dorian moore : (digital media) technologist

Batch video compression software don't crop the filenames of the 100 files I've asked you to compress and append them with your own naming scheme without giving me the option to override it.

I hate software which tries to be clever for stupid people, but can't be stupid for clever people. I know they are different files, just change the file extension. That's all I want. Hell, it's all I need.

Now I have to rename 100 files which have had the major identifying part of the filename over written, and that I can't identify the contents of because they are compressed in a video codec that doesn't have a native player.

Tags : compression  interfaces  software  usability  video 
Posted by Dorian Moore on Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 09:36 GMT
Last modified Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 13:23 GMT

A thought for searching the directory

This is an email I just sent to directory-feedback(at)google.com about narrowing search fields. I thought it may work out helpful when searching for specific items.

Hi,

This is sort of a question, but also perhaps a suggestion : if possible.

I know it's possible to use the search function to find information stored in the google directory, but is it possible to do a search across a specific section. Not just headers, but across any indexed pages on the site?

For example, say I go to the directory

Shopping > Music > Instruments
And search for
second hand uk tape delay

Could it then do a full site search of all indexed pages related to entries in the index. I know this may be of limited use for shopping, but I can think of other areas where the directory structure would provide initial qualification for a search across a data subset.

Of course, it may do this already, but the way results are returned implies that it only searches the directory entry, possibly the index page pointed to by the link, but no further into that site.

I see a potential difficulty in knowing how to limit the pages returned from a site, as a site can be contained over a number of servers, but perhaps limiting the search to the specific domain and any directories below where the index page is would be a reasonable start.

If this isn't a feature I hope it's a worthy suggestion for your excellent service.

Kind regards

_d._

Tags : google  imrpovement  interface  suggestion  usability 
Posted by Dorian Moore on Sunday, April 28, 2002 at 00:00 GMT
Last modified Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 15:58 GMT