Our text states that "Multimedia is fast emerging as a basic skill that will be as important to life in the twenty-first century as reading is now." (p. 3). In the years since about 1993 and 1994, I have noticed a tremendous change in the way that the multimedia computer has changed my personal and professional life. Since about 1986, I have had a small studio whose services (up until returning to college in 1995) have been graphics and desktop publishing. Because this is a home-based business, it is often difficult to define the "cutting point" where home and personal activities leave off, and business begins! So, the affects of emerging technologies that have drastically changed the way I work, have also been introduced into the way our personal lives go, within our home. When changes, for instance in Microsoft’s Excel program, going from version 2.0 to 3.0 back in about 1990, offered tremendous new abilities for importing, creating charts and graphics, and other fine tools – this also impacted the way that my personal budget sheets looked and acted! One of the best benefits, for me, has been that the increasing use of elements of multimedia has made chores such as one’s personal budget and books, a lot more enjoyable!

In 1986, my desktop publishing efforts started in the first version of Quark XPress for the Macintosh. At that time, the software held great promise for me, having been in the print and publishing arena for many years. It was, however, an extremely "buggy" software. I learned early in the game – indeed! SAVE OFTEN. It was an early lesson that has held well over the years and has helped to make the integration of all-things computer into both personal and professional life, a positive force. In my work and play, I have heavily utilized each new technological "toy" as it has been introduced. I was first among my cohorts to embrace the creation of animation, use of sound, import and creation of video, and hypertext – even in one year’s Christmas letter!! (which was great for family and friends with computer access, and a total joke for the ones I sent color print-outs to, as they still kid me about the blue line links to NOWHERE.)

On the personal level, my daughter and I enjoy the multimedia capabilities online, from websites for teeny-bopper girls such as Purple Moon (at http://www.purple-moon.com/cb/laslink/
pm?stat+pm_place ) and Welcome to Club Girl Tech! (at http://www.girltech.com ) to the excellence of The Discovery Channel Online (at http://www.discovery.com ) Expedia’s Mungo Park (at http://www.mungopark.com/ ) and the always-tremendous National Geographic, which is now NationalGeographic.com (at http://www.nationalgeographic.com ).

Without knowing our family, the casual observer really doesn’t understand the importance of what I’ve just said. The television has become a much-unused piece of equipment, compared to its former reign as King of the Household! Most of our entertainment takes advantage of the wondrous elements found online, and much of that content is heavily augmented with multimedia! It has been interesting to note that over the past couple of years, the things that we use for entertainment are the same things that we utilize in our learning environment – mine, as a returning adult college student, and my youngest daughter’s, in her school adventures. I’ve also noted that things I discover, especially in interactive, multimedia environments, for personal use, I usually end up adopting and adapting in my profession … and vice verse. I find this exciting, as it means that the same love of the media is happening on all levels, whether it is personal life or business.

It is also important to note that we are not isolated in making these changes in our lives. Multimedia and all of the new media offerings are drastically changing the way all households and businesses conduct themselves. From interactive cookbooks and digital CD-ROM lists, to archiving household items for insurance purposes, to the massive choices for multimedia within the work environment, we all have seen the explosive changes in our world, in just these few years.

This question came as a big surprise to me, and I literally had to visit the Software Publishers Association (SPA) website mentioned in the text, to make sure that typographical errors hadn’t been made in this book! The Multimedia PC Working Group of the Software Publishers Association has quite an impressive website. I soon located the section for MPC Standards (at http://www.spa.org/
mpc/default.htm ). I was immediately able to confirm that the book information was correct; however, the website gave many further details concerning MPC1, MPC2, and MPC3 specifications. I also immediately saw that MPC4 specs have NOT been announced. After reading the web pages for MPC1 and MPC2, I determined that these must be placed on this website for mostly historical purposes, as most of the computerized world functions AT LEAST at the level of MPC3. I do remember that some computers at the undergrad level were labeled as multimedia, but fit mostly in the category of MPC1 – and they were extremely basic in any kind of multimedia delivery.

