By placing Microsoft's gigantic Encarta reference set on a DVD instead of a stack of six CDs, Bill Gates' software wizards offer elementary and high school students learning tools that play on the computer screen more like a game than a mere encyclopedia.
Even though DVD drives have been commonplace on PCs for several years, precious few software products take advantage of the huge amount of storage space available on these 4.7 gigabyte platters.
Encarta 2004 shows what we're missing.
Encarta on DVD means users get spared maddening prompts to feed yet another CD into the drive to pursue multimedia assets like movies, music and graphics.
Furthermore, DVD storage lets the new digital encyclopedia offer an addicting collection of "fly over" lessons in which a learner gets taken on a ride over the terrain of such attractions as the town of Pompeii before the volcano erupted.
The bulked-up disc also delivers streaming video of programs created by the Discovery Channel to augment Encarta's offerings. Massive collections of sound files not only offer music from across the globe and throughout the ages but also demonstrate the instruments used to play it.
On-board language dictionaries permit translating articles from English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. The Literature Guide feature offers help on plots, meanings and other aspects of a wide variety of classical books, poems and plays.
VIRTUAL CONTEST FOR HORSE LOVERS: Pre-teen and early-teen girls remain America's least-tapped demographic for computer software.
Minnesota-based ValueSoft hopes to mine the market with "Let's Ride: Champions Collection," an interactive game that exploits young girls' fascination with horses.
A player will feel like Elizabeth Taylor in "National Velvet" as she grooms, trains and walks a collection of equines. Games are won on the basis of dressage, cross-country riding and show jumping.
