Macintosh Animation Showcase/Macintosh Animation Showcase CD-ROM.iso/FORUM/603-737

Text File | 1988-10-12 | 82.6 KB | 2,345 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]

#: 603 S1/General Information
    04-May-88  14:09:37
Sb: #Holographic Storage
Fm: Will Cowman 70003,3254
To: Anyone

I realize that this is a bit esoteric, but this is a forum devoted to storage
with light.  I read a curious statement about holographic storage recently.

           "one can superimpose any number of holograms
            on the same piece of film, and then reproduce
            the images of the original scenes one by one
            without interference from the others."
                               (Lashley -- 1982, p. 88)

How can this be? -and- If it is true, then which variable is changed in order
to "step" through the scenes?
                                         Just curious,


                                             Will

1 Reply


#: 604 S1/General Information
    04-May-88  18:20:46
Sb: #New member
Fm: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216
To: All

Hello, My name is Len Kaltman.  I am Director of marketing for Comstock Stock
Photography.  We are producing a CD-ROM (with the help and guidance of
Discovery Systems) containing 500 photographs for use with desktop publishing
programs.  It was mentioned in the May 3rd issue of MacWeek.  If you are
interested in the disc, or stock photography in general, please don't hesitate
to drop me a line. Best regards, Len Kaltman

1 Reply


#: 605 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  02:03:07
Sb: #603-Holographic Storage
Fm: Erik Sea 74170,111
To: Will Cowman 70003,3254

I think it is possible.  Recall the circular "blow me a kiss" holographic film
which, if rotated, appears to be animated 3D from one film.  The position of
the observer seems to be the only variable.  I have no idea what the technical
background for it is.



#: 606 S3/CDROM Applications
    05-May-88  02:22:26
Sb: PUBLICATIONS ON CDROM
Fm: John Ausland 73240,2704
To: Jack Ryan 76164,1273

Thanks for the brochure on your new prices.  I have mentioned it on a local
bulletin board.  I suspect few people here are yet ready to make discs, but
some are thinking about it, and it will come.  So keep me informed.

Are you (or anyone else) familiar with the Alde disc which contains the 1986-87
PRAVDA in English?  Does Alde have a COMPUSERVE number?

I am eagerly awaiting discs which contain major US newspapers and periodicals,
at a reasonable price.  I have searched your list but find none.  (I am aware
of the Daily Oklahoman etc, but I have in mind particularly the New York Times
and Washington Post.)  What are the prospects?



#: 607 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  03:29:22
Sb: #592-Ignorant ?s
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Raymond G. Harder 72160,1373

Ray -

I'm just getting into this industry myself, but I guess I supposedly know
something, since my company (BMUG) is a CD ROM developer, and I'm doing most of
the work. ( :-> ).  I'll make a stab at a few of your questions.

1. Yes, current drives can work with Mac and IBM.  They need to be SCSI, I
believe.  Check out one from Toshiba --- I've vaguely heard that it is fast.

2. Search engines vary a lot.  There's not much out yet that's universal,
though lots have been announced.

3. Beta-test versions of Apple's CDROM driver supposedly supported the "High
Sierra (ISO)" format used on most PC stuff, but the release drive is supposedly
gonna ship without it, with a free upgrade not long afterwards.

4. MacWeek and Macintosh Today claim that the non-autosave HyperCard (they call
it "version 1.2") will be announced on Friday of this week. They say it was
shown at last week's Developers conference.

I don't know if it is the "main" holdup on HyperCard-based CDROM's... for our
product, the BMUG PD ROM(tm), we could have shipped it without a read-only
HyperCard, just telling the user to copy the relatively small HyperCard stack,
an index file, to hard disk in order to run it.

5. Apple's developer price on their CD ROM drive is $740.  Academic price is
typically not far from developer price, IF you're at an AUC (Apple University
Consortium) school.  If not, it's hardly worth it.  Shop around.

-- Raines Cohen
   Team BMUG



#: 608 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  03:30:32
Sb: #491-HyperCard & CDROM
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Noboru Toyoshima 76662,330

Noburo -

We've announced the BMUG PD ROM(tm), our PD library on CD ROM, but it looks
like we won't be shipping for about a month.  So long as Apple's drives are
late, we're OK though.

-- Raines / BMUG



#: 609 S3/CDROM Applications
    05-May-88  03:33:13
Sb: #430-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: bob helfant 75530,214

Bob -

I'm curious about how response has been to a $99 PD disk.  We're in that niche
on the Macintosh world, and shipping shortly.  What market segments are you in?
Do you have anybody perceiving it as "too cheap"?

-- Raines Cohen / BMUG, Inc. (Berkeley Macintosh Users Group)

P.S. Do you guys do anything to promote/license/whatever BBS's who put your
disc online?



#: 610 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  03:36:27
Sb: #604-New member
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216


Ken -

Welcome to the CDROM forum!  I'm always glad to see more fellow "eggs" in the
basket --- we're all in this together, establishing a base of titles wide
enough to get the consumers to justify the drives.

Could you post some product info online?  I don't remember much from the
MacWeek article, and your product sounds interesting.

How close are you to shipping?  It looks like our PD ROM(tm) is just around the
corner...

-- Raines Cohen / Team BMUG



#: 611 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  03:37:51
Sb: #595-LAW Titles
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Joel Nagy 76701,232

Joel -]

Either your message #595 was cut off after the words "Legal Titles:", or you
are implying that their aren't any.  Which is it?

-- Raines / BMUG
 While I'm at it, are there any illegal titles out there? <grin>



#: 613 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  09:25:35
Sb: #598-Microsoft bookshelf
Fm: Michael G Reed 71420,1707
To: JIM BESHA 71231,770

Don't know yet whether there are any Bookshelf experts around, but if not I
have mine running and may be able to help.  If someone else doesn't provide
you with the answer, post your config.sys and autoexec.bat contents...I assume
something is missing, probably in the A.bat.

Awe, what the heck...take a look at mine:

In Config...      DEVICE = C:\CDROM\AMDEK.SYS /N:1 /D:AMDEKCD

In Autoexec...    C:\CDROM\MSCDEX.EXE /D:AMDEKCD /M:8
                  cls
                  C:\CDROM\AUDIOM
                  cls
                  set CDPATH = C:\BOOKSHLF;C:\CDROM;D:\BOOK;D:\SOFTWARE
                  D:\BOOKS

I keep the MS Extension stuff in C:\CDROM, and the following Bookshelf files
in C:\BOOKSHLF...

BOOKMARK.INF       BOOKS   .EXE        BOOKVIRT.MEM        BROWSER .OVR
CDR     .HLP       CDR     .INS        CDR     .RES        CDR     .RSV
COLOR   .OVR       CONFIG  .OVR        CUSTOM  .CLR        DEFAULT .CLR
DICT    .OVR       ET      .OVR        OPTIONS .OVR        SETUP   .OVR
SPELL   .OVR       SPELL   .USR        USAGE   .OVR        WORD    .CAP
WORDTUTR.BAT       ZIP     .OVR

Help?  Let me know as many specifics as possible if it doesn't.   -Michael{R}


#: 614 S3/CDROM Applications
    05-May-88  15:14:19
Sb: CDROM w/Apple gs
Fm: dennis Harkins 70014,731
To: ALL

Hello! I have a Philips CM100 CD ROM drive and something called a JOHNATHAN
card for an Apple that we purchased for a project that didn't work out.  I'd
love to use the CD ROM drive either with or without the card, but I don't know
of anything out there to use with them.  Any suggestions?



#: 615 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  16:23:54
Sb: Op Disk Keynote Speak
Fm: Michael Macewich 76267,375
To: Ty Wait 76701,231

I'm trying to put together a technology briefing for the employees in my
company.  The last one was on desktop publishing.  There was a speaker from
Gartner Group who lectured on the technology.  That was followed by a "vendor"
fair where several vendors displayed and demoed their product as people walked
from booth to booth. I want to do the same with optical disk storage technology
(WORM * and* CD).  Can anyone suggest a source for a speaker?
--- MACE ---



#: 616 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  18:56:58
Sb: #610-New member
Fm: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271

Dear Raines, Thanks for your interest.  Basically the disc is black and white
scans of 449 high quality photos which are sold by my company, Comstock, via
our stock photography catalog.  These are some of the best, and most widely
used photos from our library of over 1 million images.  The disc will be
available on or about July 1.  It will cost $500, but we are taking
"pre-release" orders, including ten day trial period for $250.  Reaction to the
initial relase in MacWeek has been great, and we anticipate our disc will be
the first of many photo discs to appear on the market.  What makes this disc
particularly useful, is that if and when a user wants to go to high quality
color repro, a color duplicate is available at regular reproduction fees.  We
are also coming out with other discs, which will be along more specific subject
lines, such as Religion, Travel, People, Medical, etc. If you'd like an
info-kit, drop me a line. Again, thanks for your interest. Regards, Len Kaltman



#: 617 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  19:35:52
Sb: #582-#kurzweil
Fm: John McCormick 76360,44
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Good luck, I certainly didn't want to stop your efforts.  For the volume of
text you will need to scan, the Kurzweil is not practical you would have to cut
all the pages out of the books, then feed them one at a time through the
scanner because it doesn't handle stacks well at all.  Scanning time is about 2
minutes for a complex document on teh first page, with subsequent pages
scanning about twice as fast. It doesn't take much arithmetic to see that a 500
page law book will take a bit of time to scan.  There are faster and much more
expensive scanners like the Palantinxxx that was Palantir which is also sold by
XEROX/Kurzweil as a VAR.  Something in that line might be more practical.  Have
you investigated to see if the Archives or Lib of Congress is doing anything on
this line in the public domain?

