On 1/14/2016 8:33 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 01/13/2016 11:25 PM, Don Y wrote:
How do you find a specific title? Or, are there only a small number of
titles on the device at any given time (e.g., dozens instead of thousands)?

That's the problem that I hope has been resolved with the new devices. I
haven't found a good way to organize either by topic or a simple read/unread.
There are a series of small dots that indicate how much you've read but they
require carefukl attention to differentiate.

Ideally, a set of tags associated with each file. But, *applying* and
*examining* them then becomes difficult -- you need to have a tool
designed expressly for that purpose.

SWMBO takes a LOT of photographs. The camera records lots of detail -- most
of which is unimportant to the (amateur) photographer! (exposure, etc).

Periodically, she downloads the photos from her camera onto her
computer. Then, tries to sort through them based on content.

One of the tools she uses builds a database of user-defined tags
(keywords) that you manually associate with the photos. So, she
can create tags: rocks, water, mammals, birds, atmosphere, etc.
Then, if she's got a photo of some BIRDS chasing a COYOTE
alongside a ROCKy RIVERbed at SUNSET, she can choose to apply
ALL of those tags to that picture. Later, if she's looking for
examples of "sunsets", she can search for photos tagged with
"atmosphere" and find this photo -- along with umpteen gazillion
others.

Great -- in theory. In practice, its almost impossible to use!

First, *you* have to come up with an appropriate set of keywords to
cover *your* interests (makes sense; how would *I* know what is of
interest to YOU?!). Then, you have to go through the tedium of
applying them individually to the pictures (yeah, you can select multiple
photos but, chances are, each photo will have a different SET of tags;
so, select all that qualify as "sunsets" and ADD the "atmosphere"
tag to those; then, deselect them and select all those with birds
and add the bird tag to those; etc. And, later, when you realize
your categories are too *broad* (e.g., originally you may have
lumped "mammals" "reptiles" and "birds" into a single "wildlife"
category and you later realize that these should have been spllit
out into finer detail -- do you now go back through all the
"mammal"-tagged objects and retag them with this new set??)

Or, you may realize there was a category that you hadn't initially
considered and ALL of your existing photos need to be reexamined
to determine if the category applies (if you *don't* do this,
then the category has very limited practical value as it will
be incomplete).

I had this problem when I originally lumped all my "programming languages"
texts into a single directory -- which quickly became overly cluttered!
"Hmmm.... maybe I should break things down by language?"

Yeah, I don't deal well with audio books. I don't "digest" material as
well when it is read to me. And, I think random access is more tedious;
if I want to skip back a paragraph (or whatever) to doublecheck how
something mentioned there fits with something I'm reading *here*, it's
easier to just glance up and hunt for the information visually.

I particularly dislike the current trend to consider webinars 'documentation'.
It's the lazy way out and my mind tends to wander when people ramble on.

That's one of the reasons I don't watch youtube videos. They are all
terribly amateurish.

*Organize* your thoughts before you present something. Then, *plan*
how you will present it. And, afterwards, edit the result to best
implement this vision! (would *you* want to watch what you've just
created??)

There are lots of instructional DVD's covering art topics. One
particularly good illustrator has a large series of "lectures/demos"
he's prepared on different aspects of drawing human anatomy.
But, the "productions" are terrible! They were apparently recorded
sessions in classes he taught -- so there's lots of background
noise (chairs being dragged across the floor, people coughing,
crickets chirping, etc.). The microphone appears to have just been
placed "somewhere convenient" -- instead of somewhere APPROPRIATE!

Camera angles are lousy -- you end up seeing *him* instead of
the *work* he is preparing.

And, there's a fair bit of an investment (money and time to view!)
in order to benefit from this... mess!

The same is true of many painting videos.

Given the sort of desktop audio/video editing capabilities
available to damn near ANYONE, its silly that you can't shoot
with multiple microphones and cameras and then mix the results
appropriately in post. I.e., make a *professional* presentation
instead of a cheap "hack".