The Printed Word

Shadow with contrasted Marshmallow sky, 2010

With my computer being craptastic, my marble mouse iffy (the wireless is skipping and doubleclicking all the time), TV generally un-entertaining (no more Conan doing Free Bird), and my photography lacking (in quantity not quality), I have decided that I am going to do more reading this year. 

I used to read dozens of books each year. In my teens I kept a list of books. It was over a hundred novels long from about the age of 14 to 19. Judging by that number, my shyness apparently didn't often let me realize girls were more interesting than books...

But in this techie age, I seem to have given that up - the books that is. And I got rid of a lot of my books.

This evening I returned to the library "In my own words : an introduction to my teachings and philosophy" by HH the Dalai Lama;  and "What makes you not a Buddhist" by Dzonghsar Jamyang Khyentse, which I finished yesterday.  I then checked out  "Stages of Meditation" by HH the Dalai Lama;   "Buddha : a Penguin life" by  Karen Armstrong (I didn't know Buddha was a penguin, so this intrigued me).

Last, I grabbed perhaps the only Robert A Heinlein book I have never read: "For us, the Living." I had and still have every other book written by him - and it disappoints me a bit that most libraries and some book stores may only have one or two copies of his books. They are a great read.

When I was going to the library, it occurred to me that Heinlein died 22 years ago. Seems like just yesterday. Makes me feel old heheh. Perhaps it's just my beard...

Looking forward to reading all three.

Namaste.

Mike

Fences and Lama's

Good Fences Make... , 2010

Not being on the computer much at all in December, I got a library card, and after re-familiarizing myself with Mr Dewey and his decimal system, I checked out a few books. One of which was The Dalai Lama's book In My Own Words. I think that book, which I thoroughly enjoyed - and understood most of, is obviously recently influencing my thoughts.

If you can find a copy of it and are interested in a good intro to Buddhism written by someone who certainly knows his stuff, have a read. It's not a big book. I read it in a couple or three days.

Helped in tryin' to maintain the positive in these times that are frustratingly lacking in sunlight.

Going to return the book and maybe get a couple of others today.
  
Mike

It will be over sometime soon

 

Undisturbed and waiting for spring, 2010

While today is wet, foggy, and rainy, with snow threatening to melt, the season is still deep in the heart of winter. These dark, short gloomy days and cold nights can't end soon enough for me.

One thing I have noticed is that over December and into January, not being on the computer much and not really doing much but thinking and hibernating and reading, something changed.

For the past few months, I have had lots of TV channels. Way too many really to even know whats on... And at first I OD'd on watching the three CSI, the two NCIS, Flashforward, Fringe, and a new favourite Criminal Minds. I watched on AnE almost every episode in the past couple of months. It was great. But now? I don't care for it. I would rather watch TV to learn something. Or local news (which there is less and less of), or movies. I watch a lot of the BBC. And while I am not into cars I am addicted to Top Gear. Weird I know.

I am just finding I don't see the need to watch the realistic violence and gore. Not that it bothers me, but when there is so much sadness and real death in the world - see Haiti for example - why not to just bring in more of the good and the beautiful?

Just be careful when doing it to not show a boobie on tv. Because while you can show a GSW to the head, or someone being blown apart or tortured in exquisite detail, you might make some flowers n kittens fan in Middle America write a letter, complain about a photo, or have the FCC fine a network hundreds of thousands for a nipple slip.

Remember, no matter the context, people don't kill people. Boobs kill people.


Mike

How to slow down others posting your Flickr pics on blogs

Today one of my friends who occasionally models for me emailed that a blog had used a couple of images without permission and she wasn't happy about it. I looked into it, and it turned out that the photos had been found on her Flickr page and subsequently displayed/linked on the offending blog.

I gave her instructions on how to remedy this, but I thought it was worth sharing.

If you find a blog or web site that is linking to and posting your Flickr photos without your permission, by all means get in touch with the site admin or blogger and tell them to remove the content. But if the site is non responsive or has no contact info, there is something you can do to get the image off there - if they are not hosting the image and are pulling it right from Flickr. That can be determined if you hover over the image on the blog and a Flickr URL is visible on the bottom of your browser or under your mouse pointer.

First, log in to your Flickr.com account and go to that image's page. Click on the all sizes button above the image. Copy the largest version of the image to your hard drive renaming it from the 42407xxxxx_d5181a417c_o sort of file name to something else so you can find it again. Next, go to the Replace This Photo link on the bottom right of the Flickr photo page (in the Additional Information section on the right). Browse for the image you just saved, and upload it. Flickr will tell you it is then replaced.  It will look the same, and all the comments will still be there, but to Flickr's servers it is a new photo. Go back to the offending blog page that had your image. Refresh the page (CTRL + F5 in Windows) and the image should now be replaced with the above 'unavailable' graphic.

If you want to slow down this happening again, go into your Flickr Account settings. Find the Privacy and Permissions link. The first option is 'Who can download your stuff'. Select who can do it and who can't. From the Flickr verbiage on that page:

When people are looking at the main display page for one of your photos or a video (e.g), they will see a button labeled "all sizes" underneath the title. From there, they can download any of the different sizes available, including the original file, unless you choose to prevent it. Preventing people from downloading something also means that a transparent image will be positioned over the image on the main photo page, which is intended to discourage* people from right-clicking to save, or dragging the image on to their desktop.

* By "discourage" we do mean simply "discourage". Please understand that if a photo can be viewed in a web browser, it can be downloaded. The transparent image overlaid on the photo will not keep your images safe from theft, and is intended only as a slight hindrance to downloading.

As it says, it discourages it. It can be circumvented, but it will stop someone from casually linking to anything on your Flickr other than your image's Flickr page - not the image itself. They can no longer easily link to the actual image, and the "all sizes" url which is often how bloggers do it when taking images from Flickr. If they can't quickly get to that http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2xxx/4240760861_thisisafakeurl2_m.jpg sort of link to post it on their blog, it might cause them to skip over your pic altogether.

One last thing. If you want people to know that your images on Flickr are available for sharing on blogs or not, make sure you set the copyright info accordingly. It is under the same Privacy and Permissions link, under Defaults For New Uploads. Edit the What License will your content have? information.  CC or Creative Commons, usually implies that you are fine with others posting your images on their blogs and web pages. And ARR or All Rights Reserved, means you are not.  That is grossly oversimplifying it, but it is a way of letting people know you might take issue with them using/posting your work without your permission. You can go back and change the copyright on all your previously uploaded images as a batch on Flickr too using the Organize and Create dropdown menu.

If you are fine with people re-posting your photos without your permission, you can ignore this post. Otherwise, I hope it was useful.


Mike