1 Reply


#: 618 S3/CDROM Applications
    05-May-88  20:02:38
Sb: #501-OED CROM
Fm: Earle Robinson 70135,141
To: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127

It does seem odd, but given the fact that they also have the even odder policy
of offering reimbursement only if you haven't even opened up the package, I
imagine that quite a few people are unwilling to risk that kind of money
without even knowing how capable the software is.   -er



#: 619 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  20:50:51
Sb: #603-Holographic Storage
Fm: Reuben Mezrich 72356,252
To: Will Cowman 70003,3254

  It's true, but the number of separate images that can be stored is limited by
the dynamic range of the film.
  Holographic images are created by two (or more) separate coherent,
monochromatic beams of light that are incident on, and interfere at, a piece of
high resolution film (or other optical storage medium). When you go through the
physics (which I had the strength to do when I was younger), you find that the
signal on the film is the Fourier Transform of the object (i.e the thing whose
image you are trying to store), but it is on a "carrier" (spatial frequency)
that is determined by the angular separation between the object and a reference
beam. By changing the carrier frequency on sucessive images you can separately
store and reconstruct the images. You can keep storing images till the film
darkens (each separate exposure darkens the film a little -- or changes the
storage mediums thickness -- or whatever physical thing you are doing to the
storage medium to store the image -- it turns out there are lots of ways to
store an image, some of which I invented myself in the "good old days") untill
you can't get any light through. To reconstruct each image separately you can
just twist the film or bring in the reference beam at a different angle. Once
upon a time a lot of us tried to take advantage of this to make enormous
computer storage systems. it almost worked, but lasers weren't good enough and
then semiconductors came along.

Reuben



#: 620 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  21:59:42
Sb: #617-kurzweil
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: John McCormick 76360,44

John, no, I haven't checked any public domain efforts but it sounds like a very
good idea.  I've  drooled over the Palantir for some time now, and was thinking
of using it when I really go into production. The Kurzweil would be used merely
to construct a prototype on Bernoulli cartridges and for personal use, then
hopefully raise capital by showing investors the prototype and buy equipment
such as the Palantir, Meridian CD-Publisher, and a 386 or MicroVax to do the
job right.  Kurzweil 4000 is supposed to be pretty good too, at $20k.  Someone
says the  Palantir will accept a flatbed digitizer as input, are you familiar
with that kind of setup?  Otherwise, I'd have to rip the books apart or mass
photocopy to use the Palantir.  By the way, I got a brochure on WordCruncher
and although it looks promising, it was sketchy with regard to specs. Is it a
fast program?  How big a text database will it handle?  Does it use a
proprietary data file format?  Does it allow for proximity searching? Are the
screen writes reasonably fast?  How much disk space is required for the
program?  Does it compress data?  How large is the index in relation to the
text?  Thanks once again for everything,  Mark /ex



#: 621 S1/General Information
    05-May-88  22:22:48
Sb: #584-Concordance
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132

Thanks for the reference to MEMLANE on IBMSW.  From the description posted
there, it seems good for small bodies of text, somewhat like the commercial
product Gofer, which I have.  Unfortunately, I don't know Japanese, and don't
know well enough anyone who does to ask them to translate.  I'm looking into
WordCruncher, Xyindex, AskSam and other programs.   Thanks, Mark



#: 622 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  09:07:45
Sb: #591-DEC RRD50
Fm: Jack Ryan 76164,1273
To: Dale E. Coy 76067,652

The DEC RRD50  drive is an OEM version of the Philips CM100 family.  You should
be able to install the Philips version of Microsoft Extensions and be able to
access the drive for discs that are ISO or High Sierra. I would suspect the
interface card is the one that came with the RRD50 from DEC.  (DEC sells two
versions of the RRD50  -  one with a controller card for the microVAX/Q-bus
families and a card for IBM PC systems. Both use the same actual CD-ROM drive
unit.)

The CM100 family has pretty much been superceded by the CM200 drives now
available from Philips.  It is a single beam player that does not support the
presence of audio tracks on the CD-ROM disc.  Multimedia discs like Discovery
Systems CD-ROM Sampler will not spin up.  Its average access times and maximum
access time is almost double the time needed by most ewer drives (including
Philips' CM200 family).

Although slower than the newer drives, it is completely compatible with
Microsoft Extensions and should be usable for most applications.

Regards...

Jack Ryan


#: 623 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  15:00:58
Sb: New User
Fm: Mike Vergara 73547,2070
To: ALL

Hi!  I'm joining this forum becuase my project manager 'suggested' that I begin
to learn more about CD/ROMs, their uses and applications, and maybe a little of
their technology.  So as a consequence, I'll probably be a 'sponge' for a
while, until the company makes a decesion about this newfangled stuff.
                                         Thanks!
                                          Mike



#: 624 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  18:24:46
Sb: #615-#Op Disk Keynote Speak
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: Michael Macewich 76267,375 (X)

I suggest contacting Jack Ryan at Discovery Systems.  He's given a number of
presentations himself, and probably knows about other speakers if he can't meet
your needs.  His user ID is [76164,1273].

-Ty

1 Reply


#: 625 S3/CDROM Applications
    06-May-88  18:56:50
Sb: #Bureau of Census Disk
Fm: Bob Birge 73075,651
To: Sysop (X)

I purchased an Amdek/Bookshelf package and subsequently discovered Test Disk
No. 1 from the U.S. Bureau of Census.  Although the disk is supposed to have
been formatted in the High Sierra format, I am unable to access the disk.  My
question is:  has anyone had any experience with Test Disk No. 1 using the CD
driver supplied with Bookshelf and, if so, have they been able to get the Test
Disk to function.  Thanks...

1 Reply


#: 626 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  19:40:25
Sb: FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: HECTOR L. PADRON 73117,1253
To: ALL

I'M NEW TO THE CONCEPT OF CD'S AS A FORM OF STORAGE MEDIA IN COMPUTING.  WHILE
READING ABOUT SCANNING IMAGES FROM A DESKTOP PUBLISHING MAGAZINE, I THOUGHT
ABOUT PERHAPS BEING ABLE TO SCAN THE CONTENTS OF MY FILE CABINETS AT WORK AND
STORING THEM ON CD.  THINKING THIS WAS A GENUINELY GREAT IDEA I REASEARCHED IT
AND FOUND THAT I WAS NOT AS CREATIVE AS I THOUGHT I WAS, THIS TOUGHT HAD RAN
THROUGH SOMEONE ELSES CPU.  IN ANY EVENT, I FOUND OUT THAT CD'S CAN BE WRITTEN
ONCE AND READ MANY TIMES(WORM), BUT NOT WRITTEN MANY TIMES AND READ MANY TIMES.
MY QUESTION IS: WHEN WILL WRITE MANY TIMES READ MANY TIMES BE AVAILABLE?
FURTHER, DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A DATABASE PROGRAM THAT CAN ACCOMPLISH MY "BRIGHT"
(HA!HA!) IDEA ONCE THE W.M.R.M. TECHNOLOGY IS AVAILABLE?



#: 627 S3/CDROM Applications
    06-May-88  20:58:59
Sb: #522-#473 OED
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132

Eiichi, for what it's worth, I'm running the pc-sig cdrom on an AST 286 us
using the Amdek (Hitachi) Laserdrive and have had no problems.  With the
microsoft extensions driver and the setup provided by the amdek software
there's not been a hitch.  Not aware of anyone running on the IBM system so
cannot comment on that hardware.



#: 628 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  21:04:20
Sb: #607-Ignorant ?s
Fm: Raymond G. Harder 72160,1373
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271

Thanx for the info I understand from Macintosh today that the new HC 1.2 will
ship within two weeks and be free for reg owners. I have two disks for CD ROM
already and nothing to read them with.  The excitement of carrying around these
things and saying "you know I have over a hundred volumes here in my hand..."
etc. is starting to wear off!! Now I actually wantread them!  I also noticed
that you are obviouslyuy on the development team there at BMUG and not the
sales because you mentioned neither the contents nor the price of your
product!!! Thanx



#: 630 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  23:11:33
Sb: #365-new member
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: JOHNNY SEWELL 76701,254

Don't I know you from somewhere?

I'd been watching for CDROM info but missed the beginning of this forum. Guess
because tapcis always skips "what's new". Finally got to the back page of
Online mag today (5-6-88) & promptly joined. Now munching my way thru 300+
messages.

Rumors are for Mexican food Monday night (maybe at Tino's in Beautiful Downtown
Plano near Grandma's Massage Parlor)

Haverland has some info on digitizing photos for the pc's he's bringing me.
We've got a CD plant rat here! But they aren't quite to CDROMS yet but planning
on it.

Orville (Multi-sig rated or ratted)





#: 631 S1/General Information
    06-May-88  23:22:40
Sb: #DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
Fm: RONALD OLDHAM 76214,373
To: ALL

HELLO, MY NAME IS RONALD OLDHAM, AND I AM A NEW MEMBER OF THIS FORUM. I AM A
CHEMIST WITH CHEMRON INCORPORATED IN SAN ANTONIO, TX. CHEMRON IS INVOLVED IN
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY. I AM NOW IN CHARGE OF A PROJECT
DIRECTED TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CDROM DB CONTAINING INFORMATION ABOUT
CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SUBSTANCES AND DATA ABOUT THE LOCATION OF
SOURCES FOR CHEMICAL PRODUCTS. ALL INFORMATION NEEDED FOR THE DB IS CURRENTLY
IN HOUSE. I NEED HELP IN THE SELECTION OF A VENDOR THAT CAN TAKE THE DATA &
PRODUCE A FINISHED CDROM DB. ANY COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS WILL BE APPRECIATED.

