -- which is usually around midnight on a weekend, with a light plot & hookup due the next morning. Your friends can be called at 2am to hear your plaintive cries, and they're even available to come over and help you wade through the rough spots. Now of course, if you don't have friends, you'll want to get a Mac. Why? Because they really truly are simpler to set up, install software on, customize, and use on a daily basis. You won't need your expert friends to wade through the intricacies of IRQ's 3 vs. 4 or what entries need to be changed in the Registry, because those things don't exist a the Macintosh -- everything's done through relatively friendly control panels, and the hardware really does just plug in and work. Believe me, I spent three hours one day trying to figure out why I couldn't get something hooked up to my Pentium's COM2 port to work. I still don't know. Yes, the Mac has it's own idiosyncracies, but they're much, much less painful. I guess a good way to look at it is this: If you like COMMANDING your computer and tinkering with funny numbers (much like working on your car's engine), then a PC is a good choice. If you'd rather just get the work done and go out for dinner tonight, buy a Mac. Computers always cost $3,000. Why? Because that's the maximum most folks feel they can spend on a computer. Sure, you can always get one cheaper or for more money, but when all is said and done, you'll spend $3,000. What you get for that $3,000 gets better every year, but you'll still spend $3,000. Sometimes that $3,000 will include a printer and software, sometimes not -- but trust me, you'll spend $3,000. Portable computers cost $1,000 more than desktop models. For the same horsepower and hard drive capacity, you'll usually spend about $1,000 more for the version in the tiny little portable box. Always buy as much RAM as you can possibly afford. Virtual memory is NO substitute for the real thing, and having lots and lots of it really can speed up your system. My TiBook has 1GB of RAM on it, and one of these days I'll probably be adding to that, too -- Always buy the fastest printer you can afford. The slowest part of producing paperwork can be the actual physical act of printing it, not the hours you've taken to massage every little detail of the information. Yes, inkjets are wonderfully cheap these days (and in color, too!), but the difference between 4 pages per minute and 8 pages per minute can become immediately apparent when the Fedex man is waiting at your door. Buy Mail/Internet Order. Yes, the salesman at Computer Heaven was very charming and cute, but as long as you buy from reputable companies such as PC Connection, Mac Connection, or Dell, you'll be fine with internet & mail order. The prices are good, you get your system pretty quickly from most of them, and when it comes time for repairs, they're just as good as anybody else's. I've bought my systems from Northgate, Dell, MacMall, and CDW and have been very happy. Software is especially good via mail order and from web sites, particularly for Macs. Platform Religion is inevitable. Everybody always likes whatever kind of computer they have better than anybody else's. If they didn't, they'd be miserable, so even if they're struggling along, they'll loudly denounce the other folks' kind just simply out of pride, ignorance, or simple fear of the unknown. And make no mistake about it, they'll scream loud and long. So it's simpler to just avoid the subject.To quote Tom Clancy, "Never ask a person what computer they use. If they're a Mac owner, they'll tell you. If not, why embarrass them?" Anyway, my livelihood depends on people using both kinds of computers, so no one should feel neglected. Some fascinating statistics (from GISTICS, Larkspur, CA via a Seybold Seminar Series in Australia, 1997- all amounts are in U.S. dollars): Mac OS users, when compared with Windows users: Spend 38 fewer hours per year fussing with files Save $4,950 annually on Support & Training Use more software applications (14.3 vs. 8.3) Save $2,211 in their computer's 3-year cost of ownership Earn $5.01 more per hour Constitute 62% of the top 10% in personal income Mac OS (vs. Windows) firms: Earn $12.22 more revenue per hour of labor Produce $25,550 more in annual revenue per person Create $14,550 more profits per year per person Earn 32% more net profit per project Achieve platform payback in 7.2 months (vs. 13.9) For an incredibly comprehensive overview of Mac vs. Windows/Intel systems, visit MacKido CAD PROGRAMS For years I was known as "the guy who hates CAD". At LDI panels I was always the one who, when asked what I liked about CAD, would reply "Nothing." Well, thanks to MiniCad (now called VectorWorks), I've changed my tune. I did a small plot with it some years ago and found that it really is easy to use -- something I'd never thought possible, and certainly not at a price I could afford. I've always maintained that drafting with a computer should feel the same as drafting by hand, but the computer should be smart enough to help me, not just replace my pencil. Ken Billington's office has been using VectorWorks off and on for seveal years and during the Spring of '97 we upgraded the whole office and started using VectorWorks for everything, but I never did any of the real drafting myself until that summer, when we took on a huge theme park project. Over the course of 40 pages of drafting, we gave VectorWorks a thorough workout. Its smart-snap cursor, easy control of line weights, multiple scales on the same page, painless import of scanned images, and good support of fonts and typestyles made it possible to cope with weekly drawing revisions from the architects and our own need to provide ever-increasing amounts of detail without taking our minds far from the design. VectorWorks comes with a set of theatrical lighting symbols and macros to do basic light plots. There are others written and assembled by Sam Jones and Stan Pressner (available through a link on my web site), and creating new symbols yourself is pretty painless. VectorWorks is one of the few drafting programs around that understands that a light plot is not the same as an overhead view, so you don't have to deal with the nonsense of having to float lights above the pipes they hang from (as other CAD programs require). Instead, you create symbols filled with white, and the symbol itself blots out the pipe automatically -- no need to trim every pipe to keep it from overlapping the symbols (as in AutoCad). VectorWorks isn't perfect: Among other things, I wish it could exchange files more readily with AutoCad, but I doubt the problem will go away anytime soon. In the meantime, DXF files work relatively well to get the information back and forth. And finally, VectorWorks is available for Windows in addition to the Macintosh, making it a viable cross-platform solution for those of us who live and work in both worlds. And no, I don't own stock in the folks who sell VectorWorks. For some useful VectorWorks links, see Resources. MEMORABLE QUOTES "We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true." - Robert Wilensky, University of California "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons" - Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." - The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957 "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" - H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927 For people I don't know, I always recommand a PC. They will be forever in need of my services. For family and friends, I always recommand a Mac. They are forever grateful. - Daniel Garceau "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962 "640k ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981 "Most of the shots that we're talking about, which are the space battle shots at the end of the movie, were actually done on a Macintosh, the kind of thing that almost anybody can do." - George Lucas, on the refurbishment of the Star Wars trilogy "DOS Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of others are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form." - New York Times, November 26, 1991 "Being a Mac user is like being a Navy SEAL: a small, elite group of people with access to the most sophisticated technology in the world, who everyone calls on to get the really tough jobs done quickly and efficiently." - unknown "As their numbers shrank from 80 to 8, the dwarves began to suspect Hungry." - unknown "You see, I've found that you can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than you can with just a kind word." - Marcus, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", Babylon 5, author J. Michael Straczynski "If I had a dime for every original idea Bill Gates had... why I'd have nothing!" - Christopher Meinck