Highway 66 led me to Salt Lake City, Utah in August. I have been there a number of times before in the distant past.

Mormon pioneers began building this granite Salt Lake City temple in 1853. It was completed in 1893 and has become a beautiful symbol of Mormonism. That is why I was surprised that the Salt Lake City powers-that-be allowed a tall, totally utilitarian modern office building to overwhelm the once stately temple and the grounds of Temple Square. I was even more surprised to learn that the uninspiring newer building was the Mormon Church’s own office building. Maybe if I had taken the tour offered of the “Church Office Building” I would have a different attitude. However, I doubt that my impression of it would change much. The Chrysler Building it isn’t.

The image, Salt Lake City, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

The good news is that I didn’t download the new Apple MobileMe. Even Greta Van Susteran and her Technical Assistant cannot get it to work. I don’t have a Technical Assistant; it’s just me and my computer, so I would have even more frustration.

However, I WAS bamboozled into downloading the new DataCase App for my iPod Touch. It sounded like a great application - but it doesn’t work either. The specs at Apple say that DataCase works with any wireless enabled computer (Mac, PC, Linux), so I downloaded it. However after purchasing the software and watching the tutorial video, it seems to be only for XP PCs. Whatever is the case, it doesn’t work on my computer.  I have tried to find the DataCase App on my computer, but it is not there, other than in iTunes, where it seems to be only an icon.

Yes, I think I know the difference between “Windows Explorer” and “Internet Explorer.” I tried double-clicking on the “My Computer” thingy, which is just plain “Computer” in Vista. I also opened Windows Explorer with the Icon on the Vista pop-up window. Either way, I typed in the FTP URL shown on my Ipod’s DataCase, and then pressed enter. All I get is an error message: “An error occurred opening that page on the ftp server. Make sure you have permission to access that folder.” I was never using Internet Explorer, yet the FTP URL ends up on my computer under the icon for Internet Explorer.

When I have some time, I guess I will troubleshoot and see if it works on my old XP computer.

Isn’t this amazing? I uploaded this photograph to the Internet from my iPod, which was connected to nothing. There was just WiFi floating about somewhere in the air. Now the photo is posted at http://twitpic.com/7omj – What a World!

We were in Tremonton, Utah and saw signs to Promontory Summit - thirty miles. It sounded like an enticing drive for two visitors from the East, remembering history of the Wild West. Those old-timers could not possibly have planned to have the transcontinental tracks meet at the top of a mountain. If they had planned it, they would have preferred the level land of the Salt Lake Basin below that spreads for miles and miles.

However, after blasting through solid rock mountains, at times only eighteen inches a day, they met here at the peak of this mountain, and the rest is history. It was an unbelievable race between two rail companies and an incredible accomplishment for those early Americans. These are replicas of the original engines that met. We saw a wonderful reenactment of the original “Golden Spike Ceremony” on 2 August 2008.

The image, Promontory Summit , Utah , was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

~*~ 8 August 2008 ~*~ He really is not as old as he looks, nor is he as old as the candles say. I couldn’t find our birthday candles, except for these.

BEWARE of the following fraudulent and dangerous email supposedly from CNN. This has just recently started within the past week. I am receiving dozens of these emails a day, and although I have not clicked on any of the links, I have had to delete my email account from my computer. I now only fetch my mail on the Internet. This story has been verified at TruthOrFiction.com which follows:

Email Offers Links To The CNN Top 10 Stories-Virus!

Summary of the eRumor:
A message appears to be from CNN and shows links to videos linked to the top 10 CNN stories.

The Truth:
This email is a virus that began circulating August 6, 2008.

The email includes graphics that appear to be from CNN and claims to be talking about the Top 10 stories as well as offering links to videos about them.

If you click any of the links, however, a message appears telling you that you do not have the correct version of Flash Player as well as a box you can click to download it.

That click, however, does not download Flash Player, it connects you to a web site that can infect your computer with malware. Security experts are still trying to pin down what code is downloaded to your computer, but it could be the type that connects your computer as part of a massive network of home and business computers that are used to send out similar fake emails, spam, or to try to harvest personal and financial information.

One frustration was that when you clicked the link and got the phony Flash Player warning, you could not get out of it, even if you chose “cancel.”

Samples that we have gotten were titled “Top 10″ when in fact 20 stories are listed.

One security company estimated that more than 1,000 hacked web sites are hosting the fake Flash Player program.

Adobe.com, the makers of Flash Player, warned not to download Flash Player from any source other than Adobe.com.

While spending a few days “sleuthing” at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, I did find one small thing that I had over looked - the marriage of my great, great grandparents, Richard and Hannah RICHARDSON. I found in “Pollets’ Index” that they had married on 5 April 1829, at Norwood, Middlesex.