I work on two computers for home and school purposes: a Power Mac 7100 AV and a Packard Bell Pentium 100. The Mac, while powerful, has not been the platform of choice in all of my university work, so it has been relegated to schoolwork and play for my child. It also is the host for my UMAX scanner. I purchased my Packard Bell in September of 1995, as my work in a Technical Communications Bachelor’s degree program really necessitated having the exact platform at home. I became immediately aware that this equipment was archaic, the minute I brought it in the door. Becoming acquainted with the PC world surely opened my eyes, as the Mac world is (or used to be) almost coddled in a secure network of pre-defined and seamlessly-working equipment. It isn’t nearly the "jungle" that the PC world is! With my first major software purchase (Newtek’s Lightwave 4.0, for a corporate animation course) I upgraded from the ridiculous 8MB of RAM, to 16MB. It wasn’t enough. But, I have (poverty-stricken student) limped along with it for almost 3 years.

The PB computer fits well within the specs for MPC3. It originally had the 8MB RAM, and it had more than enough MHz, with 100 versus the required 75. It has 1.7 GIG of disk space, with an upgraded CD-ROM system. The multimedia aspects, for 1995, were quite high, with digital sound, MPEG abilities, and a monitor that would display millions of colors. My CD-ROM has 2x speed, and has the ability to play both 8-bit and 16-bit waveform audio. It also came fully equipped to handle even sophisticated MIDI, both in playing and editing. The system came with excellent speakers, but I have never been able to make it work by plugging into auxiliary plugs on my home stereo system, as suggested by our author. According to our CD-ROM tutorial, my system is a "Low-Budget System," with some of the lower-cost multimedia accessories built in by Packard Bell, in the manner of overlay cards. As we have watched prices drop on multimedia systems, it is almost laughable that this system is now considered "low-budget," for, at the time of purchase in 1995, this computer was NOT low COST.

The one thing that stands out, after learning all of this concerning MPC standards, is that the next step, MPC4 is highly overdue!! Many people are working and playing on computers that are "Hogs" compared to these standards. My work computer is a Dell with MS Windows NT, and has 64MB of RAM. It is quite powerful and has many extra "bells and whistles" both in hardware and software. This may be unique, as I am a web developer for Lucent Technologies, and as such, have much need for this kind of computer setup. However, as I walk the corridors, this setup seems to be standard for all workers.

After learning about this website, I have bookmarked it for future reference. I feel it’s crucial that we keep up with the technologies. One of the best ways to do that is to visit very often on the websites of those who are establishing the standards. For instance, the web presence for the W3C/World Wide Web Consortium (at http://www.w3.org ) is very important, as these folks were the ones to initiate and create the World Wide Web. Their web site states this: "The World Wide Web" (known as "WWW", "Web" or "W3") is the universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge. The World Wide Web began as a networked information project at CERN, where Tim Berners-Lee, now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], developed a vision of the project." (W3C: About the World Wide Web, 1997). This website is where I visit, about every month, in order to keep current on standards being developed and/or instituted. It has a wealth of information for all cutting-edge technologies that are the central core of my career. I have now added the MPC website to my monthly journey, in staying abreast of important career information!

I firmly believe that the MPC standards need to be updated. Over this past weekend, I made arrangements for leasing a new computer. Because of my online studies, I feel it is imperative to have a laptop, portable computer. I will begin my Ph.D. in January, and the laptop will be indispensable for the bi-yearly Institutes in Ft. Lauderdale. Technology is astounding in its leaps and bounds! This laptop has these configurations (which leave both my Packard Bell, and all systems listed by the MPC site IN THE DUST!):

• The new DELL Inspiron 3200 is a power-packed portable that provides high-end multimedia performance at an affordable price for demanding notebook users.
• Dell Inspiron 3200 Pentium® II Notebook
• Pentium II processor, 266MHz, 13.3 XGA Active Matrix TFT Color
• Memory – 144MB RAM
• Hard Drive – 6.4GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
• Operating System – Microsoft Windows ‘98 on CD-ROM
• Modem – 56K PCMCIA x2 Fax Modem
• Service – 3 Year Rapid Response, Return-to-Depot Service Warranty
• DVD-ROM Drive: DVD with MPEG2 Decoder Card Combo
• Floppy Drive Spare Cable, and Floppy Drive Cable
• Bundled Software: MS Office ‘97 Professional version
• Accessories: Nylon Case, Dual Compartment
• Inspiron Port Replicator
• Storage Products: Iomega 100mb Zip Drive, External;
  and one disk
• Power Protection: APC Surge Station Pro 8T2

(Dell, 1998).

