Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

tech

WordPress and the change in website design.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I have been working on websites for better or worse since the late 1990’s. Of course then it was through yahoo and the website was much more basic than today.

Yahoo website from 1999

Image of Yahoo.com from 1999
web.archive.org

Of course a lot has happened since then; the thing that changed the way webpages are made was the iPhone in 2007, and the arrival of the tablet and iPad. The arrival of these new technologies precipitated responsive design, which means the sections or parts of a website will stack so they will fit in a smaller screen size.

In December 2018 Gutenberg was released for WordPress. This is a block based system to allow the website to be responsive. Other responsive design tools to mention would be bootstrap and masonry and there are many more all tailored to allow for responsive design. The difference is that these other tools are mainly used by developers and not for the general blogger. Before this block editor, much of the design aspects you would have to work with were HTML (the skeleton of the website), CSS (the styling of the website), and Javascript (the functionality of the website). Now in wordpress you have all the design elements on the side of the page, so no code necessary (or mostly no code). Since the initial release of Gutenberg there have been updates that have slowly improved the way the blocks worked, (I am no expert in Gutenberg, just a humble user) but I must say that it’s only recently I feel it is reaching it’s full potential.

Recently Gutenberg and wordpress have been talking about Full Site Editing . The reason I am actually writing this post about this is I don’t think bloggers, or I could say people who use the tools but don’t read about them as such, understand how much this is changing the way we create websites. My read on full site editing is the blogger or developer will have access to not just the page or post but also the page templates, widgets, menu, pretty much the whole site.
My understanding was that using the customiser meant you didn’t need a child theme, as the changes didn’t impact the wordpress core theme, but the customiser is being removed which in a way is sad as it’s being removed only as it’s becoming mainstream in use.
I believe that you will still need a child theme & the development of the child theme with full site editing isn’t there yet, but many developers are working on this so I expect a result soon.

Before windows 95 you were using DOS to use a computer, windows 95 changed all that! Block full site editing is going to do the same thing for website design, and it’s a big thing!

I have been creating and hosting websites for about 12 years and I see the changes and wonder what the future will bring. Will there still be a market for freelancers to design websites if you don’t need to learn code any more? Or is it more that website design is in a transition? Now more then ever with people making their living on the internet & working from home, will easier tools create a new market for people to interact with the web?
Of course website design is more than just the website, it’s also managing the site back end in regards to hosting, software updates, and making sure its secure. So the freelancer is going to be around for quite some time. And because the changes are happening so quickly, if you have 15 websites some will be older themes than others and will require a different skill set to maintain.

So in one way things are getting easier, and in another way, more complicated, and that’s technology in a nutshell.

I hate NewsStand on my iPhone!

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I love my iPhone, in fact I am typing this blog on it. I use it all the time to keep up with news, family, & friends.
I have a iPhone 4 as there was really no need to go to the 4S. I can wait to meet Siri next year when she comes out of Beta.
One thing about the IOS 5 update that really bugs me is Newstand! I gave it a look on the app store, and even the subscriptions that claim to be free all have prices connected. I have deftly places the Newstand icon in another folder,(something it doesn’t like, as it is a folder itself). If you want to know how to do it just look it up on YouTube.
Of course every time I sync my phone it pops out again. I can’t delete the bloody thing. So it just sits there, empty & unwanted.
Apple is about elegance and the user experience. Steve jobs was a known minimalist!
So Apple please let me delete Newstand if I want to, make it a section in iTunes like books, podcasts! Let me have the elegant clean look I want on my $300 dollar phone with contract!
Is that too much to ask?

Internet Privacy

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There are things I don’t post on the internet, reason is they are personal and I don’t want everyone reading or seeing it; in other words it’s private!

