Diagnostic Improvements With Photos And Picasa

For some time, blog owners would note mysterious problems with photos on their blogs, in various ways - depending upon the browser in use.

Some blog owners and readers would report a mysterious red "X", others a big, blank space - and still others would see nothing at all, not even a space. The only common symptom would be

My pictures have vanished!

Recently, photos hosted under Picasa changed that vague symptom, by displaying two "place holder" icons, depending upon either of two commonly diagnosed problems which had caused the missing photos.

Photos hosted under Picasa, and subsequently being either deleted or made private, are now being replaced by either of two diagnostic icons when referenced.

This improvement will go a long way to resolving much confusion about missing photos (including photos uploaded to the blog using the "Insert image" wizard in post editor), which has long been a source of despair in the Blogger community.

If your photo has been deleted, you will see this icon - an exclamation point inside a triangle.



If your photo is now private, you will see this icon - a dash inside a circle.



These icons are simply the new symptoms of a problem - they are not the problem itself.

• If you just made your Picasa photo album private, maybe when setting up your Google+ account, you can correct the problem easily enough. Just login to Google, use Picasa, and make the photos public, again.
• If you just deleted the photo album, when setting up your Google+ account - or maybe trying to save storage space on your camera / phone, you may be able to recover the deleted photos.
• If you just deleted the Picasa photo album, by having deleted the Google account, however, you are out of luck. Picasa does not provide any un deletion options.
• If these are not your photos, and you are linking them from somebody else's Picasa album, you are likewise out of luck.

However, at least you can now detect - and diagnose - the problem, when your photos are hosted by Picasa.

Incorrect Orientation Of Photos Uploaded In Post Editor

We see occasional reports of problems with photo orientation, from various blog owners posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why are my photos displayed horizontal, when they should be vertical?

Presumably, if someone's photo was taken with her standing, the blog owner does not want the photo showing her lying on her side.

Modern cameras store meta data with each photo, recording information about how the photo was taken.

This information is called "Exchangeable Image File format", or EXIF, data. Along with the information about date / time / exposure ("aperture" / "F stop" / "shutter speed"), some cameras store whether the photo was taken, with the camera held horizontal or vertical.

Some cameras store the "horizontal" / "vertical" information - then, the Blogger post editor "Upload image" wizard picks up on the orientation, and re orients the photo, depending upon it having been taken "horizontal" or "vertical". If the photo was intentionally rotated, the blog owner does not want the photo rotated again.

There are several possible resolutions for this problem.

• Use a different camera. Some cameras do not contribute to this problem.
• Per the comment below, see if the camera has a setting to disable autorotation.
• Use a photo editor such as IrfanView, and strip out the EXIF data, before uploading. Without the EXIF data, the "Add image" wizard won't reorient the photos.
• Use a photo editor such as IrfanView, and rotate the photo again, before uploading.
• Log in to http://www.picasaweb.com, using your Blogger username and password. Find the album, then the picture, that is rotated and open it. Edit the picture - rotate the image, then save it.

Owners Of Blogs, With Images In The Header, Report Changes In Header Appearance

During the past few days, we're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from owners of blogs that use an image in the header, instead of or in addition to, plain text, claiming changes in the appearance of the header. The exact problem report varies - that the image has been resized, has shifted in position, has become pixelated, or has simply disappeared.

We have a rollup discussion, where we are requesting details from each person observing this problem in their blog.

1. What is the URL of the blog?
2. What exact symptom are you observing, that's a problem?
3. Does the blog use a Blogger or third party template?
4. Does the blog use a Designer or Layout template?
5. Has the blog been configured for a Dynamic template?
6. How did you setup the image, that is in use on your blog? Did you use the Layout "Configure Header" wizard, did you upload the image using the post editor "Insert image" wizard, or other?
7. If you used the "Configure Header" wizard, which Image / Placement options did you select?
   • From your computer.
   • From the web.
   • Behind title and description
   • Instead of title and description
   • Have description placed after the image
   • Shrink to fit
8. Can you find the image on your computer? If so, what is the name of the file, as uploaded? Is it a .bmp, .jpg, .png, what?
9. When you setup / uploaded the image, what browser (name and version) was used?
10. What browser (name, and version) are you using, right now, where the problem is visible?

If you can provide details, please do so as best as you are able, either here or in the rollup discussion.