My decision to do this had mostly to do with access time, actual work time considering downloads and functionality of software and browsers. I simply am tired of working so hard and so LONG, with the most essential reason being a LACK OF APPROPRIATE POWER. The new information age has launched us into a whole new description of TIME, where everyone has less of it! With this new computer setup, I not only will be completely "portable," but I will carry the appropriate level of power with me, in order to be more timely in my work.

Something along the line of the system I’ve described needs to be quickly looked at by anyone in this arena, as almost a standard. Without accelerated power, much of the multimedia world is NOT available – in schools, in work places, in homes. Very soon, it is my prediction, even the MPC website will come out with the MPC4 standard, and it may well be a shock to many.

The writer received special permission to alter this question, and create a web page of this entire paper (Assignment #1). The scanned photo described above is found in Appendix A (link in red, above). The HTML document will be submitted separately, but a hypertext link will also be found in Appendix A.

Finally given the opportunity to talk about this particular kiosk, I couldn’t help but take up the challenge! Although this kiosk isn’t exactly a point-of-sale item, it definitely serves the same purposes that a P-O-S kiosk would – mostly providing information for a select group of people.

On the campus of Metropolitan State College of Denver, there are five well-positioned and very obvious kiosks that provide an amazing amount of information for students – if they were inclined to use them for more than just the initial novelty. The kiosks are housed in a shell that closely resembles the jukeboxes of the 1950s, and have a very inviting color display that beckons the passerby. The kiosks, which were initially the subject of much conversation in on-campus rags and mags (for many reasons), largely go ignored by the campus’ 17,000+ students. Once the center of debate for reasons ranging from "What Shall We Name Our Interactive Kiosks?" to argument over the impending ability to access one’s grades and other confidential information (which, by the way, I just found out, NEVER transpired) – the kiosks stand as a monumental example of technology-gone-
awry, and a huge loss of money.

The kiosks offer a blend of "button" technology and also navigation by touch – as the monitor/visual display has many screens that simply respond to touch. Hot Spots and interactive text links are used in the display. The kiosks offer audio technology, with sound effects and also small videos with sound tracks. They operate on laser disk technology. In my opinion, as a former Media Center Director in a local high school, this may have been the root of the problem. My experience with laser disk was that the units were very, very finicky. It seems to me that the kicks, blows and rattles that the less mature of college students often give machines such as this (as in, MAKE the candy fall to the bottom of the vending machine) very often affected the kiosk’s ability to run properly. Although I have never seen one of them ABSOLUTELY out of commission, quite often the poor thing was very slow, and very confused, and often sent the user on a wild goose chase for information. For several months, back in 1997, maintenance efforts were done, it seemed, on a daily basis for the 3 machines I saw every day. That soon dwindled to very spotty services.

This past week, I ventured onto campus to take a look at the machines. For one thing, the number has dwindled to two, or they have moved the others to other locations. I walked up to the kiosk near the offices of my Tech Comm alma mater, and began to access information. The only info that came up readily was the absolute info on Metro, which, if I were authoring this thing, would be the absolute first level of info. Anything past that, was crucially slooooooow in appearing. The interactive touch-pad seemed to have "sore spots" where it took a long wait with your touch, before it responded. I have never studied the techniques of this methodology, so I cannot begin to imagine what has gone wrong. Except, as a now-alumnus of MSCD, I am also quite tired of going to school, and this machine acted very tired. I began to think that it was a good thing that student’s records were not accessible in this very public location, as there seemed to be an intense error factor in a piece of equipment that now was almost three years old.

I took a seat and watched the kiosk for a short time. I found that it was another "lurker’s" way of finding out who was an incoming Freshman and/or his/her parents. In a half-hour of viewing, I saw several such groups stop and marvel over this toy. When they realized that, after the "home page," introductory-type info, the system moved so slowly, they went on their way. Moms always had a comment about technology at Metro! For those of us who are in this career arena, it is almost sad to watch the interaction. I may even draft a letter to MSCD and ask why they haven’t taken the things out. For the incoming students, this may well be their first acquaintance with the world of interactive technology. For many parents, it most surely is. It is incomprehensible to me why the machines are allowed to stay, and give such a poor example of this technology. A well-placed and protected (eagle eye of an office administrative assistant, for instance) bunch of multimedia computers, with access to MSCD’s growing and quite impressive website, would be much better examples … with effective and timely information. With advances in security for online sites, we also have come to a point where accessing one’s school records is a viable reality. But … not with a kiosk.