However, I did not really need to go all the way to Salt Lake City to find this, as it is online at Ancestry.com. Now I need to send the information on this index card and obtain the actual marriage record, which may have additional information on it, such as witnesses, etcetera, which may reveal clues to the parents of Richard and his wife, Hannah DENNIS. I already know that Hannah was from Mortlake, Surrey. Richard was born in London, so he said, and I have no idea which parish.

The image, RichardsonRichard MC 1829, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

Yesterday my Red Hat group, the DARling Dames, lunched at Willow Creek Farm in Broadlands, Virginia. What a spectacular site it is. Our hostess, Jayne, and her daughter Kim, baked the most creative “Red Hat” cookies, which we received as favors. You can see them at My Flickr Slideshow.”

The image, Willow Creek Farm, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

From My Own Farm Bell

Edna’s Farm Bell at the Edge of the Wildwood

I’ve never lived on a farm, nor had any connection with farming, although, of course, many of my forebears did. However, I have always wanted to have a farm bell mounted in my garden as a remembrance of those bygone days of simpler times. What a surprise it was last Christmas when my son’s family gave us an old farm bell that they had found in Warrenton, Virginia.

Well, good Captain Cliff does not like to work outside when the weather is cold, so the old farm bell sat, packed and boxed, all winter long in the garage, where we bumped and crashed into it whenever we were entering or exiting our vehicles. It was in the early Spring, when we were visiting a home on the Eastern Shore, that I was captivated by another old farm bell. It was so charming and I took photographs of it and even blogged one of them: Old Farm Bell

After we returned home, and I posted my pictures, Captain Cliff became a bit eager to install my Farm Bell. He opened the box and unpacked it, and to our suprise, it was identical in every way, including the manufacturer’s name, to the one that we had see at the Maryland home. How delightful! So we tried to copy that one, including the new black paint.

My son suggested that we not paint it; that we leave it in its original patina, as it is in this photograph. I think now that we should have heeded him, but we didn’t. This photograph is how it appeared before the paint job. We have not yet been able to find proper cotton roping for the pull cord, but we are still looking. This synthetic rope is not quite right, but it is all we have.

I finally got around to making this test of Picasa Web Albums with Cudleigh Cougar. I have ranted a number of times of my dismay at having my images made much smaller when I upload them from Picasa2 to Picasa Web Albums. Google wrote and told me that was caused by my editing of my images before uploading. Duh? Isn’t that what Picasa2 is for? Isn’t Picasa2 supposed to be a photo editing software program?

 IMAGE QUALITY

You mentioned that the files you downloaded from Picasa Web Albums were not the same size as the original files that you uploaded. The difference in photo file size can be attributed to any edits that you made within Picasa before you uploaded. After you make edits to your photo, Picasa needs to then re-sample the image to create a new version of the jpeg (apart from the original). This requires Picasa to apply an amount of jpeg compression to your photo. In order to incorporate your photo edits into your uploaded image, the actual size of the uploaded photo is therefore less than the full photo file.

If you made no edits to your photos and uploaded it at the ’slowest upload; largest size setting,’ you would find the full photo file uploaded.

You can control the jpeg compression level of your files by using the ‘Export’ option before you upload to Picasa Web Albums. For more information on exporting photos, please visit http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13821

If you’d like to go into more depth about the compression of unsaved edits upon upload, please read this informative post in our user group at http://groups.google.com/group/PicasaGuide/browse_thread/thread/a21c26049b83ebb0/d1ec931bf26518b4?

Whatever, … here I am performing a test. I am uploading these two “unedited” images of Cudleigh Cougar at the “slowest” upload, largest size, using the “Web Album” button in Picasa2. Image cudleigh001 is 3264×2448 pixels, 4.5 MB, and Image cudleigh002 is 3264×2448 pixels, 4.8 MB, in Picasa2, on my computer.

After uploading to Picasa Web Albums (which is incredibly easy with the Picasa2 software) I then downloaded one image back to my computer, and sure enough, the Google guy was correct. I was able to download the full size that I had uploaded. Now that was only because I had NOT “edited” the photo. Once a photo is edited in Picasa2 - everything changes, and much smaller images are sent to the Internet. It doesn’t make sense, but that is the way it is.

Then I did a second test, this time sending an entire batch of “edited” images to Picasa Web Albums. You can read about that here: http://picasaweb.google.com/barneykin/GrandBarneySFarmBell, and know why I am now using Flickr for most of my photo album storage, even though I continue to love using Picasa2 software.

Picasa

Picasa Web Albums - Changed

Picasa Web Albums - Discovery

Goodbye Picasa Web Albums