ENGINEER'S REPORT –Tech Info

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Don Counts sent me an article "This supercomputer is rethinking the future of software"
By Nick Heath at TechRepublic published on April 18, 2012 with some really cool stuff in it.



      Supercomputers will soon be one thousand times more powerful than
      they are today, and the UK has enlisted an IBM Blue Gene/Q to help develop
      software for the machines.

      Five years from now supercomputers will be able to carry out more than one 

billion billion calculations per second and such blistering speed will require an

overhaul of how we write software.

WOW, right?


This article uses the term "Flops."  So, what is a flop?  
Flops stands for floating point operations per second, and, is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations.  And a flop count is a count of these operations per second... just some everyday basic stuff.  There are the same common prefixes that we have grown so fond of (and pretend that we comprehend the values), such as Kilo, Mega, Giga & Tera that we put with the suffix "bytes" as in Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes & Terabytes... pretty much "old hat!"   It is so "yesterday!"  But, now, we can soon be speaking in terms of Kiloflops (1,000 flops), Megaflops (one million flops), Gigaflops (one billion flops) & Teraflops (one trillion flops).  Truthfully, I do not care what you are talking about "one trillion" is a lot!  But, we do not stop at such small numbers, let us add these: Petaflops (one quadrillion flops), Exaflops (one quintillion flops), Zettaflops (one sextillion flops) & finally, Yottaflops (one septillion flops).  Folks a "septillion" looks like this ~ 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that is a "1" with 24 zeros behind it!!!).  That string of numbers might as well be a zillion or more to me.  I suddenly realized that I do not know how much is a "zillion?"  Well, I found out that there is no such number except it is used to express very large unknown numbers, such as:  "There must have been a zillion ants on the counter!"  Ok, then, are there any numbers larger than "septillion?"  Of course there are several larger groups: Octillion, Nonillion, & Decillion!


Just remember that for most of you this will be the first you will hear of these supercomputers of the very near future that can do more than a billion billion calculations per second!  You will be the first in your family to know what a Petaflop or Yottaflop means!  Here is the link to Nick Heath's blog: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/this-supercomputer-is-rethinking-the-future-of-software/489?tag=content;siu-container to read his article.


- Compiled by JGWest

                                                   

          

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

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This is a story from
someone that wishes he was a real techno guy...
me!

I found one of my flash drives (AKA: portable, thumb or USB drives) and hooked it into my computer to see if there were any photos on it that I failed to put onto the regular desktop computer. I found that this was the little drive that I downloaded & installed the Family Tree Maker (FTM) program with its database & it also had an installed Personal Ancestral File (PAF) with database. This little drive could be carried around by me anywhere and I could check my database on anybody's computer and I could add, delete or otherwise edit anything in my family files to bring home and put into my desktop genealogy program. The good part was that the computer I would use did not need to have FTM or PAF installed on its computer! This reminded me about the lost Christian County, KY huge PAF database that my cousin Tom Henderson had given me several years back. I bought a new computer about 2.5 years ago with Vista... which was not compatible with the PAF version 5, but not to fear because it was on my old computer that still worked. I was going to make a gedcom of the PAF data to export to my FTM program that was installed on the new computer. But... well, you know I never got around to doing that, of course!

Well, the old computer died on me and I have not been able to access that great database my cousin Tom Henderson gave me. Back to that little flash drive, that I could read that PAF database without any problem - I decided to see if I could export a gedcom copy of the PAF data to my new computer's FTM program. It worked!!!

Now, I can access the file without the flash drive & I can use it in a program that I am very comfortable with its use (FTM ver. 2006). I also have FTM ver. 2009 on the new computer, but it is seriously different than my 2006 version that is similar to version 1 of FTM that I began using in 1996 and upgraded every 2-3 years. Since the gedcom worked from the PAF 5 to FTM 2006, I need to now convert the FTM 2006 to the FTM 2009, just in case the next genealogy program will not be compatible with a gedcom from a program as old as 2006.

I learned a long time ago that if you skip too many upgrades from one version to the latest version that you may not be able to merge your old saved files into the newer version. So, you need to update your files every few years just to be able to access them later.

