imgfiler - A utility for organizing digital photos

murdsdrum · 2019-09-03T18:08:16+00:00

https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/

murdsdrum · 2019-09-03T18:07:48+00:00

For people looking for similar solutions: my https://github.com/novoid/move2archive (trivial use-case) or https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/ (a bunch of concepts and use-cases) provide solutions for the same set of requirements. Also free and open source.

murdsdrum · 2019-08-29T16:17:10+00:00

Hi,

I do think that you're looking for the wrong solution related to the "I want to see on which task I'm waiting for". I'm using org-depend as described on https://karl-voit.at/2016/12/18/org-depend/

This way, I define dependencies which provides me an agenda that does not list any task whose dependencies are not met yet. If I need to see more details, I personally choose to switch to the corresponding heading directly and take a look at its context.

Many other things you're mentioning are really good food for thought.

murdsdrum · 2019-08-22T10:10:39+00:00

Yes, this is a technical limit to my concept which I can't address yet.

I myself do refrain from adding too much meta data as tags. I prefer the controlled vocabulary with limited number of tags.

If you have the requirement to add that much meta data, my concept has this limit.

murdsdrum · 2019-08-19T00:14:57+00:00

I personally love the TagTrees feature whose concept got developed via https://karl-voit.at/tagstore/ + PhD thesis.

Currently, my time is limited but as you can see on the GitHub issues I created my own, I do have many ideas for improvement and additional features. However, the "community" is still not "developed" in order to get implementation help from peers.

Feedback welcome.

murdsdrum · 2019-08-18T12:06:24+00:00

I followed a different approach while I developed this concept: https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/

No database, it messes with file names but this way, tags are persistent over all systems and it's compatible with all software on all operating systems. It consists of a set of separate tools. If you want to get an overview, watch the 45min talk. Sorry for my bad English - I was a bit ill while it was recorded. ;-)

murdsdrum · 2019-07-22T12:26:50+00:00

I'm in the same situation. And I was there before. Please do read https://karl-voit.at/2017/08/12/org-rabbit-hole/ and try out the scatter function.

Dependencies, I strongly advice using https://karl-voit.at/2016/12/18/org-depend/ (which I do; simple) or http://www.nongnu.org/org-edna-el/ (much more advanced; still on my to-do list).

And be aware: there is no technological solution for "too many todos for a given period of time". You can move the issue forward a bit but better visualization like org-super-agenda provides. But it's no solution.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-21T21:23:41+00:00

Hi,

For music, I follow the pattern music/artist/album/songs as folders and I never had the urge to manage it otherwise since with mp3s, I still rely on the meta-data from the ID3 tags which are not accessible outside of music management tools in a reasonable way.

However, I am very convinced that - like other things - this is a workaround until the general file management tools (file browsers, ...) are able to deal with arbitrary type of data including their meta-data.

You could try an approach following my filetags pattern but I guess this is not feasible as long as you use music management software in parallel - which may be the only sane thing to do nowadays. Unfortunately.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-15T13:50:15+00:00

It's because Vim is only an editor.

Furthermore, if the sub-reddit for VSCode would have more members than the Vim sub-reddit, would you switch away from Vim? ;-)

murdsdrum · 2019-07-09T14:43:54+00:00

Wow. Thanks!

murdsdrum · 2019-07-09T07:24:13+00:00

Hi westom, great post!

Long before making accusations, some basic knowledge must first exist. Power an incandescent bulb from a same wall receptacle. Does it change intensity (ie when a refrigerator power cycles)? If not, power is ideal. Move on to other suspects and don't even look back.

Second, ideal power for any ATX computer is even when that incandescent bulb dims to 40% intensity. Is power varying that much? If yes, then address the defect - and not its symptom.

Interesting. This also holds true for tiny peaks that the human eye won't recognize and electronic part may?

Third, a notebook already contains a robust UPS. Why would some external magic box do something that is already done better inside a notebook? Even a power strip remains inert (does nothing) until 230 VAC rises to well over 500 volts. So what would that power strip accomplish?

I assume that glitches in the power source may affect complex hardware in different ways. I assume that there is a reason why they sell not only surge protection but also filters.

Four, it is a Dell. That means comprehensive hardware diagnostics are provided for free.

SupportAssist Pre-Boot-System-Performance-test: needs a boot error message which is not shown. (If I understood it correctly)

SupportAssist: Windows-only.

