Where have all the encyclopedias gone?

[MoreCoffee]

Many years ago, in my university days, I bought a set of encyclopaedias and I still have them today. They are handsome volumes and have a lot of helpful information yet new bound printed encyclopaedias are not in book shops anymore. What's happened? Has everything moved to electronic storage? I wonder if children and students today will ever know the feeling and the smell of books filled with good information and knowledge?

 

[tango]

Many years ago, in my university days, I bought a set of encyclopaedias and I still have them today. They are handsome volumes and have a lot of helpful information yet new bound printed encyclopaedias are not in book shops anymore. What's happened? Has everything moved to electronic storage? I wonder if children and students today will ever know the feeling and the smell of books filled with good information and knowledge?

Everything is digital these days. It's a good place to keep the population, if you want the freedom to redefine truth at will. ..

 

[MoreCoffee]

Everything is digital these days. It's a good place to keep the population, if you want the freedom to redefine truth at will. ..

That is a good reason to keep local copies of the files, my friend. But even the idea of local copies is slowly vanishing. Chrome OS and other newer operating systems seem to be pushing people to store everything in servers remote from your home. In the "cloud".

 

[tango]

That is a good reason to keep local copies of the files, my friend. But even the idea of local copies is slowly vanishing. Chrome OS and other newer operating systems seem to be pushing people to store everything in servers remote from your home. In the "cloud".

I can't see the attraction to keeping stuff in "the cloud" - all it means is that it's on someone else's computer and you lose a degree of control over it. If you're out of network coverage you can't have it. If the host has problems you can't have it. If you stop paying for cloud storage you can't have it. If the host gets hacked you have no idea who else might have it.

Storage is cheap enough these days (I picked up a 128GB microSD card for less than $40) so there's really no reason not to keep everything locally. If I want to be able to use a file from different computers I use a USB stick or my own internal network drive.

It is remarkable how many people seem to almost define themselves by their data, then trust their entire data to Someone Else, then howl if Someone Else loses it.

 

[hotrhymez]

Well we have Wikipedia now...

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well we have Wikipedia now...

It's not very safe though, anybody can go in and update it. I've updated it many times myself.

 

[JSales]

Many years ago, in my university days, I bought a set of encyclopaedias and I still have them today. They are handsome volumes and have a lot of helpful information yet new bound printed encyclopaedias are not in book shops anymore. What's happened? Has everything moved to electronic storage? I wonder if children and students today will ever know the feeling and the smell of books filled with good information and knowledge?

Consignment stores got em!

 

[MoreCoffee]

Consignment stores got em!

new ones from 2016 or 2017?