#Shovel-Ware & Anti-Art
28 messages in this thread
At a small amount of prodding from that famous author of "Guide to CD-ROM",
Dana Parker, I have been asked to present the following titles for your
consideration.
These titles were originally thought up as a series of Art-Only CD-ROMs that
would be produced with no data on them. They would instantly be bought by
collectors of esoteric ROM titles to be placed in display cases, and by keynote
speakers to be used as hand props during their talks.
The first title was invented to demonstrate shovel-ware and was
called,"LINCOLN, THE MAN, THE CAR, AND THE TOWN IN NEBRASKA." Due to the large
storage capacity of the media this title is do-able.
Along the same lines was the difinative database of cheeses world wide. The
ROM would have a tutorial on cheese manufacture, fun facts and figures about
cheese, world production figures for the past 10 years (exportable to Lotus
123), and a nice cookbook selection of cheese recipies. On the same disc would
be the difinitive database on ducks finishing with the cookbook selection of
duck recipies. The title was,"CHEESE AND QUACKERS" (This was so corney that
even Mark Foster wouldn't touch it.)
The last (and worst) was a database titled,"DAIRY PRODUCTS OF THE HOLYLAND."
The subtitle was, "Cheeses of Nazerith."
Cheers, John L. Sands
John, John, John.
Shame on you, you totally forgot those titles that were developed for making
clocks.
Opps I should be careful, I'm on non-disclosure for a company thats making a a
multi-platform disc…. Normal size for desk clocks, Discman size for
watches, and even a laserdisc version for retail establishments and bars.
Glen C.
Well Glen . . . you have let the cat out of the bag. This anti-art campaign
was actually a method of disposing of manufacturing rejects and "overs" without
further cluttering the environment.
CD-ROM is made out of the same grade of polycarbonate plastic that is used
for eyeglass lens manufacture. I need not tell you how tough it is . . . but
. . . if you took a 5 1/4" floppy disk, a 3 1/2" floppy, a 12" laserdisc, and
one of my anti-art CD-ROMs and placed them on the dashboard of your car for one
day in mid-summer in Los Angeles … the floppies would be so swelled and
deformed they would not be usable, the laserdisc would exactly conform to the
dashboard contour, and the CD-ROM would still be playable. Polycarbonate
plastic is thermosetting and cant be re-melted into something else once formed.
This poses a problem for disposable. After making them unplayable, what should
we do with them?
We could:
1. Print works of art on them and have people buy them to hang on
their walls,
2. Print silly titles on them and have keynote speakers use them as
hand props,
3. Make them into clocks and watches and have millions of people
wear them,
4. Make ear-rings and pendants out of them and sell them as "Beatles"
memorabilia.
5. Sell them to gun clubs as "Sureshot Skeet." I would enjoy reading
other ideas and I am sure the replicators would be interested in all our
suggestions.
Cheers, John
John, You hit upon the prefect disposal technque,
Leave a stack of the anti-art CD's on your dashboard. Assuming of course that
you are in NYC. Presto! next morning no CD's (also maybe no dashboard<g>).
Glen
I use old CDs as dog toys.
Ron
Dear Ron, You should contact your vet. Playing with CD-ROMs shows a lack of
polycarbonate in your dog's diet. (Unless of course your dog is a CD-ROM
Retriever.) Cheers, John
My dog is a Border Collie. He regularly eats Frisbees, so he's getting plenty
of long-chain polymers in his diet. Perhaps he's finding better-quality in the
CDs.
<g>
Ron
Ron,
Are there any titles that are so bad that your dog refuses to eat them <G>
Maybe a new CD rating system, i.e. 0 to 4 doggie snacks?
Glen
I think fribees are vinyl or stryene, not polycarbonate. Cheers, John
There are special frisbees that are made for dogs; they are not made
out of the usual cheap plastics. Something one would not know
without owning a dog, as I have only seen such frisbees sold in pet
stores.
I find this very hard to believe. I asked around my fellow workers
about "Dog" Frisbees and they concur with your statement. I still
find it hard to believe. A CD-ROM would shatter if bitten causing
sharp pieces of polycarbonate to pierce the mouth and tounge of a dog
(I have broken many in testing).(I broke them in my hand. I did not
use a dog.) It should NOT be used for this purpose. Cheers, John
Whoa — this is all a joke! Just having some fun. Would never feed
CDs to the dog!!!
Glen, I actually had that happen in Encino, CA. It saved a trip to NY City. But
you have brought up another thought. If you tride to dispose of old CD's in New
York City, they would just wash up on the shores of New Jersey and contaminate
their beeches. The whole idea is to do something to help the enviornment.