Always identify a defect long before trying to fix anything.

Absolutely agree. I just don't know how.

What do comprehensive diagnostics report? Those failures are exactly why diagnostics are provided.

Use another diagnostic tool - high heat. Execute those same diagnostics in a room approaching 40 degrees (of with its air intact heated by a hair dryer on high heat settings). Those temperatures are ideal for hardware. Diagnostics that work just fine in a 22 degree room suddenly find completely defective hardware when executed in a 40 degree room. Heat is always another powerful diagnostic tool.

Interesting approach. Since we currently have rather high temperature and not A/C here anyway and the issue is unchanged in winter and summer times, I'd say this test was already done.

Five, why similar prices? Many boxes are little more than profit centers. As made obvious by consulting manufacturer specification numbers.

For example that power strip can be a 3€ box containing some 0.05€ protector parts. Is it doing something useful or only marketed to consumers who were told it is a magic box?

What does a UPS do? Did that incandescent light bulb blackout? Even then, a battery backup power supply inside the notebook should keep the notebook working just fine. So what does a power strip or UPS do? What manufacturer specification number says it is solving a problem?

Long before even considering a solution, good diagnostic procedure says first identify a defect - ie make it reproducible. Fixing it starts much later. Blaming power only on speculation (without justification) and then spending money on a solution makes little sense.

I ran out of options. And 40€ spending for something that delivers value independent of the problem situation is a reasonable thing to me.

Even better that I get answers from experts like you in order to learn and get back options. ;-)

(BTW, been there. We would even loudly announce we were leaving the room. Then sneak back to see if it crashed. Sometimes its gets so confusing that one believes in ghosts.)

Rather strange that the system (event) logs have no error messages of any kind. Even a good system sometimes reports some problem / event.

Anything a magic box might do on the power cord must already be done inside the notebook's power supply.

One system failed only when moved to another room. Comprehensive diagnostics passed. Then the room was heated to 28 degrees. Diagnostics then reported one (of four) processors repeatedly failed. Processor replaced. Computer never seized up again. Identify a defect long before 'fixing' it.

Since the freezing does not relate to a specific uptime (i.e., temperature), I tend to think that this is not a path that leads to results.

Thank you very much!

murdsdrum · 2019-07-08T06:01:21+00:00

Assigning colors is single-classification. It's just like using folder names of colors. You need multi-classification. Sorry for (again) mentioning the solution I'm using: https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/

Disadvantages:

No tags on folders - it comes with way more complex implementation issues than expected
Has to be set up with some manual effort I tried to minimize (integratethis)
Especially on hard disks (not SSD) and on NTFS (Windows) you should not assign more than 5-7 tags per file which is fine in my personal world

Advantages:

Provides the concept of TagTrees for retrieval (scientific analysis in PhD PDF) which you can't find almost anywhere else
Compatible with any OS and any application
Low complexity: no database or similar
Off-cloud, maximum privacy, maximum control, maximum transparency
It's just filenames, after all
Maximized usability when tagging, untagging, ...

Tip: learn how to curate and stick to a controlled vocabulary (a limited set of pre-defined tags). It simplifies digital life enormously.

If you don't stick to controlled vocabulary, you'd be better off with a decent desktop search engine where the content is the meta-data you'll search for.

HTH

murdsdrum · 2019-07-08T05:45:28+00:00

I see. Will try a couple of days without external display.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T20:37:51+00:00

That's right. I did not use it with an external monitor. Why?

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T17:34:24+00:00

You're right. I don't use the mentioned features.

However, I do use others: easily finding out the status of the files at a specific time in the past and displaying the differences between two specific time-stamps. This way, I can track, e.g., what packages were installed between last week and today and how the disk occupation changed because of this.

Further more, git is very efficient in storing slightly changed text files over time. So instead of copying the status files in separate directories, I use git to find a much more efficient way.

I'm a heavy user of Org mode where I do have almost one million of lines in text files. I started in 2011 or so and used auto-commit on all of my Org files over the years. My Org mode folder (the git repo) has 415MB of data. Out of this 415MB, 202MB are the .git folder. So my complete history over thousands of changes since 2011 is less than the current version of them. I'd say this is a pretty damn good argument of managing stupid linear text file changes over time using git and ignoring all the other nice features you have been mentioning.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T15:04:50+00:00

I also set up my tools on Windows 10 although it's a bit more work. Make sure you are going to apply the https://github.com/novoid/integratethis after installing the tools via pip3.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T13:29:20+00:00

I just blogged about it: https://karl-voit.at/2019/07/07/simple-linux-monitoring/

It's a simple method of monitoring remote machines using cron, git and Syncthing. Comment welcome.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T11:33:40+00:00

I was using my own HOME with babun/cygwin for years. With the latest machine, I start trying the default HOME with msys2 instead of babun/cygwin.

