Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!seismo!sundc!newstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: No more Cinemaware stuff for Amiga !!!???? Message-ID: <121390@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 14 Aug 89 22:05:53 GMT References: <346@eagle.wesleyan.edu> <1523@ndmath.UUCP> <514@morgoth.UUCP> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 41 In article <514@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steve Hall) writes: >... I would imagine that to put data on a CD would cost about the same. > -= Steve =- It used to be the reason CD-ROMs were so expensive compared to audio disks, was that the mastering process was a lot tougher. On an audio disk you just record a bunch of stuff to tape, and then dump the tape to a master, and poof ready to roll CD disks. But for data disks you have to set up the data, index it in some way. This requires that you have access to all of it, and be able to change it, and that means a 500Mb magnetic disk that could "pretend" it was a CD until you were ready to master it. With current SCSI technology you can do this for under $3K, it used to be you needed a mini like a Sun or VAX to just handle the data. Of course once you get all the data together the indexing process can be slow at best. For hypertext like applications you want to make sure related information is on physically "near" tracks and the index stuff has to be pretty well filled in to make the disk useful. Unfortunately, this is neither a simple problem, nor does the average human being deal with 500MB of information well. Based on playing with these things I personally believe the *total* capacity of a single persons brain is about 1GB, and we use a lot of compression techniques (like algorithmic recreation of data) to make stuff fit. Anyway, tools are needed today to help with this indexing process. Some things like encyclopedias already have a hundred thousand man hours of indexing effort expended so can be transferred fairly cheaply, as do things like the OED. But other stuff, like everything you wanted to know about Sailing, or Chemistry haven't had the extensive work and are thus 5 year projects using the current tools. (Based to the estimate Time-Life uses to create a "new" encyclopedia series). So while the mastering/duplication cost might be 1.50 a pop for 1,000 you have to pay 10 people for a year to index the darn thing and that's gonna cost at least $500,000. Anyway, if you or anyone else can come up with some good tools you could sell them for $50,000 a copy and the people like Time-Life would buy them without even blinking an eye. Big market for some dedicated entrepreneur... --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"