Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993 TAG: 9311190344
SECTION: HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE PAGE: HGG-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BECKY HEPLER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
What it means is expanded memory in a very sturdy package that will make your computer a multimedia center. The CD-ROM technology is not that new, but this is the year computer companies are making the push into the consumer market.
The CD-ROM drive in your computer is like your hard drive or your floppy drive, just another way to access information within a program, but because the CDs have such incredible storage space, that program can have audio, high quality graphics, even video. If you've seen the CD-ROM encyclopedia at the local school or public library, you have an idea of what's in store for you.
These multimedia encyclopedias are incredible learning tools, giving you text explanations, but with pictures as sharp as in your print encyclopedia, and even better, video as well.
You not only get the text of an important speech, you actually hear it and see the tape of that. If you're researching animals, you read about lions, you see a picture of them and you hear the sound of their roar. Click on the screen and you see a map that shows their range and tons of other information.
Encyclopedias are not the only thing on CD-ROM. The San Diego Zoo is your computer tour of the place where you can hear as well as see the animals. Almanacs, atlases and the Guiness Book of Records also adapt well to the CD-ROM format. The interactive nature gives you games such as "The Secret of Nimby Island" and "7th Guest," recommended for 17 years and older.
There are interactive storytelling programs and even two children's books that will read the story (and in four different languages) and point out the words. And if you click on various parts of the graphics that go with it, you can create additional animations to go with the story. "Just Grandma and Me," by Mercer Mayer and "Arthur's Awful Day" are both published by Broderbund, the makers of "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego," another popular piece of educational software. The prices for the software range from $30 to $300.
If you have yet to purchase a computer, or you're ready to upgrade to a new system, the multimedia packages being created by various area computer stores are great deals.
Bill Turner at Premier Computing in Blacksburg, Richard Goff at Comware Computers in Blacksburg and Bob Ruelman, manager of the Radford Radio Shack, all have packages that include the fully equipped computer and several different programs to run with it.
The price for these packages start at $1,000 for the very basic package, but many good buys are in the $1,500-$2,000 range. The increase in price buys you greater speed, which means faster access.
If you already have the computer that can handle it, all you need is the CD drive, a sound board and speakers to be able to use this new technology. The above vendors also sell these as packages that will include some of the software too. The computer requirements include a 386dx processor (the minimum), 2 meg of RAM, a 16-bit SVGA video card with at least 512k of memory and monitor, a hard drive with 10 meg of RAM, a mouse and DOS 5 or higher.
Prices for the individual components include $400-$600 for the drive, $100-$300 for the sound board and $80-$200 for speakers. If you have been considering the photo CDs now being marketing by Kodak and others, your computer equipment will play those.
If you're looking for more stocking stuffer computer gifts, Richard Goff at Comware suggested these ideas:
If you've never tried a mouse, or you've worn out the old one, a new mouse is reasonable.($25-$30)
Add some whimsy to your computing with a mouse cover that looks like a mouse.($7)
If you haven't mastered the mouse, tractballs are the alternatives and keep you from tracing larger and larger circles with your mouse while trying to place the cursor where you want ($59).
Computers are pretty bullet-proof except when it comes to power spikes. All it takes is one lightning strike to find out how much irreplaceable stuff you keep on your hard drive. The latest developments are surge protectors that come with an insurance policy that will guarantee $500,000 if you lose any information because of a power spike while on the system.
You have a lock for your file cabinet, why not one for the floppy disk drive ($12)?
A modem, so you can cruise the electronic highway ($39-$125).
Happy holidays and may all your bytes be good ones.
by CNB