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Yesterday I published an article entitled CD and DVD Drives are Disappearing. Media expert Eric Garland apparently agrees. This morning, CNET News published an article by Greg Sandoval, Is Netflix killing DVDs like Apple killed floppies? Sandoval's article was an interview of Big Champagne CEO Eric Garland.
Garland looked at different statistics than I did. I concentrated on the disappearance of CD and DVD drives from Windows netbooks and Macintosh computers while Sandoval quotes Eric Garland's information about Netflix, the largest provider of rental DVD disks in the world. In fact, Netflix is converting these DVD rental customers to download customers.
While Sandoval, Garland, and I focused on different factors, we all came to the same conclusion: "...the DVD is a product that is being abandoned organically."
The Linux Genealogy CD is a great way to take Linux for a "test drive" without changing anything on your PC. Once downloaded and stored properly on a CD-ROM disk, the Linux Genealogy CD can be used as a boot disk. You insert the CD into your PC's CD disk drive, boot directly from the CD, and load Linux. You can run Linux as long as you wish but it never writes anything to your hard drive (unless you specifically tell it to). When finished, you boot down, remove the CD, boot again, and the system returns to Windows, exactly the same as before. Nothing has been changed.
The Linux Genealogy CD also has another option. If you wish, you can tell it to reformat the hard drive, destroying Windows in the process, and then install Linux and the programs included on the "live CD." Of course, that is an option and will not happen until you click a couple of times to answer the question, "Are you really sure you want to do this?" You will never accidentally re-format your hard drive.
Many Linux "live CDs" are available these days, but the Linux Genealogy CD is the only "live CD" I know of that includes a genealogy program, namely Gramps. Now, the producer of the Linux Genealogy CD has released a new version.
The Worcester Chapter of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Inc. has released a new CD containing transcriptions of 1916-1920 birth, marriage and death records for 31 Massachusetts towns.
Over 9300 births, 4000 marriages and 8000 deaths have been compiled and published on the CD in Microsoft Excel format. Information included, but not limited to, includes first, middle and last names and, in some cases, maiden names. There are ages at time of death and sometimes at time of marriage.
A study by the Library of Congress has found that many audio recordings are being lost due to copyright restrictions and temporary media. It's difficult for archivists to obtain and copy material. Recent data is threatened by being put on writable CDs, because CD-Recordables begin to lose data after a few years. Recordings from as recently as 9/11 and the 2008 elections are already at risk.
In this case, music created by commercial companies is not the problem. Instead, such things as digital recordings of events in U.S. history, early radio shows, news broadcasts, interviews, living history projects, and similar recordings made one at a time in small quantities are in danger.
The widely used CD-Recordable discs only last three to five years before files start to fade, said study co-author Sam Brylawski.
The following announcement was written by Lisa Louise Cooke:
SAN RAMON, CA, September 29, 2010 – Genealogy Gems announced today that the second installment of the Google Earth for Genealogy video series has been released at www.GoogleForGenealogy.com.
“Google Earth has the power to geographically document and tell the stories of our ancestors' lives, and in this new video I show you how to do just that,” said Lisa Louise Cooke, Genealogy Gems owner and producer and host of the popular Genealogy Gems Podcast at www.GenealogyGems.com and in iTunes. “I’m excited to be expanding on the concepts covered in the first DVD, and in Volume II we take Google Earth from family history research tool to compelling genealogical storyteller.”
The 1911 General Election in New Zealand saw over 590,000 people registered to vote. A new CD contains the lists of citizens who were eligible to vote and includes electoral maps from Alan McRobie’s Electoral Atlas. This CD can be purchased from shop on the New Zealand Society of Genealogists website, www.genealogy.org.nz, for NZD$50.
Would you like to try Linux but you don't want to reformat your PC's hard drive? There's an easy way to take Linux for a "test drive" without affecting your PC. It's called a Live CD.
A Live CD, (or DVD, or USB external disc) is a CD containing a bootable computer operating system. With most Live CDs, that operating system is a version of Linux.
A Live CD contains a complete version of the operating system and (usually) a number of applications. You insert the CD into any standard Windows PC and reboot the system, and then your computer will boot from the CD, not from your hard disk. (You may have to change the settings in your computer's BIOS to change your computer's boot order.) The operating system on the Live CD (normally Linux) will load and become operational without touching any information stored on your hard drive. It is a great way of taking a new operating system for a "test drive."
Shirley Hutchinson is one of 20 volunteers from the Genealogical Society of Victoria who helped compile a landmark new index of doctors' notes for 50,000 19th-century patients at (now Royal) Melbourne Hospital. The volunteers spent every Wednesday for eight years typing data from 451 leather-bound ward books on to the index for a CD being released this week.
The index is a joint venture between the RMH, the Public Record Office of Victoria and the Genealogical Society of Victoria. It covers 1856 to 1905, when RMH, now at Parkville, stood at the corner of Swanston and Lonsdale streets.
The following announcement was written by the St. Louis Genealogical Society:
The St. Louis Genealogical Society released three important new products on CD for Missouri research at its fortieth annual Family History Conference on Saturday, May 16.