The MSCD website is worth a look. Established in the early 1970s for the adult community of returning students, Metro is always very far advanced in its course offerings and its commitment to providing the adult workforce with up-to-date skills. It is at http://www.mscd.edu . Further scrutiny of the School for Professional Studies (at http://www.mscd.edu/academics/scops/Scops.html ) or the Technical Communication area (at http://www.mscd.edu/academics/scops/com) will give the reader of this paper a view into why some students sometimes become frustrated with Nova. (Metropolitan State …, 1998).

I have perhaps given an undue amount of emphasis on Internet delivery. It has been my intent to give a comparison of at least two of the technologies – Web and Kiosk – which are offered at Metro. It is fairly obvious which of the technologies is more successful. I fully expect that MSCD will soon eliminate these kiosks – even if I DON’T write a letter of complaint!

Kinko’s is truly perhaps the best example for many public-accessible computer and communications services. A friend of mine is an assistant manager for a local Kinko’s. When I asked him about the videoconferencing capabilities (as I’ve never personally used this service), he indicated that there are basically two sets of people who utilize these services: business professionals (rarely) and students (also rarely, and always for a college course). The location of this particular Kinko’s is in the far northern suburbs of Denver, and I am thinking that probably that affects the usage of this particular service.

At Lucent Technologies, where I work, the use of videoconferencing is alive and well, however! In speaking with specialists at work, I know that the use of videoconferencing, as well as very sophisticated audio- conferencing that will include several to many sites, nationwide, is quite common. As a communications company, this is really sort of "a natural." I was given a brief tour of one of Lucent’s videoconferencing rooms, but since the technician was away, I didn’t get to ask too many technical questions. In speaking with one of the "hardware" specialists, however, I was able to glean a bit of information. Our text states that "more than 50 countries have videoconferencing equipment…" (p. 35). I believe this to be either incorrect, or outdated information. Lucent works with over 90 countries, and the specialist said that videoconferencing was quite common from all sites.

As described in our book, this technology not only allows all participants to view the members of the group, but also allows for the sharing of documents, databases, and literally any technology that is usable on the Internet. Because of Lucent’s technologies,
I surmise that both the equipment and the software were different than those used at Kinko’s, as their services are supported by Sprint. When I visited Kinko’s website, however (at http://www.kinkos.com/
products/catalog/tips-video ) the list of equipment, instructions, and settings were very similar to what I was introduced to at work.

As an incoming employee and also an intern, I was introduced to Lucent’s audio-conferencing within my first two hours of employment! Our introductory day consisted of getting to know all new members of the team. We were located in Denver, and other members were in Virginia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Florida, and Ohio. The designated leader was our representative in Denver. The meeting went extraordinarily well, considering that none of us (at least in Denver) had ever experienced this before.

My particular project with Lucent is to develop an interactive website that is task-oriented, deriving from an online PDF text document of information for Lucent technicians all over the world. After my first 8 weeks there, I am certain that much communication will begin to develop with these technicians (in 90+ countries). I have been assured that videoconferencing will become a very frequent activity in my schedule. I believe that the use of this technology will continue to grow. It will provide very intimate links to every corner of the globe, which of course, will save time and money for businesses. It will eliminate many problems that can be encountered in the "written word" of online communications. It will provide access to many who otherwise might miss important meetings. Finally, I believe it will become an invaluable tool for the organization and delivery of large amounts of information.

As for the personal aspects of this technology, I have many peers who are already utilizing some of these abilities. The home-computer offerings do not seem as sophisticated as those I’ve seen at Lucent or read about for Kinko’s. But, it was over 2 years ago that some of this was introduced to me in a course at MSCD. Using relatively inexpensive equipment, such as a camera setup and a special link to the college network, my professor used CU-SeeMe from White Pine Software (which, at that time was a freeware). An evaluation version of this excellent software is available at http://www.wpine.com/
software/cu-eval-request.html. (White Pine/CU-SeeMe Evaluation, 1998).

An interesting finding of this particular search was that White Pine, in a very large way, has entered the arena of distance education. Their association with Cornell University in the early distribution of CU-SeeMe software was instrumental in this path. They invite their web visitors to "… visit our Distance Learning Resource Center to keep on top of distance learning schools, issues, questions." (White Pine/Solutions …, 1998).

