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I Miss Microsoft Encarta

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Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#381

Post by kragen »

saagarjha wrote: post #344
tern wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the ~95th–99th percentile wealth class, the world has changed considerably. For instance, I can travel anywhere in the world and find a place to stay within an hour, and do so frequently. As a business owner, I can find an international market for my product in a matter of months. I can get anywhere I need to without owning a car. I can maintain a high salary while living in a remote location, of traveling. For t…

> I can travel anywhere in the world and find a place to stay within an hour, and do so frequently Could you not do this before? Just book a plane ticket at the airline desk and ask for an empty room once you arrive at a hotel?

Yeah, I thought about saying that, but then I realized maybe the dude is talking about rural Tajikistan or something where there were and are no hotels, and I didn't want to be argumentative. (I imagine in rural Tajikistan random people would be delighted to offer you their hospitality, though.) I did travel around Costa Rica in 2003, and I never needed more than an hour to find a place to stay on arriving in a new town, even though internet access was scarce. So I'm not sure what the guy is talking about there.

The other things he said are mostly true. Here in Buenos Aires I've never owned a car, but that has more to do with being a huge megalopolis than anything else.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#382

Post by kragen »

vonseel wrote: post #346
tern wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the ~95th–99th percentile wealth class, the world has changed considerably. For instance, I can travel anywhere in the world and find a place to stay within an hour, and do so frequently. As a business owner, I can find an international market for my product in a matter of months. I can get anywhere I need to without owning a car. I can maintain a high salary while living in a remote location, of traveling. For t…

I don’t know, I’d say for the majority of people who aren’t so narrowly focused on conspiracy theories and political power struggles, life looks way different than it did 30 years ago. Even in poor countries Facebook and cheap instant communication like WhatsApp have rewired the way people socialize and stay in touch. This is mostly a response to the commenter before you, except your last sentence.

Well, I did mention people socializing via WhatsApp and Instagram. I think we just differ on what counts as “narrow” versus wide focus.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#383

Post by riffraff »

ribalda wrote: post #355
riffraff wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> International money transfers still take a significant percentage Some do, but I can get dollars from the US into most European currencies for less than .5%. We've come a long way from the '90s.

May I ask what platform do you use?

I use transferwise' borderless account, I believe their fee varies, but I am sure I used TW to transfer less than $10K to EUR for a fee of 0.38%. It now says[0] it's $4.48 to convert 1000$. Changing $1000 to HUF has $4.98 in fees. Both were lower a couple months ago.

Revolut will also allow you to move 5K GBP per month without any fees[1].

[0] https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless/pricing#conversion_fe... [1] https://www.revolut.com/legal/fees/#exchange

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#384

Post by karthickshiva »

The word Encarta brings back many nostalgic memories of me. Back in my childhood, I found a folder of Encarta's files, where all the videos used in articles was located. That folder contains thousands of videos. I edit those videos using Windows Movie Maker, add some music and add titles and credits. Then I will show my creation to my friends and guests come to my house. When they praise, I feel myself like a big movie editor.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#385

Post by tjpnz »

My first real computer when I was a kid came with Encarta and Dangerous Creatures. I spent hours on those things and when I couldn't I would be brainstorming what to look up next. I'm not sure what the equivalent of that would be now, but it sure is upsetting to see what kids are using technology for now - shitty YouTube videos with questionable visuals, mobile games with predatory micro transactions and gambling mechanics, no doubt covertly collecting data on them.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#386

Post by cftorres »

I can't remember in which version of encarta, but when I was young I spent hours on those 3D recreations of famous places travels. I live in a developing country and the access for internet was too expensive, encarta was the best alternative to do my homeworks, find cool images to print, and have a look of the world. It would be great it could become free for the development of those kids that still don't have access for good quality information.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#387

Post by dtech »

GordonS wrote: post #193
dtech wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that Encarta was the bomb in the late 90's and early 00's and the 25-35 age group is well represented on HN I'd say Encarta i prime HN nostalgia material.

TBH, didn't realise it was still a thing in the early 00's!

It was the encyclopedia until Wikipedia really gained traction, which was 2004-ish for me.

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#388

Post by [deleted] »

fallensatan wrote: post #321
joblessjunkie wrote: post #205

Encarta was part of my first job out of university. I worked in Microsoft's Multimedia Division, tasked with creating the first video and audio drivers for Windows. IIRC the BMP, WAV, and AVI file formats all came from this team at about this time. In the summer of '91, I was tasked with assembling a 386 PC with an early CD-ROM drive to demo an early build of Encarta at a trade show. It was a lot of effort to find a…

I just want to thank you for your work on Encarta. It was the first _real software_ I interacted with in my teen years; it fascinated me a lot back then and I believe it’s part of the reason I’m in software industry. Thank you.

[deleted]

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#389

Post by cvhashim »

elboru wrote: post #338
joblessjunkie wrote: post #205

Encarta was part of my first job out of university. I worked in Microsoft's Multimedia Division, tasked with creating the first video and audio drivers for Windows. IIRC the BMP, WAV, and AVI file formats all came from this team at about this time. In the summer of '91, I was tasked with assembling a 386 PC with an early CD-ROM drive to demo an early build of Encarta at a trade show. It was a lot of effort to find a…

This kind of comment is the exact reason why I keep coming back to HN. It's great to read stories of real people who have worked in all kinds of amazing and inspiring projects, thanks for sharing your experience with us, it's always nice to read about technical details of legendary software.

Right. I used to spend hours on encarta as a kid :)

Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta

#390

Post by simonh »

akgoel wrote: post #235
joblessjunkie wrote: post #205

Encarta was part of my first job out of university. I worked in Microsoft's Multimedia Division, tasked with creating the first video and audio drivers for Windows. IIRC the BMP, WAV, and AVI file formats all came from this team at about this time. In the summer of '91, I was tasked with assembling a 386 PC with an early CD-ROM drive to demo an early build of Encarta at a trade show. It was a lot of effort to find a…

This basically sounds like WinHelp, which was a compiled format of RTF, prior to the availability of HTML.

I was on a mailing list for a 'fanzine' in the 90's that was actually mailed around as a WinHelp file. It was actually really nice.
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