Diskovery


Way back in the Diskovery of issue 52 I wrote of the changes to
come.  As you can see, we've made quite a few of them.  Back then
I had a simple list of three goals to fulfill, let's have a peek
at the score board to see how I'm doing.


My first goal was to begin allowing our VGA friends to exploit 
higher video modes with our software without sacrificing CGA 
compatibility.  Thus CERTIFICATE CREATOR was born.  It has a 
sexy graphic shell that supported every video card I had ever 
heard of.  The ODM staff will be using that shell to do more and 
more programs over the next few months.  As I type we are 
exploring ways to support a richer variety of printers and to 
make its updates (fancy programmer lingo for redrawing the 
screen) more efficient.


Second on the list of goals was to upgrade our presenter system.  
As you can see we've hit the mark a second time.  Those of you 
with EGA (with at least 256k on board) or better video cards are 
in for a high resolution treat.  We have a ton of graphic 
goodies in store for you.  Those of you holding out with the CGA 
standard are covered with a colored text duplicate of the 
high-res presenter.  To be honest, I didn't think our 
development team could pull it off in CGA--I was wrong.


The third and most important goal is not to stop.  I'm 
constantly looking for ways to improve every aspect of the ODM 
experience.  The near future shows us being more supportive of 
our younger users.  You can expect to see at least one 
educational program per issue until the day they fire me (for 
not wearing a suit and tie no doubt).  Also in the on-deck 
circle is soundboard (Disney's Sound Source, AdLib & Sound 
Blaster) support.  You should hear the difference soon.   The 
last short term achievement that I am allowed to comment on is 
multimedia.  If you're not familiar with multimedia, you will be 
if you stay with ODM.


The future for ODM and our subscribers looks brighter than ever.
Our Publisher and myself are firmly committed to keep you on the
leading edge.  Be it this year's multimedia frenzy or next
year's yet unknown technological wonder--we'll be right on top
of it.  Perhaps even defining a few wonders ourselves in the
process.


In issue 52 I wrote that we would begin to push our use of
technology--bear witness to the first step.

Jay