>From from darrell@rockclimbing.org Mon Jan 10 09:42:29 2000
sims.3.5.1999.09.16.21.57.p8)with SMTP id  for
rodmakers@wugate.wustl.edu
That's an important point... photos take up a lot os space, especially
bigones... In my website, I had a photo gallery area setup for rod collectorsto
post their own photos at will without requiring the webmaster (me)
todoanything... It did require the user to upload the pics to a web host or
totheir own web site and it did require them to know how to properly
usethehtml coding... the disadvantage was that the pics would not be
centrallylocated and a permanent archive would not be preserved. I closed it
aboutaweek ago for lack of interest... I'm glad to see so many others taking
upthe challenge.
If someone comes up with a site that could be a long term depository,
itseems to me that it should have a searchable database and that
thesubmitting person should take the time and describe in detail the rod
andit's history.
I'm in the process of building a new website, but it probably won't beonline
for
a couple of months... I haven't signed with a web host yet, butthe 1st place
contender offers 100mb/$24.95 per month. A site that willstore hundreds
or thousands of high quality digital pics needs to be a lotbigger than 100 mg,
I suspect... Anybody have any web hosts they canrecommend to me OFF
LIST? Planning to add ecommerce/c cards... Thanks.
I'm concerned about the free sites as well... most are 6mths or 1 year
oldand will they be around in 2-5-10 years... if they shut down shop,
it'sunlikely they will give enough advance warning to archive all the picsbefore
close... Perhaps the AFFM might be willing to commit to a long termproject
such as this...
An alternative might be to develop a simple searchable database with
picsoncd-rom. Perhaps a MS Access database with photos and the database
couldbepurchased for a nominal cost to cover
shipping/duplication/databasemaintenence like shareware. Or it could even be
a commercial product, butthe success would depend on the participation of
the collector community.
The advantages is that it would be MUCH faster, on media that has a
50yearlife, searchable, no worries about the web site disappearing or running
outof web space.
"Marty Keane photos" - I chatted with him about a week or two ago
abouthispics... If I recall, he told me he uses a medium format camera of
Germanmanufacture and it was at least a 4"X5" negative. Also with a bellows
typecamera for precision depth of field control... his picture quality goes
wellbeyond the quality available 
from most if not all digital cameras... Mostpics that fit a normal computer
monitor with the full length photo justdon't have the resolution to be of too
much value, at least for me... itdoes tell me that all the sections are either
full length or damaged and ifthere is a set in the sections... If you do have
camera with high resolution2megapixel+, the .jpeg photo files will be huge and
takes lots of diskspace, VERY slow to load so that's a couple drawbacks that
I see...
Just my two cents...
Darrell Leewww.bamboorods.homepage.com
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: Pictures of original classic rods
All,Are these sites likely to stay up or are they temporary by
nature?Thereason I'm asking is that I'm transferring the messages with the
URLs intoa "Go here to find picture" mailbox so I don't have to download all
thosefiles to my hard-drive. Should I grab the pictures while I can and
transferthem to floppies or can I reasonably expect to return to your sites
andfind them when I need them?TIA,Art

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