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Name: Colin Holgate
Location: home Brooklyn, NY, work SoHo NYC
User Group: NYMUG
E-Mail: colin@funnygarbage.com
Homepage: http://www.funnygarbage.com/
Birthday: 11/9
Education: not much
Nickname that I hate: none
Job Title that best describes what I do: Director programmer
Years in Multimedia: 16
The last good book I read: The Mirror of Her Dreams, Stephen R. Donaldson
Favorite music to crunch code by: Cirque du Soleil
If I wasn't doing this, I'd be: relaxing
I've always wanted to meet: Isaac Asimov
When they make my life story into a movie, they'll cast: Bob Hoskins
Currently working on: several things, it's all a blur
Three words that best describe me: gentle, smart, modest
Browser preference: Netscape
If I had a time machine, I'd go (pick a year): 2050
DOUG: What the heck is Funny Garbage and what does the company do?
CH: Funny Garbage is a design company, specializing in CD-ROM and web
design. Examples of our work are the I.D. Magazine CD-ROM and the
cartoonnetwork.com site.
DOUG: In scanning the Funny Garbage site, it seems like a wild
collection of talent. What brought them together and where do you
fit into it all?
CH: Several of us used to work at The Voyager Company, and like Voyager,
Funny Garbage is a gathering place for creative people. We also have
many people working here who are just out of school. Several people
at FG teach at various New York schools, including SVA and ITP, so we
have plenty of good opportunities to see who out of the students are
worth hiring. As for me, I programmed a load of CD-ROMs for Voyager,
so the others knew already that I would be good for doing shockwave
and CD-ROM work.
DOUG: It was a pleasure meeting you at UCON 99. What was your
overall impression of UCON? What had the most impact for you?
CH: It was my first UCON, but I have been to the Apple Developers
conference a few times. UCON was similar in many ways. I thought the
large presentations were done very well, especially the way they had
projection screens set back into the audience. The best thing for me
was the chance to hang out with the Director team. We've known each
other online for so long, it was good to finally meet in person. Of
course, meeting the DOUG crew was the highlight of the conference.
DOUG: Well, you're obviously a man of high intelligence! How did you get into multimedia?
CH: I've always been into technical hobbies, and so when personal
computers came along I looked into it. At that time (summer 1980) I
had two colleagues who had hobby kit computers (a UK 101, which was a
clone of the Superboard, and a Nascom). I asked both of them which
one I should go for. Both said the same thing: "Well, my one is
pretty good, but his one is good too. Of course, you could always buy
an Apple II! (laughter)". The laughing was caused by the fact that
the Apple II cost something like $1300 for just the CPU (this was in
the UK).
I happened to be working on a very remote island at the
time, I didn't have anything better to spend my money on, and so
after three months of thinking about it I bought the Apple II+. After
some time I got involved with some friends who were musicians. I
started making computer graphics effects for their live show. That
was probably my first multimedia experience.
DOUG: What part of production and development do you like best?
Where do you think you excel?
CH: I quite like the blank screen you have in front of you before you
start the production. At that point you have to make guesses about
whether the task is even doable, and whether it will work on the web,
or fit onto a CD-ROM. Those are the kind of things I'm good at,
taking an educated guess as to whether it can be done, and how to do
it.
DOUG: What are your favorite new features of Director 7? How will
these features change how you work?
CH: I quickly got into using Quads, I was one of the first people to use
them for 3D work. I also liked the potential of Vectors, but there
are some limitations that are inconvenient. I'm mainly thinking of
how the regpoint is unpredictable. The biggest feature that affects
how I work really came out before D7, and that's using Flash inside
Director. It really makes a big difference about what is possible to
do on the web without having a huge download.
DOUG: How do you spend your time outside of work? How does this
affect your work (if at all)?
CH: I juggle, which is a good analogy for what I have to do at work too!
I also see films when I can, and that can sometimes trigger some
interesting ideas for interfaces. I have a girlfriend, which does
have an impact on whether I work 7 days a week or not. In case you
can't guess, it means I don't work 7 days a week!
DOUG: Does Y2K have any affect on your work? Any predictions?
CH: I don't think it does. I can give two predictions, one of which is a
bit pessimistic: I don't think anything will go wrong in any way that
makes a big impact. I do think that someone somewhere will have a Y2K
riot, and that the TV will cover it so much that a lot of other
people will join in. I was in Santa Monica during the L.A. riots, so
I've watched this happen before. It took me ages to sell all that
extra furniture afterwards.
DOUG: What will you be doing in a year? In five years?
CH: In one year I'll probably be begging Macromedia to release Director
8.0 already! In five years I'll still be programming Director on
Macintosh computers!
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