Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with archive

OUtlook deleted message folder

dougiedd — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:21:27 -0800

My Outlook deleted file is 17,000 messages. It runs off of a windows server for our organization I understand that is not the best idea. But i find that i return to even deleted messages with great frequency. What would be the best way to archive those messages so i can easily search them while improving the performance of outlook?

Is there a cheap digital archive solution for a non-profit?

Magnakai — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:37:36 -0800

What's a good system for a non-profit to set-up and manage a digital archive of somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 text, pictures, sound and video items? It needs to be accessible by multiple people at the same time and be easily searchable. So basically I sometimes work for a neat little non-profit cultural organisation that has its roots in a relatively unique historical building. That building is approaching it's centenary, and we've got a teeny bit of funding to do some heritage work. Part of this work is making an archive of materials related to the history of our institution. This would be overseen by the heritage officer, who is a smart cookie but not super au-fait with complicated IT stuff. Information would be input by her and a team of volunteers. We have pretty much no money and we don't want it to be high-maintenance, as it's mostly an internal archive.

The heritage officer has asked me, as the defacto computer person, to look into how we should do this. We could get a very cheap copy of Access through CTXchange and use that, but I'm hesitant to wrap up what's meant to be a long-term archive in proprietary technology. I also have no idea how to get started with it, and it seems very unfriendly at first poke.

My first thought was to create an SQL/XML/something else open database and somehow convince someone to write an HTML/PHP front end. That would let multiple people connect to the site and input data at once. We could then plug in some sort of search program to do comprehensive searches. The main problem I have is that editing fields seems inaccessible for the heritage officer and her volunteers. I'd also want the locations of the media to be linked from the front-end, and pictures to be embedded and visible.

Right now we've got four PCs hooked into a Windows 2008 server. I'm supremely unsure about what to do from here. Options would be to do an IIS server and host a database on the server, or just have it on our file server portion of the 2008 server.

Any ideas would be welcome, especially something pre-built!

Where is Russell Lee?

seagull.apollo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:28:03 -0800

Does anyone know where I can find the aerial photographs of Russell Lee? I am looking for an archive of the aerial photographs of Russell Lee. He was with the Air Transport Command during the Second World War, and he took beautiful photos from planes. Extensive Googling has not revealed anything that is high enough resolution to make a decent print out of. On the subject of prints, if anyone knows of where I could buy prints of his aerial photographs, that would be great as well. Thanks Mefi!

Where can I find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009?

vogel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:37:12 -0800

Can you help me find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009, please? Preferably 1024x768 size but anything very gratefully accepted. The very splendid UK official mapmakers, the Ordnance Survey, give away desktop wallpaper each month. There's a nice photo of somewhere in the UK with a calendar for the month. I have an almost-comprehensive collection, but like a fool I missed May and, whereas they used to be archived on the site, they've now pulled the archive so if you miss a month you've had it. Copyright problems, I guess.

I found somewhere on the web where people were discussing this and claimed to have archives so I mailed them very politely asking for help. Silence. I'm stuck.

Yes, it is rather OCD-ish of me, but what the h*ll. I like having them, is all. Any bright ideas please? I am pretty sure OS themselves will not be able to help, but I am dropping them a line just in case. But really I think my best hope is someone else who's been as obsessive as me - but more efficient! :)

Tagging slides

MrMerlot — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:37:01 -0800

Can anyone recommend a tag-based system for archiving slides? My job requires me to keep a lot of slides (for powerpoint, lectures, handouts etc...) Can anyone recommend a way of tagging them, rather than keeping them in folders ... a bit like Delicious, but for offline material?

Efficiently retrieving a file from an archive

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:25:43 -0800

Is there a smarter tar or cpio out there, or a smarter way to archive, to efficiently retrieve a file stored in the archive? I am using tar to archive a group of very large (multi-GB) bz2 files.

If I use tar -tf file.tar to list the files within the archive, this takes a very long time to complete (~10-15 minutes).

Likewise, cpio -t < file.cpio takes just as long to complete, plus or minus a few seconds.

Accordingly, retrieving a file from an archive (via tar -xf file.tar myFileOfInterest for example) is as slow.

Is there an archival method out there that keeps a readily available "catalog" with the archive, so that an individual file within the archive can be retrieved quickly?

For example, some kind of catalog that stores a pointer to a particular byte in the archive, as well as the size of the file to be retrieved (as well as any other filesystem-specific particulars).

Is there a tool (or argument to tar or cpio) that allows efficient retrieval of a file within the archive?

How do I find out about a 1980 crime in Alabama?

