Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The Case of the Disappearing Blog Images

At first I when I encountered several examples, I thought that somehow I mucked up the original images in assorted blog posts. So I patiently recovered the lost images in several blog posts to do with  mathematics: complex series, e.g. Laurent series, and residues. All the diagrams had been patiently drawn for each particular blog entry by yours truly. None were 'hijacked' from any copyrighted material. Having replaced each blog image I thought I'd done 'God's service', to use the Bajan parlance - when I then encountered yet more removed images - including photos wifey and I had taken in Austria and Germany last year (to do with the mendicants in Salzburg and Innsbruck as well as engravings in Oberammagau, and Garmisch -Partenkirchen Germany - representing the plague's ravages in the 1400s)

Again, all these were meticulously replaced until a week later - all were again mysteriously gone - with only an empty box left in its wake with a small bit of wording to the effect it was my photo. Really? Then why knock the images out and replace them with empty boxes?

Googling the subject of missing images in blogger produced no really useful results, only some techie conjectures of maybe arising from a 'Share it' plug in on Facebook. But since I don't use FB other than rarely (mostly to read my few friends' posts), and certainly never the share it app, then I was left with more questions than answers. WHY are my blog images being knocked out and replaced with empty boxes?

Today, again, I spent nearly an hour replacing assorted images knocked out of my recent  blog series to do with atomic physics. Nearly eleven diagrams knocked out in all  - each one then replaced with an empty, irritating box with brief wording - again referencing my ownership.

Interestingly, none of this occurred prior to my hard drive crash described in my Oct.26 post. That was when I was still using IE - a very early version - on my Vista. After the crash, a new computer was needed and I got a new desk top outfitted with Google Chrome. Since using Chrome - which I agree is much faster- I have noted the case of the vanishing images and substituted empty boxes. Note that the maddening aspect is not all my images are being knocked out, only a relative few - perhaps 5-6 %, but in strategic places like math and physics posts - where the loss is guaranteed to leave most readers adrift. Thus, without a Davisson-Germer experiment diagram to refer to - only an empty useless box- they'll have no idea what I am all about.


Suffice it to say, if any tech-inclined readers can offer any insights I am more than willing to see them. Also, I'd appreciate any solutions on offer because I am not sure how much longer I am willing to play  "replace the empty boxes" whack-a-mole.

Is it something to do with Chrome? A perceived copyright violation that it detects and dispatches something to correct? Or is it some technical defect along the lines of the FB 'share it' plug in theory?

I am willing to read any kind of theories and entertain any reasonable suggestions at this point!








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