Semi-OT: Sony Data Discman

From: Jim Kearney <jim_at_jkearney.com>
Date: Wed Jun 26 19:46:16 2002

>Question 2:
>Is the EBXA/EBG format used by these things a completely dead technology or
what? I can't seem to find any of
>this type electronic book for sale, not even used. My Googling turns up
results about the sort of e-book you download
>as a PDF, not the actual mini-cdrom-caddy things used by this gadget.

I think you're very unlikely to find much of anything. My company ported
our retrieval software (CD Answer) to it for Sony because their built-in
search functionality was too limited for larger databases and, as I recall,
the data formats were very closed and very specific to that device. They
didn't sell many at all, and in fact a couple of years later tried to unload
truckloads of them to us for use in retrieval applications. Unfortunately
the CPU was so slow, and the memory so limited that we really couldn't use
them. Also, even when it worked the screen sucked.

There was also a more capable model, the Bookman, but it didn't do so well
either.

IIRC, the only software I saw was a dictionary/thesaurus disc, and some sort
of traveler's guide disc. I think there was a disc with a bunch of public
domain literature, too.

Jim
Received on Wed Jun 26 2002 - 19:46:16 BST