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    organizing content for cd burning

    Hi y'all,

    I've been on the site for a few weeks now and have already collected enough to fill a dozen or so 700 mb cd's. I have set up an excel spreadsheet listing model name, shoot title, etc, and how mb of each I have. I then mix and match so that each cd is as full as possible, keeping multiple sets of the same model together. This seemed to work fine until the newest Bridget & Seranda vid was released last week, which I did not have room for on the "correct" cd. How is a body to keep track of all this wonderful stuff?

    As soon as W gets his grubby hands off my tax refund, I plan to purchase a (much larger) external hard drive so I can keep the entire site in one place. But even then I will probably still want to make cd's for backup. I'm sure I'm not the only one who keeps a database, so if anyone has one that can be easily expanded/modified please do share a screenshot. And does anyone have recomendations for an external drive?

    Thanks in advance.

    #2
    Originally posted by kingocouch
    Hi y'all,

    I've been on the site for a few weeks now and have already collected enough to fill a dozen or so 700 mb cd's.
    Hey kingocouch. How on earth do you find the time? (I know, I know... you got to make time for the important things in life...)

    Unfortunately I have no recommendations for you on either of the above query's, I just wanted to tag the same request. I'm looking for an external hard drive to house all the pretty women (can't have them living in a cluttered space all jammed up together now can we). I'm on a mac system and would love to hear about good recommendations also.

    Ditto thanks in advance - bif
    Last edited by Luxman; 8 February 2005, 05:33 AM. Reason: repairing quote tag

    Comment


      #3
      get a broadband connection, a lifetime membership and pray site never goes bankrupt

      creating a library is pointless

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by elfie
        get a broadband connection, a lifetime membership and pray site never goes bankrupt
        I have a broadband connection, lifetime memberships do not exist (would be nice, tho) and I read in another very old thread tonight that Abby prefers us to d/l the zips instead of using bandwidth to repeatedly view the same pics on the site.

        But I do pray fervently that the site never goes bankrupt.

        Comment


          #5
          Hello Kingcouch,

          The short answer is to buy a DVD burner for the pics but that won't help much with the MPEGs unless your DVD player can use them. Some of the newer progressive scan multiple format machines will play MPG/MPEG though. That makes it very nice if you have a large screen television.

          There are several other threads about Excel spreadsheets and databases for all of the AW pics. I don't know why you would want to go external when large internals are so inexpensive right now. You can always add a Promise SATA card as long as your case will hold more drives. I think that they are even available for Macintoasters now so even the leet can expand things if they want to. 250Gb SATA drives are running right around $80 here and I would expect the same in most other places. The controller card should run you under $50. That would allow you the most options (IMO). If your refund is large enough then you could buy 4 drives and configure them as a 1Tb system or RAID 0, RAID 1 or even RAID 0+1 for speed plus security.

          Comment


            #6
            Hi all,

            May I jump in here?

            I have organised my AW collection in a growing Excel Spreadsheet, with links pointing to the Bio pages stored on my hard disk, live on the site or a sample image on my hard disk, to choose by radio button. See latest screen shot below.

            For the Mac or PC users I can recommend the external hard drives from LaCie. They have capacities from 74GB up to 2TB and are equipped with IEEE1394 (FireWire) 400 and 800 Mbps, USB 2.0 and SATA interface. They are very good (I sell a lot of them). The advantage of an external disk, compared to an internal, is the simple possibility to move from computer to computer, and you don't have to switch it on when you don't need the content.

            Lxm

            BTW: I'm on Mac too.
            Attached Files
            Last edited by Luxman; 8 February 2005, 07:16 AM.

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              #7
              Damn, Luxman that's organised... any chance you want to fly down here and organise mine.

              Dave

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                #8
                If you send me the Qantas ticket, no problem.

                Lxm

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                  #9
                  Thanks for the info, all. I'm looking at external drives only because I am hesitant to open the case if I don't have to. I know just enough to be dangerous. What part of the world are you in, Numlock? The cheapest SATA drive I have found so far is $120 USD for 160GB. Gotta do more looking. And my tax refund won't be as large as I thought. @#$%

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'm in the western US. You can always use one of the rating and review sites like Tom's Hardware to give yourself a start and then choose from the links to see who has the best prices for what you want. You could also venture to one of the online auction houses to get a taste of current prices. I'd use the combined keywords "SATA" and "250" if that's the size that you want. Just remember that many times computer hardware is much more reasonably priced at your local office supply store than it is on one of the computer auction houses.

