RadioReference CDROM

[LarryN]

Lindsay,

Personally I would not buy one. I do not travel enough to justify $120 per year. I did loose my HD last week while making a rare trip. I would have liked to have a backup so that I could still work with until I had everything up and working. Dell did not send all the required drivers needed to restore my system.

As far as capitalism goes, I will support anything that you do that will get you closer to working the DB full time and supporting your great wife and kids. I know that you put a ton of time in just trying to break even in this enterprise.

 

[kikito]

Some of you keep mentioning the "$120/year".....

Remember that you don't have to buy every single CD, every single quarter. In fact, you don't have to buy any CD's if you don't want to....

I personally think I'll buy it once a year, just to keep a "hard copy" of the stuff in here so to speak. Which is what I used to do with Police Call books anyway and the stuff offered here beats the pants off the now-defunct Police Call! (With all due respect to Police Call and what it did and meant to our hobby).

In the past few years especially, publications like Police Call books where only updated once a year for a specific region individually (not nationwide) and not much would change from book to book and people would still buy them without much or any complain. So the argument of some people about the CD's being outdated after 3 months or so doesn't "hold much water" in my opinion....


In the end, to each his own....

 

[pfish]

Folks,

The exact same features that you have today would be available, including the XML interface which would work with existing software like Butel and WinXX applications. It would just run off of the CDROM.

Can you elaborate on this? Would you be including:

1) SQL dump of RRdb
2) PHP source code for the web interface
3) and any other utils, such as the xmlrpc libs?

 

[jparks29]

a downloadable CD image of the backup of the site is the only way I'd purchase the "CD"

 

[blantonl]

Can you elaborate on this? Would you be including:

1) SQL dump of RRdb

Possibly... I am still evaluating.

2) PHP source code for the web interface

Definitely not. The PHP source code for the web interface is RadioReference.com's intellectual property. If we released the CDROM then you would receive PHP sources (by the very nature of PHP) however they would be unusable, unredable, and extremely difficult to reverse engineer.

3) and any other utils, such as the xmlrpc libs?

If you mean the Web service, yes, the web service would be made available if we decided to release a CDROM. It would serve up the XML just like the Web service does today.

 

[b52hbuff]

CDROM and print media processes are extrememly resource intensive from a distribution perspective. I'm still evaulating pricing for a potentional release, however one doesn't have to purchase every quarter's release. Remember that I would be responsible for managing payments, mailing, and all handling for how many CDROMs sold.

I think $30 is more than fair. I really appreciate the resources on this site. I've learned a lot from others and I have profiles for systems I'd never have time to map out myself.

I agree that the physical distribution can be expensive. I just wanted to reiterate that I'd be happy with the ability to d/l an iso file for the CD. I think that would shift costs from labor to bandwidth. And bandwidth cost doesn't detract from family time.

I'd probably buy 1-2 versions per year...

What else might be included? Excatly how big are the forums?

 

[pacrat551]

Some of you keep mentioning the "$120/year".....

Remember that you don't have to buy every single CD, every single quarter. In fact, you don't have to buy any CD's if you don't want to....

I personally think I'll buy it once a year, just to keep a "hard copy" of the stuff in here so to speak. Which is what I used to do with Police Call books anyway and the stuff offered here beats the pants off the now-defunct Police Call! (With all due respect to Police Call and what it did and meant to our hobby).

In the past few years especially, publications like Police Call books where only updated once a year for a specific region individually (not nationwide) and not much would change from book to book and people would still buy them without much or any complain. So the argument of some people about the CD's being outdated after 3 months or so doesn't "hold much water" in my opinion....


In the end, to each his own....

I agree with kikito. I think most of you are missing the point here. You COULD buy the CD each quarter and pay 120.00 per year, but I would buy at least 1 CD a year just to have a back up for travel. As is now, I have to print out a copy of a particular county or trunk system and take it with me. If I had it all on CD, it would save me the trouble. You may miss out on some updates but thats the nice thing about it, update every 3 months instead of once a year (police call) for you to choose when to buy a CD.

 

[AZScanner]

Shoot, I'll buy the first edition just so I can frame it up on the wall and tell the grandkids "back in my day we had these cool gadgets called scanners.... they're illegal now of course, but back then they weren't - and we used to keep a database of all the frequencies and systems used all over the world. It was great fun. Of course fun is illegal now, but back then...."
-AZ

 

[pfish]

Definitely not. The PHP source code for the web interface is RadioReference.com's intellectual property. If we released the CDROM then you would receive PHP sources (by the very nature of PHP) however they would be unusable, unredable, and extremely difficult to reverse engineer.

So you'd do something like Zend?

 

[blantonl]

Zend's product is very expensive, and there are alternatives... however, yes, something like Zend... ;-)

 

[bluesman905]

Some of you keep mentioning the "$120/year".....

Remember that you don't have to buy every single CD, every single quarter. In fact, you don't have to buy any CD's if you don't want to....

If I had one i would want it up to date. That could potentialy add up to $120 a year.
Your correct in reminding us that we don't have to buy them if we don't want them...but that was the initial question asked was it not?

 

[bluesman905]

Just out of interest would these be available to non-subscribers?

 

[blantonl]

They would be available to anyone.

 

[fmon]

If I had one i would want it up to date. That could potentialy add up to $120 a year.
Your correct in reminding us that we don't have to buy them if we don't want them...but that was the initial question asked was it not?

Na Simon, you won't have any serious changes every quarter to justify the expenditure. Most you can keep up with via the database page. I'll buy at best, once a year or maybe every two years. But, I certainly want one in my Laptop case during travel, even if it may be slightly incorrect in some areas. Heck, the database isn't correct in all areas.

 

[bluesman905]

They would be available to anyone.

Thats great, it gives one the option of getting the service one way or the other without having to pay for both.

 

[blantonl]

That is right, and I might even throw in a quarterly subscription for those that aren't members.

 

[bluesman905]

Na Simon, you won't have any serious changes every quarter to justify the expenditure.

Ya man your probably right, once they were released and out there i would likely grab one. Gotta keep up with the Jones's eh

 

[Chrome69]

so would the CD work with the ARC software but without the internet connection? Is that possible?

 

[hotdjdave]

so would the CD work with the ARC software but without the internet connection? Is that possible?

Folks, The exact same features that you have today would be available, including the XML interface which would work with existing software like Butel and WinXX applications. It would just run off of the CDROM.

Note: Butel makes the ARC software.

 

[FLANO]

Here is another reason why the cost presented for the CD model doesn't make sense to me. I found this site quite by accident while searching for the archived site of Radio Reference, so that I could get those 10 systems back that have sent in letters Lindsay to have it removed from RR It creates a CD of the entire site for you, and will even keep up with the changes. No, I haven't tried this, but just pointing out that the technology exists to reduce the yearly cost, yet still make the needed money to make it worth the energy to do...

http://www.bluesquirrel.com/product...l?ASCID=1161&gclid=CIDokNCB3oYCFSRKWAodIVis2w

John
SE of Tucson

I'm not a fan of $30.00 per quarter, but the $50.00 idea per year as an entire package with downloadable updates, if possible, will incite me to part with my money. As of now, I simply don't need the extra capabilities offered on the site, but can find more reason to part with the money if the deal made sense.

John
SE of Tucson