Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!judd
From: judd@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.rumor
Subject: Re: New Half gegabyte ROM...CD vs LASER
Message-ID: <6855@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-May-84 18:52:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.6855
Posted: Wed May  2 18:52:34 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 03:03:40 EDT
References: <266@nmtvax.UUCP>, <725@ihuxx.UUCP> <271@nmtvax.UUCP> <1050@qubix.UUCP> <6834@umcp-cs.UUCP> <6839@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Lines: 24

Someone missunderstood me.  The problem I see with so much data going out is
Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 20

that it is very easy to make a small mistake (my example was g=9.6 vs 9.8m/s)
that does NOT show up in testing the software and data bases.  I was not talking
about errors in reading from the CD.  Those are taken care of by the hardware.

We all know that bugs in software need to be fixed all the time. Even w/ 
software that has been around for years and years.  With so much stuff on these
disks there will be corespondingly more fixes that need to be done.  This will 
drive up the distribution costs as every release will require junking all the 
old disk.  If there is know way to make minor changes the CD may be useless for
distributing software.

There is an even worse problem related to the above.  Since these things are
going to be mass produced only established software that a reasonably large
number of people want will be put on them.  Since the available software is
by no means optimal (some would say worthless) for the tasks they perform
I see no future for the CD.
-- 
Spoken: Judd Rogers
Arpa:   judd.umcp-cs@CSNet-relay
Uucp:...{allegra,seismo}!umcp-cs!judd