Your files are right where you left them
-
Garland thought it would be an easy fix. She asked each student where they’d saved their project. Could they be on the desktop? Perhaps in the shared drive? But over and over, she was met with confusion. “What are you talking about?” multiple students inquired. Not only did they not know where their files were saved — they didn’t understand the question.
-
@boomzilla Come on, I don't buy that. Even if you're on google drive or onedrive, there are still files and folders.
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
@boomzilla Come on, I don't buy that. Even if you're on google drive or onedrive, there are still files and folders.
Are there really? I thought the hype these days is all object storage like Amazon S3 that's not hierarchical.
-
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
@boomzilla Come on, I don't buy that. Even if you're on google drive or onedrive, there are still files and folders.
Are there really? I thought the hype these days is all object storage like Amazon S3 that's not hierarchical.
I'm sorry, have you worked with S3? It's very much hierarchical, you have the top level bucket (which could be like server), then a folder structure and a file at the end. I mean it's really Key Value, but the key sure pretends to be a folder and a file.
-
I have a lot of trouble searching files on mobile. The UI hides the actual folder everything gets stored in and also filenames so sometimes it is hell to find a file I received on Whatsapp when I try to attach it to an e-mail. Now I know what old people feel when using a PC and I'm only 30.
-
@dangeRuss this mostly tracks with my experiences as an intro stats instructor where we use R for doing everything. I'd say half of my students pay no attention to where they save things at all, and just find everything using spotlight or whatever "search my computer" tool they have. Maybe 5-10% are somewhat surprised to learn there are other places besides the desktop and downloads folders. It can be tough sometimes.
-
@HannibalRex said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss this mostly tracks with my experiences as an intro stats instructor where we use R for doing everything. I'd say half of my students pay no attention to where they save things at all, and just find everything using spotlight or whatever "search my computer" tool they have. Maybe 5-10% are somewhat surprised to learn there are other places besides the desktop and downloads folders. It can be tough sometimes.
Well they're using Apple so you already they're not the brightest bulbs in the class.
Honestly though, I lose files sometimes too. I've ended up just keeping everything in c:/temp and subfolders, because at least then I now where to look. Now I was pretty upset when something (and nobody wants to claim responsibility for it) deleted my c:\temp folder. My bet is on Kaspersky. Note, it is not the TEMP folder setting in windows.
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
just keeping everything in c:/temp
:but-why.png:
I use
c:\secrets
-
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
just keeping everything in c:/temp
:but-why.png:
I use
c:\secretsThat's where I keep my porn collection.
c:\secrets\tax_documents
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
just keeping everything in c:/temp
:but-why.png:
I use
c:\secretsThat's where I keep my porn collection.
c:\secrets\tax_documents
Ah. My pron is in
B:\ComputerBackup\Find7a\SDCARD 20190519\Podcasts\.gop
Well, the condensed mobile collection, anyways...
-
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
Ah. My pron is in
B:\ComputerBackup\Find7a\SDCARD 20190519\Podcasts\.gop
Well, the condensed mobile collection, anyways...
-
@HannibalRex said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss this mostly tracks with my experiences as an intro stats instructor where we use R for doing everything. I'd say half of my students pay no attention to where they save things at all, and just find everything using spotlight or whatever "search my computer" tool they have. Maybe 5-10% are somewhat surprised to learn there are other places besides the desktop and downloads folders. It can be tough sometimes.
Back in my university days, the first course mandatory for ALL students was Computing 1, where they taught the basics of folders, network folders, search path, the space allocated to students, and whatnot. The course went as far as to introduce the students to ssh and the command line.
I though at the time that this course has some very obvious stuff that everybody should know already. But I guess it wasn't obvious for everybody.
Knowing where the work was saved was important, since the public use machines saved nothing locally, and wiped clean as soon as you logged out. The only persistent storage was the network drive.
-
Also reminds me of when I had to move files from my wife's iPhone. She was getting a new one, so the 100GB of family photos had to be extracted somehow.
USB couldn't move more than a few photos before freezing for some reason, when connected to a Windows PC. No Macs here. Installing an sftp client on her phone and moving files that way proved frustratingly slow.
In the end, we just downloaded everything via her iCloub back-up, 500-700 files at a time, in zip packets that weren't actually compressing anything as far as I could see. And ended up with all 8,000 photos and videos in a single folder, with no meaningful date data or anything else to categorize by. The filenames were all over the place, too.
-
@acrow said in Your files are right where you left them:
zip packets
@acrow said in Your files are right where you left them:
family photos
@acrow said in Your files are right where you left them:
weren't actually compressing anything
No, I suppose not.
