ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I recently returned from Eastern Europe and have 300-400 pictures that I would like to share with some people I met.  I have an account with Kodak, which I really have not used.  She suggested downloading photos to Picasa.

I would like to know if Picasa is better than using my Kodak account?  I have 2 albums downloaded to Kodak and ready to send.  When I agreed to send these photos, I really did not think the situation through but I want to try to fulfill their request.

– Becky C.
Fort Walton Beach, FL

A: I’m happy to hear you’re trying so hard to fulfill a promise, Becky.  We could use more of that in the world today.  For the benefit of my other readers, let me first explain that Picasa (picasa.google.com) and Kodak (kodakgallery.com) are free online services that let you organize and share photos, and order prints online.  Picasa goes a little further, as it’s actually a software download that locates all the pictures on your hard drive, and contains a quite capable photo editor.  300-400 sounds like a lot of pictures, but that’s what’s so neat about digital photography.  There’s no film wasted on poor quality shots, and the end-user can pick and choose whether to print any given pictures.  You’re finding another advantage – the internet.  Instead of printing 400 pictures and paying to ship them overseas, free services like Picasa, Kodak, and a host of others allow you to post the pictures in cyberspace where your friend can go out and get them.  Now THAT is making good use of your technology!

You ask me which is “better” between Picasa and Kodak.  That’s such a subjective judgment, because it first presumes I have equally intimate knowledge of the qualities of both services, and further, it assumes that what’s best for me is also best for you, and your Bulgarian friends.  Here’s my advice: since you already have two albums on Kodak, and it’s working for you, keep using it.  If your friend has problems accessing your Kodak albums, then give Picasa a try.  Remember, there are other services available too, if neither one turns out to be “best” for you.

Answer to Diane, the “Recipe Lady”: Diane, your e-mail was far too detailed to publish, but the short answer to your question about pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL is that you don’t hold them down – you press the three keys at the same time, then release them.  This will bring up a dialog with a “Change Password…” button in it.  However, you’ll need to know you’re the old password before you can enter a new one.  You might also want to try going to your Start menu and choosing “Run…”  In the dialog that comes up, type “control userpasswords2” (note the space between the words, and don’t enter the quotation marks).  Click “Ok” and it will bring up a “User Accounts” dialog that has tools to change all the passwords – including the Administrator account.