Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy 3.0 (Netter Basic Science) Review

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(More customer reviews)Public spirited as I am, I'd like to warn everybody about the disastrous CD, "Netter's Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy, v. 3.0", which set me back forty bucks and is useless.
It's not the content, but the delivery. The eighth grade programmers who Elsevier hired to design the disk made it runnable only from the CD, not the pc hard drive. You can't copy the files to the pc, tweak the registry, redirect the D: drive with a SUBST command, or any of that. The program probably looks for a GUID in the CD boot block, which can't be faked on the C: drive.
The disk is designed for heavy interaction (note the "Interactive" in the title!), but the program doesn't seem to cache anything. Every time you click something, the program hits the CD drive. If you click away like you're supposed to, the motor keeps running. In other words, your CD motor will run the entire time you're using this disk. If you're looking for a way to burn out your motor, this disk is it.
I called the programming group in charge of it and spoke to Customer Disservice. The guy was surprisingly candid and said they had received this complaint several times before. Well, duh! Another reviewer has commented that the CD presented no problem to him because he was able to use some software tools to get the CD onto his hard drive. Well, that's great if you're a computer nerd or are willing to hire one, but most of you would rather spend your time studying anatomy, not concocting workarounds for a user-unfriendly disc. The software industry figured out years ago, after many experiments with copy protection schemes, that the best way to protect profits was to keep the product cost low and the revisions frequent. Too bad the textbook publishing industry hasn't caught up, so their obsession with preventing illegal copying comes at great inconvenience to their customers.
I didn't get into the content at all, because I just couldn't stand the sound of my motor running that long. Note, however, that the reviews of the previous version of this disc are overwhelmingly negative, based on content.
In general, I have found that the CDs which accompany textbooks are a waste. Netter's Interactive Atlas of Human Anatomy v. 3.0 is no exception.

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