Re: [Gimp-user] Post GIMP File Management, Organizing & Viewing/Simpler Alternatives & Options PLEASE READ & HELP!!! How Make .JPG Files More Like Tiles or Icons. Once Moved They Stay Set

[Jay Smith <jay JaySmith com>]

On 04/12/2013 11:33 AM, FriendlyBeginner wrote:
> Hello Jay,
>
> With GimpUsers forum, am I supposed to type above or below what I'm responding
> to? If I select and start typing below the responders text, does this
> automatically create the window at the top of my response in the final view?
>
> Jay...I have thousands of cards, not just "things to do" cards, with a lot of
> scribbling & writing on them; sometimes a lot of tiny scribbling, drawing etc
> whatever.
>
> So to answer your question yes I think I do need images of the cards themselves
> and not just the info on them.
>
> I am a novice and have been at this for WEEKS I read twice what you typed below,
> and I'm sure it's makes perfect sense but you sorta lost me. But I do I really
> do want to understand, but I am not that tech savvvy or at least not at this
> moment.
>
> I just want a definitive solution and soon, it's been weeks trying to figure
> this out.
>
> Bottomline...I have something very simple I want to do and need a simple
> solution...I've been at this for weeks now.
>
> Please read my recent post to I think Rod or Kevin? It should be above this post
> I think.
>
> Thanks Jay,
>
> FriendlyBeginner
>
> P.S.....Jay...I just read what you suggested below, and I want to understand
> what you were getting at, but right now my head is about ready to explode. Maybe
> it's no longer relative based on what I typed above, but if it is still relative
> I want to understand it, if it will help me....Thanks Jay...
>
>
>
> > If I understand correctly -- that in the long run it is the
> > information
> > ON the cards that you want to preserve, not necessarily images of the
> > cards themselves, then it seems to me that you should be using a
> > database that can either _contain_ images or at least display images
> > referenced by filenames in the database, as well as textual/data
> > content.
> >
> > In such a database, every card would be referenced by some unique
> > filename/number; it really does not matter much what that
> > filename/number is.  The card would be viewable either as an
> > independent
> > image by whatever methods, but more importantly, from withing the
> > database's user interface.
> >
> > The data records in the database would be structured to _eventually_
> > replace the cards/images.  Over time, you could type in the data from
> > the cards (images) into the database (while being able to see both at
> > the same time on screen).  When the data is fully entered, then you
> > can
> > sort and organize it any thousand ways you want and you will always
> > have
> > immediate access to the image (if still needed).
> >
> > Jay

Hi Friendly,

I believe that the custom on such lists is to add new content at the 
bottom.  That way, the whole series of messages can be read from top to 
bottom and be in order.

[I have no idea what you are talking about when you say "create the 
window at the top of my response in the final view?"  I am reading / 
writing these messages as ordinary textual emails, not on some website 
-- I don't what mechanisms others use to read / write them.]

=-=-=

I hate to say this when your head is about to explode, but when you said 
"I have something very simple I want to do and need a simple 
solution"..... you may not fully comprehend what you are getting into.

I agree, it _seems_ simple.  But, it is not trivial.

Often, in "IT" (information technology -- your cards represent 
information), seemingly the simpler the desired result, the more complex 
the real problem is.

It seems "simple" to decide where and what to eat/do/go for dinner 
tonight.  However, it is a massively complex problem that our brain just 
makes seem simple.

!! You may (or may not) find a solution to what you think your problem 
is, however if you find a "simple" solution, I am willing to bet that 
before you are done implementing it, you will realize ... "gee, if I 
could just do this... and that...".

I have experienced this syndrome over and over and over again with 
first-time technical authors who attempt too-simple approaches to 
organizing their data. They end up restructuring their information 
management several times before ending up where I knew they would have 
to ... years later.

While I certainly don't know anything about _your_ cards, I do 
understand cards.  My stepfather made at least one 3x5 card record for 
every day of his life from about the age of 15 to his 60s when he passed 
away unexpectedly.  That's about 18,000++ cards.  There is only one 
person on earth who can translate the tiny squiggly "writing" [also with 
lots of abbreviations and codes] on those cards, my mother.  If she 
started today, there is little chance that she could complete the 
translation in her remaining lifetime.  However, the cards have 
important scientific value -- he was a environmental scientist (long 
before such a term existed) and daily recorded phenology for a specific 
region.

Maybe I have missed it, but I don't think I completely understand 
_exactly_ what you believe your goals are.  It might be helpful (for 
yourself, if not for us), to state them concisely in writing.  And I 
mean goals in terms of how you want to use, interact with the cards and 
the information that the cards represent.  This can be difficult for 
many people to do if they are not used to doing it.  You have keep 
steering yourself back to what you want to get out of the information 
and how you want to use / interact with it.  It's really not about the 
cards.  That's just where the information happens to be at this moment.

And exactly why is the current system not working for you any more? 
That will shed light on what it is you want out of a new system.

Instead of focusing on the physicality of the cards and always thinking 
of the cards as cards, think about what they represent and how you want 
to be using their information; now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 
etc.

Also, consider what financial value and time/resource value this project 
has to you.  How much money can you or are you willing to invest in 
this?  How much time do you have to work on it?

The result of these thoughts will become a set a parameters within which 
you may be constrained.  You then have to decide if that is acceptable. 
 If not, then start over again.


It sounds like you need to let your head clear for a week or two, before 
it explodes or you have to go on medication.  ;-)  Then take a fresh 
look at this.

When your head is clear, read the database comments again.  If parts of 
it do not make sense, you are welcome to contact me off-list with 
specific questions.  (This whole subject really has nothing to do with 
Gimp.)  If none of the database comments make sense to you, then you 
need to read up about the basics of databases and information management.

By the way, so you don't feel so bad, I have an idea in my head that I 
want to see done, but the software for it has not been invented yet and 
I don't have the skill/training or the time to obtain the skill to do it 
myself, nor the money to hire it done.  What I want seems soooo simple 
on the surface, yet it is a massively complex problem where the key 
aspects are about management of meta data (data about the data).  There 
are a few people out there who have written briefly on the need for such 
software, but nobody has devoted themselves to it.  Yet what I envision 
has absolutely enormous applications in just about any possible field. 
It bothers me terribly every time the subject enters my head.

Best of luck,

Jay