Brittanica 2003 OSX CD/DVD?
Gerry Scott-Moore
pays off it does os hansomely.
Now they have an upgrade, 2003, that comes in both DVD and CD models.
I have a G4 that purportedly playes DVD's, I tested it once when I
first got the thing, and not since.
Should I get the DVD incarnation or the batch-o-CD's for this thing. Is
DVD just as easy to access?
I'm also new to Mac OS X, and have bit the bullet and abandoned
Netscape just to aid in the transition. Slime that I am. Will
Britannica insist on installing a copy of Netscape on my Mac to run the
software, as they do in other incarnations--frequently making me
maintain an older version of Netscape just for this task?
--
///--- Nazodesu no more.
Neill Massello
I recently got the Britannica 2003 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM (two CDs). It
has an option to install everything, application and data, on a hard
drive so that you don't have to insert any CDs to use it. I don't know
if the DVD edition has the same option. Finder lists my Britannica
application folder as 1.16GB, with an additional 536KB of TrueType fonts
in /Library/Fonts.
The good news is that it now runs entirely from its own application and
only uses your default web browser to go to linked web pages. The bad
news is that it's a Java monstrosity that looks and acts like a Windows
application running in emulation -- huge memory use, slow performance,
menus inside window, poor legibility of text. The full catastrophe. You
have to wonder how much harder it would have been to create a real OS X
application, or whether Britannica just didn't care enough about the Mac
version to do it right. It runs, it works, but gawd it's ugly.
James L. Ryan
(in message <121220021957312279%222...@adelphia.net.invalid>):
> Should I get the DVD incarnation or the batch-o-CD's for this thing. Is
> DVD just as easy to access?
I have the 2002 DVD and it works just fine on my PowerBook G4. One thing that
irritates me is that the DVD packaging leads one to believe that the entire
32 volume Brittanica is included. That is not the case. at best the contents
of the DVD represent about five volumes. I found this out when I compared
what was on the DVD with what I could find in the printed volumes.
Gerry Scott-Moore
L. Ryan <talies...@mac.com> wrote:
That's funny; for quite wome while their promo indicates that it has
"every word" in the Brittanica's. Maybe they've whittled down the
initial volumes to coincide with the claim...
Stephen Bedford <sbedford mac.com>
wrote:
books plus some extra illustrations. I have the books so was able to
verify
this.
James L. Ryan
(in message <20021213233...@news.dsl.pipex.com>):
[commenting on whether the DVD version of the Encyclopedia Brittanica
contained the entirety of the textual content of the "32 volume" set]
> Certainly Britanna CD from few years back had the whole contents of the
> books plus some extra illustrations. I have the books so was able to verify
> this.
All I can say is that I sat in the local public library and compared what I
could find on the DVD with what I could find in the printed version. Time and
time again I was unable to locate on the DVD the text of articles easily
located in the books. My recollection is that the books are divided into
roughly a dozen volumes in something called "propedia" and the remaining
volumes in the "encyclopedia." While I was usually successful at finding on
the DVD the text of a "propedia" article, I was not successful, as I recall,
in finding an "encyclopedia" article.
Stephen Bedford <sbedford mac.com>
wrote:
Micropaedia (Ready Reference), 17 volume Macropaedia (Knowledge in Depth),
2 volume Index.
It may be a deliberate move by Brittanica to support the sales of the
books.Yes, it is nice to use the books and from all accounts the latest
CDs / DVDs aren't presented well or easy to use (but for many people (
libraries, schools etc included) there has to be something special about
the books to justify spending £1600 on them (1994) rather than < £100 on
the disks.
(One product I would like to find out more about is Worldbook 2003.
According to Bob LeVitus & Scott Sheppard on c|net radio its a great
product.)
GrapeApe
>DVD just as easy to access?
The idea is, it should be easier, as you don't have to swap disks to see
related articles, because its all on one disc. See?
Gerry Scott-Moore
<grap...@aol.comjunk> wrote:
Oh, I understood the concept. I was asking whether it had been
actualized. Brittanica hasn't always implimented their ideas as
delightfully as they've envisioned them.
Han Sibot
> > contained the entirety of the textual content of the "32 volume" set]
> > what I could find on the DVD with what I could find in the printed
> > version. Time and time again I was unable to locate on the DVD the
I am quite satisfied with the Encyclopaedia Brittanica DVD, which I
got last week. After comparing the DVD with the printed edition, I
have reason to believe that the DVD contains everything from the
printed edition.
