Saturday, August 27, 2016

Android blogger app - minor issue & fix

I have an Android tablet I use for email, Facebook, Twitter and light blogging.  The App I use is Blogger from Google.  I like it as it is simple and fast and normally very stable.  Today when I was syncing up my latest blogs I got an error with the account and it wanted me to add one.  I tried to add back in my current Google account, but, it wouldn't let me.  The fix was to uninstall the app and reinstall.  When it is reinstalled it will ask me for what account and I selected my main Google account.  Once that was done I got my blog and posts back.

I like the app as it allows me to do a quick backup to my Android device and I can quickly compose a blog when traveling and don't have network access.  I don't need all the bells and whistles, just be able to compose the basic text of the blog.  When I have access to a network I use my Linux laptop to clean up the blog and add any images required.  The images are stored in my Google Drive so I have the images where ever I go even if I don't have my laptop.  When I get the laptop I then run my Linux Bash script to sync the local drive with Google drive.

Next up is to do more reading about Blogger and see if there is a way I can script a backup of my blogs to the Linux machine so I don't lose my work.

Update:  I found there is a backup option.  Google has a post on how to do this.  It worked, but, it is a massive XML file.

Update 2:  There is a facility called Google Takeout.  It allows you to backup more than just blogger. You pick off what you want to backup and then it builds a ZIP file that they will send you a link to download the file.  Time to test this out.

Starting to build the backup

Waiting for that email, USB stick is ready!

Received the email that the backup is ready.  It is two files and several gigs for each.  This is a nice tool that allows you to backup your data.

Microsoft - Did you really test the latest release?

I have one and only one Windows based machine and everything else is Linux.  When Microsoft offered the update to Windows 10 I did the upgrade.  I wasn't worried as I could revert back to 8.1 and my work machine is Linux so if things gets messed up I still have a computer.  When I did the upgrade from Win 8.1 to Win 10 I lost the ability to use the scanner.  The scanner was only a couple of years old, but, the manufacturer didn't have a driver and the manufacturer isn't making a driver for that model in Win 10.  That wasn't a problem as my Linux machine could use the scanner so I didn't have to go out and buy a new supported scanner.

The big thing that pisses me off right now is the anniversary update to Windows 10.  I don't know what they tested, how they tested or even if they tested.  The machine right now is so unstable at times it is almost unusable.  Part of the time it will 'hang' and then I get a black screen or blue screen and have to do a hard reboot.  Most days I want to use the machine I end up rebooting 2 to 3 times before it runs.  This isn't an old machine, this is a fairly new and HIGH end Dell laptop that I use for one of the online games.  I also use it for storing all of my digital images and videos (1 Tb drive).  I also use it for photo editing and video editing and before the update it was rock solid and fast.  Now when it does work it takes minutes to boot, slow for the first several minutes and takes over 2 minutes to shut down.

I patched everything for drivers to the most current and it still locks up on a regular basis.  What I want to know is how does Microsoft test their software as I am not the only person having this problem and there isn't one common fix for everyone.  This suggests to me that there is something in a Microsoft software component that is causing the problem and we don't have the ability to be able to see what it is and disable that piece (if possible).

Upside right now is I have a backup of all of my images, videos and documents so that is safe.  Microsoft says they are looking into it and may have a fix, but, this is why I am using Linux.  When there is a major issue I can quickly roll back to the prior kernel or package and continue on with my work.