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Re: Mac OS "spotlight" indexes metadata

Subject: Re: Mac OS "spotlight" indexes metadata
From: Jeremiah Moore <>
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 11:35:49 -0700
Lang -

My system is essentially an alternative front-end to mTools.

http://www.northstation.net/sfxdb/

There is another filemaker based package called soundlog pro, but it 
looks to be no longer available.

-jeremiah



>Jeremiah:
>
>What Filemaker-based software are you involved in developing? I know about
>mTools, but are there any other sound management software packages available
>that tie in with Filemaker?
>
>Lang
>
>A friend was just at apple's WWDC conference here in SF where the
>spotlight feature was announced.  Apparently the plan is to use a
>SQL-based database to contain the indexing, i.e. much faster and more
>efficient than Sherlock's content indexing.  (however, walt is right
>about the concept, and I'm sure there will be indexing.  Supposedly
>controllable, and ostensibly more efficient than the big flat file
>sherlock used.)
>
>I, for one, am excited about the possibilities.  I hope it's possible
>to read and write the metadata from the OS, via scripting or
>whatever.  In my line of work, it's *very* useful to attatch metadata
>directly to files, since the files get copied and moved and
>reorganized and even haphazardly renamed all the time as they flow
>through projects.  Storing the metadata in the file assures that you
>know what's what in a way that an external database can't.
>
>I also use (and am the developer of) a filemaker-based database for
>searching, retrieval, conversion and project tracking of sound
>assets.  In this case the metadata is stored in the DB, and the files
>are not moved or renamed etc.
>
>Spotlight could be cool if it's done right.  That remains to be seen.
>
>-jeremiah
>
>
>
>>From: "oryoki2000" <>
>>
>>>
>>>   Developers were given a glimpse of the next version of the Macintosh
>>>   OS at the recent Apple conference in San Francisco.  Most interesting
>>>   is the search feature called Spotlight.  Spotlight runs in the
>>>   background, building indexes of your files, so searches happen very
>>>   quickly.
>>>
>>>   The most interesting feature of Spotlight is its ability to
>>>   automatically index file metadata. If this includes the metadata in
>>>   Broadcast WAV (BWF) format, Spotlight will make it much easier to
>>>   manage a library of sound recordings.
>>>
>>>   I haven't owned a Macintosh in more than 15 years.  But it's looking
>>>   like my next computer may be a Mac.
>  >
>  >This sounds like a minor variant of the older version of Sherlock, which
>  >could index all text content of all files. And was extremely annoying.
>  >Running in the background indexing a hundred gigs of files every so
>>often. I turned it off. Last iteration of that would sometimes get it
>>into it's head that you wanted a index of the entire internet as well,
>>and start in on that. Latest Sherlock is almost entirely a internet
>>searcher. Though there still is a find in the finder for finding files
>>on your local system. I assume they are expanding that, putting back in
>>what they had before, but not letting it link to the internet. And, if
>>it's typical of the way they have implemented features lately, it will
>>be impossible to turn off it's endless indexing. I'm not looking forward
>>to such a feature. I use a proper database that I control to handle
>>indexing my sound recordings.
>>
>>I do recommend mac over windows, though the advantages are not as great
>>as they used to be since the command line unix folks took over. It's
>>being slowly ground down to windows level of functionality. Won't be
>>noticed by folks new to it, but people like me who have seen all phases
>>of Macs do see the considerable failures of the current OS writers. In
>>some of the most basic things.
>>
>>And, as I understand it, Apple has or will introduce some G5 systems
>>that require liquid cooling of their processors. So the advantage in
>>heat production seems to have been lost too.
>>
>>I'm kind of hoping that windows will eventually become a acceptable OS,
>>before Apple makes theirs completely unusable. And get moved to a more
>  >modern processor.
>>
>>Walt
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>"Microphones are not ears,
>>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>>A listening room is not nature."
>>Klas Strandberg
>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
jeremiah lyman moore | san francisco | sound+media | 
http://babyjane.com/timeweb/
http://northstation.net/ organic, mechanized, organized sound


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