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

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When you disconnect something or everything from your computer,
how will you remember where it or everything goes?

Too many plug-ins and not enough easy ways to know where it all goes. Some computers have everything color coded, but if you get something new... it will not have the nice matching color scheme. I discovered a simple method to help me figure out just what hooks into where! I take several photos with my handy digital camera, download them to my computer, check that all details are clear enough for me to know where everything goes (take a few more photos, if needed), then print them out (this part is important since you will have everything disconnected on the computer & will not be able to see your photos)... make sure the prints are clear enough to see where things go together! Below are a few photos to give you the idea of how it can be done.

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

Have you ever found what looked like a possible great site from another site? So, in great anticipation you click on the link and get that unwanted "HTTP 404 Not Found" error page! Now, what... you really wanted to see this page! Well here is one way to, hopefully, find your site!

This was an email pointing out that the Grayson County, KYGenWeb page had a bad link to "Millerstown and It's People" with my email response. After reading my hint, try it yourself!

From Patsy Andrews:

We have just discovered your site and found the link to “Millerstown and It’s People” has been broken. We are very interested in the Hornback, McCrady, Wooten & Logsden families of Millerstown. Is there another way to view this information?
Patsy Andrews
The site I’m referring to is : http://www.kygenweb.org/grayson/graysonlinks/index.html

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This is my response:
Patsy, this link has apparently changed to http://www.mcclure-landis.com/millerstown/index.html Thanks for including the URL to the page where you found this bad link. Believe it or not 99% of people do not even list what general web site the bad link came from, not even the bad link!

This is the bad link: http://www.golocal.com/misc/genealogy/millerstown/index.html When I find a bad link, I first add or delete the "l" in "htm(l)" that is often where the error is found. If not, then I delete the html file name (in this case, "index.html") to see if I can get to the site page one-level back. Since that did not work, I removed "millerstown" and got an instant redirect to: http://www.mcclure-landis.com/ which had a new link to "Millerstown and It's People." If you have never done this before, try it out yourself... go back to the bad link, and work your way back. Sometimes people change servers and this may not work, but sometimes they will have a auto-redirect or a "Site has moved, click here" statement.

I gave you the new link and a hint to, hopefully, find the correct link when one has changed and gives you that dreaded "HTTP 404 Not Found" error. This query from you, prompted my TSGS Cruiser Blog article for today...check it out (second link below) ~ I give you credit for the idea to explain this Internet trick I learned from others on the Internet 12 years or so ago!

John G. West,
President, Tri-State Genealogical Society (TSGS)
Treasurer, Ohio Valley Chapter Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution (OVC INSSAR)
State Historian, Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution (INSSAR)
State Fair 4-H Judge, Indiana State Fair (4-H Genealogy Project)

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Tri-State Genealogical Society (TSGS) - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~intsgs/index.html
TSGS Cruiser Blog - http://tsgsblog.blogspot.com/
Ohio Valley Chapter INSSAR - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inovcsar/

Patsy Andrews prompted this article to be written as submitted by JGWest

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

Genealogical Software ~

Times are changing... there was a time when there were perhaps 3 to 5 popular genealogical programs to keep all of your genealogical information on your computer. Family Tree Maker, Brother's Keeper and PAF being perhaps 3 of the favorites. As time, ownership of the software, and the loss of support, etc.... these programs have begun to lose favor. So, where are we today with software for our family histories and all of the other things we have begun to store with our genealogy stuff?

Char Beyer~NM~ posted this on one of the lists or MyFamily.com sites that we each are members - Jan 23, 2009

I tried Legacy and it is a good program, but went for TMG (The Master Genealogist). It is a bit more complex and offers somethings the others don't. I guess you could say it is more of a professional genealogist (which I'm not) program. With this program I can cross reference the brides by maiden or married name. You can break down your info into detailed catagories or use it the same as FTM, PAF, Legacy, etc. In other words you can keep it as complex or basic as you want. The support for TMG is fantastic, no question too simple or complicated for them to answer. As you all know, I am full of questions [you probably do not know this, but I can verify that this is true! - JGWest]. I used PAF for years and was happy with it, very simple, but they quit updating it a couple of years ago. I tried FTM on two different occasions, it was good, but not for me. You can download a free version of it [TMG] and that is what I would advise you to do. Most of the programs have free versions on line, some you can keep, some are just for a trial period. Check them out and pick 2 or 3 that sound and look good to you, mess around with them. That way you get a chance to see which is the best for you and does what you want it to do, before you buy one and find it just isn't right for you or you don't like it. The addie is: www.whollygenes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc - Char Beyer

