Organizing My Photos on Google Photos...

Trying to Organize My Photos

As I mentioned in a previous post here on my blog, I am trying to make a push to write posts on the remaining hikes I that I have YETto write about.

The whole process of organizing my photos into collections on Google Photos is A LOT like herding cats. I have 2,182 photos on my phone that I have taken myself. While I am sure that other people may have more photos on their phone, to me, it's A LOT.

Herding Cats (Source: https://www.taggg.com/blog/a-cat-herders-guide-to-booking-remote-meetings)

Fortunately, it's just a matter of creating a collection title and then assigning photos to that specific collection.

With so many photos to go through, a lot of scanning is involved. Yes, I am using the Month and Year slider on the right margin of Google Photos to easily scroll through all of my photos.

What surprised me was that I have large amounts of photos on my Google Photos page that are STILL waiting to be organized into collections. For example, I was recently surprised that I didn't have the photos that I took at this year's Polish Festival assigned to a collection. That was easily remedied.

As a result, I am going to have to improve my workflows IOT make it easier to write posts about hiking, for example.

Here are some ideas:

• Buy a new camera. This is a no-brainer, really. My LG Stylo 6 cell phone needs to be replaced. There are now numerous cracks on the viewing surface of my phone. The only thing that keeps the glass in place is the protective sticky plastic cover I put on it when I bought the phone. Since I started working at events at the Arizona Financial Theatre and at State Farm Stadium, my cell phone has been accidentally dropped numerous times. Additionally, the cell phone battery no longer holds a full charge like it used to. Plus, there is a time lag of several seconds when opening certain apps, such as the camera app. Most importantly, a couple of years ago, LG announced that they were no longer manufacturing consumer cell phones. It came as a great shock. It's only a matter of time before LG stops supporting the cell phones that are currently in use. I believe that LG will stop sending out software updates for their cell phones sometime in 2025.
• Create a new collection in Google Photos either before or shortly after going hiking. This one says it all. When organizing, it really helps to be pro-active.
• Upload photos that I have taken with my cell phone to Google Photos shortly after my hike. Preferably the same day as the hike. The sooner the better.
• Put new photos into assigned collection in Google Photos as soon as possible. Again, the sooner the better.
• Transfer photos from my phone to my portable hard drive for archiving. This will free up storage on my cell phone. Since the photos would be uploaded to Google Photos, the photos could be deleted. However, I do have hoarding tendencies, so I probably wouldn't do that.
• Create a new, empty post on my blog for my completed hike. Again, I will be trying to work ahead.
• Download anything else I would need for my new post, such as a map from the AllTrails website.
• Assign a date to work on the actual post. I am absolutely horrible at doing this. For whatever reason, I hate being constrained. Not too sure why, but that's how I am. That has to change.
• Come up with a plan or structure for the post. This can be difficult as I have to play around with all of the elements of a post to figure out what it is I want to do. Still, it helps to have a basic idea on how the finished post will look like and what areas I want to explore. It is really easy to go on a tangent when writing a blog post.
• Work on post until it is complete. That's self-explanatory. Once I have all of the cats herded together, I can usually churn out a blog post rather quickly.

Those are just some ideas that I have at the moment. I am sure that if I really thought about it, I could come up with others.

Anyway, I think that I have all of my hiking photos organized into collections in Google Photos.

It's time to start cranking out some blog posts.

It's also time to start hiking again. There is a lot to explore.

Identifying Hiking Posts Left to Write...

More Hiking Posts to Come

In a recent post, I wrote about still having a couple of hiking trips that I would like to add to my blog here at Blogger.

Now that the extremely hot weather that Maricopa County experiences during the Summer months is starting to recede, it's time to add these remaining hiking trips to my blog before I start going hiking again.

More to follow.

Update About SeaSucker Talon Bike Rack...

Received Replacement Bike Rack

Back in September, I was notified via email by SeaSucker that the Talon bike rack that I had bought from REI over the summer had a design flaw.

As a result, the email explained that SeaSucker would send me a replacement Talon bike rack, with a re-designed replacement part, free of charge.

This is a true story.

I will have more about this in the very near future.

More to follow.

Future Posts About Hiking...

Future Posts About Hiking

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have been trying to organize all of the photos that I took while hiking at various locations throughout Maricopa County.

Some hiking trips have more photos than others, while some hiking trips barely have any photos.

Anyway, like most things that I write about on my blog, my initial ideas for a post, or series of posts, radically changes after I begin work on it.

In addition, real life always seems to find a way to intrude on what I am trying to do.

It's all too easy to get sidetracked.

As a result, I have a couple more hiking posts that I would like to add to my blog, so that people can see the photos that I have taken.

After organizing my photos into collections in Google Photos, I need to make sure that I have all of the maps and other graphics for each remaining post.

It's just a simple matter of grabbing some screenshots of maps from somewhere on the internet.

Once all of that is done, I can then start writing the remaining posts.

I figure I can complete a new post about hiking probably once per day.

Then, if I really wanted to be ambitious, I could go back and make some improvements on the hiking posts that I have already published to the internet.

Just some ideas that I have.

Once interesting bit of criticism that I have received was the amount of time that I have spent on my blog, especially on a couple rather lengthy posts.

I don't mind. I actually like working on my blog. I also enjoy trying to figure out how to use HTML.

Stay tuned for more future posts about hiking.

Types of Firewalls...

It's a Long Slog

For the past few weeks, I have been S-L-O-W-L-Y working my way through the Network Support and Security online class from Cisco Networking Academy.

To be sure, it has been a L-O-N-G slog.

