I Miss Microsoft Encarta • Hacker News Board

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#61

Post by groundlogic » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

com2kid wrote: post #19

groundlogic wrote: post #2

Obviously this is pure nostalgia. Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways. And available to people "in the developing world". (I don't really get why Scott included that part. The number of people who have access to a PC with a Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM and also don't have web access via their phones.. my guess is that the total number is about 17, globally.) That said, nostalgia is fun somet…

The content on Wikipedia far exceeds what Encarta had available of course, but Encarta was made during the height of the multimedia boom and features rich interactive media and educational narratives. That entire time period is full of lost multimedia gems. From cooking CDs that had vetted recipes taught by professional chefs, to the Microsoft Wine Guide![1] Sure now days all of that information is available on the w…

I certainly agree on the benefits of curation.

Using google was awesome before SEO.

I never really used Encarta deeply - I bought my Misumi CD-ROM reader in like 1994, without a bundle.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#62

Post by rtkwe » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

hugh4life wrote: post #38

Wikipedia could do a better job integrating media. I remember Encarta being pretty good about having video files showing the outlines of wars and battles... at least for the Vietnam War which is what I remember most. I prefer watching a video outline of wars and battles on youtube rather than dig right into a wall of text on wikipedia.

Also things like the globe or the timeline mentioned in the article would be great to add to wikipedia. Being able to quickly pull up a timeline of battles mentioned on wikipedia that took place or involved a certain country could be neat. Similar things on the globe could illustrate a lot of things.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#63

Post by darkhorn » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:03 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #11

groundlogic wrote: post #2

Obviously this is pure nostalgia. Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways. And available to people "in the developing world". (I don't really get why Scott included that part. The number of people who have access to a PC with a Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM and also don't have web access via their phones.. my guess is that the total number is about 17, globally.) That said, nostalgia is fun somet…

I'm sorry, this is just incorrect by somebody who either hadn't fully used Encarta / Compton's, or doesn't remember them. I have been looking for 5+ years for a tablet or PC "Atlas" which can easily, with a click of button, show me graphs, or colour regions, based on specified criteria such as political types; economy; climate; productivity; and other interesting stats. Wikipedia articles are horribly inconsistent ab…

Closest thing might be Wolfram Alpha.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#64

Post by basch » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:07 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #11

groundlogic wrote: post #2

Obviously this is pure nostalgia. Wikipedia + Google is superior in pretty much all imaginable ways. And available to people "in the developing world". (I don't really get why Scott included that part. The number of people who have access to a PC with a Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM and also don't have web access via their phones.. my guess is that the total number is about 17, globally.) That said, nostalgia is fun somet…

I'm sorry, this is just incorrect by somebody who either hadn't fully used Encarta / Compton's, or doesn't remember them. I have been looking for 5+ years for a tablet or PC "Atlas" which can easily, with a click of button, show me graphs, or colour regions, based on specified criteria such as political types; economy; climate; productivity; and other interesting stats. Wikipedia articles are horribly inconsistent ab…

One thing nicer about Encarta than Google+Wikipedia was for the most part being able to skip past the "is this trustworthy" step. Critical thinking is important, but the need for defaulting to distrust was less.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#65

Post by ergothus » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

I'm either old enough or out-of-touch enough that I never used Encarta. Reading the comments here, I see a lot of mention of the interactive elements and video.

I generally prefer text - it's easier to search, and faster to consume. But I don't assume that my preferences are always best, so...

Why was Encarta so good? Why is it good enough that we should wish we had it today? Is there some analog today that could let me "get it"? Because currently I live in a world where more and more info is moving to podcasts and videos and I hate it. Clearly I'm missing something, so help me out?

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#66

Post by ses1984 » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

ergothus wrote: post #65

I'm either old enough or out-of-touch enough that I never used Encarta. Reading the comments here, I see a lot of mention of the interactive elements and video. I generally prefer text - it's easier to search, and faster to consume. But I don't assume that my preferences are always best, so... Why was Encarta so good? Why is it good enough that we should wish we had it today? Is there some analog today that could let…

It also had a bunch of text that was easy to search. Imagine replacing a shelf full of encyclopedias (that cost a lot) with a single cd, AND it had some videos.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#67

Post by deckarep » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

I was just telling me wife a few weeks back about Microsoft Encarta. Turns out she had a copy too back in the day.

My best memory is getting a copy shortly after CD-ROM drives were still new territory. I loaded the disc and the first thing I searched for was either rap or hip/hop. To my delight an audio clip played of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message...keep in mind this was at a time when Multimedia was new and the idea that CD-ROMs could hold enough data to make a richer experience was ground-breaking!

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#68

Post by mikeyouse » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #25

GordonS wrote: post #3

I was going to submit this earlier today, but I thought "nah, nobody else on HN is going to be old enough to remember Encarta" :) I remember when our family first got Encarta, and I spent hour after hour reading and marvelling about how all this information could be so easily accessible! I think we had a 14k dial-up Internet connection at the time, and the web was barely getting started - I really had no idea how thi…

Oh no, I've been looking for "modern Encarta" for years, in particular something that would easily show me different regions coloured by statistics and criteria - the ability to pick part of the earth, and then colour selected regions by economy, or productivity, or politics, or whatever, was phenomenal. Tablets _should_ be such a natural device for an educational geography product; but with free Google Maps + Wikipe…

CIA World Factbook is fairly close from a data perspective but not super user friendly or polished:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world...

(Enable Flash to make it slightly less cumbersome)

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#69

Post by Causality1 » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

There was a certain method of presenting information that just doesn't seem to exist anymore in the modern world. The by-design weaving together of text, images, video, and audio when giving information about a certain topic. Sure, wikipedia articles have one or two images, maybe an audio clip, and plenty of links to other text articles, but nothing like an encyclopedia or other informational software of the 90s. You'd have software about, say, dinosaurs, and there'd be big diagrams where every word was a link to a descriptive media. It feels like we've shrunk. You can watch a Youtube video but it's just a video; you can't pause it on a picture of a T-Rex and click on its mouth to learn about T-Rex teeth. The modern web forever has you finding any piece of information you need starting from zero, and most of the time you can't summon the energy to do that for everything you might find interesting.

Interactive multimedia is dead and I think today's children are worse off for it.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#70

Post by 52-6F-62 » Mon, Aug 19, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #3

I was going to submit this earlier today, but I thought "nah, nobody else on HN is going to be old enough to remember Encarta" :) I remember when our family first got Encarta, and I spent hour after hour reading and marvelling about how all this information could be so easily accessible! I think we had a 14k dial-up Internet connection at the time, and the web was barely getting started - I really had no idea how thi…

Oh I remember it well and fondly!

There was all of one or two internet providers in our county where I grew up at that time. Maybe one. We couldn’t afford it yet but my parents bought Encarta because it seemed like a wholesome tract for computer use.

I spent countless hours on there and used it for a ton of homework. IIRC my parents used it all the time as well. They likely still have the disks kicking around someplace.