Cheers, John
John & Glen:
Have you guys no shame, no pride? And while you're at, have you got a beer?
Rich
Hey, guys, just a couple of weeks ago I found three companies that actually
claim to recycle CD-ROMs. I will dig up the addresses and post them here. I use
my old discs for coasters.
Dana
Dana,
Please DO, even though we've been kidding around in this thread, lot's of us
would be very interested in that list! Especially those companies that do a
production run one BETA too early. (never my company though <G>).
Glen Chapman
Dana:
Those names would be greatly appreciated. There are a number of CDROM
publishers created a new disc every month or quarter (in one case, every week)
for each of their customers, and the growth of out-of-date discs is creating a
non-trivial problem. Audio folks hae the problem to a much greater magnitude.
Thanks in advance for your contribution!
Best – Rich Bowers
This one comes from my partner Reed Carlstrom of Young Minds,Inc. I think it
bears some thought. John
"The discussion of recycling CDs prompts the question of recycyled data.
Instead of destroying the discs(with the data ) on them, why not pool the
various discs in a bundle to send to schools? I am thinking of outdated titles
of worthwile applications or education titles. Certainly more value in the
donation(tax write-off) than whatever you'd get from a recycler. I am willing
to act as a clearinghouse for interested parties like the operation in San
Francisco that refurbishes donated computers and sends them to school.
Let me know what you think. Sincerely, Reed Carlstrom \Publishing Young
Minds,Incorporated"
Reed, John, and whoever else is sharing this ID.
It sounds good. What about discs that have data errors, but are still 80%
usable?
BTW. we have a Young Minds CD-R, are you guys/gals also into the publishing
part of the industry?
Glen Chapman – Online Computer Systems.
This is a great idea, but some publishers may not approve. Some of them demand
that you return your outdated discs, others that you destroy them. You wrote a
very good article in CD-ROM Professional about destroying discs.
This opens a whole new can of worms. Can you recycle data? Are you allowed to
donate outdated copies of other softwares, such as word proc processors and
spreadsheets? And IS it a tax write-off, as hardware is?
Perplexed,
Dana Parker
This is John Sands but what follows comes from my esteemed partner,
Reed Carlstrom who has taken an interest in our conversation. Reed:
"Sitting on the shoulder of the CD ROM god(John) is tough but
somebody has to be his conscience. Anyway, the people I'm really
referring to in this discussion are the publishers or property rights
holders themselves. These are the folks who have dozens (++) of
outdated CD's that are alike. Individual discs would be okay for
demo or training too, I guess. The tax issues could be addressed by
creating a non-profit or better yet, dealing with school districts
direct and having them issue a receipt back like the Salvation Army.
Does outdated data have value? In this context I think so. To a kid
who has never seen version 5.2, 5.0 is new, exciting, and something
to be explored. To a teacher with no budget, it would be gifts from
the gods. To a learning lab it offers a wealth of different
information to present to the classes while introducing the concepts
we are all promoting.". . . Reed Carlstrom.
Can you recycle programd..depends on the vendor. If its an upgrade, no unless
it is WPCorp and its an educational institution. Then you can, but they are
weird, they believe in customer service w/o charge.
Bill
John:
A major issue remains that of the licensing agreement and the rights of a CDROM
"buyer" to dispose of the data and – most particularly – the software that,
perhaps, decompresses indexes, reads and decodes encoded data, understands
peculiar file structures etc. Maybe the first clearinghouse we need is a
rights clearinghouse to assure that the discs from XXX Publishing Co. can
indeed be handed down, even to such a good cause. The publisher could argue a)
that such charity removes an incentive to buy from a major class of customer
(the schools) and b) is open to abuse without some kind of formal control.
Now what?
Best – Rich
Rich…When I updated EZCosmos (a planetarium simulator) the publishers
encouraged upgraders to donate the old version to any non-profit institution.
Very forward-thinking of them. Be seeing you.
-Larry
Larry:
Yes, that was very forard thinking. And many publishers miss the idea that
giving away old versions can create a market for new versions. I hope this
discussion does indeed lead to some new ways to get old products into
usefulness!
Best – Rich
Rich…One of the encouraging things is that CD-ROMS are inconvenient, at best,
to copy. Allowing users to give away old disks to non-profits wouldn't take
much trust on their part.
-Larry
Larry:
>>Allowing users to give away old disks to non-profits wouldn't take much trust
on (the publishers') part.<<
Right! I know that, and you know that. Now we just need to convince the
paranoid legal eagles advising publishers.
Take care – Rich
Rich…Most of them probably just never thought of it.
-Larry