[wsia-comment] A Week That Was (and then some) and Still IS

[Rex Brooks <rexb@starbourne.com>]

Hi Everyone,

Please excuse the chummy song and dance, since I'm adapting another 
message which contained most of the information I wanted to include 
with this sample. I seem to be having one of those weeks that manages 
to pack in everything plus the kitchen sink, not all that dissimilar 
from last month this time. I hope it isn't about to become a pattern, 
but I know it is only the lead up to the summer vacation/conference 
season, although conference season is now stretching all year, as 
opposed to the fall-year end/new year and mid-year slots.

However, I am making progress on a fresh install of Windows 2000 on 
my main Wintel box, and I actually don't appear to be losing either 
any data, nor some of the programs that I was entitled to install 
while I was teaching, but for which I was not allowed to keep the 
program disks or packaging for, since it was installed under an 
Educational Institution's Licenses, so that is one of the silver 
linings from this week of storm clouds. One of my main partners had 
his brand new laptop go south, WITH data while he was in transit from 
Florida to another meeting.

I was stuck with a phone in one or the other ear while whacking on 
the Win2K problem yesterday, since it was the Web 3D Consortium's 
Open Member Meeting Day culminating their week of workshops at the 
San Mateo Sun Microsystems Campus. I learned quite a bit, not all of 
it good or hopeful, but enough so that I'm reasonably pleased that 
numerous pieces of that puzzle are coming together, and are scheduled 
for announcement to the world at this year's SIGGRAPH during the 
third week of July, and which I hope to attend if I can possibly 
swing it. As an attendee only (relieved sigh).

It also allowed me to catch up on the latest developments in the Java 
world, the upshot of which is the release of source code of the 
latest rev of J2SE, not that that makes much difference to me except 
to convince me to install 1.4, which I hadn't done yet on the 
previous Win2K installation.

Unfortunately, the breakdown of the Win2K installation prevented me 
from completing a sample of 3D Data Visualization in a Portal, which 
I was scheduled to present, and that was definitely NOT a good thing. 
I have attached the only deliverable sample of it I have at this 
point, which is just one of those numerous checks that one makes to 
see how things are looking. It is a jpeg of the 3D scene which is 
just one page/world of the Portal which will deliver customized 3D 
data visualizations in a Management Decision Support Portal based on 
the individual user's preferences and permissions. It isn't meant as 
an actual sample since the actual sample would be a 3D vrml/X3D set 
of 3D environments combined with (e.g. Embedded in) XHTML pages. The 
point is that you can simply supply a greater density of information 
on a single screen/scene/environment in 3D than 2D. Unfortunately 
this sample doesn't show that as readily as the .wrl file itself, but 
that file hasn't been optimized yet, so including it, let alone 
requiring a plug-in to view it, was just not feasible right now. I 
will put it on my own website when it is in more presentable 
condition.

Now I will get back to reinstalling what software I need to 
reinstall. Since this includes 3D Studio Max and the IBM WebSphere 
Suite, I may be busy for a while. And, of course, this week wouldn't 
be complete without one more teleconference, the WSIA in two and half 
hours

Ciao,
Rex
--

Attachment: 3DPortalSample.JPG
Description: JPEG image