Happy Birthday, Me. I got you data portability!

[dblume]

My list of addresses has made its way from a physical address book, to a Palm Pilot, to Microsoft Outlook, to Google Contacts to the iPhone Contacts app. Along the way, each of the transitions has played fast and loose with the mappings of the individual fields

Comments

[pastilla]

"So for 安室奈美恵's sake, choose Google CSV format."

Firefly swearing! Yay!

[dblume]

Oh! I wish I'd thought of the Firefly swearing! You're right, it looks just like it.

I actually chose a real Japanese name with the intention, "for her name's sake, don't let Outlook turn it into question marks, choose the format that'll retain the correct characters."

[sjonsvenson]

Happy B-day.

I have lost enough contact data over the years. I converted back to an ink database with paper based storage. I never have a data-conversion problem with that.
I also keep addresses and contacts on a computer. But in a plain HTML file.

[dblume]

Thank you!

It's hard for me to reconcile you keeping addresses both on paper and in an HTML file. Surely, the paper should just be a copy of the file on disk, and the file on disk should be easier to maintain than an HTML file.

[sjonsvenson]

I used to keep my contacts on my Psion and convert them to a PC nearby whenever I felt like moving things. On PCs I used various formats but with most programs moving data from one version to the next was just as difficult and annoying as moving to a different program.
I also always kept a backup on paper, in a filofax. When my Psion finally, after almost 15years, broke down the paper version was all I kept. It is the main contact list. The beauty of that is that my brother can update that just as well, and his wife can -and does-. There is also the interesting fact that the list was started by my mother, somewhere in the sixties. And some of the original data is still there.

My HTML file is the backup these days.

[dblume]

You know, this only convinces me to create a cronjob that'll sync all the contact information across my family's individual accounts.

As each of us updates individual contacts, the rest of can benefit from the new information.

[halophoenix]

Every now and again you make a post that really tickles that part of me that used to write code - the one that's been sleeping so long it's forgotten its memory. XD

This is one of those posts. :D

[dblume]

Thanks! That's the sort of response that keeps me going with these technical posts. I'm really glad you "got it."

All of a sudden, your data is back in your hands. You can do what you want with it. (I just made a handy new Christmas Card List for the wife, for example.)