NEWS
By Mike Bowler and Mike Bowler,SUN STAFF | August 1, 2001
THE FIRST major dictionary of the 21st century is appropriately directed at the deteriorating writing skills of college students. The Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary, published last month by St. Martin's Press ($24.95), addresses today's students' problems with English grammar, usage, spelling and vocabulary. How bad is it? Ask any college professor who has to slog through student essays. That's what the editors of this new dictionary did: They consulted a panel of 80 authorities, including 32 English professors, mostly at public universities in 24 states and four Canadian provinces.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Monty Phan and Monty Phan,NEWSDAY | April 2, 2001
You don't have to go far to find documentation on the decline of the printed encyclopedia. All you need is an Internet connection. And therein lies the problem. As the Net's popularity has risen, the public's interest in shelling out thousands of dollars for dozens of leather-bound reference books has dropped. But don't take our word for it: Check out the "Electronic encyclopaedias" entry at Britannica.com: "By the 1980s and '90s," the entry says, "the phenomenal growth of telecommunications networks and personal computer systems presented a new possibility to the publishing industry - the delivery of encyclopaedic databases through a medium other than the printed page ... "As computer technology continues to develop and is used with greater sophistication, there exists the further possibility that the electronic encyclopaedia will become less a version of the print set than a product in its own right, presenting the database in a manner best suited to exploit the advantages of the electronic medium.
NEWS
By Alyson Ward and Alyson Ward,Knight Ridder/Tribune | October 31, 1999
We're in the thick of homework season. Kids are getting serious, whipping out those No. 2 pencils -- or turning on the computer -- to do projects, studying and real work. Here are some of the best ideas, products and resources for getting out from under that pile of work:* Organize your study area with two musts: a calendar and an assignment book. Keep a calendar by your child's homework area to keep track of projects and long-term assignments. (That science fair can sneak up on you.) Try mounting a reusable two-month or three-month wipe-off calendar.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Michael Pakenham | August 22, 1999
A completely new dictionary is just out, the first major one published since the distinguished "Random House Dictionary of the English Language" in 1966. In these babblingly innovative times, a third of a century is a long, long time. Thousands of new words have grown from technological progress alone. Usage has scampered all over the place.The new arrival is "Encarta World English Dictionary." The book form, published and marketed in the United States by St. Martin's Press, is 2,078 pages long, weighs seven pounds and sells for $50. A computer version is being marketed by Microsoft in CD-ROM form for $39, minus a mail-in rebate of $20. It's also available as part of an enormous, six-disk package, "Encarta Reference Suite 2000," containing an impressive encyclopedia and an atlas and more, at $99.Making "Encarta" was managed by an entity called "The Reference Productivity Products Group of the Microsoft Corporation" -- hardly poetry, but then the corporate bosses there are nerds or wonks or both.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Jim Coates and Jim Coates,Chicago Tribune | March 1, 1999
I want to record from my tape player to my hard drive. After I plug my cassette player's line-out into the computer sound card's line, what do I do from there?If you want to save a minute or less of sound, you can use the sound recorder application built into Microsoft Windows. Call it up by going to the Windows Start button and then Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Sound Recorder.This nifty little recorder allows only a minute of sound because of the huge size required for the Windows WAVE (.wav)
ENTERTAINMENT
By Kasey Jones and Kasey Jones,SUN STAFF | February 1, 1999
If you think black history is just about slavery and Martin Luther King Jr., think again.Microsoft's Encarta Afri-cana puts the software giant's popular electronic encyclopedia format to outstanding use in a comprehensive, fascinating volume on Africa and people of African descent.It offers more than 3,000 articles and 2,000 photos, videos, maps and charts. Video clips include several 360-degree views, and there is a text-to-speech reader for the visually impaired.The two-CD volume was edited by Harvard University professors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah.