Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!berlin
From: berlin@bu-cs.BU.EDU (David K. Fickes)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Uses of CDROMS / WORMS
Message-ID: <19656@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 4 Feb 88 12:21:30 GMT
References: <5267@columbia.edu> <8802040343.AA23106@bu-cs.bu.edu>
Reply-To: berlin@buita.bu.edu (David Fickes Einstein Project)
Followup-To: comp.society.futures
Organization: Boston University - Einstein Papers Project
Lines: 38

In article <8802040343.AA23106@bu-cs.bu.edu> bzs@BU-CS.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
>
>[Re: Simson L. Garfinkel's message]
>
>Don't I want to access this stuff in my office/home etc w/o having to
>buy a reader and dozens if not hundreds of CD Roms? I believe the
>going price to people like me of those CDs is upwards of a few hundred
>dollars each (I know some are less, but the useful ones seem to cost
>about that), not $40 (cost of materials, basically.)
>

Yes, but strangely enough you'll probably end up using several different
references.  But not hundreds, for instance, I'd love to have Duncan's Radio
Guide online in some form...(Its a radio industry measurement guide by area..)
A lot of the time I'm looking up information in the DRG and then transfering
it to a PC package... On the other hand, I would never attempt to buy 
information such as 10-K materials because when I need them I can always get 
a more current filing from several electronic dial-in services...

I think CD-ROMS might be great for distribution...??? A nice stable platform
(lord knows how many bad tapes we've gotten for the Suns here....(last count
four...) Seemingly cheap for high volume and little risk that the data would
be destroyed by a "unknowing user"...

Also, perhaps your one head per CD argument might not be so clear cut... If you're
in a accounting firm or a brokerage house.. maybe... but for most purposes
a jukebox might be fine...  As opposed to having the material online all the
time on winchesters... (Similar use to a removeable storage drive...only 
without the failure rate due to someone slamming the disk pack :(

- david
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