Tech: Flickr photos mystery

Subject: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: Jeanie
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 10:42 AM

I do hope some of you tech wizards can help solve this mystery for me:

I've had this computer (brand new) since the start of this year, using Windows Vista, which has a little strip on the right-hand side of the main page, including date, weather,news, plus a little window which showed, at random, photos which I have stored, plus some samples which were already on the computer.

A little while ago, I started noticing other photos coming up there in that little box, including some that I had looked at on here: people's links to Flickr albums taken, for example, at a Mudgather at Sidmouth, though I hadn't saved them on my computer.

I didn't really think much about it, but more photos started popping up at random in that little box: photos of cars, flowers, family outing of people I don't know ! - all mixed in amongst photos that I HAVE saved. My saved photos section never shows any of these other pics.

I've now been checking in the "Recently Changed" section and I see that loads of these flickr pics have been downloaded - though they don't actually appear in my Saved Photos section. How can this happen and what can I do ? These people, whoever they are, must have gone to a car rally on Saturday: loads of pics of what must have been every single car in the rally are in my "Recently Changed" section ! Earlier last month, they must have gone to some kind of botanical garden: lots of flowers, and a little girl with her grandma. There must have been earlier downloads, before I realized what was going on - That same little girl pops up in the random picture box, but the photos are no longer detailed in my "Recently changed" section - so I don't know how I can delete them.

I'd be so grateful to know what I can do ? How can I find out who these people are ? How can I stop this from happening ? Is there any way I can delete all these photos all at one go - or do I have to delete each one individually ?

By the way, nobody else uses this computer except me and I don't have a flickr album myself.

I'd be very grateful for any help and suggestions you can give.
Cheers !
- jeanie

Subject: RE: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 11:00 AM

A nuclear device detonated near the computer ought to do the trick. Or a bazooka.

Sounds like you have a program that is automatically snatching stuff off of the Internet. I would find where they're stored by doing a search. Right click one of the photos and find the properties for the location, or find the name and search for that name and see what file turns up.

As an offhand guess, Flickr is owned by Yahoo, so if you're actively using Yahoo software, that could be the answer. There should be a way to disable that feature.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: Jeanie
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 03:05 PM

Many thanks for your suggestions, SRS. I'm not running Yahoo stuff, so it can't be that. When I click on properties, the only details that come up are my own computer details. Each photo has a flickr number, but when I did a search of a couple of these on the Flickr website, nothing came up.

It's really strange, because it looks to me as if these pics are all coming from the same camera: two separate lots of car rallies, separate sets of family photos with the same people in them. They've also obviously recently been on a camping trip - looks to me like the New Forest - they took lots of photos of the ponies and they had a rather smart blue tent !

Another thought: I have wireless broadband - could it be that these pics are being picked up on my computer from someone else nearby ?

Now I know what's happening, I'm going to check every day and delete any new pics that appear in the "recently changed" section, so that they don't clog up my computer space.

What I find so strange is that the photos don't appear at all in my saved pictures section.

Has anyone else here had this problem ?

Many thanks,
- jeanie

Subject: RE: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: Jeanie
Date: 03 Jun 08 - 06:09 PM

Just for the record: I've solved the mystery ! It's something called "Google Desktop Photos Gadget" that was set to automatically add photos from web pages visited. It clearly didn't start kicking in until the first time I looked at some photos in Flickr, and from then on it has been adding pictures. Interestingly, it seemed to only be adding them from a limited number of subscribers to Flickr, because the same people kept popping up on them, added at different times.

I've been able to disconnect from that automatic feed facility now, which is great.

Many thanks again, SRS !

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: bfdk
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 02:19 AM

I've no personal experience with Vista, but a friend has it. I think there's a setting somewhere where you can specify which folder(s) on your PC (say the folder named 'Pictures') that you want it to pick the random photos for your desktop from.

Maybe worth investigating :-)

Best wishes,

Bente

Subject: RE: Tech: Flickr photos mystery
From: Jeanie
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 02:37 AM

Yes, Bente, that's what I did so that I have disconnected the automatic feed from the internet, and from now on the only pics that come up will be the ones I have stored.

Vista has come in for a lot of criticism since it arrived. I had to get a new printer, because mine turned out not to be compatible, which was a nuisance. But otherwise (apart from sudden surprise discoveries like this automatic picture download thing), I'm finding Vista to be fine.

Thanks again for help,
- jeanie