Thanks to his Food Lady, we were fortunate to be able to interview Skeezix the cat, a fellow Mousebreath columnist and an expert interviewer in his own right. Skeezix ... Beloved Iconic Fashionista can be read exclusively at Mousebreath. As always, he was positive and upbeat.
Our eyes have leaked as we published this interview. As many of you already know, Skeezix joined a host of his friends at the bridge on Tuesday. We posted a tribute Farewell Skeezix Wednesday. He touched so many hearts. It will be impossible to forget him.
For sometime we've been getting Google+ sign up blocks when trying to watch a YouTube video. Recently we noticed our Picasa storage usage jumped from 8 mb to 334 mband wondered what Google was up to this time.
Well, today we learned Google is at it again, trying to force users to join Google+ against their will. The past 2 years we've had to upload photos to Picasa by hand because of some glitch. Today we were not allowed to access Picasa at all. We were blocked by a demand to join Google+. Is Google+ really so hard up for members they must use such tactics? We do not want to join! Jan does not want her personal information posted online for anyone and everyone.. Nor do we want to use Google + photo storage. We deliberately post small photos and don't want them blown up for any purpose online.
If any of you find yourself in the same situation, we found a way in to Picasa At least for now. It sounds like Google is getting ready to close this too. But read this article and save this link for when you need it or you'll be forever blocked from accessing your own photos in Picasa. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/new-google-account-users-forced-join-google-84916. Oops, that is a related article. This is the link. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57572553-93/google-now-redirects-picasa-web-albums-to-google-photos/ But next time you sign in, they will try to force Google+ on you.
We have questions for those of you who use Wordpress. When you uploaded your old Blogger posts, where did your photos go? Did they stay with Picasa and Wordpress just picked up the links to them? Or did Wordpress copy them into their own or some other photo storage? Or don't you know? If you don't know, you might want to find out in case there is ever a problem. And even if it doesn't matter to you, we'd sure like to know the answers because we have blog photos in Picasa since 2005 and we'd hate to lose 8 1/2 years of photos on our blog.
If your links from blogger that you import to WordPress go to Picassa the photos will stay at Picassa. However, once you start over at WordPress you can upload directly to WordPress.com (at least you used to be able to do that and I haven't heard of any changes). If you want to port from Picassa to WordPress, you'll probably need some help moving it over there. I remember not being able to figure out how to get Gemini's old blogger photos to show when I was experimenting with porting her site over (although her site was from the very old days when you uploaded directly to blogger).
ReplyDeleteWe do have a google + account because we have gmail and so it was given to us. We just never use it and don't have anything on it.
I have gmail so have Google+ account. I only use it for posting blog updates, but people keep "joining my circles", so have quite a few followers on there. I have resisted changing to having it linked to CATachresis when folk click on my name in comments, so still have link to the old blogger profile. I have a feeling I will be forced to change before much longer!
ReplyDeleteYou kind of feel Google's tentacles are everywhere now! :(
Will go over and read the interview with Skeezix. I am sure there will be leaky eyes :( So very sad xx
Wonderful interview of Skeezix. We had leaky eyes the whole time. Miss him.
ReplyDeleteWe use Wordpress but don't know how to transfer photos unless you have copies of everything and add them to your Wordpress Media Library one at a time. Time consuming but it might be worth it in the long run. Our mom goes on to say while she liked Google Plus, she had nothing but problems with it, similar to Blogger/Blogspot that didn't want to recognize her account and email more than half the time. Good luck with switching over! We think you'll like Wordpress!
Oh, and purrs...
FFF....we wanted ta say grate interviews with skeezix....~~~~~
ReplyDeleteXOXOXO
N sorree but we due knot haza any add vice bout de pic ture stuffs...we dont post a lotta pick sures sew knot trooly sure ....
hope everee one haza grate week oh end .....
We're going to go over and read your interview with Skeezy. Ummmm we're have us worried about Picasa....
ReplyDeleteThat was a lovely interview with Skeezix.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like bad news with Picasa and google. I started a blog on Wordpress several years ago but couldn't get on with it. Looks like I will have to try again. I would be devastated if all the photos on my blogs disappeared. I have all my photos on my computer and an external hard drive but that is not the same as having them on the blog for the boys daily adventures.
I just tried it and got the redirection too so followed the link you gave. My storage usage is still very low and states "currently using 75 MB (0.49%) of your 15360 MB". That is not much use though if they are trying to force us to google+
ReplyDeleteWith Google....more and more I feel like Big Brother is Watching! And I really hate that feeling!
ReplyDeleteWe loved your interview with Skeezix, it was awesome, his sense of humor was so unique and sweet. Huge continued purrs to his family on their sad loss. (That worries us about Google+...we don't want to join either.)
ReplyDeletewow - the maid has some of her other blog photos on picasa but not been there lately. she'll have a fit when she learns that she'll be forced to google+.....we do have gmail - but we didn't even know that we then already HAVE a google+ account as we are not using it. big brother is watching you and unless you do not surf the web anymore and throw away your cell phone that's what it's going to be.
ReplyDeletenow we will head over to the skeezix interview. so sad, he was a legend and good friend.
Excellent interview with Skeezix.
ReplyDeleteWe have an account with Google+ because Mom Paula had to set it up when she was out of down and had to set up a post on her iPhone. We don't use it!
Great interview with skeezix. So sad that he crossed over before i got to know him. =(
ReplyDeleteWe have google+ but we don't use it.
O my... All fings whee shood be finking about!!! Fank Yeu!!!
ReplyDeletewif lubbs from Little Reufus
We are sure glad Google hasnt forced us to annything yet!
ReplyDeleteAnd happy Blogoversary!!!
Thanks for this info, Jan. Will get my Word Press blog up asap.
ReplyDeleteI did manually save every photo and am in the process of saving every blog page as an html file so that I have a copy.
Anyone know a good competitor to Youtube? They quit taking .avi and now I have to convert all my videos.
=^..^=
We have Google+ against our will we might add because our Internet provider went to gmail. We are not happy.
ReplyDeleteLovely tribute to Skeezix and great interview.
We are thinking about Cotton today. Hugs and love to all of you.
We're so sad about Skeezix going to the Bridge. We can see how it must have been so difficult to post your interview of this friend to so many. :(
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info about Picasa and Google plus. I noticed it the other day, too. So annoying.
Happy Birthday at the Bridge for Angel Cotton. Hugs for you Jan.
ReplyDeleteWe too are sad about Skeezix as he was way too young.
Sounds like Google is becoming a bully :/
Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
Treasure,Tiger,JJ and Julie
Google is getting to be kind of pushy, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteFWIW, recently we've mostly just posted photos through Blogger. We have a Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/) that we used to use a lot. Someone (Yahoo?) bought them out, but we haven't noticed any of the Google-style bullying there. (yet?)