From: gold@imp.sim.es.com (Bruce Gold)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Handloader Magazine - a review
Date: 19 Dec 92 15:20:38 GMT
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, UT

samsung!ulowell!ap.cl.msu.edu!root@uunet.UU.NET (Root of all evil) writes:
|> bobd@marune.acs.ohio-state.edu (Bob DeBula) writes:
|> (stuff deleted)
|> #My idea of the perfect subscription would be for a normal during the year
|> #magazine delivery and then (offered as an option on the subscription) a 
|> #year end CD-ROM with all of that years issues on it. Then I could deep-six
|> #some of the piles of magazines I keep around because I'm afraid I'll need 
|> #to reference them some day.
|> #
|> #It would also be *really* convenient to do a search/browse for
|> #all articles on .41AE, for example, without having to leaf through
|> #a stack of magazines.
|> 
|> I agree!  I'd really like to see this on CD-ROM, especially a big reference
|> book on handloading.  Would be nice to have the search abaility of CD-ROM.

This may seem like passe' technology to many, but University Microfilms publishes
end-of-year microfiche of MANY magazines.  And IEEE offers microfiche publishing
as a normal option for its magazines.  And as nifty as a string search through a
computer file is, a magazines annual index or The Reader's Guide to Periodical
Literature are very effective mechanisms for researching a topic.  Microfiche
readers are now out of fashion and can be purchased in surplus/junk stores for
just a few bucks.  Data density is still a great leap forward from paper
magazines, and the equipment is likely to remain usable and repairable for
decades if not centuries.  Can you say the same for the machine you are using 
at this moment?  

One question worth asking is, "What is the useful life of this
information?"  If the answer is REALLY a long time, you might consider chiseling
it in stone and to heck with bit density. 

I think a CD-ROM could be made to last
a long time whether they currently are or not.  But the data format and disk
drive design may be a problem.  If I came to you with just the information you
wanted on a 7-track 1/2-inch tape on a 10" reel, you might not be able to even
find a tape drive to read it, let alone the software to interpret the file format
or worse yet, the data format.  If it includes executable code for, say, a
Burroughs 5000, you just might have a problem interpreting it.  But suppose the
tape included source code for calculating powder loads and ballistics under every 
situation you will ever need.  And it even includes the source code, in Algol, 
the universal language, and it will run with any Baudot Teletype.  I doubt if 
most people can even find an Algol compiler and most of them can't find a Baudot 
Teletype.  

The hurdles aren't impossible, but the information simply isn't as readily 
available as was hoped when that tape was written.  To combat this problem, it 
is necessary to keep changing data format fairly frequently unless you use 
some intentionally low tech storage medium.  Of course, for a useful life of 
less than a decade you're data will probably be okay.  And for less than 5 years 
useful life a CD-ROM or something similar might be the best solution.  Feel free 
to flame away.
-- 
				Bruce Gold
				   Utah

P.S. You might consider shaving with a blade for vaguely similar reasons. :-)