Thank you so much for your assistance. While I was aware of many of the issues
you mentioned, there were also others that were new to me. Thank you for
bringing those to my attention and for the links for additional information.
Natasha
-----Original Message-----
From: CPHennessy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sun 2/19/2006 5:43 AM
To: [email protected]; Fratello, Natasha
Cc:
Subject: Re: [users] useful for this purpose?
On Sun February 12 2006 23:56, + Fratello, Natasha wrote:
> [ MODERATED ] ********************
> Dear Open Office:
> I found your site today by visiting
>
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/04/14/powerpoint_to_flash_conversion_too
>ls.htm
>
> Your projects look to be exciting and useful, and the philosophy of
access
> for all platforms underlying the projects is certainly one I can
embrace.
>
> My question to you is whether your Open Office download is useful for
a
> specific purpose: I am converting my power point based lectures
(also
> keynote) to Flash, and wish sound and captioning to run with the
files. Is
> your product able to provide that for a Mac OSX user?
>
> I need to provide as much access as possible for all of my community
> college students--some of whom have disabilities and others simply
have
> slow, dial-up Internet connections. Clearly, the .swf files are the
best
> for these purposes (Java and QuickTime load too slowly for the
dial-up
> connections). Sound and captioning are crucial as is interactivity:
being
> able to allow students to control navigation, playback speed,
hyperlinks,
> etc. I am already familiar with other products including Flash
MX2004
> itself, Keynote (converting the sound files to play in Flash for
individual
> slides is cumbersome), and the Windows compatible products--I want to
use
> my Mac solely, if possible.
>
> Clearly, if I were to join your community, my contributions would be
at the
> end-user side of the spectrum :-)
>
> I look forward to your response, and thank you for your
consideration.
As you are not subscribed you may not have seen that:
On Mon February 13 2006 15:58, Derick Centeno wrote:
> You might want to consider using NeoOffice which essentially is
> OpenOffice without the reliance upon using X11. When I use OS X, it
is
> always with Neo. Here's the link to learn more:
>
> http://www.neooffice.org/
>
> Also if you want help regarding using Flash MX, here's a site which
> could be useful:
>
> http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml
>
> Your institution and community are going to have to become more aware
of
> a few facts:
>
> 1: Tools like Flash, Java and so on require an enormous amount of
> processing power and speed. You may be able to do decent development
on
> a G3, but you are really discussing using completed applications
which
> should run from a dedicated server. You will need a server to run
these
> tools from so that they are useful and available to your students or
> anyone else with appropriate access to your efforts, from the web.
In
> that sense, staying "Mac only" cuts your capacity for service because
> more complete server and other associated developer packages (to do
what
> you wish to do) exist for Linux, Unix, Windows but running on Intel
and
> compatibles. This daunting fact is one of the reasons Apple switched
to
> Intel. If you stay "Mac only" on the developer side, you will have
to
> consider Apple's Xserve tools and packages which are not cheap.
> However, purchasing Apple's server can save you hours of development
> time as all the tools are already there.
>
> Just because your server is chosen and operational with the proper
high
> bandwidth connections a few T3s or higher if possible, depending on
your
> institution's financial support, there is the problem of what the
> student's hardware is and what bandwidth is used at that student's
home.
> Although it can be possible to develop a server of reasonable
financial
> cost, you have to consider development/programming skills. The
skills
> necessary for programming servers are not the same as the skills
> necessary for programming home based computers known as clients. If
> your or another's skill level are up to that task ... your intended
> project will have less difficulty. If not, I'm sure your
institution's
> Computer Science Department can send students to assist on this
project.
>
> You are probably aware of the above, I mentioned them only as a means
of
> assistance for your consideration of what may have been omitted.
>
> Products like Flash MX and others require decent servers from which
to
> work and serve data to multiple calls from multiple ports; from the
> client side these applications are optimized to work best and most
> efficiently from Intel based computers.
>
> 2: From the client side, student's accessing your work (existing on
a
> server), the operating system and CPU they use will matter. For
> instance, a G3 if it is too old cannot run OS X; it and many other
PPC
> based Macs will have to remain using the what Apple calls the Classic
OS
> -- which really means OS 9 and earlier. Those Operating Systems are
> very limited and will become more limited in what they can relate
with
> on the web. The way the life of these machines can be extended
> functionally is for their Operating Systems to be switched for a form
of
> Linux distribution which will run on that PPC. This helps, but just
> barely. Unfortunately Macromedia does not support any version of
their
> products so that it runs on a PPC version of Linux. Yes, this can
> change; it is also possible that humanity will achieve world peace.
>
> There are hackers out there who are working on a modifying
Macromedia's
> products so that they do work on the PPC within the Linux platform.
The
> problem will be reliability and consistency of function at the same
> level of performance as though Macromedia itself produced it. I
think
> you can see the legal problems here, for you as institution to even
> consider using such an item, even if it does work.
>
> There did exist a petition to Macromedia (a long time ago, available
at
> Macromedia's website) requesting that Macromedia support PPC for
Linux
> with a working version of their products. Macromedia did accept and
> consider requests of this kind. It hasn't moved on anything
significant
> as a solution because the numbers of persons requesting such support
is
> not large enough to refocus attention from other projects to one like
> this. Adobe however, has absorbed/bought Macromedia; it is very
> doubtful that Adobe's management will consider any diversions from
their
> established plans.
>
> Here is the link listing which Operating Macromedia -- now Adobe --
does
> support:
>
>
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer/productinfo/systemreqs/flash
>player7/
>
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer/productinfo/systemreqs/
>
> Remember also that products (software) for servers are usually sold;
the
> client products are usually free. A lot of things are Open Source,
but
> not everything.
>
> The other solution is for students to switch to Linux based on the
Intel
> platform; which Macromedia and other companies DO support. Any item
> imagined exists within the Intel and compatible based Linux universe
> when compared with Linux on a PPC. There is a noted speed increase
by
> users of Linux both on Intel or PPC.
>
> Assuming the student switches to Linux for Intel, the next issue is
> bandwidth. A student should be able to get Linux for free or
purchase
> it on CDs between $10-50 depending on vendor, taxes, etc. The Comp.
> Sci. Dept. could be very useful in addressing these concerns.
>
> The problem remains regarding bandwidth which is available at the
> student's home. However, if the student uses Linux on Intel to
access
> your efforts the overall cost to the phone bill should be very small
as
> Linux is more efficient than Windows. Prices regarding bandwidth are
> changing, and fiberoptics are becoming available; eventually dial-up
> will disappear. Some cellphones do transmit data, and some vendors
do
> offer data transmission rates. That possibility is hampered by the
fact
> that dial-up currently is actually faster when compared against that
> media. This however is a temporary advantage, which may last a
shorter
> time than the Pony Express did against the Telegraph.
>
> I sincerely hope your project can move forward. My concern was that
> these all these other aspects of your project should be considered in
> your evaluations as well.
>
Please reply to [email protected] only.
--
CPH : openoffice.org contributor
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