Spring has come and Easter too.
We're hoping all's well with you.
Busy times are now ahead;
Solo flight to UK soon,
First grandchild is due in June,
That is quickly followed by
Our house move end of July.
Happy Spring
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
OPT OUT
Today I tried to figure out a solution for my photo import issues to my photo blog. It came with Apple's new version of Photos, a switch over from iPhoto. So far all I've learned is others are having the same issue and I have no real solution yet.
Then came more bad news. A warning on my blogger work page where stats are shown told me I have to tell my readers in EU about cookies as their law requires it. Heck I have no clue what cookies I use nor where to get the button that tell others. What I did find was a page of complicated instructions on how to opt out of the stats that Google posts that I didn't opt for to begin with.
Is it time to say goodbye to blogging? I have enjoyed all the writing and commenting but now I'm getting a bit fed up with all the pushing and pulling as the big companies bully small fries like me around watching my every move and picture too.
I am always curious and love to learn but lately what I learn is unpleasant because fear is being pushed at me more and more.
Are you experiencing any of this type of angst? Is it really getting bad or is it just me being negative and frustrated???
P.S. I did get in touch with the family in Ottawa and we had a great chat
Then came more bad news. A warning on my blogger work page where stats are shown told me I have to tell my readers in EU about cookies as their law requires it. Heck I have no clue what cookies I use nor where to get the button that tell others. What I did find was a page of complicated instructions on how to opt out of the stats that Google posts that I didn't opt for to begin with.
Is it time to say goodbye to blogging? I have enjoyed all the writing and commenting but now I'm getting a bit fed up with all the pushing and pulling as the big companies bully small fries like me around watching my every move and picture too.
I am always curious and love to learn but lately what I learn is unpleasant because fear is being pushed at me more and more.
Are you experiencing any of this type of angst? Is it really getting bad or is it just me being negative and frustrated???
P.S. I did get in touch with the family in Ottawa and we had a great chat
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Happy Times
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
We've had some health challenges this summer and fall but are okay now. Our December trip to Europe can be read about on my photo blog that has no photos as I ran into a glitch that hasn't been solved.
There's a link to that blog at the top of this page.
This December marks an amazing 30 years since our rather troubled time in Saudi where we were guest of the king but never knew it. You can read it again if you wish. It's found in the Dec. 2010 collection at the side of this blog post and it is in 8 parts known as An Unusual Christmas.
The family who helped us back then lives in Ottawa now and they have become grand parents. I located them on blogger recently and I am hoping to get in touch today. I'll let you know how it goes soon.
Have a super holiday in the meantime.
We've had some health challenges this summer and fall but are okay now. Our December trip to Europe can be read about on my photo blog that has no photos as I ran into a glitch that hasn't been solved.
There's a link to that blog at the top of this page.
This December marks an amazing 30 years since our rather troubled time in Saudi where we were guest of the king but never knew it. You can read it again if you wish. It's found in the Dec. 2010 collection at the side of this blog post and it is in 8 parts known as An Unusual Christmas.
The family who helped us back then lives in Ottawa now and they have become grand parents. I located them on blogger recently and I am hoping to get in touch today. I'll let you know how it goes soon.
Have a super holiday in the meantime.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
A FUTURE WITH DRONES
It was a week ago that I watched a documentary about drones and how popular they were becoming. That same eve during the news broadcast it was pointed out the a local airport had logged over 700 near misses of airplanes finding drones in their airspace. Shocking!
Next I went to a Best Buy site to see what options are out there to purchase a drone. The list was vast and so were the price tags. The higher range was around $1600 and the lower was $199 making them very affordable and accessable.
I then went to You Tube to find out more about how to control and fly a drone. There I found a wealth of information. An iPad with cellular capability enabled can download an app making it the drone remote controller. Likely the same app is available for a smart cellphone since the drones all use the cellular 3G/4LTE network and GPS to move about.
While various drones are now being used by hobbyists and news media photographers to capture cool images remotely there is something not so great lurking around the corner as the drones get into more people's hands. EVIL.
There are many street gangs with many agends lurking about in towns and cities. What use they may make of this latest technology at their disposal is up and coming and it is probably not of much benefit to the common good of the population. Dromes can be used to carry a small payload besides being a photographic tool. Poachers have already used them. Other uses? Dare to imaine?
No rules or regulations were put into place prior to the small drones being put on sale for the public to purchase. Since these devices use airspace to move about should they not be carefully regulated like hobby airplanes are??
I believe that rules right now are a must because a future with unreguated use of drones poses a serious possible hazard on several levels for all life forms.
Next I went to a Best Buy site to see what options are out there to purchase a drone. The list was vast and so were the price tags. The higher range was around $1600 and the lower was $199 making them very affordable and accessable.
I then went to You Tube to find out more about how to control and fly a drone. There I found a wealth of information. An iPad with cellular capability enabled can download an app making it the drone remote controller. Likely the same app is available for a smart cellphone since the drones all use the cellular 3G/4LTE network and GPS to move about.
