dailey@frith.uucp (Chris Dailey) (06/27/90)
Sorry to leave in so much quoted material (be thankful that I deleted about ten times that amount), but I think it will help (especially since I'm still 300 messages behind in c.s.a!). In article <1990Jun22.192746.16666@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley) writes: >csmil.umich.edu!fribourg.csmil.umich.edu!chymes writes: >They certainly don't buy $1000 CD players! But if they can shut up the kids >who are screaming for Nintendo, get a high-quality CD player, including CD+G, >and maybe, *just maybe*, use it as a real computer for educational or home >finance purposes (you have to know there's an Amiga in there), that should do >the trick. >It will fail as an expensive game machine. >It will fail as an expensive CD player. >It might fail as a repackaged Amiga. >It is more likely to succeed as all of the above. >Multiple ad campaigns, each aimed at different market segments, would help: > - kids who like games > - parents > - teenagers who are starting to get hooked on the new online services > - yuppies/dinks (double income, no kids) who like expensive stereos > - serious couch potatoes who like hooking things up to their TV > >and many specialist markets, including: > - info-addicts who like CD-ROM > - techno-freaks who want an X terminal at home > - home-video bugs that would love an in-home video editing suite! Some of the possibilities for CDTV as I see them: Foreign language instruction. Vocabulary, phrasing, etc. etc. etc. You can even have instruction on the accent, which is very important in many languages. Home repair/improvement stuff. Did your washer break down? Time/Life books on CDTV show you how. Build a deck? etc. etc. etc. But maybe not on repairing the CDTV..;-) Car repair. The Chilton people that put out those car maintenance books would do a good job on these. Computer instruction. Learn computer languages interactively. Learn how to use WordPerfect. Then, with the keyboard, run WordPerfect. (Admittedly, this particular example would be better if the Amiga version of WP were comparable to the IBM version, but oh, well!) It will multitask, so run WP and the tutorial at the same time! You could have a disk with a bunch of recipes, and if there is anything that is confusing, they can see a short video segment on how to do it. Math instruction/tutoring. Take students through problems, showing them how to do them. Maybe even let them enter in a problem and have CDTV help them work through it. Play CD's. Then let the user add instruments and stuff to the music of the music CD's he buys! With one of those 3D animators, you could make a /Fantasia/-like movie! Just record with the VCR as you play the music & the CDTV animation. An electronic encyclopedia, as one would expect with a CD player, including pictures (HAM, 32 colors, or whatever). Whoahoa, I'm getting excited here! I hope we will see all of these things! > Craig Hubley ------------------------------------- > Craig Hubley & Associates "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" > craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca ------------------------------------- -- /~\ Chris Dailey (CPS Undergrad, SOC Lab Coord, AMIG user group Secretary) C oo dailey@(cpsin1.cps|frith.egr).msu.edu (make WP5.1 for the Amiga) _( ^) "I am thankful for one leg. To limp is no disgrace -- / ~\ I may not be number one, but I can still run the race." -from B.C.
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (06/28/90)
The person that invented the TV had visions of it being able to revolutionize education. It could bring education to the most remote places and enable one teacher replace hundreds. Of course, TV is now used to drain most people's brains. (with notable exceptions, of course) Maybe CDTV will be able to provide this dream. An electronic encyclopedia is just the beginning. Just how often do you use that encyc. you bought? Car Repair, home improvement, etc. could really use this kind of thing. Imagine "This Old House", "Julia Childs", "The Frugal Gormet", etc all making a series of CDs? On the college educational market, I could see these replacing the many, many CD-ROM players in college/university libraries. Rather than a $1500 PC + $600 CD-ROM they could get a $1000 (or less) CDTV machine and have a better index/encyc/etc. than they did before. It would be really nice to see that happening. ...and if C-A carries over the technology in printer.device the libraries could use just about any printer! Just more thoughts... I can't wait to see this thing! -Tom -- tlimonce@drew.edu Tom Limoncelli tlimonce@drew.uucp +1 201 408 5389 tlimonce@drew.Bitnet limonce@pilot.njin.net
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (07/09/90)
In article <1990Jun27.140342.13104@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> dailey@frith.uucp (Chris Dailey) writes: >In article <1990Jun22.192746.16666@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> craig@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Craig Hubley) writes: >>csmil.umich.edu!fribourg.csmil.umich.edu!chymes writes (chimes in?): >>They certainly don't buy $1000 CD players! >Some of the possibilities for CDTV as I see them: > Foreign language instruction. Vocabulary, phrasing, etc. etc. etc. > You can even have instruction on the accent, which is very > important in many languages. etc.. Generally speaking ... there's already a pretty big market out there for instructional video tapes of many kinds. A big problem with instructional movies is the lack of interaction with users. The information just pours out of the screen without any way to change the material presented to suit the student, etc etc Having it be a programmable computer rather than just a video player can give the interaction & adaptiveness needed. -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!
seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) (07/10/90)
In-Reply-To: message from david@twg.com Speaking of CDTV, I have in my hands the July 2 issue of Electronic Engineering TIMES...front page is a story on the PS/1's entitled "Welcome home IBM?" It describes the PS/1's and critics reactions to the new line, which is comprised of four models with the cheapest at $999 for a 512K machine with 64shades of grey...no HD...no sound...no joystick controls. Some of the critics were optimistic about the new computers, others remember the PCjr, and see the new line as more "peanuts". What 's interesting, is that right below the article's extension onto page 68 is an article titled "Commodore goes after the fun crowd with multimedia system"...you guessed it, it's about CDTV. Some critics see CDTV as the product of choice for the market IBM is trying to attract. The article states that CDTV will BEAT both Philips and Sony's CD-I systems by a full YEAR! Commodore's directer of international marketing sums up the focus of CDTV, and points towards the reason why the PS/1's (which resemble Mod.25's and 30's) won't be as affective as CDTV. David Rosen states,"Our focus groups tell us that people who do not already own or use a computer know that they should have one, but they have a profound resistence to them and don't want to use one." He goes on to say, "We feel that people want a full-function computer, which CDTV can become, but they don't want to face the keyboard." I've forgotten which show our educational sales director spoke to us about at our user group meeting, but he said you couldn't fit more people into the Commodore booth it was so crowded. C= had roughly THIRTY representatives at the show and it wasn't enough at times to show people CDTV. What was even more interesting was the fact that the Apple reps from the booth across the hall would sneak over to look at the CDTV players. One attendent placed an order for 12 units and said she would really need more...and the suckers aren't even available yet. Just like with the 3000, you can bet that if you don't get one of the initial releases, you'd better be prepared to wait! Right now Commodore isn't shipping enough A3000s to keep up with the demand, and from what our rep told us, they've even kept the warehouse open on weekends for shipments. We've been waiting on two units for stock for about a month now. And we still can't get any A10 speakers, even for our educational orders! I haven't received my price for an A3000 yet, but I'm already getting ready to wait for several weeks for its delivery...it's going to be painful. Sean //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc | ARPA: !crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc@nosc.mil | " Fanatics have their INET: seanc@pro-party.cts.com | dreams, wherewith they | weave a paradise for RealWorld: Sean Cunningham | a sect. " Voice: (512) 994-1602 PLINK: ce3k* | -Keats | Call C.B.A.U.G. BBS (512) 883-8351 w/SkyPix | B^) VISION GRAPHICS B^) \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
dailey@kira.uucp (Chris Dailey) (07/12/90)
In article <7500@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <1990Jun27.140342.13104@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> dailey@frith.uucp (Chris Dailey) writes: >>Some of the possibilities for CDTV as I see them: >> Foreign language instruction. Vocabulary, phrasing, etc. etc. etc. >> You can even have instruction on the accent, which is very >> important in many languages. >Generally speaking ... > >there's already a pretty big market out there for instructional >video tapes of many kinds. A big problem with instructional movies >is the lack of interaction with users. The information just pours >out of the screen without any way to change the material presented >to suit the student, etc etc One thing that they may be able to do is have the CD play the sound of a word, then have the user via some special hardware way the same word. Then perhaps some algorithm might be able to evaluate how close what the user said matches the CD, and then can maybe make suggestions for better pronunciation -- now THAT's interactive! ><- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> ><- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> -- /~\ Chris Dailey (CPS Undergrad, SOC Lab Coord, AMIG user group Secretary) C oo dailey@(cpsin1.cps|frith.egr).msu.edu (make WP5.1 for the Amiga) _( ^) "I am thankful for one leg. To limp is no disgrace -- / ~\ I may not be number one, but I can still run the race." -from B.C.
new@udel.EDU (Darren New) (07/12/90)
In article <1990Jul12.135009.22245@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> dailey@kira.uucp (Chris Dailey) writes: >Then perhaps some algorithm might be able to evaluate how close what the >user said matches the CD, and then can maybe make suggestions for better >pronunciation -- now THAT's interactive! Oh great. Just what we need. An entire nation of people being trained at an early age to speak with a West Chester accent. :-) :-) :-) -- Darren
eric@cbmvax.commodore.com (Eric Cotton) (07/13/90)
In article <24362@estelle.udel.EDU> new@ee.udel.edu (Darren New) writes: >In article <1990Jul12.135009.22245@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> dailey@kira.uucp (Chris Dailey) writes: >>Then perhaps some algorithm might be able to evaluate how close what the >>user said matches the CD, and then can maybe make suggestions for better >>pronunciation -- now THAT's interactive! > >Oh great. Just what we need. >An entire nation of people being trained at an early age >to speak with a West Chester accent. :-) :-) :-) > -- Darren Hey, I didn't know I had an accent... :-) -- Eric Cotton Commodore-Amiga (215) 431-9100 1200 Wilson Drive {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!eric West Chester, PA 19380 "I don't find this stuff amusing anymore."