Can you imagine if the Journal...

[Mike Imbler]

Hi - I'm just a non-technician lurker, but I would like to point out the
benefits of your disseminating technical information.  I enjoy knowing about
piano technology even though I do not entertain thoughts of maintaining my
own piano (let alone someone else's). Knowledge gained here and elsewhere
gave me the confidence to commission the rebuilding of a non-playing Steinway
B.  As you know, this requires serious cash (at least to me!).  I gained
by obtaining a unique and beautiful playing instrument, and the industry
gained by my business, and my willingness (after reading these many threads)
to have the piano maintained at the level it deserves.  Quite frankly, even
though I have a technical background (20 years in mechanical engineering),
without forums like this and the published literature available, I would not
have had the confidence to commit to this course, and would have purchased
a new or close-to-new Yamaha or Kawai grand.  That isn't all bad, but it
wouldn't support the technician industry as well, and I would not have as
good an instrument as I do.  To sum up, this kind of discourse allows me to
communicate much better with my technician, and we both benefit from that.
By the way, Marty Hess in Wichita, KS did a beautiful job rebuilding the piano!
I know this is a technical forum, but thought the perceptions of a customer
might be of use.  I'll now retire to my lurking lair!
                           Regards,  Mike Imbler
At 05:40 AM 11/18/96 +0000, you wrote:
>The whole point of putting PTGJ on a CD ROM is the availability of the
>information in a quick, easy, and complete (what, 40 years worth?) fashion.
>Copying the entire CD to floppies would not be common, but individual
>articles could easily be transfered. Copying the entire CD to a hard disk (if
>you have a CD ROM, you've got a hard disk) is a matter of a few minutes wait.
>One of the main reasons to have a CD ROM is that MS Office installs in an
>hour and a half by floppy, and 10 minutes by CD ROM.
>
>I don't think royalties on copyrights are a big problem. The PTG wouldn't be
>killed by losing out an a few subscriptions to the journal it probably
>wouldn't get anyway.
>
>THE question is: Do we want every scrap of technical info we have on a medium
>where it can be shared with the entire world?
>
>Like all things in life, there is a good side and a bad side. Good: we get
>the info readily available. Bad: someone will probably get a hold of _some_
>information and ruin a (potentialy) good piano.
>
>Knowing the nature of PTG progress, we aren't ready to do anything about it
>for a while, and besides, I don't think Steve Brady's wife wants him to spend
>all that time retyping those old articles. {BTW, thanks to Steve and his wife
>for the time, effort, and good results on the journal}
>
>Dave Stocker, RPT
>firtree@aol.com
>Tumwater, WA
>
>In a message dated 96-11-17 17:14:12 EST, you write:
>
><< A CDRoom holds 650 megabites of data--not so easy to copy as it would take
> 452 diskettes.
>
> At 12:43 PM 11/16/96 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> >Regarding proposition to put PRG Journal on CD-ROM:
> >On Sat, 16 Nov 1996, Don Rose wrote:
> >
> >>Not so easy to copy if it were on CDROM(s)
> >
> >Don,
> > >>
>
>