An ironic but interesting find was made in this search. When the CU-SeeMe site at Cornell University was visited, they invite the browser to try the software:

"How do I get CU-SeeMe? … Click here to automatically download the latest version of CU-SeeMe for the MAC, CU-SeeMe for Windows 95 and NT (Win32), and CU-SeeMe for Windows 3.1 (Win16) … So far as we know, CU-SeeMe was the first and may still be the only software available FREE for personal computers." (Cornell University’s CU-SeeMe Page, 1998).

For this writer, this search has opened up tremendous new doors for personal communication, as most of the extended family and many friends have suitable multimedia computer systems. It is easy to visualize that videoconferencing could become very popular with personal and home use, without a need for the relatively costly services of a company like Kinko’s. The technology also doesn’t have to remain in the realm of "business-only." With not only this software, but also the Cornell support site, this could easily provide options for personal communication that have nothing to do with long distance phone bills!

I posted a note to the Forums (07/20/98) concerning this demo. I have tried everything possible to access this application. Attempting to run it from the CD brings this message: "Cannot find the file ‘D\ML_DEMO\JEEP\JE.EXE’. Make sure that the file exists on your system and that the path and filename are correct." From my experience with similar situations, either my system is having trouble accessing files that are buried more than a few levels down in the hierarchy, or possibly the software was scripted with the mixed caps and lowercase that Windows Explorer shows, whereas MS-DOS is trying to access it in all capital letters. I refuse to get bent over the text/CD authors’ bugs.

On to Plan B:

Figure 1: Academy of Art College, (1997)

One of the most effective electronic brochures I have ever received was from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. This, without a doubt, was an intensely persuasive advertising and informational tool. My desire to attend the school for a Master’s degree in the Computer Arts may have somewhat swayed my opinion, but I do believe that anyone in this technology would quickly admit that it is one of the finest examples of its kind, currently. The school can be accessed easily at http://www.academyart.edu or very nice people answer the phone at 1-800-544-ARTS. The CD brochure can be ordered in either manner. It was produced by Roger East Design (at http://www.re-design.com ) in conjunction with the Art Department Directors and the students at the Academy, in 1997. It was built in Macromedia and mFactory. Truthfully, I have never seen a better example of advertising (or any other form) in an interactive digital brochure. This CD serves as a stand-alone product, and actually is an art form all by itself.

The brochure came as a very professionally packaged CD-ROM. It is bi-platform-capable, for PC and Macintosh. The college offers BFA and MFA degrees in Fine Arts, Illustration, Advertising, Photography, Computer Arts, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Motion Pictures/Video, and Product/Industrial Design. Each of these topics is dealt with in an extremely detailed manner on the CD. The user enters the structure of the CD in a unique manner, coming into one of the large studio/galleries at the school, but the room dims as if someone shut down the lights. A menu at the bottom is delightful. As you run your mouse over the text choices, they highlight as if with a spotlight.

An example ‘run-through’ would go somewhat like this. I chose the Art Departments menu choice. This led to the above departments. I then chose Computer Arts, and was given a sub-menu that included Introduction, Virtual Tours, Video, Student Work, Interviews and Curriculum. Each choice led to further sub-menus and extremely well laid out pages. It was impossible to get lost in this application – except for time-wise, as it was so well-done! My first tour through this brochure took at least three hours. I inspected every virtual inch of the thing! Because a degree like this has always been my heart’s desire, this brochure was extremely effective on my senses.

I was ready to move overnight to the Bay area, take my chances on finding employment, sleep in the car like the fading Flower Child that I am, and transfer my student loan to California. Reality set in. The brochure lists everything from maps of the extended campus, which is housed in downtown businesses, and most accessible by the trolley systems in San Francisco – to student help lists for housing and services, including web links. As I used the CD and dreamed my dreams, I couldn’t help but see that this tool most effectively made me fall in love with not only their product, but also their city.

Because of the excellence of this product, it would be my recommendation for every Nova student interested in instructional design or interactivity in applications, to call or email for a copy of this excellent product. The beauty of the application cannot be described in this writing … you literally have to see and experience it to believe it. It is my opinion that examples such as these need to be a part of the required curriculum at Nova, as I think we need to seek the best offerings in these fields.

