Visual Software, Inc.
21731 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 310
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Phone: 818-883-7900
$595
E-commerce Resources (Web Developer's Journal). How to build online shopping sites. Tutorials on internet security, credit card merchant accounts, shopping cart software, and other electronic commerce help for home or small business.
eCommerce, Ecommerce, Electrionic Commerce, Web Commerce, whatever you want to call it, for us it's selling things over the Internet. You want to take orders on your Web site, your customers will pay for things with credit cards. It might be retail and it might be business-to-business.
We've assembled some articles and opinion pieces
that should help you find your way though the electonic commerce maze to get the
piece of cheese we hear is at the end.
Building
a Simple Ecommerce Web Site
You don't need to spend $millions to build an ecommerce
Web site. There are viable do-it-yourself alternatives at hand. These are cost
effective and require little technical expertise.
Tune
Your Ecommerce Site for the Rush
Christmas Rush, Easter Rush, Summer Rush or a bit
of brisk business next Friday. It doesn't matter when, the principles are the
same. Your servers and bandwidth have to be big enough. Your systems have to be
solid.
Is
SSL dead?
Most security experts have been aware of problems
with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), but they haven't been exploited extensively.
Chances are they will be, though.
Adding
A Dealer Locator To Your Site
Many large corporate Web sites have a "dealer locator"
feature that lets a user enter a zip code and get a list of the closest locations
to them. It turns out to be both cheap and easy to do.
Hey
wait! You didn't pay for that!
There's a dirty little secret about shopping carts: <whisper> most shopping
carts are abandoned full of merchandise before they ever get to the checkout counter!</whisper>
Find out how to reduce your abandonment rate.
Ecommerce
Tutorial
A detailed, three-part tutorial about how to set
up a simple ecommerce Web site.
Ecommerce
on a Budget
A simple, dependable, and inexpensive ecommerce solution
for small businesses is proposed.
E-commerce
in the UK
Multimillion pound savings are emerging from use
of the Web in the UK. Investment bank Schroders are looking to cut over one million
pounds from their annual buying costs. However, it's not all a smooth ride, as
Freeserve will confirm.
Do
the banks hold back E-commerce in the UK?
In the UK, doing business on the Internet is in
some ways still a frontier-town activity. The worst of the outlaws in this game
of Cowboys and Indians are the UK banks and credit card companies.
Shopping
Cart Programs Compared
Need a shopping cart? Here's an overview of your
options, from homegrown JavaScript to easy-to-implement turnkey solutions for
merchants.
NetObjects
Authoring Server Suite 3.0
NetObjects is shooting to alleviate the bottleneck
created when Webmasters are forced to do all the work of developing and deploying
Web content to Internet and Intranet sites.
EDI
as the Backbone of Electronic Commerce
Large and medium-sized companies have been doing business with each other electronically
for years via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Toolkits
for a Distributed, Agent-Based Web Commerce System
This is an 8-part series. As information on the Internet
becomes more dynamic and heterogeneous, 'software agents' have been touted as
the new building blocks for a new Internet structure.
Ecommerce Environment
Why The Web Still Isn't Ready For Consumers
Despite early projections, consumers have not been overwhelming e-retailers with business. The questions we need to ask ourselves are why, and is there anything positive we can do to improve the situation?
Reducing
Online Credit Card Fraud
Credit card company figures show that 90 per cent
of consumers are reimbursed when their cards are used fraudulently, while 75 per
cent of online retailers have to eat the cost when they're the victims of credit
card fraud.
Gambling
Online And Offshore
Online betting and gaming revenues are predicted
to reach $10 billion by 2002. Interactive betting services are looking to attract
a new audience - the middle classes and women.
Dotcom
Bubble - "The Emperor Has No Clothes!"
Expect valuations in ecommerce companies and other
consumer business to go down even further. Somebody has noticed the Emperor is
nude and the stock market and venture capitalists are no longer prepared to pay
for his wardrobe.