Doug — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:10:02 -0800

What's the best way to search distant local newspaper archives for information on a crime that occurred almost 30 years ago in Birmingham, Alabama? I’m looking for any and all information concerning a crime that occurred in Alabama in 1980. I don’t have much information. A woman was abducted from Eastwood Mall in Birmingham Alabama. I believe the abduction occurred at the TP Crockmeir’s restaurant in the mall. That’s essentially all I know. I have access to Westlaw, but my searches are coming up with no results. I’ve sent emails to several local Birmingham newspapers, but I’ve received no replies. Is there an easier way for me, a person in NYC, to find articles on this crime?

Help me find that World War II u-boat newsreels

ouke — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:47:18 -0800

Help me find that World War II u-boat newsreels My darling niece is interning at one of our local cinemas. For her father's birthday she arranged the most awesome present in the known history of mankind: a private screening of Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot".
The running gag in our family is that he is always watching this movie by himself, so whenever somebody asks where he's at, the standard answer is: "In the attic, watching Das Boot". Tomorrow the whole family shows up at the cinema, while he thinks he's coming to town to carry his wife's shopping bags all day.
To make this a complete nostalgic cinematic experience, I would like to see if it is possible to start the screening with an old German War newsreel. I would like to faux subtitle that with a text about his Das Boot obsession. I am looking for footage of the building or launch of a german submarine, preferably similar to the tormented star of the movie: the u-96. Of course u-boat related parades are also what I'm looking for, but at the same time I wonder how the hell you parade around with a u-boat.
A quick tour yesterday to find a related DVD in the shops in town resulted into nothing. Online I was more succesful at archive.org. I found some appropriate footage in their archives of German UFA ton-woche newsreels. And while archive.org is usually very generous in offering different formats, these movies come with a compression that renders into something so impressionist, it has to be considered entartet.
So my question is: where could I find such German newsreels or documentary footage in good quality? And remember short is good, because director's cut of this movie already makes us hold our breath for three and a half hours.

Turning thousands of photos into billions of bits?

killdevil — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:04:04 -0800

My dad has many thousands of photos in 35mm slide and print form (the output of 40 years as a photography hobbyist). He's looking for an archival-quality photo scanner that can handle both formats, as well as provide some degree of bulk-load automation. What should he get?

Do you have an MP3 of the time we played that slow song really fast?

bodega — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:16:06 -0800

Recommendations for free private digital accommodations for a retired band's media? Our band has been broken up for many years -- its members are now scattered across the USA. But, of course, we have a ton of recordings that we're slowly digitizing. We'd like to find an easy online way to share our digital archives with each other. (Mostly MP3s, but some video and pics.) There are hundreds of songs plus many live recordings. Probably a dozen or so videos.

Looking for:
* Online
* Free
* Private

I've looked at dropbox, but the free version has a prohibitive file size limit.

(I'm trying to find a solution that doesn't involve me setting up an FTP server at home.)

Thanks.

Making a big list of online news media archives

activitystory — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:40:23 -0800

What are your favorite places to find archived news footage and imagery online for free? Looking to put together a list of sites for communications studies students to help them approximate the functionality of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive without spending hours hunting on YouTube for media to critique. Through other AskMe questions, I've found a few strategies, like searching archives.cnn.com, the CBC & WGBH archives, and using British Pathe's news (which goes up to the 70s), and I'm familiar with the watchdog sites like Media Matters for America and Media Research Center. These are pretty much along the lines of what I'm looking for, even if tehy require disclaimers-- offering something other than just "search YouTube".

Historical and contemporary sources are both great, even if they come from the news organizations themselves. Format is not a big deal, nor is completeness of the archive.

I archived w/o labeleling. Are my emails forver hidden?

hasna — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:54:43 -0800

About a year ago, I accidentally archived a ton of old emails in my Gmail account, without putting any labels on any of them. (I thought I knew how archiving worked at the time, but obviously I was wrong) Aside from just randomly searching for keywords every time I need to find one of those archived emails, is there any way to access them? Preferably en masse, so I can add labels to them once and for all.

I understand Gmails "great and wonderful" search ability, but I've found that a number of times, the obvious keywords aren't in the email I'm looking for, especially registration/sign-up confirmations/info, where the sender's email address isn't the same as the site I signed up with.
(I hope that makes sense... )

Maybe there's a Greasemonkey script out there somewhere I can use?

