macpro hawaii

Once upon a time I had more than 3000 photos here. I know I deleted a few but not more than 200. So it seems I am missing about 1200 or more photos. Hmmm... oh well, this is no longer my primary photo sharing place.

Any of the old timers who had more than a thousand photos have had older photos disappear?

 

Oh boy, BuzzNet fooled around with the layout and interface again. For some reason I cannot upload bulk photos with my Mac using Firefox. What's up with that???

Plus why can't our friends be on the front like how it was before with all the other options on the front too. I don't like having to click on the links to reveal the other options like Upload and Post or Friends just to see who had the most recent post or photo.

The interface should be left alone. It wasn't broken.

Also our color themes seem to have been minimalized.

So what is up with BuzzNet today? I tried to upload 6 photos and I get some kind of database full error and no photos in the spots where they are supposed to be. What's up with that? Has BuzzNet implemented some kind of upload quota or photo block? I only uploaded about 30 photos this month... way less than the 200 minimum per month.

Yesterday when I was tryng to adjust something in the BuzzNet Dashboard, I noticed that they  had display options for whatever you want your default page to be. I don't know if these options were here from the time they implemented the massive layout change... but hey, they are here now and I can save my default page option very close to how the site was like before, with the dominant photo being the centerpiece of your site taken from the most recent upload in your main album.

So BuzzNet has somewhat redeemed itself in allowing us an option to go back to how the layout was a few months ago. It's not perfect, but for people who use this site mainly for photo blogging it is an option well worth to have.

In order to use the option just go to your dashboard and look at the menu items to the right under the topic of "Change Main Page". Select that and then choose from the layouts you want. If you want to emphasize photos like how its been, select "photos". BuzzNet recommends the new layout, but I don't.

If you like your default page to be the new style where everything is lumped on one page then fine. For me the main default page is too "myspace.com".... I prefer photos and that is why I'm here.

Why is it that our older photos continue to disappear from our BuzzNet pages? For sure BuzzNet has de-empahsized photos by trying to become another MySpace.com, much to the consternation of folks like me who initially came here to post our PHOTOS! Get with the program and FIX our old PHOTO links. It is very annoying to see busted photo icons in places where photos once were!

Look at what happened to a photo I posted back in December 2005:

http://macpro-hawaii.buzznet.com/user/photos/?id=2066488

Well there won't be anything because the photo seems to be gone! Where are our photos????

Another thing... why are we required to display our age on BuzzNet? For the first 2 years up to the time of the new layout woes, the public disclosure of our age was not required. Why is BuzzNet now forcing us to list this? I had to put this in after I made a minor change to my dashboard/profile thing.

The only age thing that should be required is whether or not the user is over or under 18, with no specific age or birthday requirement needed.

What do you say BuzzNet gods and nerds??????

Besides the bad new layout de-emphasizing photos, I have also noticed that a lot of our older photos are missing. Missing from our archived photo albums, missing from older BuzzWord album links and elsewhere. In some cases I can see the thumbnails, but when I click on them, I get only a broken icon and no bigger version of the photo I uploaded... 6 months ago, a year ago, nearly 2 years ago.

What's up with this? Have the de-emphasization of photos meant that many of our older photos are permanently lost in the great BuzzNet abyss?

A couple of BuzzNet users have posted their concerns on our local Hawaii message board:

Retrieving Old BuzzNet Photos.

What the f*****?????

I haven't logged into my BuzzNet account for a few days and now I come in and EVERYTHING is changed! I hate it!

I like the old layout way better than this new one with smaller pictures, more text and more ads? I thought this was a PHOTO SHARING place! I miss my big initial photo the moment I log into my site or any others.

Why did they change BuzzNet??? I hate this layout.

And it seems more of my older photos are missing... or at least the links seem to be to certain albums, journal entries.... What's up with that????

I HATE THIS CHANGE.

Tell me what you think friends. Is it time to bail????

BuzzNet was great until this massive layout change. I really only like photos. I'm not into video. I guess that is what they want to morph into... video sharing. Yuck.

I just had to vent!!!!

