Some of the data itself is from the public record, but compiling all of it yourself would be prohibitively expensive. It would take many trips to various libraries, churches, courthouses, etc. in lots of far-flung places in different cities, states, and countries. And that's all before you start indexing, searching, copying, or scanning any records.
Then consider they're hosting all those billions of records, have developed decent software for both building family trees and documenting them with their database of sources, and continually improve their software and increase their database holdings. The only reason they can charge so little is the economy of scale based on their huge userbase.
Look again. I said I thought it was reasonable for them to charge something for the service of having collected, scanned, indexed and hosted the data. What I did imply was that I thought the charge was excessive for what they're doing. What you may not realize is that much of the work done to transcribe and index the data is done by volunteer labor, people who do it for the love of genealogy, or to help make data available, or because they then get some level of free access to it in recompense. It's not like Ancestry is paying people salary to do most of that work.
They incur expense in collecting each piece of data once. There is some small ongoing expense for hosting it, making it available, but they collect revenue for this endlessly on the same data. They're making sufficient profit to be able to buy out other companies on the market (most recently, Footnote.com was picked up) so I can reasonably assume they're fairly flush with cash.
It would be much more expensive to me to travel or snail mail to all of the places that hold data I am looking for, I'll grant. However, Ancestry's fees are high enough that I still can't afford to maintain a subscription, so the data is lost to me anyway. Couple that with my local Library's subscription to HeritageQuest database, which contains some of the same data sources, and now Ancestry gets no money from me at all instead of what they might get if the fees were lower. Yes, I miss some of what they have available that other sources do not, but this is a hobby, after all.
Actually, just creating and editing your family tree on Ancestry is completely free [custhelp.com]. And there's no limit to the number of people, AFAIK. The paid service is just for accessing their database of sources and connecting with other users who might have overlapping family trees.
Creating and editing the tree might be free, but Ancestry.com's whole appeal lies in the huge range of data they house, much of it gleaned from public records. I'm not against them charging some for the service of having scanned and indexed that data, and for operating the servers to host it, but in my opinion they're overcharging for that service based on our public data by a fair margin.
Frankly, it is, but for a rank beginner it lets them get in and figure out if the software and system will work for them for free. The first paid level ups that to 2500 people.
I started with MyHeritage back when it first came out. It was completely free for several years, and I got a pretty large database going before they moved to fee-based. So I'm stuck. I like their software, and the services they have are worthwhile in my experience. When I can afford it, I'll pony up the money to keep going. My data is still there, just no one can access any more than 250 people. The software on my PC still works fine and I have local access to the full database, in fact I can keep adding to it.
I would recommend it even though the service is now fee-based.
Another Library possibility is a database called HeritageQuest. My local library doesn't have Ancestry.com, though I've requested it, but they DO have HeritageQuest which sometimes has better document images, sometimes not.
Yeah, they offer it. But PAF is about the worst software out there now for this sort of work, in my opinion. LDS is great for collecting and hosting the data, don't get me wrong, but they really need to ditch PAF and make a modern software.
Ancestry.com also has loads of military records from colonial times to WWII and later, and lots of records from overseas censuses and such as well. Overseas data requires the pricier World Subscription. If you keep an eye out, they occasionally offer free access to some databases for limited periods of time. This year they had free access to all military records for about a week around Veterans Day.
Hey OP, if all you found was addresses on Ancestry.com, then you're not making any effort to find information. They do have metric boatloads of data of all sorts for your money, but you do have to have a clue about finding it, and make the effort.
That said, I do agree Ancestry.com is a pricey service. Check out MyHeritage.com. You can do a free 250-person tree, or add more with payment. The software is a free download and use, and is pretty thorough. The online piece includes the ability to match to other people's trees and import their data to your tree.
Not until the 32 bit era (68000 Amiga, 80486 +SoundBlaster) did they have enough power to convert text to speech.
Sure they did. I attended a demo of the technology in 1978 or so. Sounded much like the Wargames computer, but it definitely was not a small personal computer doing the work.
Indeed! The 80's graphics were state of the art at the time. Remember, there's been nearly 30 years of rapid advancement in computer graphics! Back then, there was nothing even close to Tron's CG effects.
