Friday, January 18, 2019

LOOKS LIKE WE 'OPEN LIVE WRITER' AND 'PICASA' USERS ARE IN FOR A BIG BAD DOUBLE WHAMMY


A few desert dwelling coyotes howling in the pre-dawn hours and aside from that all was peacefully quiet.  Had we stayed where we were I'm sure we would have gone to bed and woke up with the sounds of generators hammering in our ears. 
THIS IS THE VIEW FROM MY RECLINER OUT OUR SIDE WINDOW
Under morning's sunshine we again had us another relaxing morning walk.  We are now parked closer to a number of Palo Verde trees and how nice to hear birds tweetering in the nearby tree branches.  It was 55F when we stepped out of the coach with a predicted high today of 65F.  How many times can I say, 'El Perfecto':))
WE WALKED OURSELVES ALONG AN ARROYO WHICH IS A STEEP-SIDED GULLY FORMED BY THE ACTION OF FAST FLOWING WATER  



A GNARLY UNICORNED DESERT DWELLER GIVES ME THE EYE 



Tried 'Open Live Writer' several times today but no go.  I've suspected ever since the original Live Writer went down a few years ago that sooner or later the refurbished Open Live Writer would follow suit and that time may be now at hand.  If they do get it fixed I think it's only a matter of time and it will go down again and be gone forever.  With that thought in mind I spent some time earlier this morning familiarizing myself with the 'Blogger' format once again.  Not my favorite of course but it's my only option if I want to keep my blog going.  There are a few other formats out there like 'Word Press' but I have no interest in that and I'm not into any more learning curves with all this stuff.  I guess 'Blogger' it will have to be and maybe with a bit of luck I can get their clunky way of doing things figured out.  

 And speaking of changes it looks like we 'Picasa' photo editing program users are in for some very bad news and it seems it could be at the heart of the Open Live Writer program as well.  I think the end of an era is at last here.  First, a copy and pasted note from one of the 'Open Live Writer' techs.....'We'll try to get a hotfix out if we can work around it. As @jbogard says, Google's API changes broke this, and I expect they will keep happening'. Also this link about Picasa this morning so I'm thinking the final demise of Picasa is at hand and I think this may explain the current Open Live Writer program.  So what does this mean for my blog:((
'OH NO MY DAD'S HAVING BIG BLOGING PROBLEMS AGAIN'
Well, it means if I can't use Picasa to edit my photos then there is no point in me taking any more photos...….unless I can quickly find and learn myself another photo editing program.  Am going to try something called Photopea as well as Windows PhotoScape X.  I've suspected for a long time this day was coming but I have put off dealing with the end of both Open Live Writer and Picasa.  A Picasa extension is possible until March when Picasa will be closed down forever.  At least that is the way I am understanding things this morning. 
KELLY DOWNLOADS PHOTOPEA AND PHOTOSCAPE X FOR ME
Can you believe it's almost a whole week we have now been in one place.  I remember last winter when we seemed to be in such a rush all the time.  We would just get to one place and we'd already be looking at the next place and away we would go.  So far this trip we've not had that urge to move on after a day or two and today was a good example of that as we again simply lounged around the rig not doing too much of anything.  Just soaking up the sunshine and the desert's refreshingly cool westerly cool breezes today.
AND PHEEBS LIKES THIS SLOWER PACE AS WELL
GROANER'S CORNER:(( The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.  "However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.  And, of course...
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position

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A sixth grade class is doing some spelling drills. The teacher asks Tommy if he can spell 'before.' He stands up and says, "Before, B-E-P-H-O-R."The teacher says, "No, that's wrong. Can anyone else spell before?" Another little boy stands up and says, "Before, B-E-F-O-O-R.  "Again the teacher says, "No, that's wrong." The teacher asks, "Little Johnny, can you spell 'before'?  "Little Johnny stands up and says, "Before, B-E-F-O-R-E."  "Excellent Johnny, now can you use it in a sentence?  "Little Johnny says, "That's easy. Two plus two be fore."

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14 comments:

  1. Al, check out Irfanview. It's easy to use and free. Been using it for a long time. One of the best ones around.
    https://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm

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  2. I have been using Photoscape since Nov. 2007 to edit my pictures. Free.

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  3. Al--I moved my blog to Wordpress when I started the Cowboy Restoration Style blog. The template I use costs me $90/year and I have a ".com" address. Some of the Wordpress templates are free and then you have a ".wordpress.com" address. I find it very easy to use, really easy! As for photos, I too have been looking at other software editing programs knowing Picasa was on the way out--haven't made up my mind as of yet.

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  4. Not sure of your PC OS, but isn't it Windoze? The Windows 7 'Essentials' package had an excellent basic photo editor 'Photo Gallery', it was included with Windows 7, but the "essential" application works fine under Windows 10.

    Unless the GitHub team figures something out OWL workaround goes away Mar 15, and with Google+ going away in April ... I'm getting a bit pissed at Google!

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  5. I use my Mac photo shop but I also use a free program called Fotor Photo Editor for collages and other little items.

    I find the slower pace is better for us, too much of a rush leaves us tired and cranky. Perhaps you've found the key to winter travel, shorter travel days, and staying longer in one place. Less harried.

    Love the gnarly unicorn photo!

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  6. Windwos 7 had a great photo program plus I had picasa. Whe my laptop bit the dust and I had to get a new one it was awful the photo program is awful, my freind tried to fix it and it worked for a while but everytime they do the forced updates it goes away. Also when I tried to download Picasa it said it was not compatible with windows 10. Going to try the ones others here have suggested. I hardly take pictures anymore because I have know way of blocking out things I dont want to show all I can do is crop and change the color tones

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  7. Al, I came across a temporary fix and blogged about it at GoingRvWay.com. As for photo editor, I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 12. What I like is that it is on my computer, don't need an Internet connection to use. Anyway, the temporary fix is a bit of a pain, but still better than using Blogger's editor in my opinion. Also, it is ONLY when you add pictures that the Error 400 code happens...but a travel/RV blog is not much without pictures. :)

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  8. I hate all this change. So how will we be able to access our blogs in years to come. I had hoped to be able to sit back in my recliner and read what I have written ans the comments. A way to relive our travels when I can no longer travel. Seriously with all the future changes will we even be able to access our blog posts?

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  9. The slow travel pace has worked for us for many years so much more relaxing. Good luck with the blogging stuff, I guess I will go with whatever works for me.

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  10. Since my interest is just in writing and publishing my blog, I find that Blogger has always worked pretty well for me. I guess if you are serious about photography you might prefer a different format. I've used Word Press and it is a real pain in the neck! I hope you don't quit blogging over the changes though. While I love your photography, it's the narrative (your writing) that keeps me coming back to your site.

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  11. I know its not very economical, but I got tired of issues with open source, shareware type photo tools. So, I bit the bullet, keeled over, and subscribed to the $10/m adobe photo package. I formerly owned various versions of photoshop, but was new to LR. Now, I am pretty much addicted. LR does a great job for me, both editing and managing my photo library.

    Wishing we were already camped down in the Whyzone. We are leaving soon, and will be somewhere abouts by the end of the month. Enjoy and be safe Bayfield Bunch!

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  12. It's my theory that Picasa will continue to work for you past March. The software is resident on your computer. What will not work is Application Program Interfaces that attempt to call Picasa Web Albums. Here's hoping Picasa will soldier on. Of course, this means I can never buy another laptop.

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  13. Glad you are enjoying a peaceful stay in the desert. I pissed off a alpha monkey last night and was happy not to get bit. Then he threw big nuts on the roof of our jungle cabin most of the night.

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