Category Archives: Computers

PolyWogg 5.0 – Ten significant updates to my site

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 11 2020

I have gone through a series of iterations of my website and I tend to see them as grouped together like versions of a software release:

  • 2000-2008 (versions 1.0, 1.1): These were HTML versions, mostly collections of bookmarks, based on a structure I designed and my friend Liam turned into a website for me. The site was mostly just pages of links for me and there was very little content on there for other people.
  • 2008-2014 (versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3): These were variations to make the site work with Drupal as my content management system and I started expanding my content for others. Book reviews, movie reviews, and the start of posting my HR guide online.
  • 2014-2017 (versions 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3): I switched over to WordPress for the blog and Piwigo for my gallery, and played with lots of options in between. I had serious issues with my hosting platform (GreenGeeks) and I finally gave up on them and moved to a new hosting provider (WHC.ca).
  » Read the rest
Share

Testing Qubely Blocks

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 9 2020

I love block collections, and Qubely was apparently one I missed in my reviewing. Right up front, it adds a big IMPORT LAYOUT button up to the left of the content editor window, which is where they have links to various block patterns / mini layouts. There aren’t many free ones, but a lot of PRO ones are listed. That’s usually a huge red flag for me — an app that serves basically to market their other services.

The collection is large with 29 separate blocks. Let’s work our way through them one by one:

  • Accordion: Nothing flashy but totally functional;
  • Advanced List: In all fairness, it does give you some nice options for styling an ordered number list (like light-blue circles around the numbers or colouring the rows, but I was REALLY hoping it would do more advanced list things like letters;
  • Advanced Text: More controls than a paragraph block, with built-in Title / Heading and sub-heading options, as well as basic animation;
  • Animated Headline: I haven’t seen anything like this in any other collection.
  » Read the rest
Share

Trying out Kioken Blocks

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 9 2020

Previous readers of the blog know that I am intrigued every time I see a new block collection and want to see what they have to offer. I was looking at a new post tool and it listed all the collections it was compatible with, most of which I had seen. But it listed one called “Kioken Blocks” which I had never heard of, so I wanted to give it a try.

It comes with 19 blocks, and so let’s see how they do on my site…

  • Accordion: Simple vertical accordion block, click to expand;
  • Container Row: A common block in the higher-end collections, this gives you a quick layout of one row x multiple columns of different size and proportions. It not only has animation options, it lets you customize the look for five different screen sizes, and lots of tweaks to backgrounds for six different columns;
  • Divider Plus: This is a REALLY well-done block.
  » Read the rest
Share

Today I choose to bend rather than break (TIC00049e)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 9 2020

So, yesterday I wrote about how I was overwhelmed and had, by default, chosen to break instead of bend (Today I choose to break rather than bend (TIC00048d)). A bunch of things were piling up, and when they overwhelmed me, I dropped.

Today, I’m trying to find a bit healthier way to adjust, but I have to start with a negative. For those who have dipped their toe into my posts about “today I choose”, you know that I’m numbering them, and while the numbers go in regular order, I’ve been adding a “series” letter to the end. Those basically are my Seinfeld tracking for the choices — how many days in a row I can go without breaking the chain. Well, although I did indeed make a choice yesterday, even if by default, it was not a positive choice about how I want to live my life. Which means I have to reset again, going from series “d” to series “e”.  » Read the rest

Share

Today I choose to edit an old post (TIC00046d)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
September 6 2020

So my last two posts about choices have been somewhat inter-related. I’m working on a project that I started some 17 years ago. I’m now calling it “A PolyWogg Guide to Music”, just cuz I like naming my projects. And I didn’t want to call it Dave.

The intent is that I will look at the Billboard top 100 list each year, as well as some other songs from the year that maybe didn’t make Billboard’s sales lists, and see what I think “endures” past the year. There are lots of songs I listen to from the 1980s or 90s and think, “How the heck did that chart?”. The song was mildly entertaining, maybe a bit of a riff that was catchy, but after one year, pffft, it was gone.

And back in about 2003, maybe even somewhat earlier, I started looking at the idea of doing every year. I originally thought, maybe I’d start with around 1980.  » Read the rest

Share