A "timely" Christmas wish



Author: Len Massaro

Date: December, 1989

Keywords: gift wish list holiday

Text:
Someone suggested making a Christmas computer hardware and software
''Gift List'' for this month's column. I think it's a good idea, so
here it is.
It is difficult to make such a list because we all have different types
of Macintoshes. There are some common things we would like to have our
systems do for us*work faster *work easier *store more. Then, there are
the things that are ''newer'' and ''sexier'' than what we own.
That's what marketing is all about. Apple is a master at getting us to
be excited about every purchase we make for our Macs. Then, when we
think we have it all, Apple introduces a ''new'' version.  Ours is
great, but the new one is ''sexier.''  
The sexiest thing we have in our office now is Apple's CD-ROM disc
player. We have a CD-Remote desk accessory that looks and functions
like a hand-held TV/VCR/Stereo remote unit, and I can change tracks the
same way you would on your unit at home. The fact that it works in the
background means that as I am typing this using Microsoft Word*, I am
listening to a music track from Kenny G's ''Silhouette'' Album.
CD-ROM stands for compact disc, read-only memory.  Each CD-ROM disc can
contain more than 550 Megabytes of information-text, numbers, sound,
graphics or a combination.  That is the equivalent of 270,000 pages of
type-written text or 700 times the contents of a 800K floppy disk.  
CD-ROM is an optical medium, meaning that information on the disc is
stored in a track that is read by a laser beam in the drive. The
information is read-only; it cannot be altered after it is recorded.
The cost of creating a master disc ranges from $2,000 to $11,000, but
once completed each disc can be pressed for about  $2.
The real problem is what do you put on a 550MB disk?  Broderbund has
produced a CD containing the ''Whole Earth Catalog ($149.95).  Grolier
has its ''Electronic Encyclopedia*'',  based on its Academic American
Encyclopedia,containing 30,000 articles ($395).  
Highlighted Data publishes an electronic version of the
Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary($199.95).  Image Club
has created ArtRoom* containing more than 1,000 PostScript images and
100 laser advertising fonts ($999), and DarkRoom*, a stock photo
library of more than 500 ready-to-use photos saved in the TIFF format
($499). Educorp makes a CD that has nearly 300 MB of public-domain
shareware software, its entire collection ($199, published
semi-annually).   
The specialty topics are growing daily, from a Universe of Sounds*,
containing thousands of sound samples, to a Time Table of Innovation,
an interactive history of scientific development featuring over 6,000
events taken from more than 50 reference works.
When it comes right down to it*If I had one ''wish'' for Christmas, I
would like to have the time to learn all I can about my current system,
wrapped up in the time to enjoy using it.
Best Wishes for a Happy Holiday Season from all of us at Capital.

Copyright © december, 1989 by Len Massaro