4.0669 Observations on CD-ROMS (1/21)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 31 Oct 90 23:04:59 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0669. Wednesday, 31 Oct 1990.
Date: Tuesday, 30 October 1990 2226-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Observations on CD-ROMs
1. I don't have disk space to hold all that material,
so I'd rather have "slow" (or even "glacial"!) than
unavailable.
2. In most instances with which I am familiar, it is
the developer's/vendor's accessing software that is
system specific, and thus can hide the data from other
operating systems. CD-ROMs that contain directly
accessible data, such as the TLG or PHI disks, will
run on IBM or Mac as well as IBYCUS.
3. The low end on price for CD-ROM readers seems to
be approaching the $500 level, but is sinking much more
slowly than had been predicted.
For a brief, fairly realistic assessment of the current
situation see Nico Krohn, "CD ROM Technology Falls Short:
Anticipated Gains in Price, Speed, and Sails Fail to
Materialize," InfoWorld 12.43 (22 Oct 1990) 28.
Bob Kraft