In cases where the URL of the image in use can be edited, you may be able to work around your problem, by editing the precise URL. It appears that images hosted by Picasa, which are currently stored in a variety of sizes (which you may see when you use "Insert image", for instance), are now selected in a different way, when you do not explicitly select the right size for your purpose.

Look at the image at the top of the screen. If you were to look at it's URL, you would see:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2C5RmwbU8URBRB_n_HzNYhK2r3KBzHNIRCjjnOPDDcP5FSddfRh9bKZ3Qyxg10CU24Pr9Zx7j8IJzq1rlptTB_NtJpltts4jm3Hfsi3E2Ovt3QqFXnT-NavhPRoaVUQJJcQZRyjgn2_s8/s1600-r/RBS+Header+4a.gif

If that image had been uploaded using the current "Insert image" wizard (in post editor), or the "Configure Header" wizard (in "Page Elements"), it might have the URL

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif

If the latter URL was correct, there would be 4 aliases available:

• Small: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/S160/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif
• Medium: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/S320/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif
• Large: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/S640/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif
• Full Size: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/S1600/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif

If I had this problem with my header image, I would edit the URL, in the template, and I would replace:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif

with

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pzC_7PLtN-0/R_buGAu4D3I/AAAAAAAABCI/wxcsyLm3DoE/S1600/RBS%2BHeader%2B4a.gif

If your blog has this problem, you may be able to similarly edit your blog - using "Configure Header" or "Edit HTML" - and work around your problem. If you use "Edit HTML", I suggest, as usual, that you backup the template - before and after making this tweak.

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Blogger Magic - Securing My Pictures From Being Copied

Every week, we see the naive query

How do I prevent my pictures from being copied?

and this, I regret to say, is a magic trick that has yet to be perfected. Others ask

Why does Google let people publish blogs with pictures stolen from other blogs?

and here, we have to note that Google has no interest in controlling blog content, beyond the limits of their own TOS regulations.

Each of us is responsible for ensuring that our content - that we own - remains ours.

Google doesn't do this for us. They aren't legally, morally, or socially responsible for controlling duplication of blog / website content, until the owner of any blog or website reports a problem. And even when a problem is reported, they have to consider both sides of the story.

Protecting our blog content is our responsibility.

Some well meaning helpers will tell you of free software that blocks context menu (right mouse click) "Save Image As". That software is written as JavaScript. Many folks, like me, explicitly block JavaScript from "BlogSpot.com" and other untrusted domains, using Firefox and NoScript, for personal security. Blocking scripts from untrusted domains is a normal component in layered security, on our computers.

Besides the fact that you can't effectively block the context menu "Save Image As" command, you can't control what's stored on my computer.

If your blog is viewed on my computer, it's my content.

I've written about cache, here and there. Cache is a basic feature in Internet design. It lets us view the same web site (blog) repeatedly, without requiring that the same content be downloaded from the server repeatedly. If you're viewing this article using your browser, it's cached in your browser.

If your computer is on a large network, it's possible that your computer connects to the Internet through a caching proxy server. If your ISP offers enhanced bandwidth, it's possible that they cache content too.

If I added a picture to this article, it would be cached, along with the text that you are reading. The right software can search and retrieve any cached content, from any cache. Anybody who needs to "steal" your pictures just needs the right software, and he can steal them right out of cache.

Anybody can make a screen print.

Besides blocking the "Save Image As" wizard, and from prohibiting caching, you'll face a third challenge. What's on my screen can be copied. Screen printing is very popular software. Print the screen, crop everything but the picture of interest, and there it is. Save it, and you have it. Display the picture full size, print that, and you have the full size copy.

How about watermarking the pictures? Put the URL of the web site in the corner. You can do this using IrfanView, PhotoShop, and a few more image processing programs. But watermarks are just bits. What you can take out, I can put back, with more software. And watermarks make the pictures ugly. They are as bad as the broadcast TV commercials at the bottom of the screen.

You can copyright your pictures - but can you enforce the copyright?

Finally, you are entitled to copyright your content. There are some free copyright "protection" services too. Register your content, and it's protected. But no, the Internet reaches all over the world.

Can you afford the lawyers, that will practice in every nation worldwide, and enforce your copyright? If your content / pictures are being pirated on a Blogger / Google hosted web site, you may be able to get action from a DMCA Complaint - but note the warnings, carefully.

Face it - once you publish a picture in your blog, it too is like a dandelion. It's out of your control.

Sorry. Magic only goes so far.