Workaround: Blogger Doesn't Like iPad

I got the iPad primarily as a reader; the reason I was willing to pay more for it, aside from the color aspects and all, was that a tablet is a multi-function device. I can check my email, and if I get a Bluetooth keyboard, actually do work on it, since it will run the same word processing program the Mac uses. Plus take pictures, surf the web, Face Time, record music, listen to music, watch movies, yadda, yadda, yadda.


Plus I can blog and all. Or so I thought.


Turns out Blogger likes the iPad somewhat, but not altogether. The function that allows one to post photographs from those stored on the device doesn't work. A quick goggle showed I wasn't the first person to come across this. You can attach a URL to an image on the web and Blogger will link to it, but if the picture is one you took and is in your Photo app or elsewhere on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, Blogger grays out the button to collect it.


Oops.


There are a a lot of much more computer savvy people out there than I, fortunately, and there is a workaround: If you have an account at Flickr or Photobucket–which doesn't cost you anything, and the app that corresponds to those–also a freebie–you can post a picture from your iPad to one of the public photo storage sites, then link to that from your blog post. Which is how the velvet paintings in the previous post got there originally.


Lot of clever folks out there. It's not ideal, but it gets the job done.


In other news, one of the places we camp, out in the Gorge, has a small museum, and behind it, in a glassed-walled kiosk is ensconced a small steam locomotive, "The Oregon Pony." This was the first train engine, running on the first tracks, to operate in Oregon. It was an iron mule used to haul freight past a treacherous stretch of the river at Cascade, in the days before the river was tamed with dams and locks. Rather than risk a raft through the rapids, travelers could opt for a mule-drawn cart over rails for portage. Eventually, the powers-that-were decided that steam was better than mules, and in 1862, the Vulcan Iron Works Foundry in San Francisco built a utility-truck-sized engine. It was put into service and the mules retired.


The country back east was in the beginnings of a war that would kill more Americans than any other, fore or since, but mostly that didn't cause folks on the west coast in the states and territories a lot of problems. The country-spanning transcontinental railroad was yet to be built. Nobody was sailing around the Horn to conquer California, they had other stuff on their plates. 


The Oregon Pony did duty here and there for forty-odd years, until 1904, when it was donated to the Oregon Historical Society and with some fire-damage repaired and a new coat of paint, eventually loaned to the museum at Cascade Locks where it is on permanent display.


So now you know ...