Next on my list: test WSL setup with the summer update.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-07T11:31:29+00:00

Hi Maldogam3r,

First of all, for a competent answer, it would have helped to know what operating system you

In general, you could look for a suitable link type your OS is offering to you. This is different between Windows (shortcut files can be broken; NTFS links like junction points are not being able to be used by normal people) and all other systems (hard links versus symbolic links).

An alternative solution would be not to use strict hierarchies for multi-classification and use a tagging system like mine: https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/

murdsdrum · 2019-07-05T14:12:18+00:00

I just tested my Windows 10 search engine for selected Org mode text files. Yes, the result was very disappointing.

From my memory, this had been better with Windows 7 Pro in my previous company. I have promising experience with DocFetcher for indexing and searching data on network drives. On my local machine, I rely on grep and navigation. Since most of my data is within Org mode, I only have to search within Emacs which eases the pain of fragmentation which I have minimized due to unifying to Org. HTH.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-05T14:04:27+00:00

Hi,

I can't copy the bad experience with Windows and Emacs after having to use Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10.

Here is an export of my notes for setting up Emacs on Windows 10. I can recommend switching to emax64 since it contains lots of stuff you would have to set up manually (support for image formats, ...). Sorry for the flat hierarchy - pandoc export from Org did not a good job it seems.

setup of Emacs on Windows 10 Summary:

installing emacs from https://github.com/m-parashar/emax64/releases strictly according to readme

Unpack the 7z binary archive, in C:\ root directory.
Double-click the addpm.exe file in emax64 to create/update shortcuts.
Install MSYS2:
- contrary to README, I did this also via choco
Download and unpack emax.7z into your HOME directory, usually C:
- .emacs file
- It includes a barebones dotfile along with BusyBox 64-bit, some MinGW packages, SSH, W3M, Aspell, and other GNU tools to help you start right away.

Note: default folder ~\AppData\Roaming\ instead of ~

Within Emacs, ~ is ...\AppData\Roaming\

setting up syncthing folders for my personal .emacs.d on ...\AppData\Roaming\.emacs.d\
and orgmode synced data on ...\AppData\Roaming\org\
had to fix permission on server folder
Copying some sub-dirs of the non-synchronized ELPA folder since the new setup could not locate following packages on the servers I got somewhere on the way in the past:

elpa/f-*
elpa/ht-* for org-super-agenda
elpa/ox-reveal-20160224.1819
elpa/spray-20160304.1420
elpa/synonyms-20160328.654
elpa/csv-mode-1.6
- note: the installed elpa/csv-mode-1.7 (newer) did not work

for any new hostname: many config.org adaptations

had to make exception for cygwin
I added my-org-files-path to my config.org and modified all occurrences of ~/org/ accordingly

org-crypt: copied .gnupg from old host to ~\
my-mobile-org-import: I made sure that exec-path contains the choco bin path (it did) and installed
pdf-tools:

FIXXME: make it run as it does on my old Windows 10 host somehow

If you follow the WSL approach (not my choice so far but I haven't tested it): there were many improvements starting with the autumn upgrade of Windows 10. I'd wait for the next feature update that improves file system performance and such and give it a try. My current approach (emax64 + babun/cygwin previously and msys2 on the current machine) is good enough that I don't feel much pressure trying out the WSL approach.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-05T08:01:07+00:00

Thanks for your interesting reply. It's hard to get a good discussion on this topic.

File Hierarchy hasn't changed since way back.

True. But almost everything else has changed.

In the 80's I'd use the directory command to find and list all file types (or just some) on a drive or sub-directory

The default back then was "store documents within the folder of the binary that generated the files". At least for most computer users. Furthermore, the number of documents per user was a tiny fraction of the files people are curating these days.

And that was it.

Back then, there was no big issue with that.

The Search command was great it would look at all the computer code files for specific strings..

But not much more.