While various drones are now being used by hobbyists and news media photographers to capture cool images remotely there is something not so great lurking around the corner as the drones get into more people's hands. EVIL.
There are many street gangs with many agends lurking about in towns and cities. What use they may make of this latest technology at their disposal is up and coming and it is probably not of much benefit to the common good of the population. Dromes can be used to carry a small payload besides being a photographic tool. Poachers have already used them. Other uses? Dare to imaine?
No rules or regulations were put into place prior to the small drones being put on sale for the public to purchase. Since these devices use airspace to move about should they not be carefully regulated like hobby airplanes are??
I believe that rules right now are a must because a future with unreguated use of drones poses a serious possible hazard on several levels for all life forms.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
MY YOSEMITE EXPERIENCE
For weeks I have been struggling with updating my Macbook to Yosemite. I read how some bloggers had a terrible transition and ended up taking their crashed machine to the shop for help. I was scared. but today I decided to take the plunge after watching the video of what Apple has planned in months to come.
The first thing I did was play with my photo library. I have a passport drive back up but I still worried about my collection. I played with faces for a couple of hours and then when I no longer felt threatened by the idea of loosing stuff I went to the app store to the updates. All was updated except for the latest IOS X10.10. I clicked on it. It requested my ID and then wanted an update of payment info for iTunes before it was ready to proceed. There was an option of no payment info. Good.
After making my selection and giving my permission to proceed it moved forward. The download began.
Calmly I went to my iPad to read some blog posts as I waited and watched the download progress. It was very slow so I plugged in the ethernet cable. It is a faster service than wifi. It took about 45 minutes for the download. I had checked the hard drive earlier to make sure there was lots of room. I was hopeful for a smooth install. And with my admin permission it began.
The install took a fair bit of time. After some auto reboots the sign in screen came up. It was followed by a screen asking me to type in my ID again and then asked me what things I would like to store on the cloud. I made my selection. My photo library is quite large so I opted for more cloud storage to accommodate it. It also wanted me to set up the keychain to store important stuff but I was not ready to trust that area of my data online yet.
I am happy to report that as of right now the transition has been seamless. I have selected my new display page that works best for my vision and I have checked the new photo icon that matches the one on my mobile devices. My 9200+ pics are all there. I am delighted. Now all I need is lessons for the many new features. Important to me is the new Siri function. I need Siri to become my friend so that I can use the latest voice tech and less texts. I learned that more advanced Siri features are due to arrive in September and I want to be ready.
I have one dislike. It is the new music app that used to be iTunes. It wants $14.99 from me so that I can use all of it's features like R1, the radio and Connect to go chat with my fav musicians. Seems we are being asked not only to buy music but pay to listen if we opt for that app's full features. So far the cloud cost is the only one I have opted for.
The Yosemite update itself is free.
So far I like the interface and changes. I wonder if all will still be there in the morning and working smoothly?
PS I had no trouble creating or posting this blog after the install.
The first thing I did was play with my photo library. I have a passport drive back up but I still worried about my collection. I played with faces for a couple of hours and then when I no longer felt threatened by the idea of loosing stuff I went to the app store to the updates. All was updated except for the latest IOS X10.10. I clicked on it. It requested my ID and then wanted an update of payment info for iTunes before it was ready to proceed. There was an option of no payment info. Good.
After making my selection and giving my permission to proceed it moved forward. The download began.
Calmly I went to my iPad to read some blog posts as I waited and watched the download progress. It was very slow so I plugged in the ethernet cable. It is a faster service than wifi. It took about 45 minutes for the download. I had checked the hard drive earlier to make sure there was lots of room. I was hopeful for a smooth install. And with my admin permission it began.
The install took a fair bit of time. After some auto reboots the sign in screen came up. It was followed by a screen asking me to type in my ID again and then asked me what things I would like to store on the cloud. I made my selection. My photo library is quite large so I opted for more cloud storage to accommodate it. It also wanted me to set up the keychain to store important stuff but I was not ready to trust that area of my data online yet.
I am happy to report that as of right now the transition has been seamless. I have selected my new display page that works best for my vision and I have checked the new photo icon that matches the one on my mobile devices. My 9200+ pics are all there. I am delighted. Now all I need is lessons for the many new features. Important to me is the new Siri function. I need Siri to become my friend so that I can use the latest voice tech and less texts. I learned that more advanced Siri features are due to arrive in September and I want to be ready.
I have one dislike. It is the new music app that used to be iTunes. It wants $14.99 from me so that I can use all of it's features like R1, the radio and Connect to go chat with my fav musicians. Seems we are being asked not only to buy music but pay to listen if we opt for that app's full features. So far the cloud cost is the only one I have opted for.
The Yosemite update itself is free.
So far I like the interface and changes. I wonder if all will still be there in the morning and working smoothly?
PS I had no trouble creating or posting this blog after the install.
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