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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:
God. God. Also God.
In other news: FileFront are closing shop.
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.
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:
I expected Carrot to write that he'd made his own version of Encarta before Microsoft ever dreamed up theirs.
I must have 4 or 5 versions of various Encarta editions that came with my computers over the years.
Never ran a single one.
Well, shit. Now students will ALWAYS copy-paste from Wikipedia rather than sometimes, for flavor, copy-pasting from Encarta.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 01, 2009, 09:57:57 AM
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.
See, the flaw in your question is that students want information that is reliable rather than easy to get.
Good students still go to the library, get access to books and online journals there, and read stuff to gain a balanced viewpoint to support their papers. I presently have 3 of these students out of the 40-odd in my Civ II class...
QuoteI presently have 3 of these students out of the 40-odd in my Civ II class...
:shifty:
Quote from: PDH on April 01, 2009, 10:02:27 AM
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 01, 2009, 09:57:57 AM
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.
See, the flaw in your question is that students want information that is reliable rather than easy to get.
Good students still go to the library, get access to books and online journals there, and read stuff to gain a balanced viewpoint to support their papers. I presently have 3 of these students out of the 40-odd in my Civ II class...
They teach classes in that?
I would think that at least they would have Civ IV by now. ;)
That 'phalanx killed my battleship' thing in Civ II was pretty annoying. :P
Quote from: Malthus on April 01, 2009, 10:08:53 AM
They teach classes in that?
I would think that at least they would have Civ IV by now. ;)
That 'phalanx killed my battleship' thing in Civ II was pretty annoying. :P
I once made a joke about that...then I remembered to never tell jokes in class. I am sure some students took notes on proper placement of cities...
Damn, I take one minute to reply, and already get beaten to the punch on the Civ II joke by two posters.
Quote from: Malthus on April 01, 2009, 10:08:53 AM
That 'phalanx killed my battleship' thing in Civ II was pretty annoying. :P
I once lost a carrier full of jet fighters (that for some reason were called stealth fighters) by trying to attack an engineer with it for some reason.
Quote from: PDH on April 01, 2009, 10:10:35 AM
I once made a joke about that...then I remembered to never tell jokes in class. I am sure some students took notes on proper placement of cities...
It was probably before their time. I went to school in the 90's. My college roommate was a mechanical engineering student. In one of his machinery class the professor was discussing a device called a resolver; "Which," he joked, "Was named after a Beatles album." The entire class went :huh: as the prof chorlted at his own joke.
Quote from: DGuller on April 01, 2009, 10:13:58 AM
I once lost a carrier full of jet fighters (that for some reason were called stealth fighters) by trying to attack an engineer with it for some reason.
We're more ferocious than you'd think.
Quote from: Savonarola on April 01, 2009, 10:46:59 AM
Quote from: DGuller on April 01, 2009, 10:13:58 AM
I once lost a carrier full of jet fighters (that for some reason were called stealth fighters) by trying to attack an engineer with it for some reason.
We're more ferocious than you'd think.
Now we know what the slide-rule holsters are for.
Quote from: Savonarola on April 01, 2009, 10:31:03 AM
It was probably before their time. I went to school in the 90's. My college roommate was a mechanical engineering student. In one of his machinery class the professor was discussing a device called a resolver; "Which," he joked, "Was named after a Beatles album." The entire class went :huh: as the prof chorlted at his own joke.
Yeah but CIV is still a popular game in its present iteration. It would be like making a Final Fantasy gag even though the last version you played was on the Nintendo classic back in 1992.
Quote from: Malthus on April 01, 2009, 10:50:13 AM
Now we know what the slide-rule holsters are for.
As an engineer, you never know when you'll be attacke by an Aztec Aircraft Carrier; it's a professional risk.
Quote from: Valmy on April 01, 2009, 10:52:50 AM
Yeah but CIV is still a popular game in its present iteration. It would be like making a Final Fantasy gag even though the last version you played was on the Nintendo classic back in 1992.
Does the sinking battleship with a phalanx feature still exist? I lost interest in the genre about halfway through my first CIV III game.
Quote from: Savonarola on April 01, 2009, 11:03:11 AM
Quote from: Valmy on April 01, 2009, 10:52:50 AM
Yeah but CIV is still a popular game in its present iteration. It would be like making a Final Fantasy gag even though the last version you played was on the Nintendo classic back in 1992.
Does the sinking battleship with a phalanx feature still exist? I lost interest in the genre about halfway through my first CIV III game.
Civ IV is a much superior product compared to Civ III. It is no longer possible to sink a battleship with a phalanx.
I believe it's theoretically possible to sink a battleship with a trireme though. Assuming they have a unit called a "battleship" (I rarely play past gunpowder).
Quote from: The Nickname Who Was Thursday on April 01, 2009, 11:12:32 AM
I believe it's theoretically possible to sink a battleship with a trireme though. Assuming they have a unit called a "battleship" (I rarely play past gunpowder).
They do. I suppose it is theoretically possible.
Theoretically possible, but with astronomic odds.
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 01, 2009, 09:59:30 AM
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.
Personally, I like Calibri.
Quote from: crazy canuck on April 01, 2009, 09:57:57 AM
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.
I have current Stanford students check me out books from their library.