Wikipedia Releases Offline CD

An anonymous reader writes "WikipediaOnDVD, with cooperation with the Wikipedia community, has released its first offline test version. The articles were selected by Wikipedians and reviewed for accuracy, vandalism, and importance. Nearly 2,000 core Wikipedia articles will be sold on compact disc to give people without a net connection access to highlights of the popular web resource. The CD can be purchased or downloaded online via their site or the torrent."

Is there a pool going yet?

[zappepcs]

I pick 77 as the number of articles on the CD that will be wrong

Someone tell them

[MouseR]

[...] to give people without a net connection access to highlights [...]. The CD can be purchased or downloaded online [...]

Now that's a hefty business plan.

Re:Is there a pool going yet?

[Bazman]

If only they released it on CD-RW, that number could go down. Or up, more likely.

Re:No net connection?

[soundhack]

This reminds me of a retail cd drive that came with no printed installation instructions, the manual was on a CD.

hmmm....

[BenSchuarmer]

Wikipedia without accuracy or vandalism problems... What fun is that?!?!?

Re:No net connection?

[HTH NE1]

This reminds me of a retail cd drive that came with no printed installation instructions, the manual was on a CD.

Let me guess: it contained a PDF containing a single word: "Congratulations".

Its a writable CD

[Timesprout]

so you can edit it. Also it will only work if you place it in a publically accessible network drive so others can make changes too.

Re:shouldn't it be wikipedia on CD?

[MightyYar]

Wikipedia on CD was already taken by a guy providing only 1.44 MB floppy images.

Great!

[roelbj]

Now my information can be wrong AND outdated.

Re:Someone tell them

[BinaryPower]

What is this...offline?

Re:shouldn't it be wikipedia on CD?

[morgan_greywolf]

Wikipedia on CD was already taken by a guy providing only 1.44 MB floppy images.

Patrick Volkerding? Is that you?

Re:Someone tell them

[jellomizer]

Look here for the answer [wikipedia.org]

Re:Is there a pool going yet?

[just_another_sean]

One Dollar! One Dollar Bob!

Yeah, Yeah come on... Oh, wait, what... number of wrong articles?

Ummm... nevermind.

The real answer:

[Kadin2048]

If somebody has 15 minutes of net connection, would he look at live versions of Wikipedia articles for those 15 minutes, or would he spend 15 minutes buying the disc to take home to use on his own computer without an Internet connection?

They'd spend 15 minutes looking at pornography.

Re:A little disappointed

[Jules Mercuri]

I can do you one better. [wikipedia.org]
Personally, I think it's great. Makes you think, if the Knuckles article is 10 pages long, how many pages is the rest of the sum of all knowledge?

Re:I don't get it.

[Anonymous Coward]

>That in five minutes you COULDN'T care less about. Don't use a phrase if you don't know how to use it.

You fail it.

If you don't understand the language completely, you don't get to complain.

Both are perfectly valid turns of phrase. One American, one British.

Could care less: I am so uninterested that while I could care less about the subject, I'm not even bothered to that point. Also, I am so interested that I care about the subject, therefore proving I could care less.

Couldn't care less: I am so uninterested that my caring level is at zero. Also, I am so interested that caring less would be physically impossible.

Both are correct and incorrect at the same time.

Yes, it's on the list of English [wsu.edu] errors. That in itself is an error, as the author is American. He needs to read up on his English history a bit, perhaps? alt.usage.english [alt-usage-english.org] beat him to the punch on this one. Oddly enough, this clearly prescriptive English teacher is pro [wsu.edu] ending sentences in prepositions. How contradictory. He does agree he is fighting a losing battle [voanews.com] on it (One he lost BEFORE he put up the website, ironically).

Irregardless [m-w.com], I ain't [m-w.com] wrong. Here's some [bartleby.com] more [umich.edu] references [upenn.edu] on [reference.com] the [upenn.edu] matter [worldwidewords.org]. Cheap at half the price, I tell you!

BTW: This topic truly is important to me, I couldn't care less about it, so don't ask me to. I could care less for rants about it, though, but sometimes I miss them. :-P

Teach, where's my gold star?