BEST: I have used many of the software on the CD. The best of these, in my opinion, is PaintShop Pro. I have used this product through several versions, and for the duration of my time using PCs (versus Macintosh). PSP has many functions that are every bit as effective as Photoshop, which is my absolute favorite software above any other. In this most recent version, this software now is capable of doing many of the high-tech illustrative techniques found in Photoshop, and even can use the plugins made for Photoshop. In my experience using Toolbook, I found that I even preferred some of the abilities of PSP, as I was able to quickly make outstanding text title blocks and even buttons. I find that PSP’s environment is a little more "clunky" than Photoshop, still, and you cannot get some of the most detailed refinements. But I still use it quite a lot, although now I have Photoshop for the PC.

WORST: Actually, I think the worst software on this CD-ROM is perhaps the Podium software itself. After all these years of manuals and Windows Help files and online documentation, I found this an EXTREMELY DIFFICULT software to use. Their menu choices on the main menu don’t lend to any easy interface when you first come into the software. The help file does not explain things very well. I have found the tutorial to be very full of ‘bugs,’ such as after-images, inaccessibility of certain items, and extreme slowness even on a fairly powerful multimedia PC. This proved to be a real irritation, as you would find yourself clicking a second time and then two pages would turn. The software has what appears to be a real exciting toolbox, but in my first couple of times in trying it out, I couldn’t figure out how to get things started. Finally, the CD doesn’t even have an initial "ReadMe" file, which is very traditional in letting you know: 1) where important documentation is; 2) known bugs; 3) special tips for getting started, etc. In a 12-week course, we do not have time to spend on ferreting out information concerning a software, when the major subject matter in text and tutorial is the most important, and there is quite a lot of it. Although the claims of the software are high, I would be disinclined to attempt a learning curve, for this course, but rather stick with a more user-friendly software for our project later in the term.

n Teacher’s assigned question: Write up a brief summary of either Arthur’s Teacher Trouble or Just Grandma and Me.

The first observation that was not ignorable by my peers and myself, was that these two interactive learning activities required that you change your visual/monitor settings in order to be able to use them. Hopefully, this is a ddressed in the help files for the software, as we were left to flounder to figure it out (with help from friends in the Forums).

Just Grandma and Me is part of a long, "never-ending story" by one of my favorite children’s authors/illustrators of all time, Mercer Mayer. It was wonderful "meeting" the furry hero, at long last! My own children have grown up on this series, learning about brothers, sisters, single moms and dads, and dozens of hilarious family situations. Ragged as they are, I still own all these books. This application was delightful, as this is ONE of the books I’ve never read.

Meeting Grandma was like meeting ALLLL the other family members. She was ever patient when sand got dumped on the lunch. She stayed dutifully quiet, with a slight smile, when our hero said he was showing her how he could snorkel in the sea – and she was actually holding him afloat. And Grandmas are terrific for holding a sleeping child, tired from the Oceanside romp. The interactive elements were very good in this demo. I was particularly happy to see that there are translations in Spanish and Japanese. It is my hope that they will take more of Mayer’s work into online presentation software. Mayer and his wife also have written and illustrated some incomparable books that are re-tellings of well-known fairy tales. Several of these are East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Dancing Princesses, and Sleeping Beauty. His style is evident, but the artwork is elegant. My 21-year old daughter started with There’s a Monster In My Closet, in about 1978. THAT book would make an excellent choice for taking into this method of delivery! I was surprised at the extensive listings that Broderbund has for children’s literature. The multimedia elements worked very nicely, without delays, which I found unusual considering the difficulty Podium had with many of the areas.

It was late 1995, and a new adventure was beginning. All over the world, people turned to their television set, waiting, waiting, sweating out the moments until … the NEXT COMMERCIAL. When the movie Toy Story hit the theaters, a whole new world of 3-D modeling and animation had already taken its cue, and stampeded into the homes of those who would … only believe!

This era also coincided with courses I was taking in college, such as Multimedia with Asymetrix Toolbook, and Corporate Animation using NewTek Lightwave 4.0. With a sense of disbelief, I returned to former years, and spent great hours watching television. I videotaped cartoons on Saturday and commercials around the clock. We got to meet the Coca-Cola Polar Bears and the M&M Candies. M&M was of particular interest to me, as those commercials were created largely with Lightwave … as was Toy Story itself. I immersed myself in these new techniques, and felt really sorry for myself as I didn’t own an SGI workstation!

