Re: KT-CD-ROM

[uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel)]

Hi!

Chris quoted Karen a long while ago (Oct. 25th):
> >What the heck ever happend with the CD ROM anyway?  Did anybody ever get 

> >one running?  Did it ever make it to the US?  Did Graham ever get MPEG 

> >capabilities? What was on it?  How was it? Interview material?  Lyrics?
>
>    Uli downloaded everything and determined that it would be possible
> to convert everything into a universally usable hypertext format. But
> it sort of wound up being put on the back-burner until one of us gets
> a CD-ROM recorder so that a test disk could be made. It would be
> a real drag to go through the trouble and expense of creating a
> glass master and pressing a test disk and discovering that the
> audio clips and movies played jerkey, or not at all. Uli indicated
> that when the price drops enough he will get one, and then the project
> can go ahead. 


Well, I think the idea is still a splendid idea, though by now some
technicalities of this should be somehow different.

>    The basic idea was to make one in the 9660 format, so that it would 

> be compatible with DOS, Windows, Mac, Amiga, Unix and NeXT. We would
> have to find viewers for all these in order to make the hypertext stuff
> work. One idea: a WWW compatible system. Mosiac allows browsing locally,
> and versions exist for all these formats. So, produce the entire thing
> in HTML, include archives of WWW browsers for each of the formats on the
> disk with standard picture viewers and sound players. Hey, maybe Coke
> would be interested in tossing a little funding our way to include the 

> Fruitopia ads!

Which is basically still the idea. A html version.

>     If someone out there is a WWW guru, let me know is this workable.

I'm not a WWW guru, but I think it's possible.

By now I've even access to a private & directly online internet site
(doesn't sound ISDN-leased-line-at-home somehow decadent?) which basically
is my UUCP feed site. As soon as my time permits (which unfortunately isn't
really 'soon') I will set up yakbwhp (yet another Kate Bush WWW home page)
on that system, and I might even spend one of my hard disks (assuming I
have a new [& larger] one at home) to put loads & loads of pictures on
it. 500 MB would be a possibility. This is about the size of a CD-ROM, so
that WWW site would be a good test site for a CD-ROM version of it.

On the other hand I never wanted to buy a CD-ROM-recorder myself, but I
rather know someone who's still in the process of buying it. Those beasts
get cheaper and cheaper even faster than computers (prices of about $1000
have been rumored), so it might even happen soon. On the third hand I
might get some connections to CD pressing plants (the real ones) at work,
though that wouldn't be *cheap* then, it would just be a way to do it.

To clarify that 'soon' up there: Current private computer projects include:

- the FAQ (which always is a little bit of work, but not too much)
- the discography (which got a lot of interesting additions lately)
- html'ing both of these
- putting hypertext links into the discography, esp. the song index part,
  to point to lyrics, credits etc.
- putting all this onto www.robin.de
- getting pictures of all those LPs, singles, CDs, videos to put into
  the discography as well, maybe even short video sequences (1-5 sec)
- inbetween this, I might have to set up an ISDN line myself, together
  with a small router PC, so that I can at least *use* my own stuff on
  the WWW system...

and, last but not at all least, getting my email pile smaller. Prioritywise
put this around the FAQ, since reading mail is needed to update the FAQ,
while FAQ posting is required once a month.

Currently I'm below 5000 unread emails, but only just...

Ciao,

Uli


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