Here's another gripe! Try and edit your journal.... now yo are presented with tiny type and stupid HTML codes to work around... and if you mess up, you screw up your journal entry. I hate it when change is not implemented well. Sometimes if it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!!!! Venting again!!!!!!!!

My Powerbook 3400. I bought it used about 8 years ago. It was for a while my primary laptop computer until I bought a used iBook 700 last year after the hard drive on this computer went south... sort of.

The computer sat in my closet for about a year when I read an article about having this boot up from a flash card. I figured this was worth a try. So this is what I did:

I purchased a compact flash PCMIA adapter that fits into the card slot built into the Powerbook.

I had an extra 1 GB compact flash card laying around. Used that.

I formatted the compact flash card for Macintosh.

Booted the Powerbook 3400 with an OS 8.5 CD ROM.

Installed the operating system and the basic network package onto the compact flash card.

Rebooted the computer with the compact flash card after I changed the start-up settings control panel.

Installed older software that I have sitting around to make the Mac useful again.

Now I have a bunch of word processors, text editors, and HTML converter, JPEG viewer, iCab web browser and internet connectivity restored to this old Mac. It sits next to my Power Mac G4 where it is also connected to my network and uses the DSL net connection.

Makes for a great little internet machine and word processor.

Looks like BuzzNet stripped some users of their custom color schemes.

Yesterday's annual Hawaii Right for Life rally and march attracted hundreds of people to the grounds of the State Capitol to protest against the ruling of the "Roe vs. Wade" court case that paved the way for legalized abortions. Life is precious and our sacred children should never be killed, even before they are born.

Hundreds marched at the capitol and sat in peaceful, reflective and sometimes prayerful silence as they listened to a procession of speakers and political leaders who support life and legislation for life... the life of the unborn. For our children. God's children.

Yesterday marked the opening of the Hawaii State Legislature for 2006. The traditionally colorful and pompous opening day sessions in both the house and senate were filled with entertainment and pontificating political speeches. I attended the session in the State Senate.

There Senate President Robert Bunda sounded like a Republican as he indicated that the voter-citizens should get tax breaks and at least a portion of the nearly $600 million tax surplus back. He said a few things about putting aside petty politics between parties and within them, making a reference to the 10-10 leadership tie among the majority senators.

Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings went a step further on Bunda's theme of tax reform. He echoed the minority caucus's call for elimination of the General Excise Tax on food and medicine, something which Governor Lingle had long promised but has so far come up short in the last 3 years. Development of alternate energy, less dependence on imported oil and private-public partnerships was also on the Senate Republican agenda. Over at the State House, the majority Democrats want to have the tax surplus used for school maintenance and upgrades.

Certainly a battle is brewing in this year's session on what to exactly do with the state tax surplus. I say give a portion of it back to the taxpayers. The money after all is ours. A tax refund, a reduction in the standard deduction or elimination of the GET on food and medicine will go a long way in helping Hawaii residents and businesses overcome the burdens of high cost associated with the increase of taxes and fees implemented by the state and counties in recent years.

In this election year it will be interesting to see what legislators on both sides come up with this session.

Took me a couple of days to go through my photos. I finally decided to settle on this recent posted photo from late December 2005, "Sunlight Creeping In." People have commented that it looks "professional", though the funny thing is that I only used my point and shoot Sony to take it. Perhaps all of the elements are in the right place and to me it just says "Dad" since everything in this picture belongs to him.

Dad is a hard working man, even in his retirement. He thrives on keeping active. The items in this photo are some of the simple things he uses to stay active. His walking shoes, work boots, cap, old sweatshirt, a couple cans of bug spray (no he is not an exterminator but he uses these to zap the occasional roach or two) and the old wooden chair. He sits on this to change his shoes or sometimes read the paper.

The room this was shot in is at my parents' home... the 2 car garage. The morning I shot this, Dad's car was parked outside. The door to the right is a metal sliding door that allows each car to egress the garage one at the time. The screen door goes into my Dad's cluttered but functional little office, where he keeps his paperwork and an aging E-Machines PC.

Outside is a small bush of plants adjacent to the driveway. You may have seen pictures of these plants before... a ginger flower and some green ferns.

