Mille Miglia 2009

[Ultra]

How do I get my hands on your excel file?  Are you willing to post it on Google spreadsheets like the Solved Autos Index?  Would you share a password with me if you did?  I don't want to see it to solve puzzles with it.  I just want to read and learn.

[Paul Jaray]

It works!
I wrote this one like an example and then I decided to check it:
Saxon: 2 models, bot 6-cylinder in 1919: model Y-18t 20hp Touring & model Y-18t 20hp Roadster!

[Paul Jaray]

It's a lifetime work...
I started 12\15 years ago with an old McIntosh and it was just a small list of sportscars.
The PC crashed many times and each time I started again with some improvements.
At the end I decided to list each and every car, production, kit cars, racer, tuned, custom, buggies, retro, replicas, and so on.
It is a sort of index of all the cars featured in all the books, encyclopedia and magazines I have...that's why if someone asks me for a pic of a Fiat 1100 by Savio, I just have to look in my index, see how many sources I have with that car and post the pictures or info.
In this form it is not very useful, because the greatest feature of it is the source of the info: beside the De Lorean DMC12, for example, there is a list of 8 books, 3 encyclopedias and different magazines where I can look for info or pictures.
Another big work I did was to build back the story of a brand: I can summarize in few minutes all the relationship between Sunbeam, Talbot, Darraq, Simca, Talbot-Lago, Matra...or the merges of all the British brands, just looking in this file.

[MG]

WOW! That is impressive!   

[Ultra]

It works!

What works?  Did you upload the index?

[Paul Jaray]

I have a little secret: I have an huge index of each manufacturer, tuner, designer, one-off builder and each car made year by year by each one of them.
In my list I have names, cylinders, power, top speed, year, etc etc... and all this in an excel file: if I need to find out the name of an American car, active in 1919, with only 2 6-cyl models, starting with 'S', I'll find out just looking there, using filters and sorting the index.

Saxon: 2 models, bot 6-cylinder in 1919: model Y-18t 20hp Touring & model Y-18t 20hp Roadster
It was just an example, but then I decided to check it and it works...I found this result that matches.

[Ultra]

I have a little secret: I have an huge index of each manufacturer, tuner, designer, one-off builder and each car made year by year by each one of them.
In my list I have names, cylinders, power, top speed, year, etc etc... and all this in an excel file: if I need to find out the name of an American car, active in 1919, with only 2 6-cyl models, starting with 'S', I'll find out just looking there, using filters and sorting the index.

Saxon: 2 models, bot 6-cylinder in 1919: model Y-18t 20hp Touring & model Y-18t 20hp Roadster
It was just an example, but then I decided to check it and it works...I found this result that matches.

Gotcha.

Check this out:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/

Imagine a group of people growing your index.  A group of AP admins for example..........

[MG]

When I started the story on The Mille, I contacted Paul Jaray, who was most helpful. He wrote me a long note telling me what the event meant to him personally. With some editiing, I have made that note the basis for today's story

Paul contacted me after yesterday's story to protest that he is NOT a photographer. I beg to differ. He is an excellent photographer. And now, he's internationally famous! I expect the offers to photograph other events for wealthy clients will be pouring in soon.      Thanks, Paul. I could not have done this without your help.

[Paul Jaray]

I read it all in a breath and I thought: "Hey, I'm really good!"
But then "wait a minute, this is not what I wrote!"
I mean, that was precisely the idea, but let me tell you, you had the grace to modify my rough story into that poetic view of the event.
I can say that the emotions were all mine, but the style, MG, that's yours!

[faksta]

Wow, great! Both pictures and story.

[MG]

The accurate portrayal of emotions is the highest accolade you can give a writer!  Thank you.   

But it IS the story you wrote me, because your emotions are what came through to me and guided me in translating your thoughts into my prose. Your passion for the Mille Miglia came through loud and clear in your words. 

Let's put it this way: we make a good team. If I were forced to write a story in Italian, it would begin and end with "Ciao"!!!!!

[pnegyesi]

Speaking of databases, I maintain three. Two are being used to keep track of what I do in archives and what I do in libraries (an index of Hungarian magazine articles). The third one is an index of foreign magazines, like 30 years of Automobile Quarterly, 15 years of Autocar, 20 years of Oldtimer Markt and many more.

I started it in the early 1990s in MS-Dos Foxpro and I use the same system today...

[Ultra]

Speaking of databases, I maintain three. Two are being used to keep track of what I do in archives and what I do in libraries (an index of Hungarian magazine articles). The third one is an index of foreign magazines, like 30 years of Automobile Quarterly, 15 years of Autocar, 20 years of Oldtimer Markt and many more.

I started it in the early 1990s in MS-Dos Foxpro and I use the same system today...

When and where are we going to post them? 

[Paul Jaray]

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=240.new#new