Image stabilization in modern cameras is already tuned to the lens focal length. Perhaps we need a "# cups coffee / time since last cup" manual setting that gets incorporated into the algorithm. Of course, getting the software properly tuned requires experimental data, and I think one of the Hogs has already shown us he would be at the high end of consumption. Sign him up!!!

It sounds like you don't buy extended warrantees on some things, but you advise it for the coffee maker because of the pump. I have a lot of faith in electronics, a bit less in high precision mechanicals like hard drives, but far less in cheap mechanics like pumps in coffee makers. Nevertheless, I don't buy extended warrantees on anything and in the long run I believe I am ahead. As I said in another thread, an extended warrantee plan has to come out in favor of the company from a business perspective. They play the odds with consumers and always win.

Thanks, Sue, glad you liked them. I thought she added to the beauty and tranquility of the setting. (And if you look at the original post, even my avatar seems to have taken notice of something eye-catching on that cliff :shock: .)

Yes, I use TimeMachine to automatically back things up. I also have photos on CDs and on yet another external hard drive that is usually disconnected from my system (manual backup of selected material).


Having read about LR (I don't have it) and having used a few other photo organizing applications (iPhoto; ACDsee) I would suggest that your higher level organizational structure is what "albums" would be for. When you create albums you don't actually move the photo, but rather create a directory of sorts that contains the pointers to the actual photo. That allows the same photo to be used in several collections, thereby avoiding making duplicates of the photos when, as someone in this thread alluded to, you have your uncle Fred (family) riding an elephant (animals) while on safari (vacations). And yes, I know that keywords are also useful for this purpose.

Perhaps I wasn't specific enough in my original post as to what I am doing and why. My filing approach is based on the principle of filing my photos as my "negatives" -- and ALL of them without deletion -- in numerical sequence based on the file number from the camera (thus, also in chronological order). Since I am not presently using LR or other such organizational software I don't have "albums". However, I do have subfolders of my "negatives" under MyPictures that are named with some high level descriptive title and the month/year of the photos. And since those high level folder names begin with the first and last photo number in the subfolder they are displayed in alphabetic/photo-number/chronological order.

Within those folders I may have more subfolders with similar naming schemes, as in my month-long trip to China where I created subfolders for each day of shooting labelled with the name of the city or activity of that day, but eventually I get down to an actual photo file that is named with the camera-assigned number and then my text descriptions. So if I want to find my photos of the terra-cotta warriors I know to look in the main folder China, then the subfolder with Xian in the name, and then I will find my 150 photos of that subject. And yes, I could simply use the OS capability and search for "terra-cotta" and it would find all of those photos, and maybe even the next higher parent folder if it contained that word in the folder name, and maybe all my emails that contained that word, and… and then I would start filtering the results by restricting the search to MyPictures. Lots of choices to easily locating a specific photo.

Since hard drive space is relatively inexpensive these days, I do sometimes create my own albums/collections based on some topic, but when I do that I actually make another copy of the photo and put it in there. These collections might be anywhere on my hard drive based on the intent. If I am sending/emailing someone smaller files of my China trip I would put this collection under the main folder China; if I am selecting photos for a travel article I may put that collection under publishing/travel_articles/NatGeo [I wish!!] alongside the manuscript. But I always retain the camera-assigned number so that I can always go back to my negative.

Bottom line and the main point of my original post is that I file ALL of my photos as if they were negatives in numerical sequence, and I retain that photo number no matter where I may have other copies of that particular photo. And any manipulation of the photo is done on a copy of that photo so that I can always get back to the original, much as PP does not change the original RAW file itself. Someday I will make the move to LR or similar but for now I do some of that bookkeeping manually.

But I have ALL of my negatives, duds included, so that I don't fret over having misplaced/misnamed/lost a photo. OCD perhaps, but it is simple, logical, it works for me, and I thought it might provide some ideas for folks who were asking questions about organizing their photos.

JF

Not on an iMac. It is just a plain slot that you push the CD into. And I have no idea how to force a stuck CD out if the computer does not eject it on command.

Anyone know how to do that?

Well, all I can say is that ALL your lenses need to be working, starting with the eyes. I'll admit that I saw her with my "normal" eyesight zoom, which is about 50 mm equivalent on a FF, so she was not as hard to see as presented in the wide angle shot. But for sure, you have to keep your eyes open for such hidden treasures.

Careful, sometimes it is the change in routine that is bad for you. Certainly don't stop cold turkey!!

Thanks, Raymond. I don't often use the extra reach of the digital zoom because I forget I have it. But it does come in handy the odd time, and it does a fine job, in my opinion.

I see that the items are listed in decreasing amounts of caffeine. But is it really fair to compare 20 oz of Starbucks to 12 oz of Black Coffee? If you do the math on a per-ounce basis, 20 oz of black coffee has 433 mg of caffeine.

Another option if you don't use the CD slot a lot would be to put a thin sheet of metal over the CD slot. The front of the Mac is held on with very strong magnets around the perimeter of the screen, one of which is right at the CD slot and would hold the metal in place as a protective cover.

Yep, did that as well, but I immediately noticed I was going in too deep, so I stopped pushing… the SD card… I am talking about the SD card ;) .

And as you said earlier, once is enough to learn that you should look first. On the newer iMac that my wife has Apple has eliminated the CD slot, but then they also moved the SD slot to the back of the computer. Getting it in there could be a real PITA. Luckily our office/computer setup has full access to the back of her computer from the other side of the desk.

Oh, man, did you forget to ask them to smile? I mean, they always look so serious!

Nice work!!

Once I got my family out and determined they were safe I would send my kids back in to get my slides; they can run faster than I can [Kidding!!!!] [Oh, darn, another pun on "kid"?]


I know what you are saying, but technically the "B" means "Between", not "Before". What you are really after is MTTF (i.e., "To Failure"; subtle distinction). According to Wikipedia, such numbers are mainly used to improve design as opposed to being like a food "best before" date. [Wikipedia:"However, these "prediction" methods are not intended to reflect fielded MTBF as is commonly believed; the intent of these tools is to focus design efforts on the weak links in the design."] And don't forget the significance of the "M" for "Mean". Some will fail much earlier, and some much later. Personally, I don't use such data in a purchase decision.

I don't feel I have a false sense of security when it comes to the reliability of electronics; I prefer to think I have made an informed decision. I have never purchased extended warranties on any electronics and have never regretted it. I may have had to pay for a repair or replacement the odd time, but in the end I have probably saved money. And if you think of it from a business perspective, an extended warranty plan has to be in favor of the company, not the consumer. They are playing the odds which are stacked in their favor, and they are the winners.

But thanks for your comments.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think there is uglier. Check out this visitor to my apartment balcony in Washington, DC. Actually there was a pair of them that hung around for several days. I suspect there were lots of rats around somewhere for food (in DC? Really?? Between the White House and the Capital, you say???)

(Download)


(Download)

Sure, but do you want all of your "11th day" photos grouped together, regardless of month or year, when you sort by filename? I know that this only applies if all the photos have "Jones Wedding" in the first part of the filename, but think of it from a principle perspective. It's no different than counting numbers where the units turn over before the 10s, then the 100s. Days turn over faster than months, which turn over faster than years.

I suspect most people would not have the problem within any one folder of "Jones Wedding", but if you collected files from various folders into a common folder for some reason then a sorting problem could arise.

Plain and simple -- if you want to sort/organize/name files with dates, configure the date in the logical way (SI convention, BTW).

Corollary: give me one good reason why the year should be the last component of the filename in a filing system where date is important and you will be sorting in chronological order by filename?