[Color Computer] Re: [CoCo] sidetracks

[Lothan]

I know what you mean, Mike. It would be really nice to be able to drop a
credit card through a secure server and receive instant gratification... I
mean immediately download a CD-ROM image or ZIP file.

Unfortunately, I suspect the costs far outweigh the benefits. Your first
expense is wrangling up a reliable hosting company with lots of bandwidth
for such a large download. Your second cost is obtaining certificates for
SSL to enable secure credit card transactions. The most expensive cost is
wrangling up a secure merchant service (e.g. Verisign), a reliable credit
card processor (e.g. Vital, PaymentTech, or NDC eCommerce) and hooking it up
to your Internet merchant account at your bank.

Most of these involve monthly "subscription" fees as well as per-transaction
fees that really add up over time and may require a one-year commitment.
PayPal is a little more, but it's a heckuva lot cheaper.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com]
> On Behalf Of Michael Wayne Harwood
> Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 6:09 AM
> To: ColorComputer at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Color Computer] Re: [CoCo] sidetracks
> 
> The bottom line for me is that I am doing this primarily to archive the
> Rainbow, and following very closely in second place is being able to make
> this available to the general public.
> 
> I think the wisest course of action for me is to make the following
> formats available, with other options (higher quality .pdfs across
> multiple DVDs, a set of the original scans, etc) open to discussion if
> specifically requested:
> 
> Option 1: Single DVD in the .pdf format (image only .pdf)
> Option 2: Single DVD in the .djvu format (image only .djvu)
> 
> I like the idea of a "downloadable" online store in theory, but there are
> the issues of cost to contend with.  I could not host a decent site on my
> Linux server at home on the other side of my 384kbs uplink so hosting
> would need to be acquired, and the other hidden costs like SSL certs would
> add up quickly.
> 
> As a fun side note I wanted to say that I love Imagemagick!  I scripted a
> "cleanup" job that runs through all the orginal scans and removes
> yellowing quite nicely!
> 
> Regards,
> Michael Harwood
> 
> > For all my friends who are wrangling over file format, etc. :  please,
> > let's not miss the forest for the trees.
> >
> > Stop a moment and think about what has been proposed.  Michael Harwood
> > obtained a license agreement from Lonnie to republish Rainbow in
> > digital format.  Rainbow is THE Color Computer magazine.  It cost $3.95
> > a copy ( the fatter  ones, anyway), and still did not have the reader
> > base that it could have.  Why?  Because of the demographics of the CoCo
> > community.  Remember...
> >
> > I saw my options for a computer in terms of affordability.  I wanted
> > the most advanced machine I could get, but was limited with my
> > finances.  I would have gone with a Mac, but they cost too much at the
> > time.  So I chose the CoCo.  I bought  a machine.  I used a TV for a
> > monitor.  I used a GE cassette player to save and load programs.
> > Little by little I expanded the machine's peripherals.  Why?  I
> > couldn't afford to do otherwise.
> >
> > I have sat back and watched this debate turn into something akin to a
> > religious war.  Perhaps the CoCo community is now so financially mature
> > that nobody considers cost to be much of an issue.  The Rainbow was
> > around for 12 years (volumes).  Much has been said about issuing the
> > entire collection on one DVD -- the arguments about file format
> > originally revolved around size.  But ... if you had the choice of
> > buying one DVD at, say $60 plus shipping, or individually purchasing
> > the volumes over time ( at say, $6 each plus shipping -- Michael will
> > be the ultimate judge of the end cost of each DVD ), which would you
> > choose?
> >
> > If you are still of the CoCo mindset -- get started, add to your
> > collection as you can -- you may prefer to buy your Rainbow as separate
> > volume issues.  A tad more expensive that way, but more likely to
> > produce a higher number of sales.  I, personally, have no need to buy a
> > Rainbow DVD.  I have nearly all the issues, because I took advantage of
> > Lonnie's offer before he closed shop to buy the back issues I was
> > missing.  I'm still missing a few issues, and would probably buy the
> > volumes that contained those.
> >
> > Michael, I would suggest that you poll the community in some way to
> > find out what they would buy.  Figure out the approximate cost of 1
> > DVD, and the approximate cost of a 12 volume set ( or maybe 10 volume
> > set, since the latter issues shrank considerably in number of pages),
> > and find out what your market base prefers.  If the larger portion of
> > your market would buy their Rainbow in a set on a per volume basis (
> > which I suspect might be the case), then those who want the whole thing
> > on one drive can copy each volume to a drive for that purpose.
> >
> > The main thing is to get the mags digitized and archived.  Twenty years
> > ago we didn't have DVDs, CDs, or solid state hard drives.  This whole
> > project will fit on a small iPod, regardless the file format.  The
> > technology of tomorrow will make the whole argument even sillier.  Why
> > not even offer the issues for download on a per issue cost, like the
> > iTunes music store, at 50 cents or 99 cents a pop?  I'll bet you'd sell
> > more that way than anything else.  Target your market.  Give it some
> > thought.
> >
> 
> 
> 
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