by midwestherbalist » Tue 11 Nov 2008, 10:58:14
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', 'W')elcome, MWH. Been downloading your
database all day, did you scan all those dusty tomes yourself? Quite the boatload of work, very impressive. You should link to some of the sites out there that have similar goods.
I'm also a bit of a packrat/archivist. There are some audio recordings (American folk song) only available from the web that I plan to dump onto cassette tape; there are 35 year old cassettes that still play while CDs are done in by minor skufs and degradation.
Nah...I did not scan a single one of those books.
I am a DB programmer by trade. Object Oriented Programming has opend a new world of thinking for me. I tend to follow that pattern in what ever I do. You do not need to know how a complex tool actually works in all ways, nor how it was made, in order to use it for its intended purpose. You simply need to know how to call the objects..."gas pedal makes go," “turn knob oven heats,” “set thermostat cool air arrives.” Etc.
It would be quite the different world if we were required to understand all of the workings of everything that we use on a daily basis much less a requirement of the knowledge and skill to create everything that we use. An Object oriented approach is used in daily life but overlooked and rarely applied as a tool itself to conquer new obstacles.
The same applies here...I became very interested in book collecting a while back. Started a massive library. My favorite books were the antiquarian variety because they had a less perverted way of presenting information, not slanted as much by revisionist history, political bias, and big business and federal gov agencies were not as embedded in the publishing business yet.
Once I realized that I had more information than I could ever absorb in 3 lifetimes I began loaning out my books to friends. They began coming back to me with very interesting information that they had parsed out of the writings. A miniature think tank was produced inadvertently and our knowledge increased to the extant that we could delve deeper into subjects of choice. Now I have began collecting books for free from all corners of the internet.
My point is that the knowledge was increased at a more exponential rate by the utilization of a object oriented model. I wish I could claim that was my intent at the time, but it was not. But, the idea was evident to me once I stood back and saw the object oriented design from a wide angle view.
Hey, hook me up with the ol' American Folk Songs if you get the chance. That would be sweet. I enjoy some good dulcimer, and old rail song once in a while. A friend that I met in the Army had a collection of music that was taken from very old records. Profound music that I never knew existed prior to that time.