Progress....

Progress Progress! After spending most of yesterday prevaricating or working on the programming problem this morning I have cracked it - not bad work for less than two hours. Yepe!!!

I have also taken this opportunity to split my Lightroom catalogue. I use an awful lot of keywords and this really slows down Lightroom after a while - this is official from Adobe so this is the time to split it. It is going to take a few days but I hope to have it complete for the start of next year.

Should I write this?

As I write this there is a little voice in the back of my head SCREAMING - 'Don't Do It!'  Well I'm going to do it anyway.  I think I have fixed the backup problem that I had.  The reason why I have this voice is that I don't understand why the program worked before without the fix had to create.  Well time will tell whether this is misplaced confidence.

One of the reasons why I feel confident that I fixed the problem was when I was testing the program this is one of the photographs that backed up without me knowing.   Having just reread that I am not sure that is a very good reason to feel confident.

Interesting day or so

I have just spent an interesting day or so rewriting a utility to back up my files correctly.  I have purchased back up software but this proved to be disappointing.  Whether it was me or the software I just don't know but I was certain that the software had backed up the files I wanted.   As a result of this I decided to update an old piece of software that had been running on several of my other computers for a number of years.   It was quite enjoyable to use a different part of my brain than that I use to make photographs.

However, as I was doing this work it struck me that the version of Visual Basic I use is 12 years old.  I know that there are much more modern versions out there but this does fine for me.  I find I know how to use the software to write those little utilities that no commercial software can achieve.  They are as much about your own peculiarities as anything else.  The three main utilities I have created are to do with Metadata generation, Image backup and the one I have just completed.   I really would be lost without them.

This got me thinking about how modern software is developed and actually how useful they are.  This is particularly relevant to Photoshop CS4 and other megaliths of the modern world, such as the office suites.  How much of these programs do we use?  I suspect the answer is not a great deal.  I for one have my own way of working in CS4 that doesn't vary that much.  It certainly doesn't involve 3D modeling etc yet this comes with the software.  I know these are jack of all trade software bundles but there is also a point where you have to ask why?   We all know why because if didn't buy the latest version of the software then very quickly companies like Adobe would be in trouble.  Of course it is not just Adobe who does this.   The great?? Microsoft are devils for this.  I still maintain that the best version of Word was version 2.  I am still using Word 2000 and this is more than adequate for my needs.

I know this is not earth shattering stuff and has been commented on by many other people but I am happy with my twelve year old programing language and would probably be happy with a cut down version of Photoshop CS4 - not elements which is neither here nor there in my view.  Anyway, that's got that off my chest!

Back up Complete

I have completed the new back up for my images.   It took a lot less time than I imagined and now appears to work very well.   It is, perhaps, not as sophisticated as commercial software but I am confident in what it is doing.   Also, it fits neatly into my workflow and so whenever I have finished creating finished TIFF files I will be able to back up my work immediately.  No commercial software would do that.

I have to say I am more and more impressed with the performance of the new computer.   I have just created a panorama out of four full sized RAW files from Lightroom into Photoshop.   This process used to take several minutes before.  Now, just over a minute from start to finish.  It was a marvel watching the blending and alignment take place before your eyes.

Perhaps it was worth the frustration when it arrived.

Welcome to a whole new year

Greylag Geese walking across Hyde Park - London

A happy new year to all.   And how have I been spending my first day of the new year?   Well sorting out my image back up.   I ran the back up last night as I mentioned before and I am not confident that this has copied what I want.   I know it has completed the process but I just am not confident that it has copied the files I want.  Why is this?  Well like most other back up processes the files are locked into a proprietary files system so I am not able to verify that all the files have indeed been backed up.  I am not saying that they haven't it just that I don't trust my set up so i would like to see the file on the back up disk - which I can't.

Given this problem I have decided to rewrite my old back up program.   This is going quite well but will take two or three days to complete and test.   So a few more headache in stall until this is completed.  Ah ho.