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1992-08-24
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Article 4111 (5 more) in alt.cd-rom:
From: aa699@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tony Thomas)
Subject: Desktop Library CD-ROM (Reviewed by Tony Thomas)
Message-ID: <1992Aug25.101733.1994@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu
Reply-To: aa699@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Tony Thomas)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 10:17:33 GMT
Lines: 60
DESKTOP LIBRARY CD-ROM - Reviewed by Tony Thomas
I'm an avid reader and anyone who has seen my tiny apartment has
remarked that it looks more like a public library than a living space.
Books and magazines are crammed everywhere! One of the reasons I bought
a CD-ROM drive is so that I could (hopefully) thin out my exploding
personal library. Walnut Creek CD-ROM's Desktop Library does a good job
of fulfilling my dream.
The Desktop Library is a collection of electronic books by over a
hundred of the world's best loved authors. Some of the works are the
creation of Project Gutenberg, which is in the process of converting and
distributing many classics in electronic form. Such works as War and
Peace, Alice in Wonderland, Aesop's Fables, Confessions of St.
Augustine, Tale of Two Cities and the complete works of Edgar Conan
Doyle and William Shakespeare are on this disc. Timeless wisdom from
sages like Confucius, Aristotle, Plato, Euripides, Hippocrates and
Epictetus are etched into its aluminum. Religious works like the Holy
Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon and Egyptian Book of the Dead are also
included as well as the summary of the 1990 Census, the 1991 CIA World
Factbook, a complete dictionary , a variety of helpful government
documents and a wealth computer info from Internet. If you would buy
every work on this disc, you would have to pay thousands of dollars,
even in paperback!
All documents are provided in ASCII format so that they can be viewed in
any word processor or viewer. Several viewers and search programs for a
variety of platforms are provided, some of which are public domain. I
especially like the WinSmooth viewer for Windows which slowly scrolls
text at a user definable speed. In addition, all files are also
included in zipped and unzipped form, making them easy to view or
include on a BBS system for downloading. Speaking of BBSs, you'll find
plenty of doors and utilities to get this CD-ROM running on various
systems including Opus, Rover, RBBS, PCB and more.
Comparing Walnut's Creek's Desktop Library to the similarly priced
Greatest Books Collection (which is a subset of the very expensive
Library of the Future) which I also own demonstrates what a great value
the Desktop Library really is. While GBC has some of the same works, it
does not come close to the Desktop Library in scope.
To its credit, though, GBC does have a nice search engine that allows
you to search for words across multiple works, for example. I would
rather have a more exhaustive collection of works than a fancy search
engine, however. Of course, there's always Library of the Future that
lists for almost twenty times the price of the Desktop Library!!
Now, if I could only find a cheap laptop with built in CD-ROM drive to
take to the park. Five Stars *****
Contact Walnut Creek CD-ROM - 1-800-786-9907.
--
aa699@Cleveland.Freenet.EDU/GEnie=A.THOMAS16/Compuserve:71541,3456
TONY THOMAS - SIGop - Audio Arts SIG - Cleveland FreeNet
"True riches is not what you have - It's the kind of person you are"