I live in the digital, mobile, instant gratification age. I have access to the internet practically all the time. I can access banking and flights from my phone, (if it’s even worth calling it a phone any more)! My information is accessible to the institutions I deal with. I must quote my social security number to verify myself to fly, talk about my phone bill, Cable TV. Practically anything today requires me to verify who I am. And this revolves around one number that is on how many computer screens around the planet. I recently had to verify the last four of my social to a call center in India. I am not a privacy freak, but when information flies to other countries I am concerned. This is no reflection on India and call centers. It’s a concern that I have actually no idea where my information is and who has access to it. There are some bits of info I care about deeply, this is stuff that other institutions use to rate me in society, credit, driving record etc.

The recent hack of the Sony servers and down time of the PS3 network was a wake up call to Sony. It was also a wake up to consumers, who trust that institutions have a grasp on how to properly manage the information entrusted to them. Technology working properly is a wonderful playground where we get to play with information. We feel more in tune with society because we can venture through it with the web as our guide. Food trucks posting their local on Twitter give the faithful a feeling of club membership. I can check in my location on Facebook or Foursquare, letting my friends know where I am.

To interact I must give information about myself, I must provide enough of me to become a person online. Not a digital copy like in the Matrix; but a 2D version that people will recognize me from.

In this version what am I giving away in regards to privacy? In my zeal to be a part of the group am I too exposed? I don’t remember the exact wording, but Professor James Burke once said that information about people is power; but who controls it?

I have been quite free and easy when it came to information, I do have some caution and try to be safe. I see people, sometimes younger, and having grown up with the freedom of the web don’t question information; and in fact place things out there they really shouldn’t! It may haunt them in the future or not, but remember the web isn’t free, and it is controlled. It can also be manipulated, rules can be changed.

I am an optimist, I feel that we are in transition and that the people who control my info have a vested interest in keeping me happy. So that I will continue to give them my business. There is a element of risk in this, as I get older more of my information becomes part of the data held on servers around the globe. The only way to be private today is never to have had a bank account, credit card, telephone; pay your utilities without giving your social security number; you can do that but it’s a process. The only hope you have these days is to just manage your information, your privacy no longer exists.

I have no choice but to allow them to obtain my info and use it as they wish. And yet with all the risk involved I still love technology and give myself freely.

Go Figure!

Iphone 4

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So I gave in and when Susan, (future wife), tells me she will treat me to the new phone; I am unable to refuse.

I must admit until I had the device in my hand and looked at the reception I wondered am I going to have to return this because it of the famous “Antenna-Gate.”

No problem with this phone at all, yes I have had two dropped calls, but I have had dropped calls before and this iPhone seems no different. Where it is different is in it’s speed and storage capacity.

Faster than my iPhone 3G would be understatement, it rips in comparison. Pages and applications load like a real computer and not like a phone at all. I find I am actually on my macbook computer allot less now I have the iPhone 4, never saw that coming. The Retina display is wonderful, I do watch lots of video and I am constantly amazed at the clarity of the display; Apple did a good job with this one! Only thing is that because I do watch lots of video I do have to have a charge during the day. As the Phone is that good I think it is a small price to pay, it has taken over many tasks from my macbook. Which is no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination.

I know that we shall have an iPod update very soon,(1st September I think). And there is talk of an update to the iPad line. I won’t hold my breath for that one! I think I can do without the iPad for a bit as I have the iPhone 4. Well at least until next year and I have money burning a hole in my pocket!

Tech For The Sake Of Tech

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I am typing this on my Macbook, I have my iPhone to play games and maybe even make a phone call. I love tech and the way if used properly it can make our lives more connected to the things we value.

Of course there are times when tech for the sake of tech is dumb, for example!

I used to fly little airplanes, there is a system called ATIS, Airport Terminal Information Service. This is used to transmit non emergency airport info, active runways, any construction, wind and altimeter settings. It used to be a audio loop with a letter designating the most recent info, Alpha, Bravo etc. You would contact the tower letting them know your position and that you had information delta, they would know if you had the right one and you would be good to land! A few years back this was replaced by a digital recording,  a bad digital recording; hard to understand. To this day I have no idea why they would do that, it wasn’t as if the person had to stand around and repeat it. Technology is a new toy and we all want to play with it, but the question should be asked. “Is this making it better or worse?”