(For those new to the column, Forward Migration is our term for companies moving from Wintel machines to Macs — or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use. A Forward Migration Kit is an overview of Mac OS products for a particular occupation, such as photography, optometry, etc.)
Robert Duffield recently returned from a trip to Amsterdam. While visiting the Van Gogh Museum, he noticed a line of new flat panel iMacs on a table, being used as information kiosks.
“I must say, they fit right in with the modern architectural lines of the museum, and the colorful graphics showing on the screen looked like changeable framed artwork to match the real stuff on the walls,” Duffield told MacCentral. “They were fascinating to play with. Half the people would click and play with the programs, and the other half would grab the screen and play ‘make the computer look around’ games.”
Meanwhile, a Macs in Action article notes how Matthew Pitts-Tucker uses an iBook, a Power Mac G4 , and iMovie to realize his dreams of being an animator. Now in his first year at University of Sheffield, he works as a designer at the university’s student-run advertising agency by day and creates award-winning animations by night.
Pitts-Tucker was attending the venerable St. Alban’s School near London when his animation inspiration came while watching the much-lauded “Wallace and Gromit” episodes. From there it was onward and upward. In 1999, he earned a Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award for animation, and the encouragement of his English and drama teacher (now a close friend) to pursue a career in the field.
The budding animator then spent the summer of his sixteenth year shredding old legal documents at his father’s law office in order to save up for his first iMac and a Sony PC-100e digital camcorder, according to Apple. Once he had his equipment, he began creating animated sequences whenever time allowed. Eventually, British Telecomm (BT) of the U.K (where Pitts-Tucker lives) used one of his animations for a TV ad. He’s also used his skills and Apple technology to help pass his college entrance exams (known in the U.K. as the Advanced Levels).
“I had to make a one-and-a-half-minute animated film in 20 hours for the AS-level (university entrance test) in Art,” Pitts-Tucker told Apple. “I did my exam on one of the school’s iMacs underneath the stage, next to the boiler. I spent 20 hours in a t-shirt and shorts under very hot lights, with the drama lessons making the floorboards creek and ripple over my head. But iMovie performed brilliantly! The editing went very quickly, I put in all of the music, the sound effects, and so on very easily … and I ended up with an ‘A’ in the Art exam.”
Requests for help
Now it’s time for our weekly requests for help from folks who need your advice and/or assistance in forward migrating — or at least being able to keep the Mac platform alive and thriving in their businesses. Contact the requesters directly at their e-mail addresses.
John Goves: “I’m looking for a USB GPS unit with software drivers for Route 66 for Mac OS X. The Haicom 202E would be ideal, but there appears to be no drivers. Can anyone help?”
Jonas Ludvigsson: “I work as a medical doctor and a researcher. When presenting data/studies at conferences, we often do that through a poster (usually measuring some 60×100 centimeters). To make a poster (and ask someone print it for you) costs money. There is PC software that will enable you to construct/form your own poster and then print it out as 6-8 A4 papers that you then put together to one poster. Does anyone know of anything similar for the Mac?”
William Reed: “I am a physician working in biomedical research. I have used StatView (Mac 5.01) for years. Although it has a number of shortcomings, I have generally liked it very well and have become proficient at it. It is integrated into my research activities. Early on after it was sold to SAS in 1998, SAS promised Mac OS X support. However, recently, they seemed to kill off StatView entirely in favor of something they call JMP, which they seem to want to sell to me. Does anyone know of any product, existing or on the way, that is similar to StatView”