X-Message-Number: 2882
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: CRYONICS: Re: cryonics #2875-#2881
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 04:35:06 -0700 (PDT)

Hi again.

To Brian Wowk on GIF: 
The major really important thing about GIF is that it is COMMON. Since not all
of us have the same kind of computer or the same software, that becomes very
important indeed. I say that not to denigrate any other graphics standard,
but simply because it seems to be the only standard which can send graphics
to many different kinds of computer. (Sure, eventually some standard will 
become universal --- my private belief is that PCs are going to drive both
Macs and workstations out of existence, and THEY will eventually become the
standard. But that will take many years, and face a lot of opposition while
it happens. And we want a standard which works NOW!).

As for the other issues, I think there are several ways to settle them. I
think it would be best to convert the binary to ascii and send it that way,
but the best approach deserves discussion by everyone on Cryonet. And 
after all, if Kevin were merely to label graphics messages as binary (Yes,
I know, they would be ascii, but to anyone who looks at them that may as
well be binary) then new people on Cryonet should understand what they're
getting when they ask for one).

Brian does point out another problem: just how to convert them back to 
binary in the home computer... for as many people as possible on Cryonet.
Getting them using other net facilities does have the advantage that if
someone can get on the net in the first place, he/she can get these 
graphics, while it's not obvious to me that everyone on Cryonet has access
to the software needed to do the ascii <--> binary conversion.

But ultimately I don't think a method should be chosen without finding out
just what machines those who access the net now have. (And this may be 
a serious problem. After all, it really doesn't take a high powered computer
to access Internet. Depending on inclinations, I can imagine someone out
there, generally not interested in computing, who decides to do it with
an old Commodore 128. They have everything you need, after all. It is one
more barrier if they must first buy a computer brand XX, type YY to get
everything from Cryonet).

			Long long life,

				Thomas

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