****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
To be honest I didn't know that this set even existed until last month. I've been a huge Bob Dylan collector for more than 5 years now and since I've finished completing his discography both on CDs and vinyls and I'm also almost done with all the available bootleg shows, I thought to myself: why not start on magazines? There were a lot of fanzines, like The Telegraph, ISIS, etc... and there's this Rolling Stone, which is a legendary magazine itself. I wanted to try to dig out all those RS that had Dylan on cover - or inside. Knew it's going to be 1) almost impossible to do, 2) probably I can't afford it even if I find all those ooooold issues. BUT why not give it a try. I bought a few RS on British E-bay and was looking for more here on Amazon. Didn't find too many, but I came across this set. Checked what this is about and was like WOOWW! A 200+ beautifully published book and 3 dvds consisting of each and every Rolling Stone page from its beginnings to the 40th anniversary. And all that for less than[...]! Plus a free subscription coupon!! (I live outside the US so I can't use it, but I sent it as a gift to a friend in Texas). So here I was, ordering this set to Poland for just 65 bucks including shipping. It arrived in a nice bag about 10 days later. Installed it on my computer and started strolling through those historical pages. Someone did a really great job! And it must have been hard work at the same time, imagine scanning every single page out of around 1000 issues. Ok, maybe not that bad as we already live in a digital era, but surely the earlier issues have been scanned page by page, as there surely hasn't been any digital vault for them. It even looks vintage - first issues are a little yellowish, those scans I mean. Of course it would take a lifetime to go through all of them, but it's not the point. Rolling Stone has a kind of a special place in the US history and culture, so it's really great to have a chance to have it all on your shelve. Especially if you're 26 like me and just physically didn't have a chance to be ordering them when they were being released back in the Sixties. The set has got an easy to follow menu, so actually you can search any article / artist / topic you need in just a matter of seconds. It comes in a very good-looking box and is a really great addition to your book shelve. I'd really recommend it to anybody who's into the American music and culture... especially for that amount of money!! Hey, doesn't it mean that after all, a treasure can cost a bargain?!?!Hey, Columbia and your deluxe 3 CD Tell Tale Signs for [...] - why don't you take a good example here, huh????I just bought this, and luckily wasn't put off by others' negative comments. This is a fine product, and at the prices it's now selling for, a real bargain. I downloaded the patch from Bondi before purchasing, and the price was incredibly low. Thanks to the people who unfairly slammed it for that!It's very simple to install, and works flawlessly on Windows 7 Pro as long as you install the patch from the Bondi website (a few minutes with Google). The installation and patching took less than five minutes. It is almost certainly the same on other Win7 versions, and probably works just as well on Windows 8, though I haven't tried that yet (I will, for laptop). There's no need to run it as Administrator, and certainly no need for compatibility mode with XP or Vista, as other people have stated. The patch has no virus, as one person claims. There undoubtedly was a problem prior to Bondi making the patch available, but these recent negative reviews are more informative about the reviewers than they are about the product. Don't let them put you off.Copying all the Issues files to your X:\Program Files\Rolling Stone\Issues folder will avoid having to find/insert DVDs.This is a fine product, and at the prices it's now selling for, a real bargain.For the price, you can not beat this product. 40 years of the magazine including ads. I spent a few hours when I first got it and I already feel like I have my money's worth.Just to comment on three of the reviews I read here.1. If you can not read all the discs or the program works slowly, it is your system. PERIOD.2. If you can't find the way to copy the DVDs to your hard drive, you may want to give up on using a computer. Here's how you do it. Click on FILE and then select COPY DISC TO HARD DRIVE. Wow, that is SO COMPLICATED. Sorry for being so negative, but I am really disturbed by people who sit down to write a negative review when they didn't take the time to look into the problem, or when they are too "challanged" to understand it.3. If you are printing 2 pages on one 8/5" by 11" page, of course you can't read it. Change to "Read Mode" or "Page Mode" before you print and print one page on a page and you will be able to read it.Have every issue of Rolling Stone magazine for 40 years available to me in such a compact package is absolutely great. The interviews. The music reviews. Classic Hunter Thompson. Classic P.J. O'Rourke. Even a bit of Matt Taibbi. The coffee table book is very nice, as well. All together in a nice sturdy box.The only issue that I have is with the Bondi software. It takes a while to fire up in Windows XP. Also, if the DVD is already in my drive when the Bondi program is started, it won't recognize it. I have to eject the disc and re-insert it. There are other aspects to the software that irk me, but they are minor quibbles.For anyone who likes reading old Rolling Stone mags and has a decent computer, this is a great buy.Really cool to be able to read blasts from the past. Also, for what it's worth, I was able to run the Bondi software using a 32-bit Vista Home Premium guest O/S as a virtual machine in Virtual Box 4.0.4 and printing from the Bondi reader print icon with PDFCreator 1.7 inside of the guest O/S and transferring the PDFs via a Virtual Box Shared Folder (will not print 'All', but will print, this is a project in progress, printed PDF is way clearer than screen prints)I recently bought a copy of Rolling Stone Cover To Cover and had high expectations. I'm sure it's a great read, that's if you can read it. Despite having the recommended operating system and memory, the software need to access the discs failed to install. In fact it crashed my computer not once but twice! Support from the cover to cover website isn't great. A download of the required software would have helped. So it looks like I'll be returning the package and abandoning all hope of browsing Rolling Stone cover to cover.I still think this is a good idea, and a lot less expensive than buying hundreds of back issues of RS. But PLEASE somebody sort out the software before you put it on the market. Or make the content available in a format (PDF perhaps?) that's more accessible.From now on I'll be sticking with paper copies and spending my fifty quid refund on subscribing to Mojo and Shindig magazines.for those struggling to install the Bondi reader on a newer Mac; here's a success I had this week.-install crossover 16 program which allows windows programs to run on Mac.-create a bottle for xp or vista using crossover 16.-install Bondi reader using disc 1.-within the crossover app access c drive and as an option copy all your magazine files into the issues folder from the 3 discs 67-07; this saves having to use the discs again.-takes up 25 gig of space but works buttery smooth.Great item this cover to cover and the only way to access the full archives these days.Brilliant. I used to buy RS 30 years ago. Long since threw them out (to my past periodic regret). But bought this for a puny amount (especially given the cost of back issues) and now have easily accessible back catalogue of superb writing. I suspect the low price is due to the fact that the software is for Windows Vista or earlier OS. But the manufacturers (Bondi) have an easily downloadable patch which makes it work effortlessly with Windows 10.Did not arrive as promised, it had no accompanying book, very disappointedAl principio tuve un pequeño problema con la fecha de envío del producto, pero me puse en contacto con los vendedores y en poquísimo tiempo respondieron y lo enviaron, llegó mucho antes de lo esperado y sin ningún problema.El producto encaja perfectamente con la descripción a pesar de ser de segunda mano el interior que es lo importante, está en perfectas condiciones.