1 Reply


#: 632 S3/CDROM Applications
    07-May-88  07:55:41
Sb: #609-#ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271

I'm sorry to say that response to this disk has been minimal.  If you have a
similar product for the mac, I would like to add it to our software roster.  We
are putting some effort into the apple side of the biz.  I think that the
problem with pd software and CD technology is that organizations that purchase
CD ROM drives aren't really interested in getting a $2 word processor.  They
already have WORD or WordPerfect.  This is a high tech product and I think PD
is more for the start up hobbiest.  Bob Helfant

1 Reply


#: 633 S1/General Information
    07-May-88  13:58:59
Sb: #631-#DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: RONALD OLDHAM 76214,373 (X)

I just discover this yesterday myself from a note in ONLINE TODAY.

Suggest that you RTN all the current messages (seems like it was 17 min at
2400) and then you will be caught up.

I remember seeing something about Chemical Databases as I scanned thru.

Also suggest that you get one of the Automated CIS attack programs such as
TAPCIS (my preference at $79) or ATO (free) if you don't already have one. Even
PROCOMM with suitable scripting is fine. These will save you online $ that you
can turn around and spend on more online time. <grin>

Orville (helpful Mode)

P.S. Msgs. 345, 346, & 347 were titled HazMat Databases.



1 Reply


#: 634 S1/General Information
    07-May-88  14:49:29
Sb: #633-DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Orville, please stay in helpful mode a while longer.  Where does one happen
upon ATO or the other CIS attack module you mentioned?  Haven't used such an
animal to date but since I want to follow this forum closely that would be
helpful.    Thanks appreciate the helpful mode!!



#: 635 S3/CDROM Applications
    08-May-88  01:23:53
Sb: #632-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004
To: bob helfant 75530,214

      I agree about PD and the hobbiest/enthusiast.  I also believe that as
soon as drives come down to some rational price (say 2 times that of a good
audio player), that interest will pick up immensley.





#: 636 S1/General Information
    08-May-88  16:19:47
Sb: #598-Microsoft bookshelf
Fm: Anthony T. DeHart 74206,1274
To: JIM BESHA 71231,770

Jim,

  If Michael's info didn't help you out then the only other thing I can think
of is maybe, just maybe memory.  How much of it do you have in the system
currently??

  I just got a call from a customer a couple of days ago with the exact same
problem (at least I think it was "echo off" and then D:\Books) and the problem
was that they weren't running with enough memory.

Despite what the Bookshelf manual may say, I really think it is necessary to
have 640K of memory and even setup doesn't work well without at least 512K (I
believe).  The same think held true too, they ran some of the other stuff but
the setup didn't work.

If your still having problems and you have enough memory, try making a clean
config.sys and autoexec.bat file up and then run setup. If that still doesn't
work, then tell me what kind of cards you have in your system.  I just recently
had a problem running the CD-ROM drive with a Tape Backup unit plugged in at
the same time and I'm sure there are similar problems to be had with other
cards.

Let me know how you make out - Tony

P.S. Michael - If your listening...when did this forum come about???



#: 637 S3/CDROM Applications
    08-May-88  16:20:01
Sb: #609-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Anthony T. DeHart 74206,1274
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271

Raines,

  In some ways, I agree with Bob's analogy that people who have CD-ROM drives
really aren't interested in cheap, shareware or PD software and that your right
that once these drives come down in price then that won't be as true anymore.

  However, I'd like to throw my two cents in having looked at Alde's PD disk.
Granted, it is $99 and for the price, it is good but I think the popularity of
one of these disks is going to be directly related to how well organized the
information is.  Alde's disk was very poorly organized and some directories
that were supposedly on the disk weren't there. One's I thought would be the
most useful. Also, I thought that many of the programs, since they were
basically copies of 2 major BBS's _were_ junk. There were some "gems" however
that were extremely hard to find.  I suspect that there are more "gems" on
there but w/o the organization, they'll never be found. 350MB or 400MB of info
is nothing easy to search through.

  I thought that a really good idea for a disk would be one where the publisher
has contacted many of the major BBS's in the US and requested what they would
consider their best programs along with an AD for their BBS. Then, these
programs would be compiled and placed on the disk in an organized fashion along
with descriptions and the ADS and then sold for around $199 or whatever the
cost. As long as they are good programs and well organized, I'm willing to pay.

Hope this helps some - Tony



#: 638 S1/General Information
    08-May-88  16:20:13
Sb: #619-#Holographic Storage
Fm: Anthony T. DeHart 74206,1274
To: Reuben Mezrich 72356,252 (X)

Reuben,

  Don't mean to intrude here but from your previous comments, it sounds like
you've been quite involved with Holography from the beginning. Maybe your the
person to ask a couple of questions that have been nagging me for a while.

1. I once heard that a holographic exposure, if broken, still contained the
information within a seperate piece to reconstruct the original image. Is this
true or a myth and if so, how?

2. Where do you see Holography, as an applied science, heading over the next
decade. Do you ever see it being used a decent means of mass storage or even
archival storage. CD-ROM is in the lime-light now but Holography just fell out
of discussion. What's happened to it? From what you just said before, it sounds
like a WORM type drive could be made that could store tons of info on a single
piece of film just by changing where information is read and written and
varying the angle of the reference beam. Is that a possibility?

Sorry to ask so much but Holography has always intrigued me I'd really like to
see it put to some practical use in computers.

Tony



1 Reply


#: 639 S1/General Information
    08-May-88  17:54:10
Sb: TAPCIS etc.
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: mike obryan 71410,340

TAPCIS & ATO are in IBSW, WPSM, AVSIG. ATO is free but in my opinion is not as
handy as TAPCIS for automating DL & UL of messages to CIS.  Tapcis can be DL
and tried out before sending a payment.

How much experience do you have on CIS? Is your computer Messy Dos or PC-DOS?
Have you Downloaded Binary files before? Do you have or are you familiar with
the ARC and deArc programs? I assume you have a printer?

Don't be scared off. All this stuff makes live on CIS real easy and
inexpensive.  TAPCIS will allow you to set up the forums that you are
interested in, and then it will autodial log on to CIS go to the forum,
download the messages (or just the headers), go to the next forum, do the same
and log off.

Then OFFLINE <---<<< !! you can read the messages at leisure, respond to the
one you want to using the built in editor, and then TAPCIS will automatically
go back on line, goto the fora specified, upload the messages, and get off.

There are thousands of programs on CIS.  They are in a compressed format called
ARC (for ARCHIVE I think) which compresses them 30-55% which saves Download
time. Then you unARC the program and run it. Most have a .DOC file with them
that is a manual that can be printed out with the DOS print command.

Orville (Send more info mode)





#: 640 S1/General Information
    08-May-88  21:04:12
Sb: #638-Holographic Storage
Fm: Reuben Mezrich 72356,252
To: Anthony T. DeHart 74206,1274

Anthony
  In a former life (in the 60's) I used to do research on Holography at RCA
labs. Our goal was to make large computer memories (this was in the days before
semiconductors really got going)
 As to your first question --it is indeed true that any part of a hologram
contains ALL of the information (image, whatever). The best analog to help
understand this is that of a glass window. When you look outside you are really
receiving the light rays passing through the glass. If you painted over half
the window you could still see the whole outdoors. If you painted over 90% of
the window you could still see everything outdoors. Even if you painted over
all but a pinhole you could still see outside.  In the holographic recording
process you effectively freeze the light coming through the window. You could
then take the glass out of the pane, move it someplace else and then shine
light on it (called the reconstruction or reference beam) to "unfreeze" or
reconstruct the origingal light rays. Just light the original window you don't
need all of it to see through it and "see" what was originally outside. this
feature is what is called redundancy, and was one of the strongest motivations
for considering Holography as the basis for a computer storage method. What you
give up, when you make the holographic fragment smaller and smaller is
resolution, just like when you make the aperature of a camera or telescope lens
smaller and smaller.
  Holography could be used for CD Roms, but to take advantage you need a
parallel input device, to store many (thousands) of bits at once. These are
truly a pain to make. the one bit at a time of present CD-Roms is a much easier
approach, and you can use error correcting algorithms to give pretty good
redundancy, as long as the storage medium is  not too bad.
Reuben



#: 641 S1/General Information
    08-May-88  21:18:51
Sb: #620-kurzweil
Fm: John McCormick 76360,44
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Sounds like you have the right idea on the database.  No I don't have
information on flatbed attachemnt for the Palantir yet.  Yes the 4000 is a good
unit, but the Palantir may be better and is being marketed by the Kurzweil
people which should tell you something. At least they should give you an honest
opinion as to which is best for your application .  There is a brief review of
WordCruncher in the current (recent?) PC Resource and an extensive review in
BYTE about 6 months back.  I have several detailed reviews but can't transmit
them And i don't have a mxx mailing address for you.  Yes it uses a proprietary
file format, the file size limit is about 4 MB, but many files can be linked
making it about the largest program available.  The amount of disk space the WC
program takes up depends on several things, for instance, the indexing program
is totally seperate from the user interface and search program (both included
in the price).  There is also a very nice demo disk you should order.  I will
go into your other questions later, or you can look up the published reviews.



#: 642 S3/CDROM Applications
    09-May-88  08:58:27
Sb: #625-Bureau of Census Disk
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: Bob Birge 73075,651

Bob,
I don't recall anyone reporting that difficulty yet.  Does the disk spin up?
What error message/result do you get when you issue a DIR command?
-Ty



#: 643 S1/General Information
    09-May-88  09:03:30
Sb: #624-Op Disk Keynote Speak
Fm: Michael Macewich 76267,375
To: Ty Wait 76701,231

Thanks for the tip.  Jack contacted me himself and he was very helpful.
--- MACE ---


#: 646 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  14:35:49
Sb: #616-New member
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216 (X)

Ken -

Sure, send info to:

Raines Cohen
 The BMUG PD ROM project
 BMUG
 1442A Walnut #62
 Berkeley, CA 94709





#: 647 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  14:39:42
Sb: #628-Ignorant ?s
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Raymond G. Harder 72160,1373

> ... you are obviously on the development team there at BMUG and not the
 > sales because you mentined neither the contents nor the price of your
 > product!!!

