Re: HYB:AIS:Checklist
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] HYB:AIS:Checklist
- From: John I Jones j*@usjoneses.com
- Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 08:41:12 -0700
oneofcultivars@aol.com wrote:
>
> My two cents addressing the questions you contemplate imbeded:
> <What format? >
> Microsoft Excel. Databases could import the data from a downloaded file. It
> could be used in the Excel format "as is".
Actually "Tabbed Text" would probably be better. It can be opened
directly by Excel and automatically put into columns. It would also be
importable by most database programs.
> <Should all the Checklists be combined into one download?>
> No. Decade increments similar to the checklists would be fine for me. Access
> to annual data as it is compiled ideal.
The issue of how to manage registrations and Introductions that span a
decade boundary comes to mind.
> File size may become an issue when combining all checklist at
> some point.
The complete set of checklists would probably be around 15MB. But are
correct, at anything less than 500MHZ (on a Mac) Excel, managing even a
single checklist, gets very grumpy.
> One would think that where we are going sometime in the future is
> a checklist with a photo option sometime in the future, Right?
Well that would definitely make the files bigger. My personal opinion...
Until video technology provides a good way to calibrate the various
monitors so that a picture looks the same way on evryone, pictures are
not a good idea, thought it has been in my mind since the beginning of
the project.
(soap box time)
There are multiple problems with pictures:
Taking the picture (with either a conventional camera and scanning it,
or with a digital camera):
Exposures can be way off (shadows, time of day type of light)
Different films impart different hues etc
Digitizing has its own color accuracy issues, and each scanner is different.
Level of compression injects some inaccuracy
Every monitor is different (unless you have *very* expensive ones) I
have two identical 21 inch color monitors that I use for work (and
play). Because I have two different interfaces, pictures look very
different on each of them. True that could be mitigated, but I would
still have to calibrate them to a standard.
The problem is that too many folks want to look at a picture on a screen
and compare it (by memory most often) to a bloom they saw in their
garden (minutes, hours, weeks ago) and say "Oh that must be Frazzeled
Glory" (or something).
Not a good idea (unless of course you have a limited list of names it
might be and they are all significantly differentiated)
(end of soap box)
> <Another - we are still finding errors in the electronic versions, so any
> download would be a snapshot before other corrections.>
> When I transcribe from the online list, I have errors even when online data
> is correct.
ACK! Transcribe??? Why not copy from the the browser window, and paste
into whatever you are using? I do it all the time.
> <Is it wise to have so many different versions?>
> Yes. The printed version is the "Bible" and should continue to be. The online
> version will be the "Living Bible" and the one people read. Maybe 5% of iris
> growers have access to the printed version check lists while 46% of the US
> population have access to the Internet.
Actually the number is more like 65%, but the percentage of iris growers
that are computer savvy is unknown.
Maintaining a complete data base in something like Excel significantly
limits your search capabilities. In my experience, using the online
database search engine gives you much more flexibility and more
effective results that trying to use Excel "Find". Maybe I need more
experience with Excel.
Certainly someone who has (some significant) experience in databases and
access to appropriate search engines could do the same thing as the on
line engine, but I can tell you, that having worked with Chris on the
problems we have encountered developing the engine scripts, I am not
about to try it.
> Curious: Subscription? Fee?
$10/year
> Until recovery of how much?
Cost of printing and shipping the Checklist
> What is the current status of recovery?
I think we are about 1/3d of the way there, but I don't know for sure at
the moment (and I am not going to worry about it for a bit)
> If a fee, where does it go?
AIS - for enhancement of electronic services (but of coures as with any
budget item, that is "for the moment"... <G>
> Wonderin' if I should be lookin' for some OCR software while runnin' hard at
> the wall to avoid typin' ? Hummm.......... maybe a really cute secretary. <g>
I hope that Copy and Paste will solve most of that problem for you. I
can tell you from experience that even OCR has a whole raft of problems
associated with it.
John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.
List owner iris-talk and iris-photos
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