Overall the lighting and composition probably gives this photo its special charm. I especially like the tones cast upon the items and the slit of sunlight creeping in from under the sliding garage door.

Other pictures that I considered for "My single best" included the following (click on the titles to see them):

Sunlight Creeping In
The original post to this photo, Dec. 2005

Today's Ala Moana Sunset
This is one of my favorite sunset shots from 2005.

Kamehameha Schools Unity Rally & March
Someone saw this and may be using it in an upcoming book

Darah Dung
Beautiful Narcissus Queen shot in Honolulu's Chinatown last January

Whoosh!
A grab shot taken from my parked car.

Cold in Hawaii? Nah, the weather is ok. Cold as in me. For 3 weeks now, I have been nagged by an ongoing cold. Relentless coughing, sneezing, some indigestion problems, maybe a slight fever. I missed work for 2 days, but the past weeks I've been adequate enough to go to work at least.... though that nagging cough still persists. I'm high on Ricola among other things. Not good. Not fun. Especially when I am hardly taking any photos this month. The holidays too... and I'm scheduled to go to the Big Island on Wednesday. Hopefully for fun, family and a good holiday.

Merry Christmas all!

According to my dashboard log, it says I have posted over 2,400 pictures to BuzzNet since I joined in May 2004. Lately I have been checking my archive and noticed that photos from several galleries from a few months ago to as far back as May 2004 are not showing up in my various gallery archives!

Anyone check their own galleries to see if their older photos have not suddenly disappeared and replaced with a broken graphic icon?

I would hate to think that all the photos I posted here in previous months are gone to the abyss! If this is the case I would hesitate on posting any more photos.

Tell me what's happening on your end.

Aloha!

Anyone notice that when you post a buzzword to a photo you published, that the photo doesn't immediately show up in the gallery for that buzzword? I just noticed this tonight after not posting a new photo for about 10 days.

In November 2004 I was on BuzzNet for about 7 months. Last year I went to the Big Island of Hawaii for the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are a few of the photos I took that year. The first one is aboard an Aloha Airlines 737 which seems to be making a slight turn in this photo. The second is the river at Kolekole Park along the Hamakua Coast of the Big island. My Mom's flower's always make for colorful photos, with the red ginger and cactus rose adding to my flower galleries. One of the fine homemade foods we had last year was this jello and pear dish... and finally remember to be Thankful this coming holiday week.

Many of us have hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of pictures here at BuzzNet. How often do people look deep down into your archived galleries? Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow rotate our older photos so that they'd show up at the top of a specially designated gallery? Surely some of these older photos deserve an easy way of viewing other than digging deep into each person's archived galleries.

Here are some photos from my deep archive that you may have missed. I'll be posting more older photos that you may have missed in the coming weeks and months.

Geez...after more than 2,300 pictures I am not worth that much....

My blog is worth $28,227.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Hey... wait I minute, none of this stuff is worth any money even though the above link says so. I haven't gotten a dime out of this. Show me the money..... show me the money.... hahahaha.

What's this? A new software program? Nope. Not even an image editiing program.

Virtual Studio 13 is a web message board set up by BuzzNet user "VirtualTourist" as a discussion site on all things photography. The site is in its infancy but offers a lot of promise to be a good gathering place for us BuzzNetters to use and discuss photography tips and such.

One of the topics I set up at Virtual Studio 13 is on BuzzNet. The main reason why I set that up is to report of any outages that may happen to BuzzNet. Sometimes you can never tell whether or not the outage is your own computer or BuzzNet itself. If it is BuzzNet itself we can gather there to report this fact and possibly lament on the temporary loss of service.

The board can also be used for sharing thoughts and tips on how to use BuzzNet or just taking pictures in general.

VirtualS Studio 13 already has topic areas set up for digital camera discussions (right now mostly the Canon Digital Rebels), Photoshop and a Gallery where you can post a photo or two.

Check it out. Registration is required but FREE. Trish (VT) has done a nice job setting this service up on her own server space and it would be a shame if more people did not use it.

Link to Virtual Studio 13 Message Board: Virtual Studio 13 Message Board

Be sure to also check out her main site at the main URL: http://virtualstudio13.com