Sign of the times, I guess. I surely don't have the dough, as wonderful as it would be to own one of the last copies.....

The final hardcover encyclopedia set is available for sale at Britannica's website for $1,395.

No more print editions.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Im wondering if they will charge for online use? Me Im old school. I prefer the smell and feel of a real book in my hands. Same goes for newspapers.

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Old James

same here. I love wikipedia. However, I read a crapload of books and I always choose paper/hardcover over electronic.

I don't care to have a device that big brother can come on and redact items that I purchased. A sale is a sale. That's no better than a B&N representative coming to my home breaking down the door rifling through my thing until he finds the offending book. I'll always say pass on the Big brother electronic media readers.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I find Wikipedia entertaining, and occasionally useful. I've also found some awful errors in it, in the narrow specialities that interest me. For a "reader created" source they don't seem to be too interested in being corrected. Or maybe I'm not doing it right.

One can argue that a paper source, like the Brit, will also have errors and biases, but I think you can anticipate these when you know the types of people who created it (mostly middle age white folks, mostly guys, mostly upper income in the case of the Brit). I guess the advantage of an on-line Brit over something like Wikipedia will be this predictability.

And, the last time I looked, they do charge for access.

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The use of Wikipaedia to produce course work or homework was banned in the College that I taught in, because of it's non authoritative content. I believe that is fairly widespread across the UK. It is a useful source of common opinion, nothing more.

Wikipedia is good for a quick overview of a topic, nothing more, for writing reports and articles i tend to use Web of Knowledge for information.

Most UK newspapers feel greasy and smell of fish and chips, which is about what most of them are any use for.

That's the only way they get into my house!

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

The use of Wikipaedia to produce course work or homework was banned in the College that I taught in, because of it's non authoritative content. I believe that is fairly widespread across the UK. It is a useful source of common opinion, nothing more.

I prefer the smell and feel of a real book in my hands. Same goes for newspapers.

Most UK newspapers feel greasy and smell of fish and chips, which is about what most of them are any use for.

Most US Newspapers smell of heavy printers ink, or at least they used to last I got near more than 1 or 2 of the Times, so Yer not missing much.

Me I like online as then I can magnify or not at will as My eyes aren't what they used to be, print here means prescription glasses...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Most UK newspapers feel greasy and smell of fish and chips, which is about what most of them are any use for.

"Papers - yesterday's news wrapped around today's garbage."

Can't remember who said that, but I found it amusing.

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Actually, as a serious book collector, I find value in "out of date" sets like that Chris. It gives you a snap-shot of what people thought and knew at a particular time. I have a small collection of old technical text books that I really enjoy, but the size of my collection is limited by my funding and my spouse.

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Well if you really want a set of Britannica, look at thrift stores. I find older sets all the time. Usually under $20 US I still have the set my parents bought me when I was a kid, 1962 edition. And I do enjoy looking at them from time to time. They have become a "talking point for ones dinner guests" because the information is so dated.

Well if you really want a set of Britannica, look at thrift stores. I find older sets all the time. Usually under $20 US I still have the set my parents bought me when I was a kid, 1962 edition. And I do enjoy looking at them from time to time. They have become a "talking point for ones dinner guests" because the information is so dated.

My parents never bought any of their kids encyclopedias.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

The use of Wikipaedia to produce course work or homework was banned in the College that I taught in, because of it's non authoritative content. I believe that is fairly widespread across the UK. It is a useful source of common opinion, nothing more.

Right, except it shouldn't be that way. It SHOULD be the ultimate repository of authoritative knowledge on the internet. Problems arise when you allow any idiot to edit the pages, and then actually POST said edits without a review process. I know people who have edited bizarre information into Wiki pages as a sort of inside joke, and while what they did was actually fairly hilarious on a childish sort of level, it's an affront to knowledge and what Wikipedia is attempting to achieve. Any posts made in this manner have the IP recorded so that any such malicious activity may be dealt with appropriately, but tbh it doesn't help all that much. You can actually become an official Wikipedia author, and I think this should be a required process for anyone wanting to add or correct information on the site.

All that aside, I believe it's still important to have knowledge recorded in some sort of hard copy. It's an added layer of protection from the vulnerabilities of electronic storage. Also I agree with those here that prefer having an actual bound paper book. As much as I love technology, nothing beats having the real deal.

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I just had to chime in. I hate on-line newspapers. Is this a generational thing?

Well if you really want a set of Britannica, look at thrift stores. I find older sets all the time. Usually under $20 US I still have the set my parents bought me when I was a kid, 1962 edition. And I do enjoy looking at them from time to time. They have become a "talking point for ones dinner guests" because the information is so dated.

I am the proud possessor of "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette - A Guide to Gracious Living" published in 1955. It is hilarious!!!

I'm surprised that they didn't do this 5-6yrs ago myself.

Cheers.

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CNN article...
More thoughts on the demise of the hardcover Britannica.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Actually, as a serious book collector, I find value in "out of date" sets like that Chris. It gives you a snap-shot of what people thought and knew at a particular time. I have a small collection of old technical text books that I really enjoy, but the size of my collection is limited by my funding and my spouse.

Speaking of which I have a book called Modern Radio Servicing by Alfred A Ghirardi B.S. E.E. copyright 1935.

It shows that ground is positive in the diagrams. Power flowed from + to - back in the old days:) Id like to know what year did all that change?

And the day my Sunday paper goes strictly online is the day I quit reading it.

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[/quote]

Old James

We got a free copy of a dumbed down electronic Encyclopedia Britannica with a new computer purchased back in about 1997. Even then the free copy was full of advertising to buy a more complete version (4 CDs instead of the one CD the free one came on). As I recall the search function was painfully slow, and then the articles it found were painfully short. My kids gave up on it within a few months.

The idea of positive or negative ground is really just convention. A lot of mobile equipment is going to positive ground these days to protect the on-board electronics from some nasty failure modes (like common dormant failures resulting in frying all the computers if somebody throws switches in the wrong sequence at start-up).

My local paper gave up on Sundays a few years back. I can buy a big city Sunday paper, but it weighs about 40 pounds and is mostly advertising for stores I've never heard of. Between the CBC news web site, and a book of Sudoko, I can get sort of the same effect as a Sunday paper, but it isn't quite as much fun.

This thread has certainly blossomed into a number of areas, hasn't it?

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Here is a 1965 edition for only $49 (current bid on ebay)

This thread has certainly blossomed into a number of areas, hasn't it?

I think that is just mirroring real life where that does indeed happen in conversation. I just have some difficulty in understanding this rigid rule of not going off topic. Seems to me to inhibit expressions of opinion.

Warning! Warning! Thread drift! You will be assimilated! Resistance is proportional to voltage over current!

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This thread has certainly blossomed into a number of areas, hasn't it?

I think that is just mirroring real life where that does indeed happen in conversation. I just have some difficulty in understanding this rigid rule of not going off topic. Seems to me to inhibit expressions of opinion.

And it's my thread, and I have no objections thus far.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster