Geekomon

10 Commandments for Databases.

1. Each piece of data needs to have metadata. (ie-IDV3 Tags for mp3s)

2. . 8 are all you need. It's a holy number. 8 is the limit of your puny mind. Don't overeach. Don't mess with God/Allah/John Lennon/Taoists. If there had been a Fellowship of the 8, Boromir wouldn't have had so many arrows sticking out of his greedy ass.

3. Lyrics, Album Art, Filesize, Duration, Bitrate, Compression do not belong in metadata. Metadata is supposed to be shared. It is corruptible. Filesize has to do with the file. It IS data. Let the OS determine the data. It's a lot more dependendable than your ass. And Lyrics is a document file. It will have the same Artist/Album as your song. LET your OS handle the linking! What's the point of a computer if it's not automated?

4. The tools to read and write your metadata must not only be free but freely available.
They must be unicode/International. Everyone and everybody must be able to spit on it.

5. Updating meta-data is stupid If your metadata needs to be updated frequently, throw them away. (ie Play counts for music.) . Don't do it.

6. Do not have subjective metadata. (ie Ratings. Sure, Birth of A Nation might be your favorite movie but I don't think you can get Martin Luther King Jr. to agree with you.)

7. Do not overly-depend on any one metadata. Remember. A data item depends on ALL 7 metadata. Otherwise, why have more than one piece of metadata? (ie- "MP3s>Genre Metadata> Acoustic, Rock, Alternative, Emo.."=Stupid. Not only is this metadata stupid, the metadata options are subjective and needs to be updated everytime someone develops a new type of music. It breaks 2 freakin' rules!

8. Do not follow these rules strictly! All rules/formats are stupid. They serve as guidleines to a changing situation. Be prepared to change these rules as it suits the situation. There is one rule though. Faster, easier, better = Good. That is all.

9. You bastard, Pay Attention. See Rule 2.