Re: [PAF] Multimedia files organization

["Thomas B. Lerman" <Thomas_Lerman@yahoo.com>]

Thank you for trying to still things up a little Cheryl. I would not suggest
advocating the devil <big grin>. So far, it appears to be a very quiet list.
An example would not contain all of the different options, just one of each
(directory and file) option such as: c:\images\death\r0047.tif indicating a
death certificate for RIN 47. I guessing you were being a little facetious.

Thomas

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cheryl Singhal" <csinghal@CapAccess.org>
To: "Thomas B. Lerman" <Thomas_Lerman@yahoo.com>
Cc: <paf@innernet.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 1973 18:15
Subject: Re: [PAF] Multimedia files organization


> On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Thomas B. Lerman wrote:
>
> > Thank you Cheryl and Dave for your comments. Here are my thoughts on
your
> > comments and I am still looking for more comments.
> >
> > I feel that disk space is cheap enough that I can include scanned in
images,
> > yet keep hard copies. This has the advantages of both worlds. At this
point,
> > my options seem to be the following:
> > 1)    No soft copy of many things (Cheryl)
>
> No, not quite.  I have lots of "soft" copies which were made for the sole
> purpose of e-mailing to someone or putting on-line.  And occasionally,
> one *can* twiddle the contrast enough to make an almost-illegible
> document almost-legible.  I discourage the practice now epidemic of
> keeping ONLY digital copies.  It isn't a question of IF something goes
> electronically wrong, it's only a question of How Soon.
>
> And then there's the issue of the social value of sitting with an album
> in your lap paging through it with the grandkids.  Somehow kids actually
> do notice that this photo is more yellow than that, or that one is on
> heavy cardboard.  That is lost on a monitor.  And, having all too
> frequently needed to look up something within minutes of turning the
> computer off, I can only imagine how frustating it would get to have to
> have the computer on to recheck a death certificate.
>
> (You see, when we first got a scanner, I actually tried a lot of this;
> lost 85M of digital data when a ZIP disc developed amnesia, another 120M
> when something technical went wrong with a disc partition during defrag;
> I currently have, I think, 5 copies of 20 photos cluttering up the HD
> because I keep forgetting to dele 'em from the scanner directory and not
> remembering what name I saved 'em under -- or if I saved them.  I am not
> looking forward to sitting there while each file loads, writing down the
> name and description, and then loading another file, so I can see if it's
> the same file.  Unless you are 1000% organized, and NEVER EVER have to
> leave something in the middle (say the phone rings, or the smoke alarm
> goes off, or the spouse needs you to hold the ladder, or the drier
> buzzed), you will sooner or later end up doing massive amounts of
> housekeeping.)
>
> > 2)    Everything in one directory
>
> Makes it easy to find.
>
>
> > 3)    Directories divided up by surname (actual surname or soundex?)
>
> Depends.  Do you have any surnames that share a soundex?  If not, and if
> you're back at least 6 generations, Soundex has possibilities.  But ...
> an awful lot of surnames share a Soundex -- Crosby, Cresap, and Crazy
> Bull all turn up in the same Soundex code.
>
> > 4)    Directories divided up by image type (photographs, birth
certificates,
> > marriage certificates, etc.)
>
> OK, maybe regimented is a better word than organized. (g)
>
>
>
> > Then after the directory, come up with a filename format that contains
the
> > following elements:
> > 1)    Individual or family (marriage identification)
> >     a) RIN or MRIN (Dave and actually is what I am currently doing.
However,
> > the thing that I am concerned about is if during merges or anything
else,
> > the RIN/MRIN changes. Also, this may not make any sense to anyone else).
> > Family information would probably be stored with a MRIN.
>
> It's the merges and upgrading that will kill this.  ESPECIALLY if you
> have to use GEDCOM to migrate data for any reason.
>
> >     b)    Surname and/or firstname (either actual or soundex)
> > 2)    Image type. Such as photo, birth/marriage/death certificate,
social
> > security application, immigration/naturalization record, etc.
> >
> > Any thoughts??? Yes, I am trying to get more response from this.
>
> Hmmmm.... so a typical path might go:
>
> C:\images\birthcertificates\thomas\MRIN4325ThomasSteve.tiff
> or
> C:\images\immigration\RIN4371\GetzdannerGustav1.tiff
>
> Or worse yet
> C:\paf5\data\THOMAS\images\birthcertificates\ThomasSteve\R8765Minn.tiff
>
>
> Yes, I'm being Devil's Advocate here, hoping to stir the rest of you up
> some. (g)
>
> Cheryl
>
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