You
Paid How Much For That Domain Name?
The domain name Business.com was recently sold for
a staggering $8 million. If you've got a domain name to sell, or you'd like to
buy one, where on the Internet should you start looking, and how much will it
be worth?
Archive
Electronic
CommerceBy Frank Griffel, Tuan Tu, Winfreid
Lamersdorf (editors)
Book review.
Web Commerce
Cookbookby Gordon McComb
Book review. Explains how to set up sites to sell
either tangible goods, or content. Includes a wealth of useful CGI scripts and
HTML templates.
Internet Commerceby Andrew Dahl and Leslie Lesnick
This is also a pretty comprehensive guide.
Frontiers
of Electronic Commerceby Ravi
Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston
This textbook covers credit card systems, EDI, electronic
cash systems, security, and much more.
Electronic
Commerce - A Manager's Guide by
Ravi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston
Visual Reality is a suite of four Windows-based applications used in the creation, manipulation, and integration of 3D objects (including text) and raster imagery into photorealistic renderings and animations.
An added bonus to the software are the two CD's included which contain lots of useful 3D models and clip art on one CD and very interesting textures and materials in various raster file formats on the other CD. Also included are Visual Reality's own Visual Player and a Windows version of the Autodesk Animation Player for playing back animations. Ok, here's a look at what the different parts of Visual Reality are, and what they do:
Visual Font
Visual Font is used to make 3D text "models" from any Windows TrueType font or the complete extended ASCII character set through use of the Windows' Character Map program and the clipboard. These text models can be saved in either Visual Reality's own proprietary .GED format, or in DXF format, allowing for their use in scads of other applications. Some of the cartwheels that you can have your text turning can result in some beautifully modified text for including into animations or photorealistic renderings. For instance, the text can be extruded (given depth, as in 3D) which gives text that projected look, sort of as you see in a lot of TV show intros and commercials, and a horizontal and vertical offset can be defined. Text height and width can be modified independently, and the font can be beveled.
The operation of this module of Visual Reality is simple. Simple enough, in fact that the user's manual for Visual Font is only twelve pages long. Basically the user just types in a string of text in the font of his or her desire, pulls down the settings dialog and tweeks the text and viola... SuperText. A preview window is provided separately from the text entry window, allowing the user to view the text in shaded fashion (wireframe is an option) with all the effects chosen through the settings or bevel dialog. I guess the primary purpose in setting it up this way was to keep from impeding performance with simple text entry. I liked this setup, but didn't care much for the fact that the settings dialog had to be closed in order to see my selected changes. There was no toolbar included in this module, and in fact it doesn't need any. I saved some text models as DXF files and imported them into other graphics software pretty much without a hitch. This module, like the others, can be taxing on a computer with little RAM or horsepower, but I wouldn't try doing a font conversion/extrusion to 3D model on the preamble to the Constitution anyway. Maybe a good use for this module would be something like sculptured text on the face of a building or automobile rendering for a touch of reality and class.
Visual Model
The Visual Model application allows creation of 3D objects and provides tools for manipulations such as scaling, rotating, moving, etc. and essentially behaves like a CADD package. The main theme of this program is create 3D objects from 2D objects. It is noteworthy to me, a real CADD guy in my own right, that the Visual Model software features precision input capability, and does not rely solely on eye-balling like I've seen in some "CADD" software. The capability to produce precision models, to me, separates the men from the boys. Unfortunately, I feel the need to mention that all precision input is handled through the use of dialog boxes, and however consistent and direct they are, cannot compare to the use of key-in commands like two letter commands that stand for distance and direction, or XYZ location, etc. for speed. However, at least for someone learning to use the product, the dialogs do make some sense. I have to mention some displeasure at not being able to "tab" from one entry field to another. Neither the up/down arrows or enter key would help either. Going from one entry field to another could only be done through use of a mouse. The problem with this is that when numbers are being entered, the keyboard should be allowed to take the user through the entire dialog with out having to reach over and grab the mouse after every entry. Ok, I'll quit griping, I just like to see things make sense for users work habits (workflow) and also to see Windows applications be consistent on their data entry functionality.
