Fixing Flickr

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Flickr, the photo sharing site, launched in February, 2004. I created my account in May, 2005, and have been a user ever since. I have more than 1,800 photos in my account which isn’t a large number. That’s because I don’t upload every photo I take. I’ve never used Flickr as a “warehouse” for storing photos. I put stuff on Flickr that I want to share, although I tend to use my blog for that these days. My photos have been viewed more than a million times (collectively) but I doubt that’s a big number, comparatively speaking.

For most of its existence, Flickr has been owned by Yahoo! who fucked it up in ways too numerous to mention. Earlier this year Flickr was sold to SmugMug, a paid image sharing, image hosting service, and online video platform. The new owners are making changes and a bunch of the 800,000 Flickr users are freaking out. They’ve been getting unlimited storage for free and in a couple of months that ends. The new limit is 1,000 photos or upgrade to a Pro account for $50 a year. (Which I did back in 2005)

The vast majority of Flickr users are not using the service as a “photo sharing” platform. They’re taking advantage of the free terabyte of storage to warehouse and back-up all of their photos. Fun while it lasted but guess what? Internet companies make changes like this all the time. I think this is a logical move will keep Flickr financially healthy. Others think it will kill the service. Time will tell.

What my Pro account give me under this new plan?

  • One of the many dumb things Yahoo! did was make Flickr subscribers get a Yahoo! account and use that to log into their Flicker account. Cluster. Fuck. That ends soon and we can use any email account to log in.
  • Unlimited storage
  • Ad-free browsing. I would HATE having ads on my Flickr pages
  • Better stats to see which of photos are most viewed. Admittedly not a big deal to me.
  • Better support when I need it.
  • Longer (10 min) videos. Up from 3 minutes.

Free is not a business model. And if a dollar a week is too pricey for you… sorry, Charlie. I’m happy to pay for services I like. For those who aren’t, there are free services like Google Photos.

Four-Wheel Drive: ENGAGED!

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Shortly after getting the Land Rover in late August I discovered I was unable to engage four-wheel drive. There’s a plunger-like doodad (with a bright yellow knob on it) you push down to switch from two-wheel to four-wheel drive. Mine just never worked and I had visions of owning the only Land Rover in America without 4WD (sob!).

My friend (and wizard mechanic) George Tergin investigated and determined some of the linkage in the transfer case (look it up) was worn so we ordered replacement parts. Since some of them had to come from the UK, it took a while but today he fixed the problem. After which we took the truck for a drive on the Tergin Motor Sports Off-Road Test Track (a field behind his shop)

Turns out it was a combination of worn parts, wrong parts and improperly installed parts. And he let me look over his shoulder (and occasionally assist) for three hours, patiently explaining what he was doing and why.

We’ll eventually get a big snow in mid-Missouri and I’m ready now.

“A Ballard and Bosch Novel”

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Just finished the latest Harry Bosch novel (Dark Sacred Night) but but we really can’t call it that. Right there on the cover it says “A Ballad and Bosch Novel.” In 2017 author Michael Connelly introduced the character Renee Ballard in The Late Show and she gets equal billing with Harry in the new book.

In the previous novel (Two Kinds of Truth) Harry was getting on in years. 68 by my count. In this latest story, Renee does some of the more physical stuff it would be difficult to imagine someone Harry’s age doing. He must be getting close to the big seven-oh.

This seems like a real challenge for an author with a beloved character that’s been around for a lot of years. Lucas Davenport — the main guy in John Sanford’s Prey series — is getting on in years but Sandford gave us Virgil Flowers some years ago and he could bring Kidd out of mothballs. I try not to think about how old Lucas Davenport is for the same reason I don’t think about how old my dog is. I don’t want to know.

The late Sue Grafton froze Kinsey Millhone in the 80s but that ruled out tech like mobile phones and personal computers. I much prefer Connelly’s (and Sandford’s) approach: let the characters age. Teaming Renee and Harry in this new book worked for me. They make a good team.

Thermometer tells company were to advertise

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“This flu season, Clorox paid to license information from Kinsa, a tech start-up that sells internet-connected thermometers that are a far cry from the kind once made with mercury and glass. The thermometers sync up with a smartphone app that allows consumers to track their fevers and symptoms, making it especially attractive to parents of young children. The data showed Clorox which ZIP codes around the country had increases in fevers. The company then directed more ads to those areas, assuming that households there may be in the market for products like its disinfecting wipes.” (New York Times)

Another old Scout

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Paul Bandelier loves old cars but he’s got some sweet old trucks sitting outside his shop and I’ve fallen in ‘like’ with one. I’m hoping he finds a buyer for it before I brake down and buy the thing. Yesterday I stopped by his shop and introduced myself and he showed me his latest acquisition.

I can’t recall the year but he said he found it in Colorado and plans to “fix it up and find it a good home.”