Hello All,

I would like to begin my sabbatical by finishing matters here on a positive basis. The current Knox Foundation board ends its tenure at the end of October. Thus I have put this together -- and it is by no means finished though the timing is close to being right -- as sort of a thank-you to them. There will be a link attached with a message.

I thank you Derry for finally dragging me kicking and screaming into animation, though I have barely scratched the surface. Thank you also AndyP for the .mid sound files.

800x600 embedded SVG: centre with cursor; do NOT zoom out; it takes a few minutes for the full effect to occur depending on your connection. (The screen background will go black.)


Knox Tribute: Draft

Cheers and all the best,

Muzz

Something which I learned a very long time ago with respect to blunt irreverence, otherwise referred to as forthright honesty, is that you say what you have to say, and then you get on with life. You do not bear grudges. You don't sulk.

On certain matters I was way out of line: I have apologized and can do no more -- except leave. On other matters I stand by my judgements made on known facts.

The preceding post was offered in good will in the hope of better days some time in the future.

I see reasonable evidence, however, that it is going to be ignored by VM. If that is indeed the case, and you find it offensive, then just remove it please Derry.

You lost or banned D_L. Now you lose Muzz. And by my reckoning that accounts for 99% of the posts on SVG since January. I think there is a story line there.

Muzz

Hello RC ..

I've not been banned (at least not from here so far!) .. I've just taken a long break ..

my PC crashed .. so until it was fixed my backup was an ancient Apple Quadra 650 ..

Quite an experience trying to view today's sites with an old IE version 4.0.

I'm now getting back into SVG experiments .. so hang in there ..

As I suggested some time ago, you should try pouring out your writings ("letting off steam" on SVG design) in your own blog site. Then just link to your blogs from here. Multiple forums can then view your writings (blogs).

Just an idea, since you get frustrated if nobody responds .. and your writings are lost.

DL

Howdy D_L.

You have arrived in the nick of time to save the day for SVG in the Scriptorium! (See James Murrary and the O.E.D. for the cross-reference.)

I am a Borgy, just haven't had time -- too busy fighting mental demons while making a royal *** out of myself here.

The link to the SodiPodi tutorial vanished. Unfortunate, but it is a very useful little jewel.

This link is starting to get interesting: It changes on a fairly regular basis as I am not finished with it yet -- probably by Monday. Same link as above.Dedicated to Outgoing Board: DRAFT

The music is Rachmaninoff's 18th Variation on a Theme of Paganini.

The amount of technology involved in that is incredible: all revolving around SVG and .JPG files.
You should look further into Image Analyzer -- specicially microscopic imaging as well as using the "lathe" to set up 3D models. Very sophisticated.

Anyway, I am planning to set up an "SVG corner" in my home-site and start SVG Pioneering there and elsewhere. My bridges are burnt here. I am not enough of a sychophant. (Yes, just a tad bitter.)

I'll be watching D_L.

Cheers,

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 25, 2003 at 09:54 PM.]

RC

if you have lost the sodipodi tutorial link .. here it is again

http://hawthorn.csse.monash.edu.au/~njh/programming/drawing-packages/sodipodi/

DL

RC

and here is a relevant example of a blog .....

http://linguagrafica.blogspot.com/

DL

Hi D_L

You have presented me with a real dilemma. The Borg article is fascinating, and I am presently (I need to set up another e-mail account) planning to join the sub-category of Yahoo SVG Developers called SVG-Evangelists.

There is another link I have been given which I am also going to get involved with; and then there is Image Analyzer which is pure class all the way.

SodiPodi is committed to SVG and qua SVG is pretty much as advanced, or more so, than Web Engine. (SodiPodi isn't worrying about requests for HTML features such as "Image Maps" which are readily available in the XHTML editor AceHTML5 Pro -- nor is it FLASH friendly)

WebEngine is becoming a Swiss Army Knife in which SVG is simply an incidental feature. There is time to change that developing image, but the time is right now.

What experiments in SVG did you have in mind?

Cheers,

Muzz

Hello RC

some basic principles I might suggest to you ..