I suggest that you read first this page:
http://www.moss-fritch.com/Gen_Software.htm
Then check out this page:
http://www.moss-fritch.com/genealogy_applications.htm
And then go to these sites to review the various software programs to help you to select a program that will do what you need and want in a genealogical database:
http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.mumford.ca/reportcard/review.htm
http://genealogy.about.com/od/software_reviews/Genealogy_Software_Reviews_Ratings_Comparisons.htm
- Compiled by JGWest

ENGINEER'S REPORT –Tech Info

“What's the Scoop on This Blog?”

In the right-hand column of this blog I composed a welcome message to visitors wherein I state that “I have no idea of what I am doing!” Well, that has changed just enough to make me dangerous. I have looked at other blogs to see what they are doing and I have done a lot of experimenting with this blog. First, why the term “Blog?” It is short for “Web Log.” And the idea behind a log is to just publish a daily, weekly or other regular interval journal or diary of events, stories, information or thoughts. Well that is ok, but what is all of this nautical nonsense? Our members' quarterly journal is named the Tri-State Packet after the Ohio River packet line that delivered cargo along the river. The society meets at Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana on the Ohio River. The quarterly has a sketch of one of those old cargo packet line boats (see the yellow cover of our journal in the right column). The quarterly has regular features such as “The Ship's Log” (President's column), “News From the Deck” (Willard Library & TSGS news), “The Pilot House” (from the Editor), etc. So, I have used some nautical terms for features for this blog and updated the name from the old Packet boat to a cruiser. I found a neat graphic of a “cruiser” to represent the TSGS Cruiser Blog. Tell me what you think about it?

The TSGS Cruiser Blog is for anyone interested in genealogy and in particular the Tri-State Genealogical Society (TSGS). Anyone can send me ideas or articles to publish in this blog, click on one of the “submit ideas” links to send me an email. You can also make a comment about an article. Click on the word “Comments” at bottom of each article to make a comment about that article and your thoughts will become part of the interaction that a blog can generate. So far, this blog does not have a large following and has only a few comments. These comments provide feedback as to what interests our visitors and stimulates discussions about various topics and ideas. Please make a comment when you read these articles. Hopefully, you will come back on a regular basis to read the blogs that have been posted on this site, which is a daily log of various types of messages. The articles will always be in the left-hand column. Just below where you can post comments is a list of labels for the article which represents the subjects that label what the article is about. Anyone that contributes an article will get a “by-line” plus their name will be one of the labels. A long list of labels can be found in the right-hand column and number of articles for each label. Click on the label name and all of the articles with that label will appear in the left column. Above the labels is a list (archive) of each article's title that you can click on for it to appear on the left side. The archives is open for the current month's articles. Each month has a small pointer that you can click on to open the list of articles or close it (same for each year). Click on the name of the month and it will load all of the blogs for that month in the left side. In parentheses is the number of articles for that month or year. At the bottom of the left-hand column there is a link for “Newer Posts” “Home” “Older Posts” that will take you through all of the posts from the first to the last one. At the top of the right-hand column is our survey/poll that runs for about a week. You can only vote once, but each time you visit you can check the current vote results. I create the question and choices for it... I need visitors to give me some ideas or a complete poll. I will report the final results of each poll under the heading of “The Captain's Log – TSGS News.” After the poll closes voting is stopped, but you can click on comments later to post how you would have voted.

I would like to encourage everyone to become a follower of the TSGS Cruiser and to make comments, vote in our polls, send in an article or an idea for an article. Help us make this a great interactive site for TSGS members and other genealogical friends and visitors. We hope to make this a great communications tool to keep our members informed and a tool for our members to keep the rest of us “in the know.” Lets have some fun, learn some things and interact with one another. -by John G. West