Web 3 on Disk

[tmcg]

Hey, Web 3 is on disk. Looks like it has been for a couple of years, but I didn't realize it till just now. Having Web 11 on my computer has been a terrific timesaver. I expect Web 3 will be both more so and less so: I have less frequent occasion to consult Web 3, but when I do, it's always a grumpy-groany "oh, man, I have to get up and schlepp across the room and manhandle that monster book." For twenty years I've growled a little growl when I had to resort to the dictionary of second reference. Now it'll be just a keyboard shortcut away. There's a hundredth of a calorie I won't be burning anymore. Plus, portability rocks. I remember the days when I had to carry a backpack of reference works with me if I had to bring work to a convention, and just going outside to work in the garden became a mini-emigration.

Chicago is supposedly due out on disk, but not until later this year. In the meantime, it's still searchable here, if you've got the book itself close to hand.

Comments

[ferragus.livejournal.com]

She's Back!

We liked it when you had all those books, keep you tied down so you weren't running off on us and having adventures and the like!

See you in IRC this week?

(must confess I missed the last two weeks, but with good reason, I moved, then I went to visit my SO :)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Those are very good reasons. :)

I will be in IRC, but I may be on a deadline-related call for part of the time; I'm going to try to come in early, but I may have to go for a couple of hours and come back very late, depending on how the timing works out.

LOL about the books. They are an anchor of sorts. *g*

[thirdstreet.livejournal.com]

Books in particular and paper in general are a good thing. I love the idea of WEB and Chicago on
CD/Online, but increasingly hate being tied to the computer.

Because I'm going to the Y on an almost daily basis after work now, I've had to forgo taking the laptop with me everywhere. (There's just no way I'm leaving all that hardware and data in the locker room with nothing but a padlock for protection - not to mention the hassle and back pain that comes from carrying both a gymbag and a laptop backpack.) I've been rediscovering the joys of paper and am working on adopting something along the lines of the Hipster PDA (i.e. a stack of index cards held together with a clip) as a writing & organization tool.

Here's a link:

http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda/

And, of course, I never have to worry about charge cycles, being out of range, having cables to sync it to my computer or anything else.

Sometimes, low-tech is the right tech.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Heh, that's a great link. I'm sympathetic; I still like to keep a paper ledger for bookkeeping and a paper checkbook register, and I'm far happier scribbling in a small notebook than trying to type with the Visor and Go!Type keyboard balanced on my lap, although I suspect that will equalize when I pick up the Very Light Small Notebook Computer I'm considering. When I'm writing, I work better with piles of printouts and sketches and handwritten diagrams around me than cycling through dozens of windows on the computer screen. I've also found no electronic solution to the Vast Encroachment of Books--only a compromise, which is to lay off the hardcover purchases (checking books out of the library helps support the authors too) and stick to paperbacks. Quick searchability is mainly what I love about big reference works becoming available electronically. I keep hoping and hoping for Roget's; that and the Trek encyclopedia have been my holy grails of electronic reference for a few years now.

[norilana.livejournal.com]

Oooh, this Web 3 is looking very good from here! :-)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

It's great to have. But I discovered something the Website and the CD inserts don't tell you, which is that if you buy both Web 3 and Web 11, you have to install Web 3 first, or the interface won't recognize that you have both references on your machine.

Completely off the topic, I love that picture of you. :)