-
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
B:\
And you wonder why nothing works.
-
@Gąska said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
B:\
And you wonder why nothing works.
It's been one of the more stable things in my life, TBH.
-
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Gąska said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
B:\
And you wonder why nothing works.
It's been one of the more stable things in my life, TBH.
That's not a particularly high bar tho.
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
That's where I keep my porn collection.
c:\secrets\tax_documents
We don't kink shame.
-
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
@boomzilla Come on, I don't buy that. Even if you're on google drive or onedrive, there are still files and folders.
Are there really? I thought the hype these days is all object storage like Amazon S3 that's not hierarchical.
Most importantly, you use search for literally everything. Students prefer to make a Google search for "google drive" and then click through to access their Google Drive instead of typing "dri
enter" in the URL bar. The fact that a Save dialog contains anything other than an OK button doesn't even enter their conscious awareness so shit gets saved wherever suggested by whatever you created it with and under the default name, and later you try to remember something from it that will make search find it. Or eyeball gazillions of unrelated entries in the same dumpster directory in the case of non-textual content.
-
Am I the only one keeping my porn on a network share in a folder clearly named Porn?
-
Am I the only one who doesn't download porn and just watches it online?
-
@Gąska said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one who doesn't download porn and just watches it online?
I have a fairly large collection of vr-porn that I downloaded because browsers are shit for VR. But other than that, online.
-
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one keeping my porn on a network share in a folder clearly named Porn?
I've been considering doing that, but
it's just on a massive drive in my main computer instead. In a folder named pron.
-
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one keeping my porn on a network share in a folder clearly named Porn?
I don’t use any type of cloud storage or sync stuff for files, but I keep my porn at pornhub.com.
-
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
pornhub.com
I hear there's a lot of forking and pull requests happening over there.
-
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
pornhub.com
I prefer to source mine from monosodium glutamate.
-
-
@LaoC said in Your files are right where you left them:
The fact that a Save dialog contains anything other than an OK button doesn't even enter their conscious awareness so shit gets saved wherever
Borne out by someone mentioned in the article:
About halfway through a recent nine-month research project, he’d built up so many files that he gave up on keeping them all structured. “I try to be organized, but there’s a certain point where there are so many files that it kind of just became a hot mess,” Drossman says. Many of his items ended up in one massive folder.
Um … wouldn’t the point where you realise you have too many files to find what you need, be the point where the best move is to go and organise them? (If you haven’t already before then, anyway.)
-
@Gurth said in Your files are right where you left them:
Um … wouldn’t the point where you realise you have too many files to find what you need, be the point where the best move is to go and organise them? (If you haven’t already before then, anyway.)
A lot of documentation is write-only. Some become tape-archive-able content some time after an initial period of use. Much is kept around in case of theoretical later legal interest.
A system that moves files to storage after they haven't been touched for a year would solve the problem for many. But it needs to keep the created and last modified dates intact, since those can later be used to hunt documents relevant to a specific proceeding.
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Tsaukpaetra said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
just keeping everything in c:/temp
:but-why.png:
I use
c:\secretsThat's where I keep my porn collection.
c:\secrets\tax_documents
You joke, but I have a friend whose father purportedly came to him one day:
Son, it seems you've been collecting pictures of some nice ladies. However, where the hell are my tax documents now that tax day is approaching?!?
Faked edit: it could also have been due to a folder named "accounting". Same thing though.
-
@boomzilla said in Your files are right where you left them:
Your Steam games all live in a folder called “steamapps” — when was the last time you clicked on that?
Erm... couldn't say for sure, but I'm guessing sometime within the last month or so.
I mean, how else would I edit config files, tweak mods, and do all that stuff.
The annoying part of modern apps hiding actual file locations is that it's often a bitch to find where some specific part of the installation may be hiding. The bastard responsible for the existence of the AppData folder needs to be hunted down and shot.
ETA:
Others, meanwhile, believe it’s professors who need to adjust their thinking. Working with befuddled students has convinced Garland that the “laundry basket” may be a superior model. She’s begun to see the limitations of directory structure in her personal life; she uses her computer’s search function to find her schedules and documents when she’s lost them in her stack of directories. “I’m like, huh ... I don’t even need these subfolders,” she says.
Even professors who have incorporated directory structure into their courses suspect that they may be clinging to an approach that’s soon to be obsolete. Plavchan has considered offering a separate course on directory structure — but he’s not sure it’s worth it. “I imagine what’s going to happen is our generation of students ... they’re going to grow up and become professors, they’re going to write their own tools, and they’re going to be based on a completely different approach from what we use today.”
