Vibrating Dog and Picasa

Hey, Merci, Sam & Buddy here.  The Felines are doing the Mousebreath interviews so we figure we need some computer time before you all forget what we look like.  We're the super intelligent, super duper obedient dudes and dudette
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** Cyndi, stop snickering!**

First, we'll give you a chuckle.  None of us woofies like to be brushed.  So we're at a loss over this dog's funny reaction to being groomed. Maye he's standing on a live wire? Enjoy.


If the video doesn't play, click here. 

UPDATE:  The rest of this post is for Blogger bloggers.   As we have explained many times before in posts, if you are using a Blogger blog, you ARE using Picasa! We repeat, if you have a Blogger blog, you ARE using Picasa and this DOES apply to you!  And it is very important because one day you could go to post a photo and panic because Blogger "suddenly" tells you your storage is full and you can't post any more photos unless you buy more storage.  The time to learn about your Picasa account is NOW!

We've been helping a few bloggers who have run out of Picasa storage to reduce their storage so they don't have to pay a monthly or annual fee to continue posting photos to their blogs.  We decided it will be easier to do one big post on the subject and just refer bloggers here when they need the information.

We've posted a number of times that Google Blogger users need to become familiar with their Picasa account where Blogger stores their post photos.  You need to be aware of photo posting rules and storage limit so you can have all the photos you want on your blog but you don't fill your storage. Hopefully, you'll check your Picasa account today and become Picasa-aware because it does take time and effort on your part if you wait till Blogger says your Picasa account is full.

Only post photos 800 x 800 pixels or smaller!  Your header (and background, if you install your own). will be larger than this.  So learn to delete these oversize graphics when you are done with them and changed to new or temporary seasonal graphics..  If you want to reuse it later, reinstall it.  

If you don't have a photo editor on your computer to resize photos before you upload them, we recommend downloading the Picasa program to your computer.  From there (once you learn to use it) it's a snap - just pick the photos you want to use, click the export button, tell it which size you want, and those photos will be resized and sent to the Export file on your computer.  From there you just upload them from your computer to your blog as usual.

To check your current storage usage -

Log into your blog. 

Open another tab in your browser.

((or you can skip signing into your blog, just follow the steps below to reach Picasa and sign in with your blog ID and PW)).

Type Google.com into your browser.  

(at top) click "More."

(drop down menu) click "Photos."

This will take you to your Picasa online album.

Scroll to bottom of the page. You will see -

You are currently using xx MB (xxx%) of your 1024 MB. Upgrade Storage

How many mb (%) of your online Picasa storage are you using? 


If your storage is low, good work.  You're posting the correct size photos.  If it is high, you need to work on getting it down, starting with changing the size of the photos you post.

To get an idea of the size of the photos posted in Picasa online (the size can differ depending on a number of factors), pick some random photos in your albums.

Click on an album.  The size of the album will be in the upper right.  But xx mb in an album does not = xx mb in storage, so don't worry about this.

Click on an individual photo.

The size of the photo in Picasa will be upper right. Any photos over 800 pixels wide or tall are counted in your storage.

If you see an old header or background (not the one you're using now), DELETE IT! If it's in several times, delete all copies.  And from now on, every time you change your header and/ or add your own background, go into Picasa online and DELETE the old one. Sometimes more than one copy is added during installation, delete all the ones not in use. If you accidentally delete the one you're using, just reinstall it.

However, do NOT delete any duplicate photos.  There is no way to tell which is the extra one.  Or if the photo is used in more than one post.  And if you delete the photo in Picasa, it will be deleted in any post(s) it is included in.

So you've been posting oversize photos, eventually you will need to resize them to lower your storage usage.  It's not hard.  It does not need to be done in one sitting.  It can be done in your spare time.  How much time it will take will depend on how large your oversize photos are in kbs.  For example, a 1000 x 650 pixel photo might be 50 kb or it might be 1.5 mg.  You would have to resize more 50 kb photos than 1.5 mg photos to lower your storage.  But it can be done!

To resize your photos -

1) Open a photo.

2) "Actions"

3) "Edit in Creative Kit"

4) "Resize" (when CK opens)

5) Change largest dimension (usually width to the left) to 800 & the other will adjust itself accordningly. (Keep proportions is auto checked)

6) "apply"

7) "Save to my album" (upper right)

8) A box will open to confirm. It will have "replace" checked. Just click on "replace" and it will save it to new album.

9) Click > to right of picture to go to next one.

10) Click "MY Photos" to return home and go to next album. *You can also check your progress at the bottom of this page - "currently using xxx mb."

We learned / are posting this information to help our friends and we're happy to share it with you. We would hate for anyone to stop blogging or to lose all their blog photos after they stop because they can't afford to pay for storage. "It's only xx dollars" doesn't help if you don't have xx dollars. If you have any questions or this information isn't clear, let us know.