As data storage capacities rise, people are figuring out more ways to fill up a CD-ROM to its brim "" whole libraries are just one of them.
Buy the electronic version of a standard one volume dictionary, and you may be disappointed that it uses up only a fraction of the CD-ROM's 600 megabyte capacity, perhaps 20MB or so. However, Oxford University Press has found a different and inventive way of making use of the CDs spare megabytes.
The ninth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (pound 19.95) has added sound so that you can hear the standard British pronounciation of each headword. The dictionary takes up 20MB,the sound files the other 580 or so. Most buyers will install the dictionary and use the sound files only occasionally, but these will be welcome for people learning English. Pronounciations are non-prescriptive: Controversy, Kilometre and scone are given two each. But there is no support for those from north of the border who maintain the Celtic tradition that whaleshas as aspirate and is not a homonym of Wales. My only regret here is that the COD contains no place names: after all the words that I really want to know how to pronounce are Kirkcudbrightshire and Lodz.
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The full Oxford English Dictionary has been available on CD since 1992 but its price has now been halved to pound 294(including VAT) making it a supreme bargain for anyone interested in the language. The books strength lies in its 2.4m quotations that monitor the way English has changed. The search facilities are comprehensive: they show that this newspaper was in the forefront of introducing 13 Eurowords to the language. (Is this something we should be proud of?)
Another big project fulfilled is the CD-Rom of A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (Cambridge University Press, Pound 229). Here are the full texts of the first (1755) and fourth (1773) edition,plus fascimile pages of both. All that is missing is the smell of an old book. (How long before CDs can be made to emit puffs of air captured from some musty library?)
On-line encyclopaedias, with Microsofts Encarta leading the field, are often criticised. The publication by A&C Black and the OUP costs pound 293.75. There is fun to be had here in browsing the 100,000 names in finding out which of your schoolfellows are more famous than you are, who went to Eton and Balliol (333) or how many work or worked at the FT(210). Nine people admit to being country gentlemen and there are 11 cleaners, including, surprisingly, Dame Shirley Porter. Did she appear on the night shift at Tesco in younger and more impecunious days? Er, no, she was vice-president of the Cleaner London Campaign in 1979-81. The search looks for words in the Work section of the slower computers and also puts 23MB of itself on to your hard disk.
Groliers Multimedia Encyclopeadia of Science Fiction (pound 39.99) is based on the book by John Chute and Peter Nicholls, and its reviews of TV series and films are more than just synopses but reflect the authors opinions. Entries range from Thomas Moores Utopia through to Red Dwarf and beyond, taking in swift, Orwell, Huxley and Ackroyd as well as mainstream SF authors. The cross references are comprehensive and deeply time wasting: I am only marginally interested in SF but spent hours with this.
Anyone looking for a bundle of interlinked reference works on one CD might consider the Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library (pound 39.99), seven British texts including the Hutchinson Encyclopeadia, Longman Dictionary and Rogets Thesaurus, a total of eight million words. A few inconsistencies apart, this is good value.
Book publishers have been busy putting basic household guides on to CD-ROM, with some success. Perfect Plants (Macmillan, pound 39.99) is a beautifully presented disc of 2,002 plants, all illustrated, and information on how to plant, propagate and prune and when. I could have done with some reference to Imperfect Plants, such as ground elder and bindweed. Geoff Hamiltons Garden Designer (GSP, pound 19.95) is aimed at armchair gardeners who enjoy the challenge of designing on screen. Fun to play around with until someone tells you to stop wasting time and start digging.
Elle 2000 Recipes (Grolier, pound 39.99) is very American in content, a bit dull and obviously created in a BSE free zone with recipes for brian cannelloni and calfs head gribiche. The discs computer generated index lists many dishes only under their adjectives: Roast Lamb appears only under R; Thick Broad Bean Soup only under T. What do you want for supper tonight, dear? I dont know shall we have something Thick?
Dr. Hilary JoneDoctor in the House (GSP, pound 19.95) includes plenty of diseases and symptoms, but stops short of being a haven for hypochondriacs. An unsensational guide to keeping healthy,it has sections on nutrition, exercise, herbal medicine and fatigue as well as accidents and emergencies. Some of its advice is refreshingly simple: If howling at the moon relieves tension, then go for it.
All the above are works of reference, to be consulted, dipped into and searched: Does anyone read whole books on screen? Any CD that presents such works must have something extra on offer. A brief History of TIme (Macmillan,pound 39.99) is a brave and fairly successful attempt at popularising Stephen Hawkings book by the use of graphics, videos, voices and animations. The text can be read in Hawkings computerised voice or studied by means of parallel illustrated commentary. The disc has some simplistic portrayals of hypothetical events deep in space (Just draw us a picture of someone falling into a black hole, would you). Ultimately book and disc pose as many questions as they answer.
The Road Ahead (Penguin Electronic, pound 14.99) has the full text of Bill Gates book plus various add-ons. You can inspect the notional house, business or school of the future through video projections, but it is hard to imagine wanting to do this more than once, the same applies to the tour of Gates set of questions, one of which is: How will new technologies effect (sic) the future? The answer is: By correcting their grammar. for Fervid Gates fans only.
Anyone looking for a worthy Chirstmas present for the homework-laden child should consider the Oxford Childrens Encyclopeadia (OUP, pound 59.99) which is targeted at 8-13 year olds, perhaps best suited to 6-11s. A test panel of children aged from 5 to 13 found the text and explanations to be more accessible than Microsoft's Encarta. Their main criticism was that the program ran slowly even on a fairly well-specified computer. The entries seem to be well chosen with enough detail to instruct, not enough to bore. Some cross references lack logic. In the entry on Maria Callas, Aristotle Onasssis cross refers to Aristotle the philosopher. Doubtless this will broaden the mind.
Childrens Micropedia '96 (King fisher, pound 29.99) is aimed at 6-12 year olds but has two levels, for very young children and those who can cope with a bit more information. True multimedia is a bit lacking, though each entry can be read out aloud and there are a few animations and plenty of pictures. The Guiness Book of Records (Grolier pound 24.99) received a mixed response from a 9-14 year old test panel. The videos and graphics were approved and they enjoyed exploring the disc, while regretting that there were not more pictures and wondering how many people would be interested in the worlds largest lamppost or army training camp. Perhaps one to try before buying.
The way Things Work (Dorling Kindesley, pound 39.99) is a wonderfully inventive disc, with all DKs visual flair. A woolly mammoth guides you through the warehouse: click on an object and author David Macauley explains how it works with animated diagrams or call up an index of inventions or inventors. Mammoth based stationary and postcards can be printed out and there is a link to mammoth.net.a Web site of young inventors. A disc for adults as well as children. For the very young, Mindscape has two titles based on Beatrix Potter characters and aimed at 3-7 year olds: The Adventures of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit Numbers Game (pound 29.99 each). These were a hit with two five year olds. The discs have games to play, puzzles to solve, a garden to plant with virtual seeds and cards and posters to print out.
Fans of Dr.Seuss, ie.parents now in their 50s and their children now in their 20s, will be pleased to see that Living Books has issued a CD-Rom of Green Eggs and Ham (pound 30, including a paperback copy of the book),faithful to the original and very funny. The voices are American, which means that in one of the games on the discmouse is made to rhyme with blouse!
For very young children, Mercer Mayers Little Monster at School (Living Books, pound 30) a going to school story with lots of clickable points on every screen and games on the way. If you have an infant genius he/she can play the story in French or German as well.