Introduction to the relational database

ATPM 14.04 - FileMaking: Getting Relational turns out to be a fairly comprehensive and quite readable introduction to relational database design. I didn't see anything that's FileMaker specific, it applies equally well to MySQL, Microsoft Access, Oracle, etc. (The promised f/u articles will be FileMaker specific.)

It's a handy reference to keep around for colleagues, students, etc.

Charles Ross covers a range of topics typically taught over the course of several lectures, so don't be surprised if it takes a while to get through the entire article. If you need to understand the topic, this is worth printing out and studying.

More iPhoto humiliation: the vanishing edited video

iMovie '08 is so abominable that it makes iPhoto look good ... by comparison.

Still, it's not hard to humiliate iPhoto, even if we forget that after 8 releases it still can't import a Library.

We know that iPhoto has a nasty video export bug that can result in total data loss. That's bad, but this is at least comparable:

1. Import 3ivx MPEG 4 encoded video with AVI wrapper into iPhoto.
2. Right click on the Edit button and open in QuickTime Pro.
3. Trim the video and save. QT Pro offers to save in .MOV format. Choose that.
4. Return to iPhoto. The video you see is the previous version.

Basically the "Edit" option in iPhoto doesn't work for Video. It should be "grayed out" and unavailable for selection.

I bet QA found this one in early testing of iPhoto '08, but product management decided it wasn't worth fixing.

They should be ashamed.

Firefox 3 beta: they didn't tackle the tab UI problem

I've been using Firefox 3 beta 5 with OS X. I've noticed a few problems -- windows initially appeared almost off screen, one window would abruptly close, but overall it looks like a good incremental improvement. It hasn't pegged my CPU yet, so that's encouraging. (Firefox 2 would do that without any help from Flash.)

Alas, they didn't do anything to tackle the multi-window tab UI problem. I was looking for a view that would render windows and tabs in a browseable outline view with tab names and mouse-over window views, but there's no sign of this.

Lesson from FLIP Video: your video is doomed

Petabyte-equivalents of home video have vanished over the past 40 years. Odd sized films, film degraded and glued together, beta tapes, odd VHS variants, digital tapes, digital disks, abandoned digital file formats ... there are many routes to the graveyard.

Things are not about get get better. I don't have any data, but I'm blogging -- I don't need any friggin' data.I'm guessing most video now is coming from cell phones, digital cameras, and new packagings like FLIP Video. So how well will this video do over the next 40 years.

Digital cameras commonly use "Motion JPEG" [1]. Mobile phones use all kinds of formats, but they're converging on a wrapper called "3GP", behind that wrapper are all kinds of semi-standard data formats. The FLIP Video camera the kids and I are using on our Wisconsin Dells holiday uses 3ivx, of which I recently wrote:

Gordon's Tech: FLIP Video Ultra camcorder: iMovie HD works, iMovie '08 doesn't

...Videos are in "AVI" format -- that's a metadata wrapper around a codec. In this case coded is 3ivx MPEG-4... 3ivx Technologies is hoping you'll buy the full version from them...

I ended up writing an extended post with lots of updates; I learned quite a bit about iMovie '08 (disgraceful, Apple shipped at least one year too soon [3]), QuickTime and QuickTime Pro, MPEG Streamclip, video formats, video codecs, editing software, etc.

I haven't quite figured out the optimal strategy for editing and storing FLIP Video 3ivx encoded video, but I think there's a very good chance the 3ivx files will be completely unreadable within 15 years. It's a completely proprietary format, with no particular reason to expect it to become a lasting "standard".

So what will last? Well, I'm betting reasonably compliant still image JPEG will be readable a hundred years from now [2], so I think Motion-JPEG video might persist. Motion-JPEG's simplicity makes it easy to edit too, assuming one doesn't try to convert from the highly JPEG compressed images to any lossy format. I'm not so sure about the sound formats though. DVD-Video without copy-protection might also be expected to last, but that simple name hides a lot of complexity and variation with sound and video compression standards and metadata wrappers.

So called DV-stream is one name given the streamed version of 'digital video' standard (actually is a standard), but a casual glance at Wikipedia reveals lots of room for incompatible variations on digital media. It does lend itself well to editing (no intra-frame compression) but it makes for huge data files. It's dying off as MPEG-4 and HDV "standards" take over.

Hmm. Sounds like a real mess. I've read lots of discussions about archival image formats, so I'm sure this Google archival video search will yield lots of great advice.

Well, as of April 2008, not so much great advice. Basically, no advice at all.

Those petabytes of lost home 8mm home film recording are about to joined by peta-giga-tera bytes of every conceivable unreadable combination of video, audio and metadata formats.

Don't get to attached to those precious video moments ....

-- Footnotes --

[1] I'm still figuring out what this corresponds to in QuickTime Pro's export menu. I think it's the JPEG export option that shows up in the video export list, but I've reason to suspect things are even more confusing than they appear.

[2] Assuming our non-human inheritors are curious about their precursors. JPEG is what I store my photos in, I assume the original RAW files will be absolutely unreadable within 10 years.

[3] Seriously. The more I play with it the worse it gets. For example: even the one or two video formats it can import aren't recognized when the same files are stored in an iPhoto repository. If anyone ever has the delusion that Apple has some special magical interest in their customers, they need to review the iMovie '08 story. I use a lot of Apple products, but they're not marvelous. They're only better than the alternatives.

HP 15C emulator for the iPhone

Found this via Cosmic Variance: hpcalc-iphone - Google Code. It's a GPL project, includes the beloved HP-15C. I'll want this one, it will be out with the official SDK.

WD Hard drive - what's the warranty?

I go through hard drives ... like clockwork. Every six months the six work and home machines I maintain need a new hard drive.

None of the brands seem better than any other. I try to pay about $150 - $200 since that seems to the price of reasonably current drives with most of the bugs worked out.

The only other thing I look for is the warranty. Not that I ever bother to use them, but I figure a longer warranty means the manufacturer has a bit more confidence in the product.

Today I had to replace a drive quickly, so I didn't look for a warranty. When installed it, I couldn't find any reference to a warranty period.

I found something on Western Digital's web site when I entered the serial number:

Warranty Check for End User

By default, the warranty date is calculated from the manufacture date. However, if you have proof of purchase, we can update the warranty to calculate it from the purchase date. If you feel that the warranty date needs to be updated from the purchase date, please follow the instructions below.

1. Send us an email from this link:
   http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
2. Put in "Update warranty" in the subject line.
3. Attach a picture or a scanned copy of your purchase receipt (jpg, jpeg, or gif formats only, max 500KB)
4. Send the email.

The date I was given was 10/2008, or about seven months from now. So I'm guessing the US warranty is one year, but if you don't have a receipt you can still make a claim for a shortened period.

Odd development.

PS. I am getting tired of restoring from backup. I'm planning to at least put NAS storage at home, with a RAID array so I can just swap dead drives without having to do a restore.

Aperture and Time Machine: a joint bug

Apple suggests disabling Time Machine when Aperture is running  :

Time Machine may back up the entire Aperture Library on each run

As a workaround, turn Time Machine off (in Time Machine preferences, in System Preferences). When you want to manually back up, quit Aperture, then choose Back Up Now from Time Machine's menu bar icon (Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later), or by Control-clicking or right-clicking Time Machine in the Dock and choosing Back Up Now.

Translation: We have a nasty bug.