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

[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.