The course contains only three modules:

• Module 1: Network Support
• Module 2: Cybersecurity Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attacks
• Module 3: Network Security

Like all online classes from Cisco Networking Academy, each module contains several sub-modules. Each sub-module contains numerous definitions, charts, graphics, videos, pull-down menus, lists, and whatnot. If you are trying to take notes as you read each sub-module, it can be a time-consuming process.

When I started the Network Support and Security online course, my initial thought that it would be a quick and easy course to complete.

Boy, I was wrong.

Types of Firewalls

Sub-module 3.5.2 "Types of Firewalls" gives a basic introduction to four different types of firewalls.

The types of firewalls analyzed by the sub-module are:

• Packet Filtering (Stateless) Firewall

Packet Filtering (Stateless) Firewall 

• Packet filtering firewalls are usually part of a router firewall, which permits or denies traffic based on Layer 3 and Layer 4 information.
• Source IP address 
• Destination IP address
• Protocol
• Source port number
• Destination port number
• Synchronize/Start (SYN) packet receipt
• Packet filtering firewalls are stateless firewalls that use a simple policy table look-up that filters traffic based on specific criteria. 
• There are several advantages of using a packet filtering firewall:
• Packet filters implement simple "permit or deny" rule sets. 
• Packet filters have a low impact on network performance. 
• Packet filters are easy to implement and are supported by most routers.
• Packet filters provide an initial degree of security at the Network layer. 
• Packet filters perform almost all the tasks of a high-end firewall at a much lower cost.  
• There are several disadvantages of using a packet filtering firewall: 
• Packet filters are susceptible to IP spoofing. Threat actors can send arbitrary packets that meet Access Control List (ACL) criteria and pass through the filter. 
• Packet filters do not reliably filter fragmented packets. 
• Because fragmented IP packets carry the TCP header in the first fragment and packet filters filter on TCP header information, all fragments after the first fragment are passed unconditionally. 
• Decisions to use packet filters assume that the filter of the first fragment accurately enforces the policy. 
• Packet filters use complex ACLs, which can be difficult to implement and maintain. 
• Packet filters cannot dynamically filter certain services. 
• Packet filters are stateless. They examine each packet individually rather than in the context of the state of a connection. 
• Packet filters do not represent a complete firewall solution, but they are an important element of a firewall security policy. 

• Stateful Firewall

Stateful Firewall

• Stateful firewalls are the most versatile and most common firewall technologies in use. 
• Stateful firewalls provide stateful packet filtering by using connection information maintained in a state table. 
• Stateful filtering is a firewall architecture that is classified at the Network layer. 
• Stateful firewalls also analyze traffic at OSI Layer 4 (Transport) and Layer 5 (Session).
• There are several benefits to using a stateful firewall in a network: 
• Stateful firewalls are often used as a primary means of defense by filtering unwanted, unnecessary, or undesirable traffic. 
• Stateful firewalls strengthen packet filtering by providing more stringent control over security. 
• Stateful firewalls improve performance over packet filters or proxy servers. 
• Stateful firewalls defend against spoofing and DoS attacks by determining whether packets belong to an existing connection or are from an unauthorized source. 
• Stateful firewalls provide more log information than a packet filtering firewall. 
• Stateful firewalls also present some limitations: 
• Stateful firewalls cannot prevent Application layer attacks because they do not examine the actual contents of the HTTP connection. 
• Not all protocols are stateful. For example, UDP and ICMP do not generate connection information for a state table, and, therefore, do not garner as much support for filtering. 
• It is difficult to track connections that use dynamic port negotiation. 
• Some applications open multiple connections. 
• This requires a whole new range of ports that must be opened to allow this second connection. 
• Stateful firewalls do not support user authentication. 

• Application Gateway Firewall

Application Gateway Firewall

• An application gateway firewall (proxy firewall) filters information at Layers 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the OSI reference model. 
• Most of the firewall control and filtering is done in software. 
• When a client needs to access a remote server, it connects to a proxy server. 
• The proxy server connects to the remote server on behalf of the client. 
• Therefore, the server only sees a connection from the proxy server. 

• Next Generation Firewall

Next Generation Firewall

• Next generation firewalls (NGFW) go beyond stateful firewalls by providing the following: 
• Integrated intrusion prevention. 
• Application awareness and control to see and block risky apps. 
• Upgrade paths to include future information needs. 
• Techniques to address evolving security threats. 

Additional types of firewalls include:

• Host-Based (Personal and Server) Firewall - a PC or server with firewall software running on it. 
• Transparent Firewall - filters IP traffic between a pair of bridged interfaces. 
• Hybrid Firewall - a combination of the various firewall types. 

I will come back to this post after I complete Module 3.5 Firewalls and Host-Based Intrusion Prevention.

There is a lot of good information about firewalls.

Additionally, I found some really good information and graphics about the different types of firewalls over at Palo Alto Networks' webpage.

As always, more to follow.

Lack of Activity on My Blog...

Explaining the Lack of Activity

There has been a significant lack of activity here on my blog.

As per usual, I have been really busy with all kinds of activity.

Here is a list of things that I have been working on:

• I have been working concerts at the Arizona Financial Theatre in downtown Phoenix, AZ.
• I have been working at football games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
• I have started riding my bike again.
• I have been focusing a lot of time and energy working on the Network Support and Security online class from Cisco Networking Academy.
• I have been working out at the gym quite a bit.
• I have been organizing my photos into collections over on Google Photos.
• I have been trying to come up with a list of blogging post ideas to write about.
• I even flirted with the idea of moving my blog here at Blogger on to another platform.

I even fell into the bottomless pit that is Twitter/X.

I spent a lot of energy on two very long posts. Moreover, I was underwhelmed by the reaction I got to those two posts. Disappointment aside, I am writing this blog for myself. If other people are interested, then that's great.

Lack of interest in my blog isn't going to deter me. It just means that my blog has yet to find an audience. That will come as I write more posts.