<grin>  You got it... I've been spending too many 72-hour weekends on this
thing to think straight.  The disc is "The BMUG PD ROM," and it should be
available for $100 or less at most dealers, within about a month or so, last I
heard from our publisher (Discovery Systems).  It contains over 250 megabytes
of PD & ShareWare software, thoroughly organized and indexed.  The organization
parallels that of our well-tested floppy-disk PD library.

We have a custom-designed HyperCard front end that I think people will like,
too.  Let me know if you need more information.

-- Raines Cohen / Team BMUG



#: 648 S3/CDROM Applications
    10-May-88  14:44:44
Sb: #637-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271
To: Anthony T. DeHart 74206,1274

Tony -

Thank you for your evaluation and suggestions.  Yes, we have spent a lot of
time worrying about quality, indexing, and organization of our PD ROM(tm), and
I think we've avoided most of the problems you mentioned.

Rather than just copying ours or another BBS, we've taken the Mac software
library that we've been distributing on floppy for some time and refined it
further, sought permission on anything not clearly commercially distributable,
and built a HyperCard-based front end that allows easy selection by category.

Your idea of taking the "best of" several BBS's is a good one, and we may do
something like that in a future PD ROM.  What has been suggested a lot is to
set up the BBS contents so that another BBS operator can simply place the disc
online, freeing up lots of hard disk space and greatly expanding the library
offered.

I think that the combined quality and price, and the newness of the Mac CD ROM
market, may do us good.  We'll see!

-- Raines / BMUG



#: 649 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  16:49:20
Sb: #639-#TAPCIS etc.
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Orville, thanks for the reply, I'm currently using procomm 2.4.2 but am
unimpressed with its script qualities.  My inquiry was designed to settle my
curiosity re the programs, it would be nice to be able to hit two to three
forums automatically and browse later.  It sounds like tapcis may be just the
thing.  {actually I'm too lazy to spend the time with procomm to s set up
script files to do it}!! If tapcis is already dedicated to that function, it
sounds attractive to someone of my limited energy.  Appreciate the reply, I'll
grab it and play a while.  Thanks again. Mike (appreciate the reply mode)

1 Reply


#: 650 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  17:55:16
Sb: #649-#TAPCIS etc.
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: mike obryan 71410,340 (X)

I have Procomm 2.4.2 and the upgrade Procomm + but TAPCIS will do almost
anything. Good clear manual also.

There's new SIG software and TAP is not tuned for that yet but it's no problem
as the old stuff will be around a year.  When you run tapcis add the "f"
parameter (e.g. >tapcis f) and it will use the old sigware when it runs. It's
very easy to use. No script to write, plenty of help screens. After you get
your SIG setup (Be sure to make EASYPLEX the 1st one), you set it into
operation with alt-x which will go online, set up the parameters, and sign you
up for each SIG. Only use alt-x the first time you sign up for a sig.

Are you aware that CIS keeps a separate set of parameters for you for each baud
rate? You will have to set CIS up via tapcis for each baud rate you use. After
all this it, it's quite automatic & real easy.

Lemme know how it turns out.

Orville (back to lurking for CDROM info)



1 Reply


#: 651 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  20:12:19
Sb: #650-TAPCIS etc.
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Thanks, Orville, just downloaded it and will give it a shot. sounds good.
Likewise, back to scouring for cd-rom tidbits



#: 652 S1/General Information
    11-May-88  08:11:22
Sb: #556-Tandy's Thor CD Advance?
Fm: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127
To: Kevin Darling 76703,4227

I have faith that Tandy can put something on the market, but how much of their
press announcement was *real* and how much of it was a marketing ploy? -- Jeff



#: 653 S3/CDROM Applications
    11-May-88  08:12:34
Sb: #618-OED CROM
Fm: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127
To: Earle Robinson 70135,141

Believe it or not, there are some companies out there that charge restocking
fees if you return the package opened, but unused! -- Jeff




#: 644 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    09-May-88  12:12:10
Sb: Standards
Fm: rolfe windward 70014,646
To: Ty Wait 76701,231

Ty, I read with interest your essay on setting up a CDROM system and have some
questions.  I work at a private school on the West Side of Los Angeles
(Windward School) and we are in the process of developing a knowledge system
for the school library ... we currently use IBMs but wish to eventually have
connectivity to Apples (Macs at least ... possibly IIe's as stations) .... in
any case we have tentatively adopted the following standards (with our fingers
crossed) 1) HSF/ISO 9660 for disk format. 2) SCSI interface. 3) MS Extensions
driver. 4) Network ???! ... this is a problem given our desire for ease of use
   (students would be using the system) and eventual connection to
   Apples (or an Apple compatible Network) ... is there any standard
   that you know of which gives these options?  We could definately use
   some advice on this.
                                               RW



#: 645 S1/General Information
    10-May-88  01:02:08
Sb: Sampler
Fm: Norman Nithman 73220,3415
To: Jack Ryan

Are there any copies of that sampler left from 10/87?  If so, I would like to
get one.  I have an Amdek drive.  My address is Box 4654, Chicago IL, 60680.



#: 654 S3/CDROM Applications
    11-May-88  11:43:55
Sb: ALDE CDROM DISC
Fm: John Ausland 73240,2704
To: ALL

I have just received from Bob Helfant at Compact Disc Products the ALDE CDROM
disc which contains several thousand public domain and shareM programs.  The
price was $89 plus shipping.  You can copy the programs with the COPY command.
With this disc, it is hard to imagine needing to go online for anything but the
most specialized utility program.  It is nothing short of amazing, particularly
at such a low price.


#: 655 S3/CDROM Applications
    12-May-88  13:40:49
Sb: Image Club ART ROOM
Fm: Anne Concepcion 71571,1337
To: ALL

Hi all! I'm a new member of your forum, and am I glad I found you! I see from
reading the messages that at least one of you (Len Caltman) has the Image Club
CDROM, as I do. I've owned it for about 6 weeks and it has already paid for
itself by allowing me to do jobs that I would've had to turn down before, due
to lack of fonts/artwork.

I run a Desktop Publishing biz in Chicago, and I think I'm the only one in this
windy city to own a CDROM! It's been pretty lonely... I belong to "The Rest of
Us", a local MUG, and demonstrated my new toy at the latest graphics SIG
meeting...they were blown away, to say the least! Especially at the ease of
setting it up, since the Toshiba has two external SCSI ports and its ID is
factory set at 0 (tho easily changed via external DIP switches). You should
have seen their jaws drop after I installed the fonts (took about 10 seconds),
then went to Superpaint and chose "Font"...font names extending down the entire
screen, in alphabetical order, and the one at the bottom was only in the "C's"!
then scrolling through all of them, it was wonderful.

The day before the demo, I called Image Club for any last minute info. I asked
the salesman for the sales figures, and he said 48! Only 48 of the things have
been sold so far in the US...guess most Mac'ers are waiting for Apple's. But
the whole Art Room package is only $100 more than the Apple drive itself!

Also, maybe someone can tell me what is happening with LoDown's 50Megs of
shareware on a laserdisk...it was supposed to be included with the ArtRoom
package, but since Image Club started buying its drives directly from Toshiba,
it's not included anymore...the salesman at IC tells me it'll cost me bout $300
to get it. He also says LoDown's heading down the tubes...any info?
                                                   Anne-Marie



#: 656 S1/General Information
    12-May-88  14:58:15
Sb: #561-I'm a new user!
Fm: rolfe windward 70014,646
To: RICH MENARD 75410,316

Rich,
   I'm in the same boat that you are ... a computer coordinator of a secondary,
private school (in Los Angeles) who needs to make some difficult hardware &
software decisions in the next few months.  This forum is unfortunately rather
new and the "traffic" is somewhat low (I posted a msg to the sysop a few days
ago and have yet to receive a reply) none the less, there are some very
knowledgable folks who visit here and we may get lucky.
  I'll be happy to keep you posted with what little I have discovered if you
think that will help you ... it would almost certainly help me if you did the
same.  Perhaps by doing some pooling we can develop some solutions.
                                           - RW





#: 657 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    12-May-88  16:54:23
Sb: #644-#Standards
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: rolfe windward 70014,646 (X)

Rolfe, I suggest the first network to consider is AppleTalk.  This is a very
cost effective backbone, as long as small chunks of data are to be transmitted
(I'm assuming small file transfer and reasonable printer use are what you would
use it for).  The last several issues of trade pubs like PC Week and InfoWorld
contain a few product announcements by companies with PC boards that give them
access to AppleTalk.  Then, a piece of software such as MacServe (a PC version
will soon be out) would let your workstations share printers and access
community file servers. Standards 1, 2, 3 I heartily agree with.  Hope this
helps.  Good luck. -Ty

1 Reply


#: 658 S1/General Information
    12-May-88  16:56:46
Sb: #623-New User
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: Mike Vergara 73547,2070

Welcome, Mike.  Suggest getting a copy of "CDROM The New Papyrus" from
Microsoft Press to start offline learning, check out the libraries, and ask
lots of questions here.  Hope to see you back soon. -Ty Wait


#: 659 S1/General Information
    12-May-88  17:05:40
Sb: #626-#FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: HECTOR L. PADRON 73117,1253 (X)

Tandy has announced the read/write technology you mentioned, but don't expect
to see it for two or three years.  As far as putting your filing cabinet
contents on optical media:
        a) how much are you willing to spend (in time if you do it
           yourself, or $ for someone else -- $1-3 per sheet of paper?)
        b) how would you use it?  a full text search could take hours
           if the disc were full, and indexing would take a lot of space.
        c) are there pictures in your data?  how do you want them handled? -Ty
Wait

1 Reply


#: 660 S1/General Information
    12-May-88  18:50:48
Sb: #652-Tandy's Thor CD Advance?
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127

Jeff, my vote goes for a considerable dose of *ploy* .  Doesn't 18-24 months
seem kinda premature to make an announcement of
    that kind anyway?  Lots can happen in that impressive an interval! how ya
been?