The first ten descriptive entries from the printed Micropaedia (Aachen
- Aardvark) were present on the DVD, generally with the same words and
the same illustrations. Some descriptions were slightly changed, which
is natural because my printed edition is from 1977. I should add that
the next entry, the aardvark cucumber, has disappeared. I don't know
if that happened already in the printed edition before the DVD (may be
somebody has a recent printed edition?). You may be happy to know that
the aardvark cucumber is still referred to in another article on the
DVD :-)
The first ten in-depth articles from the printed Macropaedia (Aalto -
Abu) were also present on the DVD, generally with the same words. Two
illustrations have been maintained, whereas three others have
disappeared. I don't really regret the loss of those illustrations,
and may be they had already disappeared in the printed edition.
Browsing through other volumes confirmed to me that everything from
the printed edition is still there on the DVD. Don't worry, be happy.
matt neuburg
han...@freemail.nl (Han Sibot) wrote:
> got last week. After comparing the DVD with the printed edition, I
> have reason to believe that the DVD contains everything from the
> printed edition...
>
> the next entry, the aardvark cucumber, has disappeared...
> Two
> illustrations have been maintained, whereas three others have
> disappeared...
First you say everything is there, then you start reciting a litany of
stuff that's missing. You can't have it both ways. m.
--
matt neuburg, phd = ma...@tidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt
*** REALbasic: The Definitive Guide! 2nd edition! ***
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596001770/somethingsbymatt
Han Sibot
> got last week. After comparing the DVD with the printed edition, I
> have reason to believe that the DVD contains everything from the
> printed edition.
I should add which version: Britannica 2002. Furthermore I wasn't aware this
is a Mac Newsgroup. My system is Windows XP, let's hope it doesn't matter.
Han Sibot
> stuff that's missing. You can't have it both ways. m.
Aardvark cucumbers give me a headache, I'm glad they were thrown out. I got
it
my way!
Jim Glidewell
> In article <f4bf6279.02123...@posting.google.com>,
> han...@freemail.nl (Han Sibot) wrote:
>
> > got last week. After comparing the DVD with the printed edition, I
> > have reason to believe that the DVD contains everything from the
> > printed edition...
> >
> > the next entry, the aardvark cucumber, has disappeared...
> > Two
> > illustrations have been maintained, whereas three others have
> > disappeared...
>
> First you say everything is there, then you start reciting a litany of
> stuff that's missing. You can't have it both ways. m.
Please, Matt. I think that Han deserves better than this sort of
reply. He made a real effort to check the claim, and reported his
findings, warts and all. If one tenth of Usenet postings were
as clear and informative as his was the world would be a better
place...
Han was kind enough to provide a detailed report on this "issue", in
response to a _completely_ non-specific claim that (more or less)
"lots of stuff" was "missing" from the DVD compared to the print
version.
To this point, the only *specific* case of text content being missing
(where the actual word/entry is provided) was supplied by Han, along
with a fairly plausible theory about why it was not there (possibly
dropped from the print edition...)
The claims for the EB CD-ROM were always that the entire set of
*words* were included - the EB-CD has never had the full set of
illustrations, nor claimed to (there's just not enough room on a
single CD for the text, indices, and all the high-resolution
images & diagrams of the paper set). It would have been nice if
they had included all illustrations with the new DVD version, but...
What Han's posting did for me was to set to rest the concern that
the EB on CD/DVD is a significant truncation of the text content
of the print edition, which would have been a real loss. If folks
can provide specific examples where the CD/DVD version seems to be
lacking, I'll take a look at those entries in both my CD-ROM (2002)
copy and my ancient set of paper EBs.
From my own experience, the CD articles often *looked* thinner,
because they were divided into lots of baby-sized chunks, and
the browsing interface is less than ideal. But it all seemed to
be there, after some fussing about.
I'm grateful that Han took the time to research and detail his
findings - while there are a fair number of quirks in EB's Mac
products, I am extremely glad that they still support the Mac.
I would hate to see people avoid this product based on non-
specific and unsubstantiated reports that it is less than
advertised (though I think that EB with half its content
removed would still be better than any of the competition...)
I think that Han's report demonstrates that if EB _has_
removed some things from the CD/DVD, they have done so
judiciously and moderately - the EB CD is not the "Reader's
Digest version" of the paper set...
I consider the EB on CD/DVD one of the best bargains available
in the Mac software world - a truly great encyclopedia at a
very reasonable price.
Even if they _did_ leave out "aardvark cucumber"... :-)
--
Jim Glidewell
My opinions only