- do not put all your eggs in one basket (i.e. choosing one tool such as Web Engine, and becoming deeply frustrated in this forum if your SVG evolution requirements cannot be met)

- do not expect everything from one vendor's product .. so mix'n match in your tool-kit .. look around

- build a portfolio of SVG development tools (Web Engine included, plus Sodipodi) so that the survival of the fittest applies

- join a network of user communities (the "network of networks")

- create your own SVG architect identity .. via blog site and/or web site which all can read rather than just in this forum

.....

The SVG Evangelist site is one of the links in the blog link above .. but my guess is that it might focus on deeper SVG API issues and should really be SVG editor independent. In that forum avoid plugging any specific editor.

.....

As to SVG experiments .. there are a few ideas .. I'm currently using Aisee in educational licence mode (free extended trial available on request if for non-commercial use).


DL

Hi D_L,

Sound advice as usual.

I think that the pivotal point in all this is to once and for all get my Home-Site up and running; make it a joint-option SVG/HTML site; and establish my identity as an "Activist, Grammarian-***-Writer, and Web-Site Graphics Designer Specialzing in SVG/JPG Themed Imagery.'

I haven't given up on WE as an SVG editor; but I no longer have any major expectations. It is basically a good integrating utility editor.

Do you write Blogs? i.e. do you have a "Blog Identity?"

By the way, as regards my animation effort which has impressed no one but me, do realize -- as I hinted at -- how many hours of work and how much
technology went into that? It boggles the mind.

The animated image is a screen captured SVG page which in itself took over a 100 hours to create. I am not satisfied with it yet artistically, but technically it is interesting.

Get back to you later.

Cheers,

Muzz

To the censors: (obviously automated and suffering from the usual stupidity of such tools) you have now censored me for the use of two perfectly acceptable words because of your dirty mind, not mine.

To ALL:

Footnotes: (1) In using the word "utility" above, I am being precise and using the word in the context of possessing value because of its usefulness"

(2) THIS WHOLE RECENT CHAIN OF EVENTS WAS STARTED, when it was suggested by Derry for about the 3rd time that I might want to join the Yahoo Developer Group Forum.

Whereas I appreciated the spirit in which Derry made the suggestion, it also spoke volumes about the situation in the existing VM Forum with other implications.

(3) I have debated putting in a Feature request that no more Feature requests be accepted until the current backlog has been cleaned up; and requesting that a agenda be published as to an estimation of probable utilization and a date of probable implementation.

If the cookie jar has been too full for SVG development for one and one half years when the number of forum members was less than 100 based on limited resources; why keep diluting your resources? The golden highway of course.

The vision for Web Engine (if I understand the obtiuary correctly) was based profoundly on the integration of SVG and 3D animation. And about that I am going to say aboslutely nothing.

Muzz

D_L,

SodiPodi And Essence

A well known saying is that "picture is worth a thousand words." Less well known, far less, is the fact that a "word is worth a thousand pictures." Concepts are abstractions made concrete by defintions which give their epistemelogical essence.

The above, SVG created quickly in sodipodi, contains two distinct types of images: one of which I will call metaphysical and the other, the more sophisticated, which I call epistemological: words, typography --- the ultimate images: visual-auditory symbols representing an unlimited number of "pictures."
(This being philosophy's central problem: the "problem of universals.")

The point? If you understand the above, then you understand that a writer has to, in fact, be even more image oriented, possess the greater imagination, than the painter. -- Or less controversially, the degree to which a writer is involved in imagery is vastly underestimated for words are the ultimate image in terms of potential in the Aristotelian sense of potential and actuality.

I have been invited to contribute to the documentation on a favourite subject in a favourtie program of mine. I will thus have much to keep me occupied D_L. You are a great researcher and pot shaker.

Who knows when and where we will cross paths again.

Cheers,

Muzz

[URL=http://members.shaw.ca/muzzrpore/sodipshb.html]Embedded SVG Fonts[/URL

against a background which with a simple 1/x overlay would be the first three zero crossings of the cardinal sine function: sin (x) /x.

Yes, done with SodiPodi.