Kind of like saying awesomely bad 1920's automobiles...
What will short people sit on now? Catalogs have been gone for years now, leaving the phone book as the only sizable, readily-available booster seat...
Maybe because in addition to correcting the spelling, which is noble enough, it's profane and personally attacking, inviting some form of response, thus qualifying as a troll?
Land ownership is a bogus concept for the individual, at least. Don't believe me? Try not paying your taxes and see how long you keep 'your' land. The government owns it.
Stipulated, there are a lot of people who really do need the scripted flow.
However, the language barrier makes it harder for the support worker to determine when that script can be dispensed with. If we're having difficulty with basic communication, how can you tell if I'm saavy enough to move past the script?
Mod up! The biggest pain of outsourced tech support has got to be the language/accent barrier. Right after that would be heavily scripted workflow, forcing me to work through possibilities I've already eliminated just so the support worker can follow their script.
I think we should give the OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he's got his family onboard with the idea. Assuming so, do (all of you expressing negative opinions of the OP's idea) have anything constructive to add, or are (all of you) just into expressing your opinion regardless of whether it solves the problem as requested?
There are many tools in the world that can have catastrophic consequences in the wrong hands, do we outlaw most of them outright? No.
Tools with those sorts of consequences also carry much more stringent checks and balances. The way everyone keeps trying to deploy RFID solutions has virtually no security and lacks any transparency that could be used to check and balance potential abuses of power/control.
Just because it hasn't already been used for nefarious purposes (and we don't know that for certain, do we? We just haven't seen public reports of it...) doesn't mean it can't and won't be done in the future. That guy's argument is as bogus as the "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" crap spouted by those who want to spy on everyone.
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What a dumb question. The mass media have been consolidating for DECADES.
Some of the data itself is from the public record, but compiling all of it yourself would be prohibitively expensive. It would take many trips to various libraries, churches, courthouses, etc. in lots of far-flung places in different cities, states, and countries. And that's all before you start indexing, searching, copying, or scanning any records.
Then consider they're hosting all those billions of records, have developed decent software for both building family trees and documenting them with their database of sources, and continually improve their software and increase their database holdings. The only reason they can charge so little is the economy of scale based on their huge userbase.
Look again. I said I thought it was reasonable for them to charge something for the service of having collected, scanned, indexed and hosted the data. What I did imply was that I thought the charge was excessive for what they're doing. What you may not realize is that much of the work done to transcribe and index the data is done by volunteer labor, people who do it for the love of genealogy, or to help make data available, or because they then get some level of free access to it in recompense. It's not like Ancestry is paying people salary to do most of that work.
They incur expense in collecting each piece of data once. There is some small ongoing expense for hosting it, making it available, but they collect revenue for this endlessly on the same data. They're making sufficient profit to be able to buy out other companies on the market (most recently, Footnote.com was picked up) so I can reasonably assume they're fairly flush with cash.
It would be much more expensive to me to travel or snail mail to all of the places that hold data I am looking for, I'll grant. However, Ancestry's fees are high enough that I still can't afford to maintain a subscription, so the data is lost to me anyway. Couple that with my local Library's subscription to HeritageQuest database, which contains some of the same data sources, and now Ancestry gets no money from me at all instead of what they might get if the fees were lower. Yes, I miss some of what they have available that other sources do not, but this is a hobby, after all.
Actually, just creating and editing your family tree on Ancestry is completely free [custhelp.com]. And there's no limit to the number of people, AFAIK. The paid service is just for accessing their database of sources and connecting with other users who might have overlapping family trees.
Creating and editing the tree might be free, but Ancestry.com's whole appeal lies in the huge range of data they house, much of it gleaned from public records. I'm not against them charging some for the service of having scanned and indexed that data, and for operating the servers to host it, but in my opinion they're overcharging for that service based on our public data by a fair margin.
I agree! Which is why I can't believe how many people are suggesting PAF as a viable answer to the OP.
If I had points, I'd mod you up. Spot on.
Frankly, it is, but for a rank beginner it lets them get in and figure out if the software and system will work for them for free. The first paid level ups that to 2500 people.