                    Adding a HD is not at all difficult. Some of the 'brand name' boxes put connectors in odd places and the like but for the most part everything explains itself. I'd say that the most difficult part of installing a new drive is switching the jumper from Master (MA) to Slave (SL) or Cable Select (CS) on the back of the drive. It really is that easy most of the time. (Well that and figuring out where to put the Silly Putty to hold it in place.)

                    I hadn't really given much thought to the whole portability idea. I'm not sure why I'd want that but it does make sense. Perhaps my monthly electricity bill would be lower without my home network running 24/7?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Luxman
                      If you send me the Qantas ticket, no problem.

                      Lxm
                      I'll see what I can do, just curious how long did it take you to organise your collection that way.

                      Dave

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Darth Dave
                        ...just curious how long did it take you to organise your collection that way.
                        To be honest, I don't remember exactly how long it took. I think it was not too much.

                        Since the first steps the file has changed a lot (see one of the first versions here, it's from April 2004). It was some work cos there were lots of data to enter at the beginning. The daily updates today are done in about 5 to 10 minutes.

                        What's very comfortable, the links are generated automatically. I only have to enter the name of the model, the section and the ID, then the links are working.

                        If you want more details, feel free to drop me a PM.

                        Lxm

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                          #13
                          'Nuther question: Some of the drives I am finding list capacity as *up to* 250 or 200 or whatever. Is this due to formatting?

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                            #14
                            This is due to the calculation mode of the capacity.
                            The capacity 200 GB drive is defined as 200'000'000'000 bytes by the manufacturer.
                            Due to the computer definitions 1 KB=1024 bytes, 1 MB=1024 KB, 1 GB=1024 MB, the real capacity usable by the computer is 186,3 GB only.

                            Lxm
                            Last edited by Luxman; 8 February 2005, 11:03 PM.

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                              #15
                              I have finally settled on a model database structure I like, and I have two questions:

                              1. Roughly how many gigabytes are on the site currently?

                              My collection is around 22 gb so far, and it feels like I have barely made a dent. In Excel, I have a column to record the total burned to each cd (volume 1=593 MB, volume 2=669 MB, etc.) I used the autosum feature to add it all up, but Excel puts the total on the very last possible line, 65536, but the last line I have used is line 860, so

                              2. How do I tell Excel where a sheet ends, knowing that will change as the list grows?

                              Thanks,
                              HM

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Luxman has made a rather comprehensive Excel file and recently showed us some of the interesting results.

                                We have 50Gb of content, which is around 20Gb of pictures and 30Gb of video. We are also nearing 70 hours of video content, which is almost three days worth.

                                Yipe!

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Vid Dude
                                  We have 50Gb of content
                                  So I've got almost half of it. It's been a productive weekend. Thanks Vid Dude. And no, I didn't dl all 22 gigs in one weekend. If I did that, I officially would have no life.

                                  HM

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Havemercy

                                    2. How do I tell Excel where a sheet ends, knowing that will change as the list grows?
                                    One thing you might try doing is putting the sum on the first row.
                                    If you are summing column A, in row 1 in column A, put "=sum(A2:A10000)" (without the quotes).
                                    That way, if you put a number in any of the first 10000 cells in column A after the first, it will be added to the sum in the first row.
                                    I would mark column A row 1 in bold so you remember it's the total. Perhaps put the word "total" in column B row 1.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Havemercy
                                      2. How do I tell Excel where a sheet ends, knowing that will change as the list grows?

                                      Thanks,
                                      HM
                                      Hi HM, If you put your autosum =SUM(B2:B860) on line 861 (assuming 859 data lines and 1 heading line ahead of it) AND you always insert ahead of line 861, then the new data will always be included in the total automagically.

                                      I think if you extend a spreadsheet beyond where it logically ends you end up using more disk space to store it and it takes longer to load and save.

