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The end of an mini-era, bye encarta!

Started by garbon, March 31, 2009, 02:09:54 PM

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garbon

March 31, 2009, 02:09:54 PM
http://red.clientapps.yahoo.com/customize/yroot/msgr8/*http://news.yahoo.com/

QuoteMicrosoft to shutter encyclopedia Encarta (AP)

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp.'s digital encyclopedia, Encarta, might have pushed its printed competitors off the shelves in some homes. Now Encarta itself has fallen victim to changes in technology, made all but obsolete by the likes of Web search and Wikipedia.

Microsoft said it will shut down the online version of Encarta in October and will discontinue sales of the PC software by June.

Encarta was first sold to computer users as a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia in 1993. Critics questioned some of Microsoft's editorial decisions, including the fact that Encarta's dictionary had a photo of Bill Gates and not one of John F. Kennedy. But the electronic knowledge base was an early example of the advantages of digital content over the printed word. Encarta was quickly searchable, and could pack more images, plus video and sound.

Encarta gained a further edge over bound volumes in the early days of the Web because it could pull down updated content while its printed competitors' articles grew stale.

But CD-ROM reference materials quickly turned to relics as high-speed Internet access spread, Web search improved and ventures like Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia compiled and constantly updated by volunteers, gained credibility. Microsoft's free and premium versions of Encarta suffered.

"People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past," the Redmond, Wash.-based company said in a statement on its Web site.

The company said customers with subscriptions to its premium Encarta service will get a refund for fees paid beyond April 30, but will be able to access the content with their user names and passwords until the service goes off-line. Encarta Japan will shut down on Dec. 31.

Its animations taught me about the moon's orbit, how a refrigerator works, and about the fertilization of an egg. :weep:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Brain

#1
March 31, 2009, 02:16:28 PM
God. God. Also God.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

#2
March 31, 2009, 02:30:37 PM
In other news: FileFront are closing shop.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

saskganesh

#3
March 31, 2009, 03:44:09 PM
heh. back when I was in com school we had a module about "writing for CD-Roms." everyone was happy, as it replaced the "writing for corporate slide shows" module.
humans were created in their own image

DontSayBanana

#4
March 31, 2009, 03:54:02 PM
Quote from: Syt on March 31, 2009, 02:30:37 PM
In other news: FileFront are closing shop.
Where will I get my mods for the endless array of Quake-derivative games??? :weep:
Experience bij!

garbon

#5
March 31, 2009, 03:59:43 PM
I expected Carrot to write that he'd made his own version of Encarta before Microsoft ever dreamed up theirs.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Ed Anger

#6
March 31, 2009, 05:47:20 PM
I must have 4 or 5 versions of various Encarta editions that came with my computers over the years.

Never ran a single one.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

PDH

#7
March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Ed Anger

#8
March 31, 2009, 06:46:16 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.

I should write a paper on that.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

PDH

#9
March 31, 2009, 06:46:54 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:46:16 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.

I should write a paper on that.
Make sure you don't change the font when you copy-paste for best results.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Ed Anger

#10
March 31, 2009, 06:48:19 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:46:54 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:46:16 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.

I should write a paper on that.
Make sure you don't change the font when you copy-paste for best results.

Gotcha. But I do love the Comic Sans.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Warspite

#11
April 01, 2009, 04:24:49 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:48:19 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:46:54 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:46:16 PM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.

I should write a paper on that.
Make sure you don't change the font when you copy-paste for best results.

Gotcha. But I do love the Comic Sans.

:bleeding:
" SIR – I must commend you on some of your recent obituaries. I was delighted to read of the deaths of Foday Sankoh (August 9th), and Uday and Qusay Hussein (July 26th). Do you take requests? "

OVO JE SRBIJA
BUDALO, OVO JE POSTA

Caliga

#12
April 01, 2009, 06:40:19 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:48:19 PMGotcha. But I do love the Comic Sans.

For some reason my Indian programmers insist on putting everything into Comic font.  Like, if I send them an Excel sheet in Arial (which I think is just the default), it comes back to me reformatted in Comic. :huh:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

crazy canuck

#13
April 01, 2009, 09:57:57 AM
Quote from: PDH on March 31, 2009, 06:45:24 PM
Well, shit.  Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.

Where do students go these days for information that is reliable?  I doubt that anyone hits the stacks anymore like we did in the pre-online world but maybe I am wrong.

Ed Anger

#14
April 01, 2009, 09:59:30 AM
Quote from: Caliga on April 01, 2009, 06:40:19 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 31, 2009, 06:48:19 PMGotcha. But I do love the Comic Sans.

For some reason my Indian programmers insist on putting everything into Comic font.  Like, if I send them an Excel sheet in Arial (which I think is just the default), it comes back to me reformatted in Comic. :huh:

People love the Comic Sans. I had one guy prefer it because it was more readable. Sadly, his memos and reports looked like an 8 year old wrote them with that font.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive
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