Frequently Asked Questions
1) How did you make this archive?
Well, I have been looking for quite some time for a format to archive digital pictures. My requirements are not exactly simple. It must be viewable on a television, at a reasonable enough quality that you can see the image fairly well. It must be able to be updated easily with new information. It must be able to be viewed on as many platforms as possible. It must be cheap to produce. After playing around with several different formats, I settled on the VCD format. Its advantages are described below. As for how this archive was actually made, well, my brother, Steve, scanned in over 250 images that our uncle, Dan Kelly, gave to him. Dan had saved these photographs and documents from the top to bottom house cleaning of the old north place that they did during the summer of 2001 before Dan rented out the acreage. I am told by Dan that these images are just the tip of the iceberg, and I take that to mean that there could be well in excess of several thousand additional photographs and documents that need to be scanned in and archived at some point!
Anyway, Steve got these scanned in images to me, and I then categorized, renamed, and renumbered all the photographs. From there, I started creating HTML pages for each image, so we could store comments and information about each one. After doing about 50 of these, I decided "there HAS to be a better way!". I then wrote a PERL script and ran it on a Linux box to automatically generate the HTML pages given a list of JPG images for a category. This worked very well, but wasn't very flexible, so I decided instead to write out a rudimentary Visual Basic program to do most of the legwork for me.
This program also lent itself to my next generation of the format, where the data that describes a picture would be stored separately from the way we display the picture. The problem with straight HTML is that if you want to change the look and feel of the slides' data presentation in a browser, you have to change every single HTML page!! And since we're running on a standalone CD, we don't have the luxury of doing something scripted like you could on a server. Thus, I began looking into XML.
In its current state, the pictures are now stored in one directory on the CD, the XML describing the pictures is in a separate directory. There are a half dozen or so "templates" that are used to format the XML into HTML pages for viewing on a browser. All of the data is included on the CD, so anyone with the knowledge and desire could substitute their own look and feel for the slides, and regenerate them. With this in mind, I wrote a couple of Visual Basic programs to make it easier to fill in the tags, merge the stylesheets (XSL), and generally maintain a CD. My plan eventually is to rewrite it in wxPython to make it cross platform, enabling this work to be done in Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
2) What are the advantages of storing images in this format?
There are several:
3) How do you maintain the archive?
I use the following software:
Steve used a Hewlett Packard 5400c flatbed scanner for the acquisition of the images. He prefers Adobe PhotoShop 7.0 for image manipulation.
4) Can I play this VCD on a DVD player and see the images on a TV instead?
Probably. This CD is actually created as a VCD (or VideoCD), and thus should play in most DVD players that support the VCD format. I have had outstanding success with most Pioneer brand DVD players (my personal favorite). I have not heard great compatibility with Sony equipment, however. I do know that most Apex brand players are also very well known for their compatibility with several different types of media. About all I can say is try it and see. If you have a brand not listed here that works, I'd love to hear about it.
That said, the navigation on a DVD player will definitely leave something to be desired. You can really only go through the pictures one by one using the Next and Previous buttons, and I haven't made a great effort to put them in any particular order for DVD viewing. I figure if you want more detailed information, you'll stick it in your CD-ROM anyway. Also, the menuing system for a Photo VCD is really not very good, so I am having to compromise somewhat in that area. However, it makes a GREAT way to gather the whole family around the TV and talk about the pictures over a few adult beverages. Eventually, I hope to use straight DVD media when it becomes cheaper, and then navigation should become easier.
5) What if I have information about a picture?
As you go through each image, you will notice a couple lines of text in really small print that says this:
Do you have a comment you'd like to add? Click here to email me about it!
If you click on the link for the picture you are interested in, it will open your email program, and automatically fill in the subject line with the image number, which tells me which image you are talking about. Then just send me your comments or updates about the picture! I'll add them to the commentary at the top of the page, and it'll show up in a future version of the CD!
6) Does this CD-ROM work on anything other than Microsoft Windows?
Yes, it should work in most anything that supports HTML. It's basically just a browser doing all the work anyway. I have not tested it on a Mac, or on Linux, but I'm 99% confident that they'll work just fine.
The most successful way to contact me is via email at dk@alboe.org. I generally respond quickest this way, because I monitor my email all day long. If you need to contact me some other way, here is my information:
Dave Kelly
1990 Rock Island Drive
Ely, Iowa, USA 52227
(319) 848-5769
Please, please, PLEASE send me any updates or information you have on any of these pictures! A lot of them I have no idea who is in the picture, and I would love any help you can give me! If you would like to send me scanned images on CD, please contact me, and I can tell you the formats I would like to receive them in.