Testing Google Photos

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Just gone into Google photos hosting and this is my first test run.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Bob

What do you mean by…..Google Photo`s Hosting, please

Very nice model

Such a lot of crane derricks……They make the model

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Bob

Google allows unlimted storage space, and it seems to work very well. Being new to it, I can't tell you much about how it works, but I put several hundred images on this morning with little or no effort. As it is free, nothing to lose! Here is a link to the reviews:

**LINK**

Rhodesia Star was my first ship – went all the way to Australia and back in it for £9 a week in early 1961!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Many thanks, Bob

Did you load your pictures as a block?

I've got a few in Flickr, but they say, they have to be moved elsewhere now

I also had quite a lot in DPReview, but most of those have been erased with time

Ships Nostalgia seems to be surviving

Such is life

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

When I first set it up, it started transferring every image in my computer into it automatically! I didn't actually want it to do that, so I changed the settings so I would just have to put them in manually, but not before several thousand had gone in. They are not public unless you give the link for individual images like I did for the Rhodesia Star above, but the problem is that if too many get into it, ic can be hard to find what you want. I have since deleted quite a lot of them. Still experimenting.

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Bob

Beware downloading Windows10!!

For some reason, Microsoft have been pushing it for months now and I've always rejected the free offer, by clicking on the rejection X symbol normally at the top right of the screen

Guess what Microsoft have done?

They have changed the meaning of the X symbol………TO ACCEPT!

So now, when users reject the offer…….They are accepting the upgrade without realising it!

Best of luck…..It's a minefield out there!

Bob

[Ian GardnerParticipant @iangardner62867]

Hi Bob,

I've just had this- also been rejecting a download of Windows 10 for ages- I know I don't like it as I have it on my laptop. It has now been forced on me and have just gone through the download yesterday. Presumably they want to stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 as they did with XP- which I hung on to as long as poss. I suppose we just have to remember all the benefits of technology. Sorry we have hijacked your thread Mr Wilson!

Ian

Edited By Ian Gardner on 27/05/2016 10:50:50

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Ian,

Not really hijacked, as it is all about computing. Maybe I should have put it in the Soapbox section

The above image was my first try with Google Photos. The info about Windows 10 is certainly worth knowing, although so far, they have to tried it on with me!

They say they are not going beyond Windows 10, but I bet they do!

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Microsoft have been forced to change the default option after a lot of complaints – not much consolation for those who have been caught though. You can of course revert back to the previous version within one month so not all is lost.

Colin

[Ian GardnerParticipant @iangardner62867]

I wonder how long we could have gone on rejecting Windows 10 if they hadn't pulled this sneaky trick? I have it now- main problem was I couldn't find any of my videos and didn't know where the old Start/ Computer button was. Found it (and them) now but…. what a waste of life!

Ian

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Very true Ian but you are not the only one facing these problems and many can be quickly solved by simply Googling them ' how do I XXXXX in Windows 10?' for example. It can be a lot quicker than trying to puzzle it out yourself.

Colin

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Ian Gardner on 27/05/2016 10:49:06:

Presumably they want to stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 as they did with XP- which I hung on to as long as poss. I suppose we just have to remember all the benefits of technology.

What we have to remember is that Microsoft is a very big company, and it is funded by selling new software – mainly operating systems – on a regular 2-year cycle.

If people do not upgrade, Microsoft will lose large amounts of money.

[Ian GardnerParticipant @iangardner62867]

You are absolutely right Colin- apparently there was an article on You and Yours today about the anger that many people are feeling over the Windows 10 thing. I do often Google how to do things- it sometimes feels as if my whole life is spent Googling things!! Most of the time I come out of it a bit wiser-and of course this forum is a source of great expertise in many fields.

DG- of course it's all about money but it doesn't seem long since I upgraded, very reluctantly, from XP to Windows 7, so I think they are not supporting old systems as long as they used to. I think my creaky old desktop computer seems even creakier now so I suppose I'll have to think about a new system at some stage.

Moan, moan, drizzle, doom!

