'mornin' all. I sell on eBrat and need a photo for EVERYTHING. Way back in the day I started out taking actual pictures on actual film and sending them to my sister 800 miles away who did not sell - but had a scanner. I would do the auction and with my password she would open it and revise adding the photo. WOW! What a complicated system, but ya gotta start somewhere. Then I got a scanner which does my flat things like books, magazines, fabric - and scans photos of larger items. Quite a step up! About 5 or 6 months ago my Dad got me a digital camera as a gift. Wow again! What a difference. So easy, so quick. I did immediately take it back and get a bit better one right away to be sure it would really serve my needs. Oh, I forgot where I was going with all this. ;) Oh, yeah. Our Wally World has a huge table of dollar a yard fabrics. I'd often see them and think "eww! what would anyone do with these?" But then I was thinking about making living room drapes for my FOUR GIGANTIC PICTURE WINDOWS EACH A DIFFERENT SIZE (previous owner/builder should have had his head examined) and I went there to look at the fabric. There was actually some rather nice stuff there if I kept my mind off of quilting. ;)) I 'got over' the drape episode thank goodness, but bought 2 yards each of 5 or 6 fabrics that I thought would be good backdrops for photography. They have worked out beautifully. I picked knits that didn't wrinkle when I scrunched them, not too thin, not too thick. That's helped a lot with my indoor photography but the outdoor is still chancy. Sometimes ya just can't edit out the ugly. Sigh. Sometimes I can't even PhotoDeluxe it out. Double-sigh. GH-

When I started using Houzz I was amazed at how accurate the results of my searches were (in addition to the size of the photos database). It was a great resource. More recently when I've prepared to undertake projects, I've noticed that I just don't get the same, accurate results. My searches are riddled with results that just aren't pertinent. I think this is due to the incorporation of advertisers from my city and surrounding areas (contractors, builders, and others). There are enough ads (or results that are somehow influenced by someone who has something to sell) now to really hinder the flow of design ideas. I guess many internet sites end up using advertisers but it morphs the user experience. It's really made using Houzz less fruitful.

I really don't know why I didn't think of this earlier... about storing all member photos on the FKB server. I guess I figured it out be outrageously expensive to host all the photos. But the cost of storage has gone down tremendously (an extra 20GB on picasaweb costs only $5 per year), and I am making small change from the ads on the FKB. So it's definitely do-able. I replied back to gellchom with a message similar to this. Please feel free to mention this when you send out your emails (although it's probably too late for most of you). Sample email: There are a couple of options for getting your photos back onto the FKB. Option#1: Upload your kitchen photos to one of the online photo management applications (photobucket, flickr, picasa, etc.). Remove password-protection from your kitchen album or members will not be able to view your photos. Email the link to me. (Many members choose this option because they like managing their own photos.) Option#2: Email all your kitchen photos directly to starpooh and she will upload them onto the FKB's photo album. Her email address is: starpooh@gmail.com. They will be put into a separate folder (similar to outwest's kitchen): http://picasaweb.google.com/starpooh. If, in the future, you decide to remove your photos from the FKB just send an email to starpooh and she will take care of it. (Some members are choosing this option because they don't want to worry about keeping track of their kitchen photos. They also do not need to worry about password-protecting their personal photos.)

Does GW's Computer Help Forum still function helpfully? "This forum is meant for the discussion of personal computers, including recommendations, common problems and solutions, how to get even with the people who wrote the software, etc."