MacWorld CD Ventures
4 messages in this thread
Just received a junk mail package of something called "Technology
Showcase." While the material being promoted/marketed is not platform
specific, I did notice a 3 CD-ROM disc offering by "MacWorld CD Ventures.
The discs are titled as follows: "Taste Mate Movie Selection System," "Rock
Rap 'N' Roll," and "The MacWorld Resource CD."
"Taste Mate" is touted to "help you find a movie you're bound to like."
The promo goes on to say that you "Answer a few questions based on your
mood and Taste Mate provides summaries of recommended titles and previews
of hot new releases. It's priced at $69.95.
"Rock Rap 'N' Roll," according to the brochure, "features hundreds of
original beats and songlets; drop them into the song-a-lizer and you'll be
rockin'! Assign instruments , vocals, and sound effects to your Mac
keyboard–and explore the Ten Interactive Rooms of Unique Sound." This one
sells for $49.95.
"'The MacWorld Resource CD,'" says the brochure, is a high-tech
consumer toolkit with 'hands-on' trial software, interactive demos, product
demonstrations, and printable information. Includes an up-to-date database
with thousands of products. Plus 'Tech Report,' a 30-minute interactive
show on the latest technology trends." It is priced at $49.94.
Anyone know anything 'bout these discs? —GeM
I have MacWorld CD Ventures "TasteMate Movie Selection Guide CD". I
ordered it November 11th and it arrived January 9th, so they were already
off to a bad start.
The database used for the CD is "Videolog Select" which is a subset of
the Videolog books most video stores have and includes 40,000 movies. This
subset does not include any of the company or price information in the
book. Using this database also means that if the movie isn't available on
videotape it's not on the CD.
The CD includes twelve quicktime 1.5 previews of recent movies (yawn).
The "artifical intelligence" aid in selecting movies is nothing but
comparing a list of 3 movies you like selected from a list, to other
peoples lists of movies.
Here's an example: I selected 'Au Revoir Les Enfants', 'Diary of Anne
Frank', and 'Judgement at Nuremburg'. What movies would you recommend,
given this list? TasteMate "highly" recommends a list that includes..
'E.T.', 'Ferris Buellers Day Off', 'Goodfellas', and 'Terminator 2'.
TasteMate also provides lists by title, actor, and director. The list
are in alphabetical order but are only indexed by the first letter. It
also has a "find" feature that works only with whole words- for example
"tumbleweed" will not find "Tumbleweeds". Once you find the movie, it does
provide a very brief summary,list of catergories (ie. western) major actors
and director. You can then find a list of movies for the actor or director,
but not the catergory.
Also, TasteMate does not appear to be Mac oriented – it supports none of
Mac features I expect like copy, print. The only thing you can print is a
list of recommended titles.
The most positive feature of the disc is that all of it's information is
stored in "text" files, so you can write your own program to access the
data.
So MacWorld CD Ventures "TasteMate Movie Selection Guide CD" "includes"
40,000 movies, huh? That number is impressive. I believe Microsoft's
Cinemania only covers "over" 19,000. OTOH, "Variety's Video Directory"
claims to cover more than 70,000. It is indeed easy to get caught up in the
numbers.
Not being a movie buff by any stretch of the imagination, I've not even
heard of "Videolog" books. Are they state-of-the-art video guide books, or
what?
Omission of movies not on tape or disc is not an issue with me. The
_only_ reason I'm interested in a video guide is as an assist in selecting
rentals. Girlfriends often suggest that if I'll provide a good movie or
three they are more than willing to spend a weekend at my place <g>. See my
motivation? 'Course, with luck the video's will not be carefully viewed,
but I still do not want rotten ones or ones I've already viewed (I've
indeed viewed few movies since 1975, but there are some and I see no reason
to review old ground when there is so much great new turf to test). All I
really need is help in selecting movies on tape, so items such as company
and price are not important. Ratings, opinions, and content info is.
The example you gave for "TasteMate's" selection assist did not help me
a great deal because I've not seen any of your selections or the selections
suggested via the program. I do intend to grab "E.T." someday so I can
understand all the hype than has prevailed over the years, but my present
video motivation almost certainly includes women who have seen that flick
at least once <sigh>.
While the search engine you describe is indeed anemic, I do like the
fact that the it does at least list the "category" of the flick. It seems
that even with title in mind I have to ask for hand-holding from video
rental store staffers since I typically cannot guess the category
[continued in the reply]
[continued]
<shameface>, and since they are always so busy at the register…
[["Blockbuster," unfortunately, bought out a line of local stores called
"Major Video." Major Video had 2 or 3 computer terminals in which customers
could type in titles (or parts of titles or other criteria) to call up
information and availability of a particular movie (including how many the
facility had in circulation as well as the number not currently rented
out).]]
While"TasteMate's" limited print feature is probably all I really need,
I'm not please that MacWorld would promote a CD-ROM disc that does not take
advantage of the richness of the Mac interface. Bummer!
Thanks a lot for sharing, —GeM