On Jul 14, 2009, at 7:03 AM, CONFOCALMICROSCOPY automatic digest  
system wrote:

>
> Date:    Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:34:47 +1000
> From:    Rosemary White <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: I.T. questions
>
> Ah, yes, in an ideal world some of this might happen, but it won't  
> happen
> here.  Our IT folk, as in many places, are in an understaffed and  
> overworked
> department.

Everyone is busy....Every department could use more people,
  the trick is to dangle attractive carrots that people will bite on.


>
> I don't think saving data to one place and copying to another is  
> such a big
> deal, the network is pretty fast.  At least you then have two copies  
> of the
> data.

In some ways thats a very good thing.
But whe happens when one version of the data is renamed
or processed or other wise modified?
There is no version control system to keep track of what happened to  
what and where it is...

but version control is a another huge issue that we mostly ignore....
but we should not. Its another meta data related problem in essence.

> Perhaps if we had really huge multi-TB sized data sets it'd be a
> problem, but not yet.  Our flakiest instruments can't be networked  
> anyway.

Pity thats the case. I guess when you get new stuff you will demand  
that it can be networked...?
As i mentioned earlier, it is not acceptable for manufacturers to  
charge big money for
instruments that are targeted at multi user environments but don't  
play nice on networks and dont like virus scanners.
The power lies in our hands there. we can vote with our funding.

>
> And compared to the months and years and people power it's taken to  
> develop
> and process the biological materials (plants in our case) to be  
> imaged, the
> time taken for imaging and data transfer is negligible.  The  
> subsequent
> image and statistical analysis also takes much longer than  
> collection of the
> original images.

I guess there is a point there, but surely,
the huge time and effort needed to make the samples
makes the image data even more precious?
So surely its worth looking after it as best is possible?


cheers

Dan

Dr. Daniel James White BSc. (Hons.) PhD
Senior Microscopist / Image Visualisation, Processing and Analysis
Light Microscopy and Image Processing Facilities
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Pfotenhauerstrasse 108
01307 DRESDEN
Germany

+49 (0)15114966933 (German Mobile)
+49  (0)351 210 2627 (Work phone at MPI-CBG)
+49  (0)351 210 1078 (Fax MPI-CBG LMF)

http://www.bioimagexd.net 	BioImageXD
http://pacific.mpi-cbg.de Fiji 	Fiji is just ImageJ - Batteries Included
http://www.chalkie.org.uk
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