                                      HTH, Spud

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by BigSpud
                                        I think if you extend a spreadsheet beyond where it logically ends...
                                        Precisely the problem--so far the data range is A1:F860, so how do I set the sheet to only those 6 colums and set the "bottom right " cell to F860? Excel seems to allow for gigantic ranges, which I accidently included with that autosum.

                                        Good idea on placing the sum in the first row, Arsby. If I had done that, the sheet wouldn't be so dang big.

                                        HM

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Havemercy
                                          Precisely the problem--so far the data range is A1:F860, so how do I set the sheet to only those 6 colums and set the "bottom right " cell to F860? Excel seems to allow for gigantic ranges, which I accidently included with that autosum.

                                          Good idea on placing the sum in the first row, Arsby. If I had done that, the sheet wouldn't be so dang big.

                                          HM
                                          Try creating a new spreadsheet and copy only A1:F860 to it. Then add the sum at the bottom. Autosum won't sum upwards for you, but you can manually put the formula in the top row. It won't be resummed when you add a new line unless you add it above 860. With autosum at the bottom you will get the sum including the new line if you add it before the formula (ie insert before line 861 where the autosum is) After the insert 861 will now be 862 but your sum should now say =sum(A1:861).

                                          I only have problems with big spread sheets when I have done some kind of a full column or full row move that will set the last cell used to the very last cell possible.

                                          Put the cursor in A1 and press Ctrl-Shift End. You should see the extent of your spreadsheet. I haven't figured out how to make it smaller except by copying what you want into a blank sheet.

                                          HTH

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Vid Dude
                                            We are also nearing 70 hours of video content, which is almost three days worth.
                                            With the video updates of the last days, we are now at 70 hours and 22 minutes.
                                            You'll need a lot of popcorn (...and Kleenex) if you're planning to watch this in one single session.

                                            Lxm

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by Luxman
                                              ...You'll need a lot of popcorn ...Lxm
                                              I was expecting an answer to my question of how to clear out the unwanted expansion of a spread sheet

                                              Of course if you wanted to move this to mundane chatter and then answer, I guess that would be OK

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by BigSpud
                                                [copy] what you want into a blank sheet.
                                                D'oh!!! Why didn't I think of that? (slaps forehead repeatedly)
                                                Originally posted by BigSpud
                                                HTH
                                                Tremendously, thank you

                                                I suspect this thread will lie dormant for several more months, or until I have another Excel question.

                                                Originally posted by BigSpud
                                                I was expecting...spreadsheet.
                                                If it can be done, I'm sure Luxman knows how.

                                                HM
                                                Last edited by Havemercy; 27 June 2005, 07:08 AM. Reason: picky ex-English major critiques own word choice

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  I don't really understand where's your problem here. Excel automatically keeps track of the length and the width of the used area of a sheet. If you want to know where the limits of a spread sheet are, just use Edit - Go to..., in the upcoming dialog box select [Special...] and there you'll find an option "Last cell". Using this, Excel selects for you the cell that's for it the last one.

                                                  Automatically the last cell is the most right and the most far cell from the top that's not empty. If you put a character (space i.e.) in cell T244, Excel marks the entire range A1:T244 as used and Go to… sends you to T244. Tricky thing: If you now enter a value in B345, the last cell will be T345 (even if it's empty) because a range is always rectangular. With one value in cell A15200 and only one other value in cell BX1, the last cell will be BX15200.

                                                  The problem: If you delete values or cells, Excel does not re-adjust the last cell. So, even if you delete all the values in the spreadsheet, the last cell will stay at T345. The real last cell is updated only when you save the file, that's very important to understand.

                                                  On the other side, every function or formula you generate in Excel does basically use relative references. So if you put into a cell "=SUM(C3:C875)" and after that you add 5 rows between 312 and 313 the formula is automatically adjusted to "=SUM(C3:C880)". If you add 5 rows between 1 and 2 you'll get "=SUM(C8:C885)".

                                                  A good idea is to add always an empty cell into a sum between the last real value and the sum (see picture), so you have the possibility to add rows before the sum and leave the automatic update of the references to Excel.

                                                  Any other question?

                                                  Lxm
                                                  Attached Files

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