From: Vladimir.Godic@f7.n1040.z9.FIDONET.ORG (Vladimir Godic) Subject: Revised Ufo Cd Info. Date: 13 Oct 93 07:08:00 GMT Robert K. Rouse wrote: >> A few days ago I mentioned that I had found the UFO >> CD mentioned previously. Yesterday I found a CD ROM player that >> met both my technical requiremenents and price requirements, and >> I purchaced the UFO CD at the same time. This post will give initial >> impressions and other info. Mike Corbin replied: > I might add that UFORA also sells a UFO library on disk. I have > a copy of this and find it very useful and functional. I will > ask Vlad Godic to update us on this product as I feel that every > UFO-phile should have a copy of this. Thanks Mike. Here is an update on the UFORA Digital Book: ----------------------------------------------------------------- UFO RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND "UFO RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND", compiled by Vladimir and Pony Godic, is the title of one of Australia's first books on computer disk - a digital book. The book comes in a package containing 3.5" and 5.25" disks, instructions and color booklet of UFO photos and illustrations. UFO RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND is over 90,000 words long. Its 800 pages cover over 300 topics. The book has full search and full print facilities and is suitable for an IBM personal computer or compatible. Usually, UFO books are written by one individual who presents case material to support and promote a particular theory. Groups of people have participated in UFO books as well, but, again, the thrust of such books has been largely theoretical. UFO RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND is quite different. It impartially presents the most provocative material of its contributors, all of whom are leading field researchers with a wealth of experience behind them. Thus the book does not promote an answer to UFO phenomena. It aims, however, to put its readers in the unique position of being left to draw their own conclusions. Authors include: Keith Basterfield, Russell Boundy, Holly Goriss, Bill Chalker, Bryan Dickeson, Vladimir Godic, Paul Jackson, Joan Johnston, John Knapman, Mark Moravec, Moira McGhee, David Reneke and Keith Roberts. The material utilised was drawn from the pages of the "UFO RESEARCH AUSTRALIA NEWSLETTER" edited by Vladimir Godic. The material was collated and edited by Pony Godic. The book is a unique source of knowledge about Australian and New Zealand UFO reports. Normal retail price $49.00 per copy. However, we are happy to announce that the book is now available direct from UFORA at the special discount price of $29.00 per copy plus postage and packaging as follows: Australia: $2.80 Overseas Air Mail - anywhere in the world: $(Aust)6.50 ------------------------------------------------------------------ ORDER FORM Return to: UFO RESEARCH AUSTRALIA, PO BOX 2435, CAIRNS QLD AUSTRALIA. Please send me ( ) copies of the UFORA DIGITAL BOOK. NAME:............................................................ (Block letters please) ADDRESS:......................................................... POSTCODE:............................... I ENCLOSE: $......./........ Overseas buyers - please remit by Banker's Draft or International Money Order. If sending personal cheque please add $(Aust)5.00 for bank charges. (Australian currency please) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Vladimir Godic - via ParaNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Vladimir.Godic@f7.n1040.z9.FIDONET.ORG From: rkrouse@netcom.com (Robert K. Rouse) Subject: Revised UFO CD info. Date: 6 Oct 93 13:43:57 GMT Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) [ Article crossposted from alt.alien.visitors ] [ Author was Rich Payne ] [ Posted on Tue, 5 Oct 1993 23:32:46 GMT ] I have updated the information in response to mail requesting more information. ---- A few days ago I mentioned that I had found the UFO CD mentioned previously. Yesterday I found a CD ROM player that met both my technical requiremenents and price requirements, and I purchaced the UFO CD at the same time. This post will give initial impressions and other info. First, the publisher. Software Marketing Corporation 9830 South 51st Street Building A-131 Phoenix, Arizona 85044 Tel: (602) 893-3377 Fax: (602) 893-2042 $PRICE$ ---- Suggested Retail: unknown What I paid: $35.95 + tax System Requirements: IBM PC or compatible Windows 3.1, Minimum 2MB hard disk Micorsoft mouse or compatible, CD ROM drive, 256 color VGA display, soundboard recommended. ** Initial impressions ** The box says "over 1200 descriptive accounts", and in fact there are 1228, but the descriptions are very brief, despite the fact that the CD is only 28% full (176MB out of 640, mostly images). There is 1 film clip, with a music track, I see no benefit from the sound board. There are 213 images, most of which are poor, and small (at least in windows at 1024x768). To be fair, most UFO pictures -are- poor, but they are still much better than the 200x300 resolution of the images as displayed. Opps, correction, Windows 3.1 will scale the image to fill the screen, I rarely use this feature and it had slipped my mind. Click on the up-arrow in the upper right hand corner of the image and it will fill the screen (in my case, 1024x768 pixels). You could also do analysis on the images. Correction, there are 218 images, and I also found 30 movies (avi files). I wonder why they did not show up in my search? I found these by checking the CD directly. I went back and played some of them, and some of the movies are narrated, so it would seem the sound card is of use. Here is a description from an account... " Mr. Karl Magnusson shot a whole roll of black and white pictures of the solar eclipse from a beach near Keflavik. The developed pictures showed luminous images that are believed to be lens flares from his shooting directly at the sun." No sources are given in the documentation for any of the pictures or information. The CD would be invaluable as a research source if it listed source info. I also think that there is ample room for -all- the newspaper reports. A question was asked which I would never have occurred to me, but I assume others might also have similar thoughts. The question was if the extra room on the CD could be used for storing data and information. Unfortunatly, CD ROM's are a read-only media, and cannot be written to. There are optical disks which can be written to, but they are rather expensive. Copying the CD's contents to such a disk is forbidden by the copyright statement, but allowed by the supreme court for archival purposes. Technically, as long as you do not distribute the disk, you could legally copy the CD and use the contents from a re-writable CD. The selectable sighting paramaters are... Photographic Evidence Death or Injury Involved Abduction Involved Phychic Phenomena Involved Motion Picture Evidence Multiple Witnesses Multiple UFOs Cattle Mutilation Involved. There are three "Encounter Types" selectable... 1) Sighting 2) Sighting + Enviornmental Impact 3) Contact with Occupants And additionally there is a date bar and you can select the date range (say, between 1941 and 1973) in which to search for sightings. This is a handy feature. I selected the Enviornmental Impact range, and it lists some cattle mutilations. The images are very poor here. Unlike UFO's, which rarely pose for pictures, mutilated cattle are usually pretty still, and better images are clearly possible. Most of the UFO images are much better IMHO. The map feature is nice, and shows concentrations of sightings. You can select parameters to show all mutilations for example, or set the time between 1940 and 1950 and look at all the mutilations between these dates. The MAP is a world map, and while it is rather small, it can also be scaled to fit the screen. Additionally, there is a binocular icon, and if you click on it you can magnify certain portions of the map. There is plenty of room for -all- the newspaper reports and much analysis. I'd give the visual presentation good marks, but the text information backing it up is ta small fraction of what it could be. Perhaps future releases will expand upon this. Have fun... Remember, you need windows 3.1. And it is reasonably fast on my 66MHZ 486 with lots of windows running, but your milage may vary. Note, I have spent a few hours so far with the program, and both it and the CR-ROM are new to me. I may have missed things, but I do believe that I have accurately reported what I have seen and found. Rich payner@netcom.com -- -- -- ============================================================ "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" Author unknown ============================================================ Robert K. Rouse rkrouse@netcom.com ============================================================