#: 661 S1/General Information
    13-May-88  04:55:02
Sb: #647-Ignorant ?s
Fm: Raymond G. Harder 72160,1373
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271 (X)

Thanx, I am interested in both products so I'll keep my eyes peeled.



#: 662 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    13-May-88  10:50:03
Sb: #657-Standards
Fm: rolfe windward 70014,646
To: Ty Wait 76701,231

Thanks Ty ... that was the sort of reinforcement I've been looking for.  What
do you think of the TOPS network .... does it seem a reasonable alternative as
an AppleShare server?
                                                      - RW



#: 663 S1/General Information
    13-May-88  20:20:01
Sb: #639-#TAPCIS etc.
Fm: Earle Robinson 70135,141
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Nice to run into once again.  I haven't seen you around where I usually am for
some time.  Noting your pleasure in tapcis, I wonder if you've seen the latest
ATO.  It really has the same features, and is free, vs. $80 for tapcis.  Of
course, you got yours when the price was lower, but it is a point.

I heard you were moving to nyc.   -er

1 Reply


#: 665 S3/CDROM Applications
    13-May-88  22:23:40
Sb: #635-#ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004 (X)

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree about the price of drives.  I think that $700
is a fair price for a peripheral that gives you instant access to gigabytes of
data.  I just paid $1200 for a hard disk.  I know that was a litle high, but
they go from about $600 to several thousand and nobody is complaining about it.
Bob



1 Reply


#: 668 S1/General Information
    14-May-88  03:10:26
Sb: #659-FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: Ty Wait 76701,231

Ty - a full text search of a full CD-ROM could take HOURS?  Assuming
intelligent indexing and good search programs, how many megabytes of text could
one reasonably place on a disk?  What are the limiting factors?
                        Thanks,    Mark



#: 669 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    14-May-88  15:49:20
Sb: #HELLO!
Fm: Neil G. Gordes 71465,154
To: ALL

I'm new too both CDROM & this forum. Use CD's at work for such things as the
Readers' Guide, Newsbank, Lib. of Congress holdings, and also have purchased
PC-SIG #1-813 CD-ROM. I have access to Hitachi 1500s and 2500s. Certainly is a
neat new technology. I am wondering, where can I get the MICROSOFT CDROM DOS
3.3 extension? No luch as of two weeks ago on the MS forum.

1 Reply


#: 670 S1/General Information
    14-May-88  18:43:13
Sb: #663-TAPCIS etc.
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: Earle Robinson 70135,141 (X)

Good to hear from you! I noticed you over on PCMAG a week or so ago but didn't
say anything, although I was tempted to send you a pun or two or perhaps even
some "Rural humus" |-). I was just lurking and getting TAP set up and trying to
catch up on all the messages. Noted Joan's name & Sally Ryce & others from the
IBMNET.

I dropped out of the IBM sigs & took my CI$ elsewhere last Sept. I felt like
Don had treated Howard shabbily and rather than get into an exchange of
diatribes etc, I just voted with my feet & left.

Zapcis was lower priced, but I was so pleased with it that I sent in $100, so I
got the manual & the upgrade to Tapcis. Shortly thereafter I bought another one
at the $79 fixed price for the home computer.  Haven't seen the latest ATO. I
did pay $25 for the Procomm Plus update but really haven't used it much.

Several times (I believe on this sig recently was one of them) I've responded
with a recommendation of ATO (free) or TAPCIS ($79) and then gone on to extoll
the virtues (as I perceive them) of TAPCIS.

"moving to nyc". What a viscious, unprincipled rumor. I've heard of nyc, and
even have been there (some years ago) but I'm happy right here in the vast
wastelands of Texas @ Grandma's Massage Parlor "In Beautiful Downtown Plano",
also the home of Willie Mae's bakery, maker of the TSJD which is known far and
wide (at least on AVSIG).

Just (last week) upgraded my Main(?) Frame computer from a Perkin-Elmer 3205 to
a Concurrent 3212.

Best regards,   Orville





#: 671 S3/CDROM Applications
    15-May-88  00:26:33
Sb: #665-#ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004
To: bob helfant 75530,214 (X)

      I didn't say that "I" thought they were too expensive.  I wanted to, and
believe I did say that when the price drops to about twice what audio CD
players go for, then we'll really see the explosion.  BTW where do you get more
than .5gig on a drive?



1 Reply


#: 672 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  08:14:02
Sb: #586-#Tandy's Thor CD Advance?
Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025
To: Aegis Development 76067,2500 (X)

Re: CD-ROM based games

      I don't think so, not at this time anyway.  I don't have the statistics
of CD-ROM reading devices that are presently in the hands of micro-computer
users, but I would assume that they are small.  The price of the hardware, the
rumors of CD-ROM vs CD-I vs CD-V as the way to go, and now the rumors of
Tandy's THOR technology along with other rumors about eraseable optical devices
will most likely limit the base of users.  I don't see even inexpensive games
making a dent until all of this technological `dust' settles down and
inexpensive `standards' emerge (or atleast when all these rumors either come to
fruition or die `on the tree'!

                                                      -RSL-



1 Reply


#: 673 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  08:14:12
Sb: #590-Introduction
Fm: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025
To: Wayne Lee 76650,323

      Welcome aboard Wayne!

      I'm a general internist, but I have friends in Emergency Medicine and
they have told me about Emergidex.  I understand that it is VERY expensive, but
then most medical equipment tends to be.  From the description that my friend
gave me its like a supercharged compilation of important information that's
retrievable faster than textbooks allow.  Just the thing to show off CD-ROM's
capabilities!

                                                      -RSL_MD-





#: 674 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  10:19:58
Sb: #kurzweil
Fm: John McCormick 76360,44
To:  71330,467 (X)

Kurzweil announced a new scanner at Comdex on the 10th that might interest you.
The Model 30 has a flat bed scanner with 30 page sheet feed mechanism and is
the first scanner to be able to deal with columns.  Kurzweil scanners now
support 7 languages.  The price is $13,950 and it looks like the answer to your
needs. -jm

1 Reply


#: 675 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  15:03:58
Sb: #674-kurzweil
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: John McCormick 76360,44

How  exciting, John!!! And thank you for thinking of me!  Tell me more though,
please: is it basically the Discover model with a flatbed? I.E. does it have
the same processor, firmware/software, etc. as the magnificent Discover?  When
will it be AVAILABLE?  Can I borrow $13,950?
                               Thanks for everything,    Mark



#: 676 S3/CDROM Applications
    15-May-88  18:44:37
Sb: #671-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Vic Wagner/Metadigm 76046,3004 (X)

The drive is not what I see rated.  I have seen CDs rated from 550 megabytes to
600 + megabytes.  I believe that they are all about the same and 550 is the
number I see the most. Bob



#: 677 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  18:46:09
Sb: #604-#New member
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216 (X)

Will this be in a format readable on a PC? Bob Helfant

1 Reply


#: 678 S1/General Information
    15-May-88  18:47:43
Sb: #623-New User
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Mike Vergara 73547,2070

Please call my company for a free catalog.  We have been selling optical drives
and software for about a year.  1-800-MEGABYT Bob Helfant, Compact Disk
Products.



#: 679 S3/CDROM Applications
    15-May-88  18:49:03
Sb: #654-ALDE CDROM DISC
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: John Ausland 73240,2704

Thanks for the mention, John. Bob Helfant



#: 680 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    15-May-88  18:51:04
Sb: #669-HELLO!
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Neil G. Gordes 71465,154

The MS DOS extension is included with most drives, but if you need it, we can
sell it to you.  Compact Disk Products 1-800-MEGABYT Bob Helfant



#: 681 S1/General Information
    16-May-88  12:19:10
Sb: #677-New member
Fm: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216
To: bob helfant 75530,214

Dear Bob, Comstock Desktop Photography will have both Apple and High Sierra
drivers on the disc.  Should work fine with either.  Regards, Len Kaltman



#: 682 S1/General Information
    16-May-88  13:36:14
Sb: #672-Tandy's Thor CD Advance?
Fm: Aegis Development 76067,2500
To: Roy S. Laufer 72435,1025

Maybe Apple's CD-ROM drive will help.  I do agree that the amount of
speculation on CD-I, CD-V, and now THOR hurts the current industry....

                        "Any announced product is superior to any released
product..."



#: 683 S1/General Information
    16-May-88  19:02:55
Sb: #651-#TAPCIS etc.
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: mike obryan 71410,340 (X)

Mike,

New Forum opened today!  G TAPCIS and get all your questions answered about
TAPCIS.  There's also a good fast dearc program, and MSGVU and other goodies in
the Data Libraries.

Orville



There is 1 Reply.

#: 684 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    16-May-88  19:58:48
Sb: #680-HELLO!
Fm: Neil G. Gordes 71465,154
To: bob helfant 75530,214 (X)

Thanks for info....didn't get it with my Hitachi drive... Price please? Thanks

#: 685 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    18-May-88  10:12:08
Sb: #662-#Standards
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: rolfe windward 70014,646 (X)

I've heard good things about TOPS and a new version of AppleShare is coming
out, so I would expect it to be a good bet, too.  However, I have no personal
experience with it.

-Ty

There is 1 Reply.

#: 686 S1/General Information
    18-May-88  10:25:22
Sb: #668-#FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Mark -

The factors at the top of my list would be:
        1) overhead caused by size of index
        2) number of accesses needed to find entry in index Placing 650Mb of
data on a disc is not an unreasonable assumption.  Some index schemes result in
100% overhead (i.e., equal size of data), while others are leaner.  A number of
companies, such as TMS, have done a bit of work in this area, and have worked
on compressing their indices and minimizing the number of accesses to locate an
entry.  From what I've heard, you can expect your index overhead to be anywhere
from 25% to 100% or more of your data size. This means the most text you can
expect is 480Mb, and probably a lot less (closer to 350-400Mb).  And if it
takes ten accesses to wade through the index, response time could range from 10
to 20 seconds.  Does this help?

-Ty

There is 1 Reply.

#: 687 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    18-May-88  10:58:39
Sb: #685-Standards
Fm: rolfe windward 70014,646
To: Ty Wait 76701,231 (X)

  OK Ty ... thanks.
                          RW

#: 689 S1/General Information
    18-May-88  22:07:54
Sb: #681-New member
Fm: bob helfant 75530,214
To: Len Kaltman, Comstock 71401,216 (X)

Len, If you are looking for distribution of your disk, please give me a call at
212-996-6999.  Bob Helfant

#: 690 S1/General Information
    18-May-88  23:02:17
Sb: #686-#FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: Ty Wait 76701,231 (X)

Ty - 10 to 20 second response time on a 400 Mb database would seem acceptable
for many applications.  I wonder, though, how data compression might affect the
numbers, or does your 650 Mb total assume compression? Is it possible to
compress just the index and place it on a hard disk, and then be able to access
the data on the CD-ROM?  What do we lose with compression, speed? accuracy?
money?      Thanks for all,  Mark

There is 1 Reply.

#: 691 S1/General Information
    20-May-88  00:27:01
Sb: DRIVERS AND REBOOTING
Fm: FREDERICK BARBER 76046,1444
To: Jack Ryan

JACK:
  I read your recent forum message on the use of  device drivers other
extensions and the resultant problem of having to reboot the computer to change
drivers.
  This is oftentimes true, but not always.  As you may recall from our
discussions last November, the Reference Technology Standard File Manager, used
by Slater Hall's government statistics discs and several other products, comes
with a program called STOPSTD.EXE.  This program quite politely removes the
device driver.
  Slater Hall's software does not grab hold of your CONFIG.SYS file, and
therefore does not require rebooting to avoid conflict with other company's
device drivers.  I only wish more companies would adopt this strategy.  I have
spent many hours on the phone with frustrated librarians trying to design a
public terminal with a menu for accessing several CD-ROM titles. I've also had
the annoying experience of demo-ing another company's products following their
installation instructions to the letter, and discovering t their program
overwrote critical information in my AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG. SYS files.  I
really think we need device drivers that can be installed from DOS, rather than
only on startup.  To date, the RTI driver is the only one we've found that will
do this.
   While extensions is quickly becoming the industry standard, it cannot be
made to work with all application.  Extensions can only open 15 files at a
time, and the applications I developed for Slater Hall all requires several
data files, menu files, help files, and multiple index files, breaking the
limit of that driver.  Our SEARCHER retrieval software is written around the
DOS 15 file barrier--I only wish MS CD-ROM Extensions was too!
   I don't think this problem is unique.  As long as there is a need for
multiple drivers, I just wish that the driver installation routines would more
often be written to avoid the need to reboot, and that every product include
some software means of removing the driver once the user is done with the
application.

#: 692 S1/General Information
    20-May-88  02:26:49
Sb: NEW SIDER CD ROM!!
Fm: Lance Jacobs,First Class 76004,1523
To: ALL

ANNOUNCING THE NEW SIDER CD ROM SUBSYSTEM FOR THE APPLE IIE AND IIGS:

May 20, 1988

First Class Peripherals is proud to announce at today's Applefest show in
Boston, a new, advanced CD ROM subsystem for the Apple II family.  Closely
adhering to the CD ROM specifications that Apple released shortly after the
recent Microsoft CD ROM Conference, the Sider CD will offer both advanced
features and price/performance unmatched by any announced product for the Apple
II.  Just as the Sider has remained the most popular hard disk subsystem for
the Apple II family for the last 3 years, FCP plans for the Sider CD to
dominate the CD ROM subsystem market for the Apple IIe and IIGS.

With such unique features as a powerful, built-in audio speaker and earphone
jack, the Sider CD will be ideally suited for sophisticated audio applications.
First Class Peripherals is working hard with leading CD ROM software developers
to assure that the widest possible selection of software will become available
to the vast number of Apple II users.  Software is currently under development
to allow the Sider CD to operate with the new, upcoming GSOS, and, in addition,
the current ProDOS-16 and ProDOS-8 operating systems.  Thus, the Sider CD will
not be limited to only the Apple IIGS market, but will also be able to support
the Apple IIe computer.

Any CD ROM software developers currently interested in marketing to the large
Apple II market are encouraged to contact our VP of Engineering, Christopher
Hamlin, for further details.  He can be reached at (702) 8834000.  Our address
is 3579 Highway 50 East   Carson City, NV  89701 Mr. Hamlin is well known for
having played a leadership role at Xebec when Xebec Corp. sponsored the CD ROM
Conference in Lake Tahoe which led to the development of the High Sierra Format
standard for CD ROMS.

#: 693 S1/General Information
    20-May-88  13:56:06
Sb: #CDROM
Fm: Frank Scanzano 75126,302
To: all

HELLO,
   I was wondering. I am a new cdrom'er and would like to know a few things.
   1) Has anyone used the voyager picture CDROM from the JPL
    2) Why in MS Bookshelf does some of the quotes have inbedded
      CTRL-O's within lines?
  3) Has anybody successfully aquired any CDROMS from US Gov't?
     (I am interested in the geological survey data)
  4) Are there any catalogs of CDROM's other that the one here?

               Frank



There are 2 Replies.

#: 694 S3/CDROM Applications
    20-May-88  23:55:28
Sb: #480-KeyWord Reference System
Fm: Gerald Perez 76276,477
To: Corey Haslett 73717,2270

we sell a keyword search software package called Textware. It allows for
compound keyword searches and is very fast.  It's also very much in your price
range. Please let me know if you want more info via this forum. Or you can call
me at [phone].

#: 695 S3/CDROM Applications
    21-May-88  00:10:09
Sb: #507-#Graphics in CDROM
Fm: Gerald Perez 76276,477
To: Joel Diamond 76357,2064

Most CD-ROMS or WORMS have a 400 dpi recording capacity.  As such they should
be able to handle most graphics applications.  Are you really asking about
software that can retrieve text and graphics data? If so you might be
interested in Textware from Unibase Systems, Inc. Please let me know if you
want more info.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 696 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  00:44:33
Sb: #620-#kurzweil
Fm: Gerald Perez 76276,477
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Just read your messages RE:legal databases,etc and text retrieval s/w with much
interest.  Drop me a line and i'll send u a demo disk of Textware. Textware is
a fast text retr. system that uses keys words, allows for proximity searches
and uses an indexing scheme that minimizes overhead. PS.  We/I might be
interested in a joint venture if you are>

There are 2 Replies.

#: 697 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  00:50:31
Sb: #690-#FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Gerald Perez 76276,477
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Mark, It is most certainly possible to but the index on hard disk.  This
approach makes a lot of sense.  You really ought to look at Textware along with
the other packages. regards, Gerald

There is 1 Reply.

#: 698 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  05:43:45
Sb: #693-CDROM
Fm: John Ausland 73240,2704
To: Frank Scanzano 75126,302 (X)

As another newcomer, I sympathize with your plight.  I do not know what a
CTRL-O is but have not noticed anything strange in my quotes in BOOKSHELF. Are
you sure the problem is with the disc?  You could ask the MICROSOFT Forum,
which is MSAPP.  I would also be interested in the answer to your question
about government CD-ROMs.

I have seen several catalogues of CD-ROMs but have found thus far that a
subscription to CD-ROM REVIEW is the best way to keep up with what is
available.  (The catalogues are not cheap.)

#: 699 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  06:12:14
Sb: #675-#kurzweil
Fm: John McCormick 76360,44
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

It should be available soon.  Yes, it is basically the same with enhanced
software, and yes, just send your first born as security.
      John


/

There is 1 Reply.

#: 700 S3/CDROM Applications
    21-May-88  14:12:35
Sb: Laserjet Image Print SW?
Fm: Eric Carter 75206,1625
To: ALL

Does anyone know of any available software subroutines that will enable me to
print scanned images on a Laser printer?  Thanks in advance.  -Eric



#: 701 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  18:16:57
Sb: #696-kurzweil
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: Gerald Perez 76276,477

I would like very much to explore Textware, and I'm open to any business
propsitions from interested technical or financial people.  Please see my
EasyPlex message for more information.        Thank you, Mark

#: 702 S1/General Information
    21-May-88  18:17:18
Sb: #699-kurzweil
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: John McCormick 76360,44 (X)

I will tell any date that you have a creditor's claim on my first born. That's
the best I can do for now!

#: 703 S1/General Information
    22-May-88  12:17:37
Sb: New kid on the block
Fm: Terry Borsook 73145,1701
To: all

Just a message from a CD-ROM/Hypermedia/Hypertext enthusiast to all members who
are, I presume, similarly bent.  When I first learned of this new forum, I was
excited -- finally, I could find up-to-date info on this fascinating new field
and people who were as interested in it as me. I look forward to logging on,
contributing to, and learning much from, the new CD-ROM forum.