Like finding a needle in a cesspool, I know

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:51:52 -0800

I want to find an image that was once posted on 4chan (/b/). Am I out of luck? (Some NSFW details within). I am not a frequenter of 4chan. At all. Especially "/b/". But I have a strong desire to find a specific photographic image that was posted at some point to /b/. All that I know about the photo is that it is was taken of a man's erect penis and had the name "Jessie" or "Jess" written on it in black marker. I do not know when it was posted and I'm pretty certain (I would think, anyway) that the poster posted it anonymously. Is there any possible way to find it? Throwaway: blackmarkerman@gmail.com

Wayback Machine Plugin for ALL old/dead outbound links on a website?

bollockovnikov — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:19:17 -0800

My old website still gets a lot of hits. But many of the outbound links I posted years back are no longer valid, are dead or have changed location. Is there any way to integrate the Wayback Machine Internet Archive into my site's code so that links are redirected to the archive for the date they were originally posted? Ideally I would like an integrated plugin that directed old outbound links to their archived page on Wayback automatically. It would be great if visitors to the site hardly even knew their click had been redirected. I would like to implement it site-wide, so that either:

1. All outbound links were directed to the original date they were posted, or
2. If links are dead then the plugin kicks in and directs to the wayback archive, or
3. The plugin places a Wayback version of each link next to the original (something like: Original Link [archive])

(My site is a self-hosted blogger blog - the old version - if that makes a difference...)

Is there a way?

Quicksilver loses track of moved files. Why no?

middleclasstool — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:48:12 -0800

How can I get Quicksilver to keep track of files that have moved? I'm running QS B54 on OS X Leopard, and love the heck out of it, but I have only one problem with it (beyond some minor buggy lack of functionality since a1c0r stopped supporting it, anyway). The problem is that I'm also running Hazel, and I have a rule set up that scans for anything in my Documents folder that's been untouched for more than n weeks and moves it to a subfolder labeled "Archive." Keeps only new and relevant stuff in Documents, so it's easier to browse.

However, I've noticed that after Hazel moves a file, QS can't see it anymore. If I go browsing for a file in my archive folder and manually open it, then QS again has it indexed, but I'd rather (if this is possible) somehow configure QS so it keeps track of the file or folder even after it's been archived. Is there a way to do this?

Move my archive of awesome to the cloud?

ooklala — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:09:45 -0800

How can I organize my archive of awesomeness which has mostly pictures? I have started an archive, much like Adam Savages creative projects archive, of awesome random stuff, like interesting images I find, or links or songs, etc. Currently this archive is a folder on my desktop ("archive of awesome"). To organize the items, I have been writing in the metadata (spotlight comments) about everything. I'D like to move this archive to the cloud, whilst keeping the process of adding things to the catalouge simple. What service can I use for this?

REQUIREMENTS:
currently, all pictures, mostly weird ones that I get to make points for friends and such. I plan on adding text clips and links.
I use a mac, and would like something ideally that combines a desktop software and a nice website.
It must be easy. If it takes more than a few seconds to add to it, it will probably end up being too cumbersome.

Alternatives to family bible for tracking family tree, offline or otherwise

GPF — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:02:39 -0800

I'd like some suggestions for a place to keep track of family births and events, much like traditionally done in a family bible. Books are nice, but all media considered. Points given in three categories: potential longevity, flexibility of data handling, and style. Some examples:

An acid-free archival printing of the Gutenberg bible:
- high longevity scores (books can last a long time)
- low data handling scores (once the system starts, its tough to change)
- mid style scores (admittedly subjective, but though iconic, its still a bible)

A full-blown premium plus account at Ancestry.com:
- mid longevity scores (the technology is unproven on large time scales)
- high data handling scores (much flexibility on online solutions)
- low style scores (can't really put it on a pedestal in the family library)

A mural in oil paint on the stone fence out back:
- low longevity scores (needs constant maintenance)
- low data handling (needs professional assistance)
- high style scores (probably the only one in the neighborhood)

A question about corporate file sharing.

grumblebee — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:19:14 -0800

My friend runs a small company that is growing. They're starting to run into file-sharing problems (versioning, archiving, etc.). Laboring under the bizarre belief that I know something about this stuff, my friend has asked for my help. The company used to be two guys in Europe. Now it's about fifteen people in several countries (and continents), all collaborating. When it was just the two guys, it was easy for them to share files. Now it's getting complicated. They need a file and discover it's only on one guy's hard drive. and that guy is asleep (time-zone issues). Or there are several versions of a file floating around, and no one is sure which one is the most recent one.

I know about (and have used) svn and git, but I'm curious if there are any books or websites that go into details about this sort of collaboration and list good tools and techniques.

Note: this is a design shop, so many of the files are binary (Flash and PSD). This makes the svn thing a little tricky if there are conflicts. Or does it?

In any case, I'd like a resource or resources that gives suggestions for archiving (they have an svn, but it's getting huge), file sharing, naming conventions, etc.

They are mostly mac-based, but they have a few PCs on their network.

What happend to Loveline Archive?

sharkhunt — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:31:07 -0800

Where can I find full length Loveline radio episodes from 1995 to 2005 (the Adam Carolla years)? I used to download episodes from the Loveline archive website, but it has recently closed down. The only episodes I am interested in are the years with Adam Carolla co-hosting. Unfortunately, the only ones I can seem to find are the new episodes with Striker which I am not interested in. Well, thanks for any help in my quest for entertainment and enlightenment.