I started with MyHeritage back when it first came out. It was completely free for several years, and I got a pretty large database going before they moved to fee-based. So I'm stuck. I like their software, and the services they have are worthwhile in my experience. When I can afford it, I'll pony up the money to keep going. My data is still there, just no one can access any more than 250 people. The software on my PC still works fine and I have local access to the full database, in fact I can keep adding to it.
I would recommend it even though the service is now fee-based.
Another Library possibility is a database called HeritageQuest. My local library doesn't have Ancestry.com, though I've requested it, but they DO have HeritageQuest which sometimes has better document images, sometimes not.
Yeah, they offer it. But PAF is about the worst software out there now for this sort of work, in my opinion. LDS is great for collecting and hosting the data, don't get me wrong, but they really need to ditch PAF and make a modern software.
Ancestry.com also has loads of military records from colonial times to WWII and later, and lots of records from overseas censuses and such as well. Overseas data requires the pricier World Subscription. If you keep an eye out, they occasionally offer free access to some databases for limited periods of time. This year they had free access to all military records for about a week around Veterans Day.
Hey OP, if all you found was addresses on Ancestry.com, then you're not making any effort to find information. They do have metric boatloads of data of all sorts for your money, but you do have to have a clue about finding it, and make the effort.
That said, I do agree Ancestry.com is a pricey service. Check out MyHeritage.com. You can do a free 250-person tree, or add more with payment. The software is a free download and use, and is pretty thorough. The online piece includes the ability to match to other people's trees and import their data to your tree.
For that matter, my Intellivision game console had the speech synth add-on and three games with synthesized speech. IIRC that had an early 16-bit CPU.
Not until the 32 bit era (68000 Amiga, 80486 +SoundBlaster) did they have enough power to convert text to speech.
Sure they did. I attended a demo of the technology in 1978 or so. Sounded much like the Wargames computer, but it definitely was not a small personal computer doing the work.
Indeed! The 80's graphics were state of the art at the time. Remember, there's been nearly 30 years of rapid advancement in computer graphics! Back then, there was nothing even close to Tron's CG effects. Kind of like saying awesomely bad 1920's automobiles...
What will short people sit on now? Catalogs have been gone for years now, leaving the phone book as the only sizable, readily-available booster seat...
Maybe because in addition to correcting the spelling, which is noble enough, it's profane and personally attacking, inviting some form of response, thus qualifying as a troll?
Land ownership is a bogus concept for the individual, at least. Don't believe me? Try not paying your taxes and see how long you keep 'your' land. The government owns it.
As I expected, but if one never tries, it will never get better.
Stipulated, there are a lot of people who really do need the scripted flow. However, the language barrier makes it harder for the support worker to determine when that script can be dispensed with. If we're having difficulty with basic communication, how can you tell if I'm saavy enough to move past the script?
Mod up! The biggest pain of outsourced tech support has got to be the language/accent barrier. Right after that would be heavily scripted workflow, forcing me to work through possibilities I've already eliminated just so the support worker can follow their script.
I think we should give the OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he's got his family onboard with the idea. Assuming so, do (all of you expressing negative opinions of the OP's idea) have anything constructive to add, or are (all of you) just into expressing your opinion regardless of whether it solves the problem as requested?
There are many tools in the world that can have catastrophic consequences in the wrong hands, do we outlaw most of them outright? No.
Tools with those sorts of consequences also carry much more stringent checks and balances. The way everyone keeps trying to deploy RFID solutions has virtually no security and lacks any transparency that could be used to check and balance potential abuses of power/control.
Perhaps, but since we've now pulled all of the combat troops from Iraq, maybe we could shift that to Afghanistan?
Not a single one, per the article you cite. Not even just the aircraft, without spares, etc.
That's a surefire way to get the public to vote no on every funding levy for the next 30 years. I've seen it happen with a $40M school.
Just because it hasn't already been used for nefarious purposes (and we don't know that for certain, do we? We just haven't seen public reports of it...) doesn't mean it can't and won't be done in the future. That guy's argument is as bogus as the "If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" crap spouted by those who want to spy on everyone.