The Complete National Geographic 110 Years
Parents have always bought National Geographic magazine to expand their children's horizons as much as their own. Both will find an almost inexhaustible source of information and entertainment in The Complete National Geographic, an astounding collection of every article, photograph, and advertisement from 110 years of the magazine's history. For those of us who suffered through sunny afternoons spent with the Dewey decimal system--or, heaven help us, the microfiche machines--the marvel of a century's worth of this impressive magazine on CD-ROM can't be underestimated. The pictures come alive on the screen, and a robust search engine delivers spectacular results. (Especially in these days of watered-down and inappropriate search results, the National Geographic Library is a perfect synthesis of information and modern technology for wary parents.) Of course, with this much information, it's impossible to package the material easily--the collection holds over 30 CDs, and interchanging discs based on the date can be a painful process. Be sure not to lose the installation CD, either, as it's the key to the set. Some technical disappointments appear, too, typical of print sources that make the jump to high tech; in particular, the print is difficult to read unless enlarged--and when enlarged, the pages don't fit without scrolling, even on a larger screen. Even with that in mind, this is a set not to be missed. A literal library, it impresses with its heft and panoramic view of the world--and, sometimes, of the universe. A must for fans, a treat for kids and adults, The Complete National Geographic is an inspirational compendium. --Jennifer Buckendorff
This CD-ROM set features 110 years of the National Geographic magazine--every page of the magazine printed since 1888. Discover the remains of the Titanic. Explore the lush beauty and lurking dangers of the Nile. Learn little-known secrets of the wild panda. Stand on the breathtaking rim of the Grand Canyon. For the first time on CD-ROM, National Geographic Interactive brings every exotic corner of the universe explored by the magazine right to your desktop.
The Complete National Geographic 110 Years Accessories
The Complete National Geographic 110 Years Reviews
Also there wasn't an easy way to capture the article or picture you wanted, the only output option they offered was to send the article to a printer. But then NG stopped sending the announcement that the new disk was available. The pages are stored as photos, the quality not always that great, so a search depends on what keywords some editor assigned to an article. So I wrote them and found out they are having a copyright battle so they're unavailable until it's settled. it's not REALLY being republished).
Having a pile of CD's is certainly better than having a roomful of magazines. I got it when it first came out and then for a couple of years I would get the update disk for the latest year. They thought they could avoid having to pay royalties to all the authors if they just copied the magazines instead of converting them to text (ie. I went to a lecture by the NG editor and he explained the reason why they archived the issues that way. But the search function wasn't that great because it wasn't looking through the text. Apparently the lawyers are still working it out so it's not available now.
Very very worthless in my world. Cannot online register and the mail registration address is not valid. Can't even download. I backdoored some of the files and articles appear to be scanned, are fuzzy and disappointing. The software is not compatible with currently updated Quicktime, XP or my monitor.
I thought I would spend the next few years exploring the set. I find it impossible to use. the print quality is very poor and the photos are very grainy. What a major disappointment. I was very excited about the product. It is like reading very poor photocopies of the magazine. On the bright side it looks great on my shelf gathering dust.
The best part about this program is I can store the CDs in the nice wooden box it came with. The big problem I've had, and still have, is that I'm unable to register by modem or mail. This is a decent program although I wouldn't have gotten it had I known the troubles I was going to have. I have e-mailed and snail mailed out 2 copies of my registration form to the Mindscape software company and have gotten no reply. The software is designed to only search for dial-out connections and it doesn't recognize broadband. The software is very outdated and does not have a nice presentation for the photos or articles. My best guess is that the product is no longer being made and no one will accept responsiblity for the copies still out in the stores.
While the concept of having every issue on disc was a great idea, the use of JPEG images for the data instead of PDF was completely botched.Tech support, back in 1996, said they could have used less compression on the images of the pages, but they would have had to use even more than the 30+ CDs they had in the set and they decided that merely HAVING every issue would make up for any shortcomings in presentation.The end result: a [very costly] set of 30 CDs I hardly ever use and it's a shame as I really wanted to sit back and enjoy as many issues as I could but the text, while mostly legible, is a chore to read.Spend your money elsewhere or go to the library. I bought this set immediately after it was released and was apalled at what I had bought.
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