Futile quests
After an “assisted search” this afternoon, I have a conclusion that might be useful to others. Looking for something where you DID NOT put it is an invitation to magic. Or disappointment. Have it either way. I’m not talking about an apple in the orange drawer here. This was a typical office search.
The initial call to my desk suggested that a whole set of important documents (files) were missing from the server storage space. Not shared space, which lowered the possibilities by a factor of fifty. This was one person, personal files, not where they belonged. And so the quest began.
A file name? Not sure; they all begin with the same prefix. A date range? Not sure; sometime in the last couple of calendar years. Last time the files were edited? We can go on for hours this way. finally, I asked to see a printed copy of a file (everything gets duplicated, eventually. Here we had content. And within the minute, I had a possible contender for MIA (missing in action). Maybe. Opened the file, but “not sure” was the elicited response. That’s a term I remember from a long ago university course; seems appropriate at this point.
After some hesitation, the file was identified as “probably what I’m looking for”. And since any good search interface reveals the actual file location, I showed a list of “other files in the same place”. Mirabile dictu (that’s a term from a long ago high school course). The lost were found. In the place where they should be. Not in the place where our search began. I rest my case.
