Encarta was one of the few pieces of software that I actually bought when I was a kid. (Slightly embarrassed to admit that as a kid with no income and parents not willing to buy software for me, piracy was a thing.) That was how important it was to me. I felt a fantastic sense of wonder reading through it and felt that I could really be a better person through all this knowledge on my computer.
I Miss Microsoft Encarta
301–310 of 419 posts
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#302During my undergrad (Mechanical) years (mid 90s), we had 1 computer running MS Windows 3.1 (IIRC). We had a demo version of Encarta and it had a huge (by 90s standard) collection of midi files.
I would enter the lab and start playing all files before starting work on my project - Developing software for Finite Element Analysis. It was like an old gramaphone playing the same tunes everyday and others in the lab hated me.
Since I would get in first, I had the right to start the player :-)
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
In elementary school they taught us to use an index book. I wonder if this skill is taught today. (doubtful.)
Another skill not taught today - how to use a library card catalog. Looking up things in the card catalog, and on microfiche at my local library, was as much fun as locating the book itself. Sometimes, in the course of searching the catalog, I'd come across other books that sounded interesting, so I would write down those call numbers, too. Or browsing microfiche roll magazines and newspapers - high speed fast forwar…
I was a kid in the early 90's, and the card catalog was already dead back then - our library had green screen terminals to look up books that I used.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#304I think I was 7 when I first got hold of it. It was installed on my Dad's work laptop and since using it, I would beg him every week to leave his laptop at home. Among my memories was spending time going over the virtual tours. Encarta had this feature that allowed you to take either a 360 tour, or a full immersive 3D virtual tour of a historical building. I remember my favourites being the Abu Simbel and Persepolis tours. Another feature I miss were the interactive quizzes (only available on Encarta Kids) and that creepy trivia game. One of my past times as a kid was going home from school and studying for these quizzes, reading dozens upon dozens of Encarta articles then later trying my luck on beating my high score. A couple years later, we finally got internet connection and the hobby died down. While the internet provided a wider library of knowledge, it never gave me a platform to cultivate and test my interest for devouring trivias as much as Encarta.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#305When I was a kid, my grandmother brought home a cardboard box with a 4-5 mis-matched volumes of encyclopedias in it. Always a bookworm, I could read an article about any subject in them and be content for hours. You can imagine my joy when, omewhere around 1991 or 1992, we got a new computer in the library at school. It was a dedicated station for the encyclopedia, and it was even set up in the same location as the p…
You're close! It was Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, which I started with as well. When I later saw Encarta, I thought Compton's was a superior product.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#306We never really used Encarta, and I don't really know anyone who ever did. Right in the middle of the CD-ROMs are big and DSL just starting to become available period we got a few educational CDs that did more specialised things like only the history and current state of geographical information, or just mathematics, or just historical events of one country. No full encyclopedia was really digitally popular as the sc…
I never used Encarta - in my world it was all Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#307Reading this thread makes it clear that there was (and perhaps still is) one market where Encarta beat modern Wikipedia hands down - children.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#308Reading this thread makes it clear that there was (and perhaps still is) one market where Encarta beat modern Wikipedia hands down - children.
That’s a perfect summary. So many apps for kids are just designed to sell them entertainment as micro transactions. This was a useful and informative piece of software, made accessible. I know Wikipedia has a simple mode, but it’s not the same.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I really wonder what the next big changes will be Temps up 2°C, marine ecosystems collapse, and hundreds of millions of refugees?
Optimist
The projections from big oil in the early 80’s say the global economic system will collapse in about 20 years.
They nailed the current temperature rise. No reason to think the rest of the extrapolated curve is wrong.
Re: I Miss Microsoft Encarta
#310Encarta is a great example of Microsoft winning a market, and after it was defeated, letting it fade out. Wikipedia in some ways beat it, but the interactivity elements of Encarta make it something that you kind of wish had a more direct role in the modern day. I wrote about this topic a few years ago ( https://tedium.co/2017/07/13/who-killed-the-encyclopedia/ ), and it led a former CEO of Encyclopaedia Britannica to…
Encarta is a great example of Microsoft winning a market, and after it was defeated, letting it fade out. Encarta lasted from 1991-2009. The iPod was introduced in 2001, saw sells start to fall off a cliff around 2009 and were all discontinued in 2017 - except for the iPod in name only iPod Touch. No one would say that the iPod was a failure. Encarta helped start the multimedia PC boom that helped make home computers…
Calling the iPad touch an iPad in name only is disingenuous. It’s 1/2 the price of the original and has more space etc. As to falling off a cliff, they sold significantly more iPods in 09, 10, and 11 than 06. They even sold more than 3x as many iPods in 2014 than 2004.
Apples watch is still a watch even if it does a lot of other things. Microsoft never ported Encarta functionality to anything after 09, it just died.