     Terry

#: 704 S1/General Information
    22-May-88  12:46:46
Sb: #693-CDROM
Fm: Terry Borsook 73145,1701
To: Frank Scanzano 75126,302 (X)

Frank...I'm afraid I can only answer your last question (#4).  The publication
called "CD-ROM Review" (available at most bookstores that have a good computer
magazine section) publishes a fairly long listing of CD-ROM titles, including
summaries of the discs, vendors' addresses, etc.  I don't think they print the
list every month, but a glance at a back issue should do the trick.

I hope this info helps.

P.S.  I recommend CD-ROM review to anybody interested in the industry.
      (No...I am NOT affilitated with it in any way!)

Terry

#: 705 S3/CDROM Applications
    23-May-88  14:30:20
Sb: #BOOKSHELF
Fm: Jim Tyson 72617,2103
To: John Ausland 73240,2704 (X)

Insiders at the CD-ROM conference in Seattle this past April described a n new
version of Bookshelf that runs under Windows ...



There is 1 Reply.

#: 706 S3/CDROM Applications
    23-May-88  14:34:50
Sb: #648-#ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Jim Tyson 72617,2103
To: Berkeley MUG 70007,2271 (X)

I'd love to comment on the Alde PD software CD-ROM, but Alde has our check for
about six weeks now and so far, no CD-ROM.  It must be a popular item ...
(company is Synectics, Inc., Arlington, VA)



There is 1 Reply.

#: 707 S3/CDROM Applications
    23-May-88  14:38:51
Sb: #695-Graphics in CDROM
Fm: Jim Tyson 72617,2103
To: Gerald Perez 76276,477

What does that mean, "most .. drives have a 400dpi recording capacity"?
Nonsense.  The resolution of the stored information is utterly independent of
the media (whether optical, magnetic, or punched cards). CD-ROMs are capable of
storing tens of thousands of "dpi".  Most scanner i images are recorded at
300dpi.  After typical data compression, this means that an 8 1/2 X 11" image
will require about 1 MB of storage, i.e. a single CD-ROM will store over 500
such images ...



#: 708 S5/Data Preparation
    24-May-88  01:04:01
Sb: MASTERS WORM
Fm: Michael S. Rinebold 76044,1046
To: ALL

Hello All. I am a consultant in Los Angeles with clients interested in creating
picture portfolios that can be retrieved and searched by computer. Because of
the volume, I am interested in the process of mastering and/or using WORM
technology. Any tips ???



#: 709 S1/General Information
    24-May-88  01:49:13
Sb: #New- Grolier & More
Fm: Mike McGroarty 73210,2353
To: all

I have an Amdek Laserdrive 1 and Bookshelf.  I purchased my CDROM to use in my
law practice with a CDROM by an outfit by the name of LOGISOFT in Livermore
California.  The CDROM was to be a searchable collection of the Nevada
Reporter.  Unfortunately, LOGISOFT has shipped only promises.  Alas, I believe
that I am out $700.

     Nontheless, Bookshelf has been worth the cost and I am looking at the
Grolier's Encyclopedia to add to my collection of one CDROM.

     Where is a good place to shop or order CDROMs at mail order prices? I
can't find any of the leading mail order houses that carry anything otherr then
the Bookshelf.

                               --------  MIKE  --------exit

There are 2 Replies.

#: 710 S1/General Information
    24-May-88  08:14:49
Sb: #660-Tandy's Thor CD Advance?
Fm: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127
To: mike obryan 71410,340 (X)

Hi Mike...
  I really am going to send that SilverPlatter Medline when we get out of our
production cycle!
  There are bits and pieces of relevant Thor info coming out, mostly in\ the
electronic engineering press.  It is a long way off, methinks. {Thor, that
is... -- Jeff

#: 711 S3/CDROM Applications
    25-May-88  00:45:43
Sb: #587-#PC DEMO CDROM
Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132
To: Michael G Reed 71420,1707

Thanks for the valuable info, Michael. I'll try TAPCIS.  BTW, the system for
forum messages seems to have changed lately, so maybe I'd better wait for the
new TAPCIS which'll suit this.  Thanks.  EH

There is 1 Reply.

#: 712 S1/General Information
    25-May-88  01:14:08
Sb: #683-TAPCIS etc.
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Thanks, Orville  as a matter of fact I just came from the tapcis forum prior to
landing back here.  It looks like it's getting off to a good start.  There was
a reference in quite a long thread on the Medsig Forum
        See ya,
            Mike

#: 713 S1/General Information
    25-May-88  01:19:03
Sb: SilverPlatter/Thor
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: J.S. Frentzen 76117,2127

Hi Jeff, no rush about the Medline, whenever you get around to it, the cdrom
drive is "fired up" and ready anytime you need a review.  Methinks in like
fashion re:  Thor.  Nice talk but no action. See ya
    Mike

#: 714 S1/General Information
    25-May-88  01:35:06
Sb: #696-kurzweil
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Gerald Perez 76276,477

Gerald, I noticed your reply re the legal application and indexing and would
like to put my name in the hat if you can spare another demo of your product,
my interest is in the medical application of cd-rom similar to Mark's but with
a little different approach than has been taken so far with the medline type
products.  If there is a charge let me know, am very interested in seeing a
demo. Thanks,
    Mike

#: 715 S1/General Information
    25-May-88  01:47:11
Sb: #709-New- Grolier & More
Fm: mike obryan 71410,340
To: Mike McGroarty 73210,2353 (X)

Mike, I similarly have the Amdek laserdrive and so far have only the Alde
Public Domain Disk and have been very pleased with both.  I have read some less
than flattering reviews of the Microsoft Bookshelf in the industry magazines
and would be interested in your opinion as a user, had considered the purchase
but have become kinda skeptical after reading these (slow access time,
cumbersome, difficulty swithing among modules, etc) Sorry to hear about the
$700 incident, with this new technology, I'm afraid there's gonna be a few less
than reputable new vendors out there in a new industry market.  Hope the
product comes through and is what you expected.  As concerns info on mail order
prices there are several adds in CD-ROM Magazine that may be what you're
looking for.  I am a VERY new user of cdrom products and very interested in the
technology and that publication has been a great source of basic information,
coming out monthly soon also.  Would highly recommend it for pricing info as
well as enjoyable reading about the industry and developing technology. Good
Luck
   Mike

#: 716 S3/CDROM Applications
    25-May-88  10:38:32
Sb: Intractve/eductn/psyc
Fm: Terry Borsook 73145,1701
To: all

ARE THERE ANY PSYCHOLOGISTS OR PEOPLE INTERESTED IN PSYCHOLOGY OUT THERE??

I am a senior psychology student interested in the exciting potetial the
interactive media hold for education, both adult and child.

I would be very interested in hearing from people who are also interested in
the psychological aspects of this fascinating field.

    Terry...

#: 717 S3/CDROM Applications
    25-May-88  15:16:59
Sb: #711-#PC DEMO CDROM
Fm: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372
To: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132 (X)

EH, The old tapcis will save enuf time (=$) to make it worth while over the
next 3-4 months.

The old tapcis is set to automatically invoke the old software and work with
it.

G TAPCIS and DL the latest version from DL1 and save CIS$.



There is 1 Reply.

#: 718 S1/General Information
    25-May-88  20:08:35
Sb: Introduction
Fm: Nicholas Gall 72427,415
To: all

Hello, just thought I'd introduce myself.  My name is Nick Gall and I'm
entering Law School at NYU this Fall (88).  I'm interested in finding out what
law-related references (e.g., law dictionaries, case books, hornbooks, etc.)
are available on CDROM.  I'm also interested in finding a low cost drive.

-- Nick

#: 719 S1/General Information
    26-May-88  17:05:26
Sb: CDROM DRIVE DIFFERENCES
Fm: Michael Macewich 76267,375
To: all

Are there any major differences between external CDROM drives like those from
Hitachi, Sony, Amdek?  It's got to have audio output and MS-DOS extentions. ---
MACE ---

#: 720 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  06:05:49
Sb: CD-ROM Data Retrevial
Fm: Bill Bates 76456,2012
To: all

I am interested in researching data retrevial systems. can anyone offer
direction on where to find such information?

#: 721 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  08:12:48
Sb: #706-ALDE PUBLISHING DISCS
Fm: Kenneth Wm. Miller, II 76367,2733
To: Jim Tyson 72617,2103

Jim,

We bought Alde's PD cd-rom along with the Amdek drive for $639. We got
delivery in 4 days.

My only complaint is that the PD is all "arc" format.  With the storage
available on the disk, it would save a lot of time to have the software
in expanded format.

#: 722 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  10:40:11
Sb: Financials on CD-ROM
Fm: tom yates 76537,1051
To: ALL

Hi all -

We are not currently using CD ROM technology, but are investigating it with an
eye towards the following application...

Each month we produce a large number of printed financial reports which are of
critical historical nature to our company.  A copy of these reports are also
printed to disk files (this is all done on a System/36), then shipped out and
returned along with microfiche versions of the same. It is the microfiche
versions that are used for review and data retrieval. This process is slow,
somewhat expensive, not the quickest in terms of retrieval and review speed,
and subject to much wear and tear (in re: to the microfiche film media).

What I'm interested in doing is having the print files downloaded to a PC (IBM
or compatible; this part is easily accomplished), stored using some type of
achival schema, indexed by keyword at the file file level, and also I would
like to be able to index within the text (report) file itself. This last point
is very important, because we might have a 300-page report, and the last thing
we need someone doing is reading all 300 pages in ord to retrieve the pages of
financial info they really need.  I also need to have a method of printing this
information.

Using the standard DOS PRI?NT comand would suffice where the entire document
needs to be re-printed, but I need another alternative for those instances
where only a few pages of a large multi-page report is required.

