Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!parc!biosci!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!wariat.org!config!INFO From: INFO@config.com (config.sys, Inc. Information Account) Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom,alt.cd-rom.reviews Subject: CD-ROM Review; Project Gutenberg Message-ID: <771057084.70snx@config.com> Date: Wed, 08 Jun 94 06:31:24 GMT Organization: config.sys, Inc. Reply-To: info@config.com Lines: 131 Xref: cdrom.com alt.cd-rom:4693 alt.cd-rom.reviews:212 CD-ROM Review: Walnut Creek's "Project Gutenberg" Rating: *** Publisher: Walnut Creek CDROM System Requirements: MS-DOS, CD-ROM Drive. Project Gutenberg Etext is a plan, a vision, if you will, a vision to make information available to all, and freely. Begun at Illinois Benedectine University, Project Gutenberg was designed to place as much literature into electronic form, with as wide a distribution, as possible. More than 150 titles have been converted and the project continues, predominantly with volunteers typing in texts as they become available in the public domain or by permission. Project Gutenberg's goal is to have 10,000 of the > most used English-language books converted to electronic text by 2001. Walnut Creek has collected the Project Gutenberg archives and placed them onto CD-ROM media, allowing persons lacking access to the Internet archives to benefit from the project. The CD comprises about 100 Mega-bytes of information, having some 150 titles in directly readable ASCII text format and .ZIP files. Each title is stored in both formats. The directory structure is divided into Project Gutenberg's produce for 1990, 91, 92, 93, and 94, the Cleveland Freenet collection of historical documents, some informational directories, and one of papers from the International Philosophical Preprint Exchange. The latter's files are in Postscript and other formats in some cases. Abstracts> are text files. Here you can find Anne of Green Gables, The Wizard of Oz, Through the Looking Glass, the John Carter of Mars and Tarzan novels by Burroughs, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, The Mayflower Compact, and many, many more classic works of English and American Literature. You can read them directly from the CD or import them into a word processor program for easier reading or printing. Copying the .ZIP files to the hard drive keeps the text readily available for commentary or research without unduly occupyi> ng precious storage space. The interface on this disc isn't at all fancy, just a straight DOS viewer. The directory structure is less than intuitive. Apparently Walnut Creek simply transferred the Project Gutenberg files directly and copied those as is, without alphabetizing or otherwise altering the ordering. Project Gutenberg specifies their files are to be transmitted entire, without alteration. So that might explain the apparent lack of organization. It doesn't detract greatly from the value of the collection, but it does force > the user to search a bit finding a particular work. Once you have found a text, you must decide which version to read. Some of them appear in several different versions, depending upon how lately they were entered. The Project Gutenberg folks don't hide anything. Earlier versions may contain errors of transcription or formatting and they leave those versions for anyone to read. It's worth reading the informational and disclaimer files to see how they work and how best to use the files. This is a nice addition to your bookshelf. It isn't especially pretty, but it's a useful and usable collection of classic and popular literature. There's even a King James Version Bible and a couple of Internet "bibles." *************************************************************** Who's the reviewer? John P. Husvar (jhusvar@nimitz.mcs.kent.edu) Art Historian at-Large, Kent State University (Yes, THAT Kent State!) I come neither to praise nor to bury Caesar, just to talk about him. (Sorry, Will!) Taking the role of the prototypical "Mr. Dumb PC-user," I tend to look at a new (to me at least) CD with a playful, kind of Wowsers-what-can-I-do-with-THIS-one(!), point of view. That may result in sometimes being too easy on one CD and too hard on another. Usually, it results in my playing with the thing for a few hours to a few weeks and writing up some general thoughts on what features or glitches jump out at me, whether I could figure out some good use for it, and what new things (again, to me) it has > that seem to improve the breed. Comments and criticisms about this and any of my reviews are welcome. I want to be fair and I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything about anything. I'm certainly not so expert that I couldn't possibly miss something. So fire away. I'll reply, assuming I have time and I'm not in a snit. (See below) I even occasionally enjoy warming my hands at an intelligent flame. (The rude, obnoxious and snotty ones are routed directly to /dev/null, though.) Reviews are my opinion only and should not be taken as an inducement either to purchase or not to purchase any item reviewed. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> APPENDUM NOTICE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< This review was provided by the author along with authorization for redistribution by config.sys, Inc., in an unedited state above this appendum. Reformatting may have been necessary for various operating systems. The reviews provided by config.sys, Inc. reflect the opinions of the reviewer and not necessarily that of config.sys, Inc. They are provided solely to serve as a guide for information to determine the potential purchase of a CD-ROM disc. Any copyrights are retained by the author. Not all CD-ROM discs reviewed are available through config.sys, Inc. A catalog of over 2260 discounted CD-ROM discs is available upon request. The author(s) have not been compensated by config.sys, Inc. Enjoy! Joe Rinehart joe@config.com config.sys, Inc. CD-ROM Division P.O. Box 27 Kent, Ohio, 44240-0001 Tel.: (216) 296.4446 North American Toll-Free Order Line: 1-800 6CONFIG (626.6344) All reviews and our catalogs are also available via anonymous ftp from ftp.wariat.org, in directory /pub/cdroms. -- -- Over 2,250 discounted CD-ROM Titles, accessories, and refurbished CDdrives. config.sys, Inc. CDlist available upon request BBS/G3Fax: 216.296.2244 Information, P. O. Box 27, Kent, Oh 44240-0001 24 Hrs voice: 216.296.4446 finger or email cdroms@wariat.org for list or FTP:ftp.wariat.org:/pub/cdroms