Technical Issues: and an Apology

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Update (May 16, 2016)

Good news: the "fix" option may have been automatically applied to some existing posts.

Sort-of-good-news: quite a few existing posts got "fixed" without my doing a thing to them. Even better: the images actually appear as they were originally posted.

Not-good news: at least one recent post can't be "fixed." More accurately, I have not found a way to coax Blogger into 'fixing' the existing jpeg images. In other words, the post's html points to properly-formatted, relevant images: but Blogger 'protects' me from seeing them. You will probably have the same experience.

Sorry about that.

At this point, I have decided to wait and see if Blogger's developers sort this mess out: and explore other options for making my writing available.

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Another update (May 10, 2016)

Well, this is interesting:

• "An update to the Blogger post editor to help with mixed content"
  (blogger.googleblog.com/2016/04/an-update-to-blogger-post-editor-to.html)
  The latest tips and news from the Blogger team, Blogger (April 19, 2016 )

Good news: the "fix" option works just fine, sort of. Clicking "fix" changed every image URL from "http://[redacted]" to "https://[redacted]" — which would be dandy, if the images would display properly with that protocol specified. They don't.

Sort-of-good-news: old blog posts still display properly, at least on my system. At this point, I don't plan on "fixing" them, since the images generally aren't decoration: they're part of the content.

As I said earlier, Blogger and Google have some reason for changing the rules. Aside from real security issues involving images, there's the impression of security given by the "https" protocol: and impressions count.

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Update (May 10, 2016)

The good news is that I haven't been using Google's Picasa service; not intentionally, at least. Duplicate copies of a number of my images have found their way there, through unknown processes. Unknown to me, that is.

That's good news for me, since Google is "moving on from Picasa:"

• "Moving on from Picasa"
  (googlephotos.blogspot.com/2016/02/moving-on-from-picasa.html)
  The Official Google Picasa Blog (February 12, 2016)

I'll probably find my 'Picasa' images in Google Photos, photos.google.com, but their addresses may or may not be stable.

In any case, although Google's use of names like "AF1QipOJmKLADpdF-7RYMgywR79FBRJ1NTOGiNag0gfy" is probably very useful for their AI, their system isn't consistent with the way I've been filing and tracking images.

So the not-so-good-news is that I still don't have a practical way to keep putting images in my blog posts here.

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Update (May 9, 2016)

I enabled the "https redirect" for this blog a few minutes ago. It should (I hope) be something you will notice only if you pay close attention to the URL. Viewing existing posts, and using existing bookmarks and links should be unaffected.

That's the good news.

The still-frustrating news is that I have not yet found an adequate "secure" method for using images in my blog posts.

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Update (May 7, 2016)

I still haven't found a way to put images in my blog posts in a way that Blogger's new 'security' policy will accept.

The problem, I found, was that .jpg format image files can be altered to include malicious code. I'm not a hacker, and I am reasonably certain that the image files in my blogs do not threaten my safety — or that of anyone else.

However, I do not have the images stored on the sort of (somewhat expensive) "secure" site that Blogger now seems to demand.

Blogger is a free service, so I am hardly in a position to complain. I tried, by the way, converting images to non-.jpg formats: and those files trigger Blogger's 'security' warning, too.

I am still looking for a "secure" place to store images: which is within my budget, will not disappear at some point — I learned that it's called "longevity guarantees," which has stable URLs for images, and which will allow viewers to see the images without altering them.

There are other procedural and technical concerns: so I do not expect to get back 'on schedule' very soon.

Meanwhile, I may do the occasional text-only "safe" post here.

One more thing: Here's a post I made on Google Plus (my online 'front porch'), from last Tuesday afternoon: shortly after I learned that Blogger had changed its 'security' policies.

"I've been getting error messages, starting a few minutes ago, from my Blogger editor.

" 'This page contains HTTP resources which may cause mixed content affecting security and user experience if blog is viewed over HTTPS.' "
(from my post on Google Plus (plus.google.com/112144784741365292059/posts/B9iiQGQySQY) (May 3, 2016))

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Sorry about this.

I have nothing ready for today.

I have spent much of this week, trying to find a way to put images in these posts: without triggering Blogger's new 'security' protocol.

Actually, I might be able to use generic images from 'secure' sites: but they would be pretty much useless as illustrations.

After, and if, I can get this issue resolved; more accurately, if my tech-savvy son comes up with a practical solution; I'll either start writing posts here — or, more likely, take a vacation and then start writing posts.

Meanwhile, here's a link to a 'Mother's Day' post from 2014:

• " 'They Have no Wine' "
  (May 11, 2014)