CompuServe Messages

Betty, "Suppose that the major textbook companies had such a disk made for each of its textbooks." I think you may have found a way to make a million bucks ;-). You would have a better feel than I for this, but I can't visualize most parents plunking down $1000 for a player, tho. Maybe later, at <$300. But you bring up a side issue which has been gnawing at me a little: Wouldn't most parents instead ask this question: "Can I get a drive and all these discs (it's common to call cdrom disks 'discs' to emphasize the diff) for the computer I have NOW?" For example, parents don't go buy movie projectors so kids can view school movies at home… they would want a VHS/Beta tape instead these days, if the subject came up. Second part of this thought: the trouble with a player is that you can only view the data you're voyaging through… you can't really "use" the data. OTOH, a disc useable on all machines would mean that you could, say, grab statistics on various populations and create a chart for a term paper. Or snapshot a map, shrink it down and place it within a report. Some work has gone in this direction already: CD-XA is being created by Microsoft/Sony so that there will be standard A/V file formats useable on different home computers. Also, what happens when THOR hits and anyone can write to a CDROM? Anyway, just some more food for thought. – kev