St. Louis Burials, Volume 3, is the third in the Society’s ongoing project to record every burial in every cemetery in St. Louis City and County. This newly released CD product includes over 330,000 interments in 21 cemeteries, including Bellefontaine (a large, historic non-denominational cemetery with burials of many famous Americans, including William Clark, Sarah Teasdale, William Tecumsah Sherman, Eberhard Anheuser, and Adolphus Busch) and Washington Park (the largest African-American cemetery in the state). Information on this CD (when available) includes names, dates and locations of birth, death, and burial, maiden names of women, ages, marital status, mortuaries, gravesite locations, and more.
Many people have been eagerly awaiting the next edition of the NBI and asking as to when it will appear. The NBI team cannot give a definite answer as the introduction of new software and other problems with technical issues beyond our control had to be resolved. However, it is anticipated that distribution of the data on CD should be possible early in the New Year. The good news is that records submitted go beyond the wonderful total of 18 million. (To date only approximately 10 million appear on the findmypast.co.uk site). Congratulations are due to all societies, groups and individuals for their outstanding efforts. Pricing of the new edition and the cost of upgrades from NBI2 to NBI3, as well as ordering and distribution details, have been completed and these will be posted to societies, the general public, and on the Federation website, www.ffhs.org.uk and www.GENfair.co.uk as soon as possible.
Palatines to America, Pennsylvania Chapter, has published its newsletter, Penn Pal, since 1978, soon after the chapter’s formation. Since then, nearly 1,400 pages of information have been published, including:
Hundreds of queries from members
Abstracts of church records
Information about Germany and its states
Profiles of PA Chapter members
The entire run of Penn Pal, including three newsletters published before the newsletter bore that name, have now been published on one, word-searchable CD-ROM.
This week, Tazewell County (Illinois) Genealogical & Historical Society member Carol Hiller finished scanning in the last pages of two large history texts and converting them to CDs: “The History of Tazewell County, 1879” and “A Portrait and Biographical Record of Tazewell and Mason Counties, Illinois, 1894.”
Both books, which are 794 pages and 712 pages respectively, are now available on CDs, which the Genealogical Society is selling to any history buff who fancies one — or anyone who knows a history buff who would fancy one.
The following is a Plus Edition-only article written and copyright by Richard W. Eastman.
"How long will a CD or DVD last?" As you might guess, the only correct answer is, "It all depends."
The one thing to remember about digital data is that there is no signal degradation in the output. In a digital environment, data is stored in "bits," often referred to as "ones and zeroes." Each bit either is there or it isn't. Analog data, however, is stored in an infinite number of signal strengths. This variable information is the problem; if not exactly perfect, the result is degraded audio or images. Analog data will degrade over time; digital data will not.
The Wyoming State Archives has released the Wyoming Blue Books on compact disc for the first time. The Blue Books are a comprehensive guide to the state's history from pre-territorial days to 2007. The hardcopy version of the updated Blue Books were made available last year.
State archivist Roger Joyce told the Wyoming Legislature's Select Committee on Legislative Facilities last week that the full set of books will eventually be posted on the Internet.
The Izard County Historian journal on CDs — issues 1970-1989 — are again available from Izard County Historical and Genealogical Society. Each two-volume set is $30.
For 20 years, Helen Lindley was editor of the quarterly Izard County Historian. Before she died, her son Sam Lindley scanned the 80 issues, complete with photos, ads and covers, onto CDs, which can be opened in Adobe. Proceeds benefit the Trimble House Project — renovation and removal of the 1815 cabin from Dolph to the grounds of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Calico Rock.
Genealogies recorded in family Bibles have been compiled into a resource guide under the care of the Tennessee Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The result is "Genealogy Bible Treasurers," subtitled "A Digital Photo Preservation and Index of Pre-Depression Era Bible Records."
The Southern California Genealogical Society has announced two new sets of publications. Here is the first announcement:
Southern California Genealogical Society Publications Announcement Immigration and Naturalization Series Declarations of Intent - Los Angeles
The Southern California Genealogical Society is proud to announce the publication of four new volumes in its Immigration and Naturalization Series. The following publications are now available for purchase in softbound and CD versions at http://tinyurl.com/c7544u
The following is an announcement of a new genealogy CD-ROM disk:
Nov 24, 2008 – Judith Sattler Irons has finalized 14 years of comprehensive research in her newly released CD Data Base Hoover Dam Construction Workers and Pioneer Families of Boulder City Nevada 1929 thru mid-1936.
The data base includes sections on the businesses and businessmen, contractors and subcontractors, government employees and organizations associated with the planning and construction of Hoover Dam and the Boulder Canyon Project.
The following announcement was written by Eneclann:
Eneclann, Ireland’s leading e-publisher of historical and heritage titles, has launched a new CD-ROM. This new title provides access to a little known primary source at The National Archives of Ireland and will be of immense value to the growing number of people in Ireland and abroad interested in Irish genealogy and Irish history.
The Grand Traverse Area Genealogical Society Cemetery Committee is about to launch their latest CD-ROM disk of cemetery transcriptions. The new disk covers the 26 rural cemeteries of Grand Traverse County although the three Oakwood Cemeteries will be released later on a separate disk (that will require another CD due to the size of the data).
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