Picasa Web Albums

A very interesting site, indeed, with a lot of good pictures, but many more not so good. It always amazes me the lack of editing some people do before they post their pictures on-line There are so many tools available to them through a large number of photo software programs that would allow them to enhance their photos, direct the focus to the main element in the picture, penetrate the dark shadows, delete the blurry, deep-six the extraneous, and so on, and so on - and yet, for some reason, people do not take advantage of these capabilities. And so you usually have to sort through a large number of rocks before you find a diamond.

I also find it interesting that anyone who wants to can go in and e-mail one of these photo's to anyone else. There were definitely some pictures in the Kuaui Honeymoon album that I was looking at that I would not want e-mailed to strangers if they had been my photos.

The sole tag on the photo I sent was "Hawaii". I doubt that I will continue to use this application. I am not terribly interested in stanger's photos. But you never can tell, and it is nice to know how to access the Albums.

Actually I had never heard of Picasa before. My friends and I usually upload our photos to the Kodak Gallery on-line, which allows us to view and purchase copies of each other's photos if we wish, but the access to these photos is limited to the people that have been approved by the person who uploaded the photos. That concept is much more comfortable to my way of thinking.

Long Lost Nephew

I actually joined Facebook a few months ago. It was just to see what all the hype was about more than anything else. I had heard the buzz. "You should see what so- and-so has posted on Facebook." Or "Go and check out so-and-so's Facebook photos." Or "Did you know Bo has a Facebook account?" Now how could I resist THAT one?

So I signed up for Facebook, checked it out once or twice and decided that it was pretty much a monumental waste of time and promptly forgot about it. Until I got the e-mail. Our of the blue I received a terse note that said: "Could you be my aunt?" Indeed I could, and I was! My nephew, whom I had not heard from or seen in 26 years, and who had long ago emigrated to Australia, had tracked me down through Facebook. To say I was amazed, overwhelmed, thrilled, delighted would be putting it mildly. It was an awesome event and we have been busy catching up ever since.

So Facebook has its merits. It can bring with it unexpected miraculous gifts. But at the same time, I think it has definite drawbacks. Because 'My friends' on Facebook are mainly 'My Family', and anyone I approve of as a 'Friend' on Facebook has access to my friends (i,e, my family) as well, that makes me nervous. Thus I am very cautious about expanding my network.

But I definitely will continue to use Facebook. After all, there's no telling what other surprises are waiting for me out in cyberspace.

Delicious? Maybe ...

...not sure. Seems like a lot of work to find things I am looking for when the Google-Search engine does an adequate job for me and is a lot faster. Of course, I don't spend a lot of time surfing the web on a regular basis. But maybe on a snowy January afternoon, when the options are shovelling the driveway or checking out the websites other people have found interesting by using the Delicious Tags, it might have some appeal - if it were accompanied by a glass of red wine.

I bookmarked: The Internet Movie Data Base Web page (IMDB); Joe Barkson's World Wide Recipes; How to Buy a Used Car; and Fresh Blueberries.

The tags I used were: Movies; Cars; Recipes; Cooking; Snowies

Will I continue to use Delicious? Not sure really. Probably not. Although the ability to find a favourite Web page when you are on vacation and can't remember the URL does have it's appeal - So then again, maybe.