FROM I NSTRUCTIONA

By Greg I Davis

Okay, I confess — I'ma geek. I can
recite pi to seven decimal places. I can -
explain the technical differences .
between’European and North . .
American television standards.

~ Tcan even program my VCR!

In recent months, however, I’ve begun
to notice how my clients eyes glaze-
over when I glibly spout sentences -
like, “well, the photo’s going ona web.
page, so r’ dscan it at 75 dpiand .
‘convert it to a JPEG with medium *
compression”. Clearly, normal folk |
"just don’t talk this way. With that i in
mind, I present the...”

Non-Geek’s Guide to ‘Acronyms
AVI — Stands for Audio Video
Interleave. A file format for saving.
video clips ona computer. With: -
special hardware and software it is

possible to capture a short segment © . :

:from videotape | to the computer. Why. :

would you want to do this? How about

a personal taped greeting for visitors to
your departments web page. You could
also attach a home video clip to an e-
mail message, or show a video clip’.
within a PowerPoint presentation.
DPI — Dots Per Inch. A way of
measuring resolution (the ability to. ~~
show detail) of an image. More dots ° -

- per inch equals higher resolution. A
computer screen has a resolution of
about 75 dpi, the 35mm film in your
point-and-shoot camera has a
resolution of about 4000 dpi.

GIF — Graphics Interchange Format.

(pronounced Jiff). A computer graphics.
. format which is common on the World
Wide Web, particularly for non-
photographic images (i.e., drawings,

L MEDIA SERVICES ©

_-~ graphs, logos, etc). A A related format i is
- the Animated GIF, used for putting

simple animations on a web page. .

JPEG — Stands for Joint’
Photographic Experts Group. Yet"
another computer graphics format.
JPEGs are commonly. used on the Web
for displaying photos. The JPEG is a~

‘compressed graphics format, which -
* means that it can achieve a much’

smaller file size than a non-compressed
format (like a TIFF) at the expense of.
some image quality. :

OCR — Optical Character .
' Recognition. Software used for,

scanning pages of text for use in word
processing or desktop publishing :

programs. A real godsend for slow

typists, itenables you to scan...»

documents rather than re-type them. is aa
TIFF — Tag Image File Format.This |
isan uncompressed graphics file rc

format. TIFFs are probably the most
common computer graphics format, |

“and can be loaded by virtually any
computer software (including MS ©: >|
Word and WordPerfect). Because the
"image data is uncompressed, quality is

better than a format like JPEG, at the

expense of vastly larger file sizes. If”,
you’re intending to scan a photo to’.

include in a printed report or brochure me
‘then TIFF is the way to go.

Hopefully, this will help demystify.
things a bit, and I can look forward to.”
fewer glazed stares at work — which

should do wonders for my self esteem!.

We geeks are, after all, a rather :

insecure lot.

"Headlines/November 1 2, 1 997

2 ie The Crucible opens:
- UCFV’s 1997/98 ©
_ theatre season .

In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, ‘there.
is an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the

edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants
_ believe unquestioningly i in their own
_., Sanctity, but in Arthur Miller’s edgy -
ee masterpiece, “that very belief will have -
_-, poisionous consequences when a

a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of
© witchcraft — and those accusations

multiply to consume the entire village.
First produced i in 1953, ata time when

7 “America was convulsed by a new |
epidemic of witchhunting, The Crucible

brilliantly explores the threshold between —

* individual guilt and mass hysteria,
“personal spite and collective evil. Itis a _
“play that is not only relentlessly
~. suspenseful and vastly moving but one: 5.
. that compels people to fathom their hearts.
“and consciences in ways that only great
- theatre can...

In addition to the o on stage talent, The

“Crucible features some recent UCFV
graduates designing the production. |

Heather Robertson, who just received

_ cher BA in Theatre, is set designer;
-» Heather also appeared i in UCFV’s

Shakespearean production of. Measure

_ For Measure. Carrie Trask, who has just
-received her Fashion Design diploma, is

costume designer. Of course our seasoned.
specialists head the production crew with’

- their expertise: Jody Cameron, producer, _
“Jim Wenting, construction, Yvonne’:

Krehbiel, wardobe mistress, Bruce

_ _Kirkley, lighting design, and Astrid
-. Beugeling, resident designer.

Tan Fenwick, director and Theatre.

“department head, has cast a number of
-UCFV theatre students and community...

performers i in TheCrucible. Theatre
students who will be performing in the .~

_ production will be Jeremy Brown,
- Pierre Imlay, Jeffrey James, Steven
--Kurowski, Kurtis Maguire and Joel
» Murdoch. Emily Stone will play the».
_ exciting role of Elizabeth Proctor, and.

Richard Heaven will portray her: -
husband, John Proctor, a man who

_+ wrestles with his soul and his life to
os decide which one is worth the sacrifice.
ven. Curdie, Tiffani Mohammed,

Please see next page. *