Re the previous: my favourite subject is time serious analysis; sub-category -- as treated with integral transforms, especially Fourier and Hankel with the always associated subject of deconvolution.

I wish you all well.

Muzz

[This message was edited by RC on October 28, 2003 at 06:07 AM.]

As far as I am concerned, this soap opera is finished. It was both unfortunate and in the following sense unnecessary: the simple act of some personal communication on the matter would have ended it a long time ago.

A point very desparately needed to be made: specifically that the pinnacle of Web Engine expression cannot be achieved without VM playing a more active role, not only in the development of SVG, but also in the promotion of SVG.

I was asked to do some animation in SVG, which I did. But could I do what I really wanted to do; what it is within current technological reach of attaining? No. Web Engine SVG plus other related features simply are not developed enough.

Derry a long time ago speculated whether or not Web Engine should be primarily a SVG tool and Harpo, albeit indirectly, squashed the notion,

The decision as to what should be the relationaship between SiteSpinner and Web Engine is not an easy one;and I appreciate VM's dilemma on the matter. But to the extent I am able to discern the direction they are pursuing, it is my conviction that it is the wrong one -- or at least is being pursued in the wrong order.

It is my conviction that Web Engine should be developed first and foremost into a premium SVG editor with only such HTML capacity as is needed for support. If 3D animation is to be the ultimate expression of Web Engine's capabilities, that is the only road to travel.

SiteSpinner could then be used primarily as the HTML, DHTML tool, and Web Dwarf as the entry level tool. In this scenario there are no marketing conflicts. Modular development of duplicate componets would obviously be an advantage, opening up additional marketing possibilities (see Visicom Media's FTP offering, e.g.)

It remains my understanding that the ultimate expression of the development of VM's products was to be be 3D animation and that SVG was to be (and logically so) the means.

Do I not then have justification for the fact of my frustrations if not their mode of expression?

I once again offer the staff of VM, including you Harpo, my apologies for all the unpleasantness, and perhaps at times unfairness, and most definitely the disruptive nature, of all which has recently transpired. May you accept them.

I am now, finally with no exceptions save possibly one for VM, going on Sabbatical to work on other projects including experiementing with animation.

We are now at the crossroads. I have expressed by wishes. I await yours.

Yours sincerely,
Robert C. Smith aka

Muzz

RC

to help you on your new golden path towards SVG animation

research "SMIL" editors

..

I could find only one reference to SMIL (SVG animation) in this forum (which I made some time back in discussing Batik + Cocoon fonts with you)

so google away for "SVG SMIL" links ...

http://wam.inrialpes.fr/software/limsee2/

http://www.w3.org/TR/smil-animation/

http://www.scale-a-vector.de/svg/how.htm

good luck ..

DL

Hi D_L,

A straight SVG link for you:

http://members.shaw.ca/muzzrpore/muzzxyva.svg

And just how is it that we can see a 38 foot tall building through a 4 foot high window?

I bear no grudges and wish all at VM well; I have no time for foolish pettiness and you retain my respect however you may regard me. Though you did not respond to my post, I am quite cognizant of what you didn't do and I thank you.

Repeating an earlier comment, I assume full responsibility for my statements and actions regardless of my mental state. I offered unsolicatated advice in less than optimum terms, and have no reason to regard your position as unresponsible.

Though I have made many mistakes, I nevertheless exit head held high with no shame dripping from my shoulders. Pioneering demands that one give one's utmost, and that I did.

In the final analysis, I depart a wiser, more knowledgeable, and yes, even this, more mature person. For that I thank you.

Muzz

VM allowed me to create this. It is not quite finished, but it is close. It looks simplistic, it is anything but. I thank you Derry.

http://members.shaw.ca/muzzrpore/knanmthe.html

Muzz

This wraps up this thread. The people who mattered the most, the executive and board, enjoyed it very much -- this being a very good thing as, with the exception of two board members, the entire ensemble was re-elected for another term this past weekend. Mr. Stewart took his laptop and showed it at the meeting -- incidentally and casually slipping in a VM connection for good measure not to mention the dropping of the phrase SVG here and there.

Thanks again to everyone who supported this thread.

Rolling in clover,

Muzz