His advice to fellow educators: Get ready. “This is not gonna go away,” he says. “You’re not gonna go back to the way things were. You have to accept it. The sooner that you accept that things change, the better.”
Structured programming was a mistake! Swampy had the right idea all along.
-
@GOG said in Your files are right where you left them:
Swampy
I wondered how long it would take for someone to mention him.
-
@boomzilla This long.
-
@boomzilla said in Your files are right where you left them:
@GOG said in Your files are right where you left them:
Swampy
I wondered how long it would take for someone to mention him.
This thread was today posts old when…
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
Well they're using Apple so you already they're not the brightest bulbs in the class.
In both my classes I have 80% Macbook usage (I survey them about computing devices before class, mostly just to see if they have one, or if I need to connect them with the laptop loaner program).
I make my peace with it by remembering that at least it's not a chromebook or ipad.
-
@LaoC said in Your files are right where you left them:
The fact that a Save dialog contains anything other than an OK button doesn't even enter their conscious awareness so shit gets saved wherever suggested by whatever you created it with and under the default name, and later you try to remember something from it that will make search find it.
This. The save dialog is usually just something to be clicked through. In my class, this "just search later" approach ends up being especially problematic because the output you want to submit for assignments ends up being an almost identical file name, but with spaces replaced with dashes (because the compilation runs through *nix tools, I guess). So students search for "Lab 1" when the file they need is "Lab-1", and much hand-wringing ensues when nothing shows up in search.
-
@GOG said in Your files are right where you left them:
ETA:
Others, meanwhile, believe it’s professors who need to adjust their thinking.
The main reason I would care about file paths in my courses are for importing data sets. But thankfully, R can import data from a URL, so I just stick files on github or google sheets or something, and have students import it from there instead.
It actually saves a quite bit of time, and most of the datasets are small enough you don't have to care about network latency. Look at me, getting with the times!!!
-
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
pornhub.com
I prefer to source mine from monosodium glutamate.
Japanese food porn?
-
I'm kinda in both categories on this one.
My music and videos are meticulously organised, but if I want to listen to a particular song I usually just search for it.
Pictures and documents are less organised. There are some subfolders, but also a lot of loose files. Documents are easily findable with Windows search, but for pictures, especially if it's something from my phone camera, I sometimes have to look through several IMG_[timestamp].jpg, DSC#####.jpg etc. until I find it.
For games I usually use either Windows or Steam's search function.Then there's my 'Brain' folder, which contains things I'm totally going to get around to dealing with soon.
-
@BernieTheBernie said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
@topspin said in Your files are right where you left them:
pornhub.com
I prefer to source mine from monosodium glutamate.
Japanese food porn?
Hint: Look up its E-number.
-
@Atazhaia E621. Where's
?
-
@Gąska said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one who doesn't download porn and just watches it online?
This. My joke was obviously in jest, why would anyone actually download pr0n these days?
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
why would anyone actually download pr0n these days?
Maybe to have a curated collection of good material available instead of having to sift through the piles of shit to find the good stuff every time?
@BernieTheBernie Well, you may be able to find some japanese food porn there but it's not the main thing...
-
@HannibalRex said in Your files are right where you left them:
So students search for "Lab 1"
:president-skroob: Amazing. That's the same name as my college project!
-
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
why would anyone actually download pr0n these days?
Maybe to have a curated collection of good material available instead of having to sift through the piles of shit to find the good stuff every time?
@BernieTheBernie Well, you may be able to find some japanese food porn there but it's not the main thing...
Do you not have access to bing?
-
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one keeping my porn on a network share in a folder clearly named Porn?
Am I the only one keeping my porn on my desktop, documents, downloads, and literally everywhere?
It really makes screen sharing a minefield.
-
@boomzilla said in Your files are right where you left them:
@GOG said in Your files are right where you left them:
Swampy
I wondered how long it would take for someone to mention him.
It's some offshoot to Godwin's law around here.
-
-
@error said in Your files are right where you left them:
@Atazhaia said in Your files are right where you left them:
Am I the only one keeping my porn on a network share in a folder clearly named Porn?
Am I the only one keeping my porn on my desktop, documents, downloads, and literally everywhere?
It really makes screen sharing a minefield.
You're definitely in the minority.
-
@dangeRuss said in Your files are right where you left them:
You're definitely in the minority.
I'm just too
to ever choose a location in the save dialog, so it's whatever was used last.I'll organize it never. Though I would be interested in some kind of AI to organize it for me.
File not found
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22864733/VRG_ILLO_4756_Student_Professor_Folders_Lede.jpg)