Ian (aka Victor)

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

If they carry on like this, in a few years there will be no old photographs around because the systems they were stored on will have become obsolete! We all know that real negatives could last over a century and still be no worse for it. Microsoft, could always have a system guaranteed not to change for "dinasaurs" like me, and have another one for "intelectuals" that is always being updated at great cost, with every improvement making it slighlty worse than the old version!

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bob, there is indeed a lot of data stored on obsolete media, apparently the US nuclear deterrent still runs on 8 inch floppies!

However in this wonderful digital age, when formats change, there is usually a conversion path which means that in due course you may need to convert your old photos to the new format or transfer them onto the latest type of storage media (or both!).

The real loss will be in historical data as information which would have once been committed to paper and archived will in future be in rather ephemeral digital format such as emails and quite probably lost forever.

Colin

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Bob Wilson on 28/05/2016 18:45:12:

…. Microsoft, could always have a system guaranteed not to change for "dinasaurs" like me, and have another one for "intelectuals" that is always being updated at great cost, with every improvement making it slighlty worse than the old version!

Bob

One already exists. It's called Linux. And it's free…

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have heard of Linux and looked it up on the Internet. Sadly, the Wikipedia explanation is completely beyond my understanding, and I would certainly not risk changing over to it unless I had the opportunity of seeing it working!

Although I regard myself as a "dinasaur" that is only because I "prefer" the old and well-established ways of doing things Really, I have grown quite weary of all this modern technology. In late 1992, I threw in a highly paid job as radio officer aboard a brand new British passenger liner that had the most up-to-date communicatons, navigational, radar, and computer systems available – all under my charge Afraid from the maiden voyage onwards the story was always the same. They would dump extra computer programmes on me, and after battling with them all voyage, I could seldom get them to function! They would come aboard, look at me sympathetically, and set to work to show me how to do it, in most cases failing themselves and end up taking it away. Lost count of how many times I heard "We have installed it on dozens of ships, and this is the first one that has encountered problem!" In the end, I took voluntary redundancy at the age of 48, after 31 years at sea and it was the best thing I ever did. Since then I have built and sold model ships, written books, designed, built or repaired obsolete valve radios and a host of other things. Goodness knows where all this "flawed" progress will end, but I am sure it will turn out to the detriment of "quality of life!"

However, I would still like to know more plain and simple "facts" about Linux. Will it accept old programmes such as Microsft Word 2000, Adobe Photshop, convert Word to PDF, accept jpegs etc? Will it run in the same computer alongside Windows 7, choosing whichever system I want to use?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Back to the original subject. I am finding Google Photos fantastic,although it took a few days to find out how to use it properly. Sadly, those who write the instructions always seem to assume that the reader knows everything there is to know about such things. The initial problem was sorting the images. But I eventually found that I had to go to the "Drive" section, sign in and then I could create "Albums" with different subjects. Putting images into the albums is a simple matter of drag and drop from the computer. They all go in in alphabetical order with thumbnails, so it is very easy to see what you are doing. 15gb of space is allowed free, which amounts to 30,000 or so images at about 500kb each!

Once in, right clicking on them brings up a menu that will supply you with a shareable image link. Here I am in 1972, repairing the main radar aboard the RMS Windsor Castle, with nothing but an obsolete AVO meter to assist me! – happy days!

Bob

PS    It doesn't work   Modern technology – bah!

Edited By Bob Wilson on 31/05/2016 16:26:42

Edited By Bob Wilson on 31/05/2016 16:27:05

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

It does work fine on my blog though, and that is what I wanted it for. I can also download the images from Drive, back into the computer, so they can then be used in the normal manner. Goodness knows why the Rhodesia Star image (above) worked OK, but not the latest batch!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I am now tring again to see if it was a "glitch"

And if it doesn't work, here is a shared link to the Google photos

**LINK**

And if that doesn't work, here is the image in ModelBoats!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Well, the link works, but not the direct image!

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Now trying the original Rhodesia Star image from Google images:

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Well, there you are – one image works, the other doesn't.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Just tried again with another – no go!

Edited By Bob Wilson on 31/05/2016 18:38:56

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