For this paper, I decided that M&M deserved a brand new look, and ran a web search – mostly to find out how DIGITAL all of this made-for-movies stuff had become! The M&M Studio is at http://www.m-ms.com/ is very representational of what has gone before. These pot-bellied, colorful dots have become legendary. This website is as close to pure multimedia on the web as you can get. The site is constructed in a Java shell, and sports everything from RealPlayer, to assorted plugins. For the PC, RED lets you know this: "RealPlayer will let you listen to my voice and watch my TV commercials. The Shockwave Plug-In will let you watch me move. The VivoActive Player will let you stream video in real time." (M&M’s Studios, 1998).

The site has a virtual tour through the studios, as well as individual candies’ dressing rooms. The artwork is as detailed and realistic as it was in the commercials, so I surmise they are still using Lightwave, which is now at version 5-something. There is an Arcade Game area, with interactive, multimedia games such as The Art Room, Melt ‘Em, Jet Power, and Vacuumania! This website provided several hours of fun for my 11-year old daughter and me. She was thrilled with how well the games work, and I was enthralled with the astounding technology.

It seems good taste never goes out of season. M&M’s tasted good when I was a kid, they stampeded the world (especially at Christmas) with 3-D realism, and they’ve taken all of that and put it online, where I can now share it with my child! The original commercials had every example capable within Lightwave software and its ilk, such as morphing, superimposition, 3-D animation, the uses of an understructure of wire forms, and undoubtedly millions of renderings. The online M&M Studios proves that multimedia, in its truest form IS possible to deliver by Internet. The final products may not have the supra-realistic imaging of a game such as MYST, or the realistic drama of a game such as Age of Empires – but for those of us who BELIEVE, these dots really do come alive when the shadows grow long and the lids grow heavy.

One of the brightest gifts of multimedia is purely sensory. Another gift is one of recreating memories of that which we have already experienced. As mentioned before, this can bring memories of great sadness, as with the JFK assassination – but the memories of a life-long friend like M&M’s … is pure joy.

I have subscribed to a number of these free periodicals for many years, such as the Adobe Magazine, InterActivity, and various software-specific magazines. Recently, I have started to receive 3D Design, which is also located at http://www.3d-design.com. This is truly one of the best tools for the multimedia developer, especially if you are designing in 3-D in any manner. Every issue brings articles on software such as Bryce II, MetaCreations, Cosmo, Maya, 3-D Studio Max, and the absolute newest information on the newest newcomers!! The nice thing about receiving these magazines is it gives those of us who are "slam-dunked" in our computer hours (say, 20 out of every 24) a chance to rest our eyes and savor the real-reality of a glossy, printed book. It is almost sensuous.

It also gives you the chance to say, "Oh, Paper. I remember that!"

Another tremendous resource for those of us in multimedia, is an online ‘ezine that I recently discovered. It is called Web Review, and is located at: http://webreview.com/wr/pub. This site is such a one-stop resource that if I cannot get to any of my other weekly stops, this is definitely the one! It offers tutorials, articles and reviews on every aspect of multimedia, design, and web development. It includes programming languages such as Java, Perl, CGI, and others, and it hosts links to sister-‘ezines that complete the "round of study." It is the most state-of-the-art site I’ve found, for these topics.

This first assignment has brought this writer ever closer to the old adage that "practice makes perfect." Fernando Flores, outstanding scholar in the field of management, pioneer in workflow technology, and author of Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design, said, "…In the early eighties, with the advent of personal computers, we began to see computers in other roles [data calculation, tabulation, storage, etc.] – such as … illustration, and desktop publishing. For the people who were using computers in these ways, the machines began to appear not as calculators, but as tools that supplement a person’s own creativity." (Denning & Metcalfe, 1998; p. 177). These creative advances have woven themselves into every business, every pleasure of human life.

With the new Age of Information, we are also seeing a new generation rising up to meet the challenges. In every arena, a new standard for excellence is appearing. With global competition as close as your desktop, this revived dedication to high performance and a "job well done" is welcome. In the very apt words of a very popular newcomer in the field of Pop Rock, Justin Timberlake of N’SYNC said, "Whatever your dream is, you have to practice your craft, and make it the best that it can possibly be." (Timberlake, 1998).

Justin is seventeen.

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