Who owns the copyright of a 300 year old book transcribed 65 years ago?

Maastrictian — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:17:20 -0800

My hometown has a diary created by our first minister in the 1700s. The original diary was transcribed into four copies by workers of the Works Progress Administration at some time between 1935 and 1943. The 10 volumes of these copies do not have any copyright marks on their title pages. Now, we would like to scan these transcribed books into pdf documents, and make them available to scholars and interested internet users. Is there a copyright concern? If the books are under copyright would the it be held by the government or by the (unknown) transcribers? Who would we contact in the government to get permission to scan and distribute these books now given that the WPA has been defunct for 65 years?

How do I track my DVD-Rs?

tommorris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:18:20 -0800

Is there any good, free UNIX/Linux software you can suggest for keeping a searchable index of removable media? I have a large collection of backed up files on DVD-R (about five or six hundred volumes). I have been using a proprietary and rather crufty application called CDFinder. My Mac laptop has become rather less stable recently (and I haven't got enough money for one of them nice new MacBooks), so I've made the leap to a netbook running Linux. This is the one application I can't find a decent equivalent for.

Ideally, I want an application that will maintain a database of all the metadata about the files on burned CD/DVD volumes. That metadata will obviously include the file names, creation/modification dates, but also ID3 data for audio files and the equivalent metadata for videos, photos, PDFs and all the other stuff I haven't really thought about. Search speed isn't tremendously important - it doesn't bother me if it takes fifteen seconds to do a search.

One of the things I would like would be for the data to be in an open format, and for the search tool to be usable from the command line (so I can use it over SSH).

I have done some Googling, but all I can find are the sort of things record collectors would use to keep track of their albums. Not what I want: I basically want UNIX's metadata-aware 'find' or 'locate' commands for unmounted volumes.

I've been thinking about building something like this myself as a fun little open-source project over the Christmas holidays. If someone has a suggestion of an existing project that would do what I want that is free, open source and preferably not tied to any windowing environments (command line ftw!), I'd be greatly appreciative.

How can I download Yahoo emails to my PC and keep them separate from my work email on MS Outlook?

Pastabagel — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:40:52 -0800

How can I download or archive the email from my Yahoo email account to a PC without it interfering with my work email running on Outlook on that same PC? Once downloaded, the yahoo email has to be searchable, filter-able, etc, so a flat text or zip file won't work. Can I install something like Thunderbird and use it to connect to my yahoo account without it conflicting with my Outlook email? In addition, I don't want the email to disappear from Yahoo - the emails on yahoo should be unchanged. If possible, the download solution should preserve my Yahoo mail folder structure.

This is strictly for forensic or archival purposes. I don't need to send yahoo email through this solution, only download and organize them. Given this, is Thunderbird even the best solution?

CMS + Blogspot = ?

stleric — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:19:15 -0800

What sort of CMS configuration would I use to integrate the current content of a Blogspot blog with a website of basic HTML articles and photo galleries? A friend of mine and I have been talking for ages about integrating his website and his Blogspot blog's collective content into a CMS. It would be easy enough to take the standard HTML articles and add tags and such, but at least with my searching so far, it's integrating a Blogger/Blogspot that seems to be the tricky part.

The hope would be to have articles, photo galleries, and blog posts all be tagged, browsable, and searchable in equal capacity without disrupting existing blog comments or content (and ideally without having to import the Blogger content into a new blogging format). My friend has already looked at Drupal and found it needlessly complex, and I looked into Joomla, but I couldn't find any strong support for Blogger integration.

Is there a CMS or configuration thereof that would be able to do this without too many complications?

Looking for NY Herald archives

cherie72 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:42:43 -0800

Looking for NY Herald archives from 4/21/12. Is there an online site where I can search/view them? Any idea if there is an online resource that will allow me to view archives of the NY Herald. I want the Sunday, April 21, 1912 edition. There's a piece in what I believe is called the "Women of Society" section (or something similar) that I'd like to see.

I have made some calls/emails about where I can find this, or even go to a library that might have it on microfilm or some other such source. But I don't seem to get replies.

Any leads appreciated.

How do I save a script/content rich web page as a local file?

nickerbocker — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:07:35 -0800

What is the best way to save a script/content rich web page for archival reasons from a remote server, locally? I would like to save my World of Warcraft Armory Page as a local file, for archival reasons. Is there a way to do this that would preserve all the mouse-over's and in general be a complete recreation of the content available? If so, what is the best way to do this? Is there a way to do it without locking it into a particular web browser or viewing program?

More on the reasons why:
Whenever a new item in the game is found, the armory web site is updated. A history of changes isn't reflected on the web site.

What I've tried:
All of the "Save Page As..." options in Firefox 3.0.3.