One last harp though, the word "Dialog" was at the top border of nearly all Visual Model's dialog boxes, and I found this of little use. Other Visual Reality modules have the active operation (such as "emboss" or "size image" - Visual Image) displayed on the dialog border which is great, especially if the kids keep interrupting you and you forget what your doing momentarily. However, I must confess that the Status bar, located directly below the Tool bar, keeps the user apprised of current activities, and some mornings I might forget what a dialog box is without the word DIALOG in plain sight right on it. Call it a nit pick.
The toolbar menu is pretty straightforward and it's fairly easy to tell at a glance which tool does what. The tutorial in the user's manual is very easy to follow and the user is guided through some of the major operations of the software as he or she creates a 3D model of a table. I particularly like how a cross section is "linked", that is repeated over the path of say, a curve, to define what could be quite an elaborate solid object. This operation is made simple by the fact that it doesn't matter what plane the cross section is in, in relation to the element it will be "pathed" upon. The selection of elements for modification is simple. It is important to note that in fact, there are two toolbars; one for drawing objects and the second for modifying them. Some of the more powerful modeling features usually found only in very expensive CADD programs (and then only a few are well versed in these features) are the ability to create a polygon mesh between curves or lines, and the ability to add or subtract intersecting solids.
Visual Model has a wonderful dialog for working with layers. It absolutely makes more sense than anything I've seen to date. Assigning colors to layers, changing layers, and changing layers of an element or group of elements is a breeze. Users can also assign names to layers. Visual Model has it's own propitiatory format (SHP) which is recommended for use because it keeps track of control points, units, and other options related to the model, but other formats are supported. If work is saved in the GED (Renderize Live) format, when the file is imported into Renderize Live, a different material is created for each layer that was defined in Visual Model. DXF files can be imported, but not exported, which I found a bit strange and somewhat limiting, at least outside the realm of Visual Reality. Visual Model does allow loading raster file formats for the purpose of tracing.
Visual Image
The Visual Image program is a wonderful piece of programming for the creation, manipulation, and composition of raster images. The mode of operation of the software is very sensible, and the tools used to support the imaging projects are excellent. The user toggles between "image mode", for manipulation of individual bitmaps and "object mode", for working with several (or many) images to ultimately join them together for raster masterpieces. The tutorial in the user's manual will guide the user through several of the tools, and actually gave me the feeling that creation of imagery that I once thought to be complex to create can be in fact, fairly simple. The user is walked through manipulating an image supplied with the software, and then later creating some images of their own with some direction. I particularly enjoyed the options provided for working with gradients, and the tutorial covers these very well. A "Magic Wand" tool is provided for gathering a sampling of colors and cutting out objects based on the gathered color range.
Objects or parts of objects can be made invisible by dropping out black, or the user may define a baseline color (any combination of red, green or blue) through an alpha channel selection. The degree of invisibility is easy to control, and the user may select a baseline color by picking an area directly from the image. The array of tools for working with raster images really is quite impressive. Most image editing software, can resize, crop, adjust color, and so on. Here's a small smattering of capabilities in Visual Image that may be outside the norm, just to give some idea of the things one might do with this powerful software:
àWorking with multiple objects (images) in a handy "thumbnail" viewport.
àMapping textures onto objects (can even be done with "perspective" view).
àJoining objects together.
àWarping an object.
àReplacing colors used throughout an image with "picked" colors.
àUse of airbrush, texture, pull, blend, and sharpen brushes (super).
àScreen capture (areas on or off the Visual Image screen).
àMultiple levels of undo/redo.
àEmbossing.
The tools available are wonderful, and in most cases, very easy to figure out and use. I found the tutorial indispensable when returning to the software after having to do other assignments for a few days.