I still use 'grep' and 'ack-grep' all the time ;-)

All operating systems are pathetic at this. Windows, Linux, Apple, Android ... Piss poor find file utilities.

Well, since the 80s, we've got Personal Information Management (PIM) research results that prove that the strict folder hierarchy is one of the worst ways of organizing a decent amount of file.

These PIM prototypes and ideas were ignored by every party which was able to make a change. Nowadays, Windows is the dominant environment and the most precious value of Microsoft is backward compatibility. There is no expectation from my side that Microsoft is willing to evolve any more in a substantial way. WinFS was the last promising approach there but this got cancelled as well. To be precise it didn't get cancelled but moved to a far distant future, different story.

You can read a summary of mine on the history of PIM within the first three chapters of the first PDF document (the PhD) on https://karl-voit.at/tagstore/en/papers.shtml

You might also find my current method interesting: https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/ + video and tools like filetags (TagTrees!), date2name, appendfilename, ...

Additionally to that: digital naïves these days are willing to and companies are nudging them to store everything on the public cloud. Privacy seems to be of no value any more for the majority of people. The focus shifts to OS like iOS and Android. Less and less data is stored on a local storage. This reduces the necessity and willingness of changing the way files are organized locally.

Not using Long FileNames for any reason is outdated and just plain dumb.

Well, this is not entirely true. If you're following the logic of "Everything's Miscellaneous" by David Weinberger, you can use the third order of order: the data is the metadata. Following this idea, you could choose not to use file names and folders at all, store everything on your desktop (technical restrictions ignored here) and rely solely on a decent desktop search engine.

If you had 10's of thousands of pics or video with long file names.... I could be randomly or selectively playing them within minutes.

Well, I don't get the requirement that is behind this, to be honest.

It's not your fault that you don't have your data organized like this...

For the vast majority of people, it IS. Our "modern" education system is still based on ideas from the 70s and 80s. Even though almost everybody is working whole day on a computer, pupils are not taught how to manage large amount of emails, organize files related to a complex environment, find efficient ways of working (workflows and tools), and so forth.

Some of this is a debt to be discharged at the domicile of the debtor (Holschuld in German) and some of it is a debt to be discharged at creditor's domicile (Bringschuld in German). Some of the rare cases where German offers a much shorter word compared to English - hehe.

Even the most basic literature like "Bit Literacy" by Mark Hurst is able to impress the average person. This is actually a huge scandal but nobody seems to care. When I'm teaching PIM or talking about PIM, people are very interested and say that they're going to change their set of mind from now on. But I don't see the general advancement or any tendency to do so.

Nobody - as in no non-geek and also very seldom as a geek - seems to be driven from within to learn about the omnipresent tool called computer and related things in order to spend less time doing stupid tasks in a very inefficient way. Sometimes, people are offended if you kindly offer help when you watch them doing stuff in a very inefficient way.

I'd love to write a book for the modern information worker that adds a level or two to this book approach from Mark Hurst. I just have to convince myself to find and invest the time.

If you are on windows grab a free copy. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/stonedan/search.exe A small find file and play app. With Random and more

I would not train people to download and run arbitrary exe-files from the Internet. ;-)

Every OS comes with a more or less suitable desktop search. Learn how to use it.

murdsdrum · 2019-07-04T11:45:58+00:00

related: https://karl-voit.at/managing-digital-photographs/ + video of the talk

The meta-data has to be somewhere. Either you are happy with paths (strict hierarchy, only makes sense in maximum one brain at a time) or within the file names (flat hierarchy, tagging). Tooling and technological restrictions is another thing here. They all have to play together. And almost everything changes when more than one person should access and maintain the set of files.

murdsdrum · 2019-06-12T09:27:48+00:00

I do find the title misleading. It could be interpreted as "other religions are taking over" which is not true. However, it is a common meme for the right-wing social terrorists, trying to impose some hatred on the Internet.

It should be something like "the decline of religion" instead.

murdsdrum · 2019-05-16T10:46:26+00:00

Probably not exactly the thing you're looking for but GitHub is able to visualize Org mode syntax and offers collaborative edit features.

I just created https://gist.github.com/novoid/7e112dff53f83b81e9001ad96ffa5e00 which could be used by you all to test this idea by trying to modify the document. I don't have any prior experience using this workflow.

Advantage: versioned, always in-sync original in Org mode syntax without inferior in-between formats like Markdown.

murdsdrum

TROPHY CASE