CD-ROM EXPO
11 messages in this thread
Anybody attend the CD-ROM Expo in Boston want to share your thoughts? I
stopped in and was very impressed. The IBM/Sony Multi-media extravaganza
was particularly interesting! Are we all going to be toting personal
multi-media players to the beach next year?
John,
Glad you were impressed. I was a bit disappointed. I had hoped to see
something new but Philips' CDI was about it. They did have FULL MOTION
VIDEO (24fps – 1 hr 10 min/disc). Bad part is they want to maintain a very
strict separation of CDI as TV and home entertainment rather than letting
it be "corrupted" by computer nerds (and scaring off the home market).
The show was small, the location was difficult to get to and the parking
was non-existant. The people were friendly, however, and at least they are
trying!
What concerns me is that the "industry leaders" see CD-ROM as a failure not
worth supporting (see ComputerWorld).
Rgds
Jan
John,
We were there. We did enjoy it. OTOH, we were also glad we didn't
exhibit: It would have been a major effort for our microfirm, and the crowd
didn't justify it. Most of the people there were tire kickers with low end
interests. (we're fairly low end ourselves, but need people ready to buy,
not needing an explanation of how CDROM can help them).
Did you see the Kodak booth by the way? I want one. Photo CD looks
neat, and the basic cutter is no more than the Philips one goes for.
Frank
Frank: What's your product? I'm new here so I might have missed it.
John,
We publish a CDROM of New Hampshire Legal information–State
Supreme Court decisions, statutes, state administrative regs, city
ordinances, and so forth. Great if you practice law in New Hampshire, not
too useful otherwise. (CD/LAW 603-446-7979)
And for a living<grin> we are QuickScan, a data capture house: you
send us paper, we send you text files, massaged and tagged to your spec.
Price competitive with offshore keying, but we speak English, computer, and
SGML. Images also available. (603)446-7307
Frank
Following up:
One of the directory lists I am now compiling is of data conversion
services. Please send me, my USPS or e-mail, address and other contact
info, and the scope of your services, and I'll see that you are included in
the list.
Thanks!
What is SGML? I'm seen it before in other forums but I never understood
what is was.
Albert,
SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language. It is a
scheme for making up tagging schemes: ie it provides a standard format for
indicating things like italics<i>, boldface<b>, hidden text <ht>, index
entries (in multiple indexes), nested headers, and so forth.
It isn't magic, the editor (as compared to author or publisher),
still has to do a lot of work figuring out how the work is to be structured
and displayed, but it provides a way of telling others (people _and_
programs) what do where. The spec for a particular work can easily run
several pages.
Up till now it has been a buzzword more talked about than used, but
as more people and publishing systems come to understand it, we're starting
to see more and more of it. And it is excellant both to help the designer
make sure he's specified what he wants, and for me to figure out what he
wants so I can give it to him.
Frank
Frank,
Could you send me some literature on your QuickScan business, please? I'm
looking for people to refer clients to when they need that sort of service.
Thanks,
Kathy <<– The One-Off CD Shop MidSouth, Inc.
200 West Court Square, Suite 630
Huntsville, AL 35801-4816
205-534-3050 FAX 205-539-9238
1-800-387-1633 (The One-Off CD Shops International)
WHat products do you have? We are a distributor always looking for new
product. Frank Harris Computron, Ltd.
Frank,
Hate to be diagreeable, but our experience was that most people who came by
our booth were quite serious and interested in getting started right away.
This is also what a lot of other exhibitors were saying to us.
I guess it looks different depending on who you were talking to. We DID
spend a lot of time explaining how the one-off thing works, but we expected
that. Both the One-Off CD Shops and Optical Media Int'l considered it a
good show for us. It did turn out to be more of a developers' show than
one for resellers or publishers.
Kathy <<– The One-Off CD Shop MidSouth, Inc.