Renderize Live
In a sentence, Renderize Live is 3D visualization that addresses virtually all components of modeling projects. A "project" is a combination of resources used to define and render views. Users will be able to manipulate objects, views, lights, camera, material, texture, and backgrounds. Objects can be included in projects from several different sources: DXF (from AutoCAD release 10 or later, or any other package that creates DXF's), SHP, which is Visual Reality's own Visual Model native format, OBJ, Wavefront wireframe models, and Renderize Live's own GED wireframe model file format.
I think a particular strong point of this software is the ability to assign material to layers of DXF files as they are included in a project, which is handy, or just assign them later. The creators of this software provide multiple ways of doing many things, and I see that as a major plus. For instance, an object, view, material, or light can be dragged into an "Edit" well, or a click of the right cursor button on one of these components provides a quick pop-up menu that allows editing, deleting, copying, etc. as a kind of on-the-fly workflow. Objects can be grouped together, or broken apart for massive or selective editing.
Image files that can be loaded and saved by Renderize Live include TGA, TIF, GIF, BMP, RAS and RAW files. Materials can be created from scratch, made from image files, and modified for color, shininess, reflectivity, and transparency. Renderize Live allows users to create material libraries for use on multiple projects. I cannot say enough about the way this product performs rendering. The user can perform quick-renders at easily selected various resolutions, but there's a lot more: you can render in a rectangle (2 clicks) at a higher resolution than is currently set for the rest of the view. Users can render to a file (with virtually no limitations on image resolution, or color depth), and the anti-aliasing is beautiful and works extremely well. Does this software render fast? I've seen a lot of rendering software, and this stuff is fast. I credit this performance in large part to the instructions for optimizing the operating system configuration provided in the User's manual. It is noteworthy also that even though Windows 3.1 is a 16-bit operating system, Renderize Live is a 32-bit application. I am not sure how this works, but I am sure the technical support department at Visual Software can explain it. The users manual does recommend "not to run 16-bit Windows applications while operating Renderize Live. Users are recommended to backup their work frequently if they must run multiple applications.
The documentation has an extensive section on utilization of RAM, Smartdrive, sample AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, setting up a permanent swap file, all to get Renderize Live (and really, the whole Visual Reality suite) to zoom. In fact, now, all my Windows applications run faster. Like most of us from Missouri, I thought I had things running pretty swell until I implemented the Visual Reality recommendations. The performance difference was near phenomenal. Renderize Live also provides the tools for a very realistic (ergo the name Visual Reality) and superb quality animation.
Conclusion
The Visual Reality suite of software is an excellent value at the $595 list price. The user interface in all modules is consistent, fairly intuitive, and easy to use. The tutorials are easy enough to follow and contain the necessary graphics to keep the user oriented with what is happening on screen. Tutorial lesson files are provided. The print types used and layout of all documentation was very good, and I liked the use of bold text and bullets along with snapshots of icons where user input is required. There is PLENTY of documentation. The software is powerful, and therefore has a natural, understandable tendency to be complex. I would say that for such a complex package though, it's usable out of the box, and with practice, is just what I said: An excellent value.
Hardware Requirements
IBM compatible with 80386 or 80486 processor (386 must be accompanied by a math-coprocessor) (80486 DX 33 or higher recommended)
Windows compatible VGA with at least 800x100% resolution and 256 colors (True Color recommended)
8 MB RAM (16 recommended)
25 MB Disk space for permanent swap file and 20 MB for software space
DOS 5.0 or higher Windows 3.1
Test System
IBM Compatible 80486 DX33 ISA Bus
Trident SVGA 1 MB 1024x768 at 256 colors
8 MB RAM
540 MB IDE Hard Disk (Western Digital Caviar)
DOS 6.2
Windows 3.1
Technical Support
Technical support is free to all registered users at the Technical Support Hotline 310-798-8570 on weekdays between 8am and 5pm Pacific Time.