And last, but not least, all reports are formatted in 132 char/line format. So,
my review program must accomodate/support driving the monitor in 132-character
mode.

That's a mouthful...any ideas you folks have are more than welcome. Thanks for
the opportunity to spout off!

Tom Yates Systems Analyst Neptune Water Meter Company 205 283-6555



#: 723 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  11:53:18
Sb: #705-BOOKSHELF
Fm: John Ausland 73240,2704
To: Jim Tyson 72617,2103

That is interesting.  I have been in touch with Debbie Pilgrim (76701,245) at
MICROSOFT.  She says they are working on two new discs but knows of no plan to
redo BOOKSHELF.  Ah, well...  I find that I am not using BOOKSHELF so much that
I am all that anxious whether they redo it or not.

#: 724 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    27-May-88  11:58:24
Sb: #16-BIT I/F CARD
Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132
To: ALL

I'm wondering if there is any 16-bit interface card for the Amdek Laserdrive-1
(which is in reality a Hitachi 1503S).  The reason I'm searching for this is
that if one has to use the present 8-bit interface which is originally bundled
with the player then one is limited when he chooses the machine to use it with:
that is, one can only choose ATs or XTs which have 8-bit expansion slots.
However, the trend is rapidly going on, and IBM's new PS/2 series (especially
386-equipped ones) has certain attractiveness, but they have not 8-bit slots;
they only have 16-bit or 32-bit MicroChannel slots.

So my question is: is there an interface card in the market which can be used
for Amdek drive and IBM PS/2 new slots?  and if there is how can I obtain it?

{Thank you for your attention. Best regards,  EH

There is 1 Reply.

#: 725 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  11:59:46
Sb: #717-PC DEMO CDROM
Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132
To: Orville Fudpucker 70130,372 (X)

Orville, I'll try that. Thanks for the info. EH

#: 726 S3/CDROM Applications
    27-May-88  17:05:23
Sb: #CD Test
Fm: Phil Dunn 74017,614
To: All

Anyone interested in testing (for comment, positive or negative) a brand new
CD-ROM product? It's a collection of Govt databases with extraction software.
Databases: Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, Industrial Production
Index, Export-Import Index, Selected Interest Rates, Money Stock, Capacity
Utilizaton and Employment Hours and Earnings by State and Areas.

If you would like to test a copy of the CD-ROM, please transmit your interest
to my CIS EMAIL address above.

We're looking for a few good persons with CD-ROM drives (with MS-DOS
Extensions) and a fair idea of what the databases listed above are about.

This is a release product (Econ/Stats I) and we are looking for any and all
comments.

Of course, you keep the product...

Phil Dunn, Hopkins Technology



There is 1 Reply.

#: 727 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    28-May-88  03:08:56
Sb: #724-#16-BIT I/F CARD
Fm: Mark Schneider 71330,467
To: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132 (X)

Eiichi - in a recent issue of CD-ROM Review (the one with the disks rolling
down the highway on the cover) there was a product announcement of an interface
card for the PS/2 which sounded terrific.  It can push 8 CD ROM drives, and
(drool!) search 7 of them while simultaneously reading one!!  I left the mag in
the office so I can't give you details, but I'll find it on Tues. if you want.
The West Coast Editor of CD-ROM Review, Stephen Michel, frequents this forum
and he might be able to look it up sooner.  Now, all we need is the right disks
to make the investment worthwhile.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 728 S1/General Information
    28-May-88  09:01:38
Sb: #709-#New- Grolier & More
Fm: John Ausland 73240,2704
To: Mike McGroarty 73210,2353 (X)

Suggest you try Compact Disc in New York, CIS 75530,214.  I have bought several
things from them and have been satisified with their service.  There is not all
that much available for general use.  I have Grolier and Bookshelf and find
both useful.  Also ordered (for under $100) the Alde Disc, which has about 3000
programs.  This is well worth the money.  Oslo, Norway.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 729 S3/CDROM Applications
    28-May-88  09:23:03
Sb: #726-CD Test
Fm: Kenneth Wm. Miller, II 76367,2733
To: Phil Dunn 74017,614 (X)

Phil,

I'm very interested.  I've got a CD-ROM drive and I'm interested in
finance and economics.  (Active in the Investors Forum).  Check with
David Sternlight, he's a PhD Economist who spends some time on Invfor also.

How big is your company and where are you located?  I've got some ideas for
follow on products which you may be interested in.

Kenneth W. Miller
565 Brae Burn
Mansfield, Ohio 44907
419-756-6374

#: 730 S4/Adding CDROM Access
    28-May-88  09:39:26
Sb: #727-16-BIT I/F CARD
Fm: Eiichi Hishikawa 76661,132
To: Mark Schneider 71330,467 (X)

Thanks, Mark. Seems like a terrific card indeed! If it doesn't bother you,
please give me the details when you get them.  How fast this world changes!
<sigh>
  Eiichi

#: 731 S1/General Information
    28-May-88  15:51:46
Sb: New member Intro
Fm: Eric Azarcon 72571,2175
To: all

Hello, All! As requested, I am introducing myself as a new member of the CD-ROM
forum. My name is Eric Azarcon, but any form of the name will do.  A lot of my
buds call me _Zark_, so whatever!  Anyways, I am with a company called
HeartBeat Software Solutions and our first product deals with HyperCard and CD
ROM.  We are new to the whole thing, so any advice as to the best way to get
started would be great! Glad to be a part of the frontier!!!
.......>Zark<.......

#: 732 S1/General Information
    29-May-88  00:32:25
Sb: NEW MEMBER
Fm: Fred Meyer 76306,1032
To: ALL

Hello, let me introduce myself as a new member.  My name is Fred Meyer and I am
president of Meridian Data, Inc. in Capitola California.  Micro based CD ROM
development systems and products have been our focus since the CD Publisher was
introduced back at the first Microsoft CD ROM conference in 1986.  Since that
time, we have had the opportunity to participate directly or through our
customers in over 60% of all the CD ROMs published worldwide.  Therefore, I was
very excited to "discover" your forum today.  I'm looking forward to
participating as much as time permits.  All questions, comments and suggestions
are welcome.

#: 733 S1/General Information
    30-May-88  08:14:00
Sb: #697-FUTURE CD TECHNOLOGY
Fm: Ty Wait 76701,231
To: Gerald Perez 76276,477

Mark -

650 Mb. does not assume compression.  Discovery Systems has pressed a number of
discs of this size.  Moving the index to a hard disk and using compression to
keep its size down is a great idea, though due to the nature of an index, you
will still need to keep some of it decompressed, I suspect.  You should lose no
accuracy that way (assuming compression is just that, and not a process that
discards data), but you will lose speed - and how much you lose could determine
if any money will be lost.

-Ty

#: 734 S1/General Information
    30-May-88  16:25:09
Sb: #715-New-
Fm: Mike McGroarty 73210,2353
To:  71410,340

Mike-
     Thank you for your response.  Microsoft Bookshelf is basically a good idea
bu lacks depth.  The dictionary is fair on the level of a paperback version.  A
more complete dictionary would add value to the pro product.  The Speller is
worthless.  I wonder why such an offering was included since all the major word
processors have integrated spellers that look up more then one word at a time
automatically.  Also the Microsoft speller seems to have Microsoft speller
seems to have a glitch declaring good words misspelled.
 I have a 286 running at 12 Mz and the response times for the manual, the
almanac, quotes and zip, the speed of retrieval is acceptable.  The manual and
the almanac retrieve in 3 seconds.  The quotes is somewhat different in that t
in that the software apparently searchs sequentially through the entire texxt
until it builds a screen of hits and then displays.  If you want the next
screen of hits it takes another 15 seconds to build the new screen.  If you
want the prior screen tyou want the prior screen, gthe software takes another
15 seconds to rebuild the screen from scratch.  This is a little backward for
such a cutting edge product. product.
     I just read where Microsoft has no plans to revise Bookshelf.  If that is
true it is a shame.  The idea of putting writers tools at the fingertips is
good for which there is probably a solid market.  A better dictionary, possible
additions of specialized dictionaries such as medical, legal and scientific
along with software that would work in the background would improve the
product.  Search integration between modules would also be welcome.
     All in all, the Bookshelf does not warrant the purchase of a CDROM but it
makes the cost of the laserdrive a little more tolerable.

                                   Mike \exit

#: 735 S1/General Information
    30-May-88  16:33:01
Sb: #728-New- Grolier & More
Fm: Mike McGroarty 73210,2353
To: John Ausland 73240,2704

John-
     Thank you for your response.

     I will contact CIS 75530,214 to see what they have to offer.  Since you
have Grolier, is it what it is cracked up to be?  What do you use it  Gr
Grolier for?  Are the references complete or merely digested?

     As for Alde Disc, it sounds like a value.

     So much for international communication.  If you are any where near Las
Vegas, Nevada, call me, I'm in the phone book.

                                   -Mike-

#: 736 S1/General Information
    30-May-88  20:08:51
Sb: Bookshelf and WP5.0
Fm: Phil Hutcheson 72376,1745
To: all

Microsoft Bookshelp does not recognize Word Perfect 5.0. When I was at Spring
Comdex a Word Perfect represenative said Microsoft had a fix for the situation
but that they were only sending it to users who requested it. When I called
Microsoft the person on the phone didn't know a thing about the change. Does
anyone here know anything about this?
        Thanks Phil

#: 737 S1/General Information
    31-May-88  10:44:09
Sb: Need DVI Info!
Fm: Noboru Toyoshima 76662,330
To: ALL

I have been trying to get in touch with David Sarnoff(?) Research Center
for DVI technology information.  But so far, I have no response from them.
Where can I get the info?  To whom should I address to?
----Noboru Toyoshima (Hary & Company)