dflipping
Looking into Perplexity Pro for Better Search Answers
Perplexity.ai, the Better Answers Engine, is cursed with a name that Thesaurus links to puzzlement, abstruseness, inscrutability, and brain twisters. Yes, this reviewer is an enthusiastic user of Perplexity for its ease and speed in finding answers to tough multi-target queries, But other reviewers have also consistently cited many positive Perplexity attributes: 1 – full […]
A Google Software Miss
A Google Software Miss 5 years ago would be hard to ponder with its world-leading search engine, pioneering work in website analytics and performance tuning plus advances in mobile and cloud integration. But of late the fallibility notion might be regarded as more plausible as Google plays catchup in AI, switches to major investments in […]
Three WordPress Admin Area Plugins
Have you ever said to yourself “I have got to cleanup the WordPress Admin area and menus and then did nothing? Well here are 3 plugins that are free, easy to use and make your WordPress Admin better suited to your needs. WP Custom Admin Interface free with a 4.4 rating provides very handy point […]
WebBuilders Challenge: Coping with Web Change
Website Builders and CMSs have merged in the past 3 years as backend + cloud services have melded the two small business web creation tools. Web Builders like Wix, Weebly and Shopify have emphasized their common hosting, performance, and advanced setup features. Likewise, CMSs have honed in on delivering easy website setup and maintenance with […]
AI Writing Tools – Aint Going To Change My Style
AI Writing and Music tools have an early and deep presence in savvy AI usage. And as a Yoast user in WordPress and Grammerly with Office being a constant companion one can say this scriber is not exactly a Wordcraft Virgin. But ChatGPT has suddenly inserted real muscle into the auto-generation of paragraphs, presentations, and […]
What Is Google Searching For?
For the past year, Google Search has been under self-induced duress and now serious Chatbot direct competitive threats. The self-induced trauma comes from so many popup and inserted ads, unexpected Schema Location and SEO inserts/elaborations under less user control. Based on Kinsta’s 21 Alternative Search Engines to Use in 2023 [which was last updated back […]
Cookies Required in WordPress
How often have you as a WordPress User gotten this demand in any browser – Chrome, Firefox, Opera? Too often or hardly at all? My question is what causes the message. And does the “Get out of Jail ” link [taking you to a legitimate sign-on startup screen] always appear when you encounter the screen. […]
WordPress Media Roadmap
While working on a review of WordPress Photo Editors at the PhotoFinishes.ca a number of WordPress Media Library questions arose for which immediate answers were not available That is what this post is about; so lets consider the deferred issues: 0 -3rd party, free Media Library photo editor plugins certainly enhance image editing in the […]
Benchmarking Breakdance, Bricks Builder and Oxygen Builder
It is interesting times in WordPress Frontend Development as UI vendors contend for developer loyalty by offering new Layout frameworks [Flexbox, CSS Grid, 3D Float, etc] , more templating features/flexibility, novel plugin consolidations and better runtime performance. Yes, developers and agencies, you have a lot on your decision plates as WordPress UI vendors contend for […]
Whipping up your own free WordPress Site
There are the many reasons for Whipping up a WordPress Website. Because a free, full-service website can can meet immediate needs: 1 -Temporary testing site for trying out WordPress themes, plugins, styling and apps. Stay upwith new WordPress trends an technology by trying out the tools on a real temporary WordPress site; 2 -Staging site […]
Gallery Tests Elementor
Elementor Pro Justified Gallery All New Gallery Masonry UAE Elementor Add-on Gallery These Elementor gallery widgets are very competitive with top Galley plugins like FooGallery or Envira Galley. Elementor’s gallery widgets have a host of features including popular layouts [masonry, justified, and grid], lighthbox display of full size images, captioning of images, display of all […]
Cloudflare Performance Anomaly
Cloudflare lately has been garnering interest and strategic WordPress alliances not just with its CDN_Content Delivery Network but also Domain Management, Security Services and Performance Optimization. For example, Elementor Pro Cloud new offering CloudFlare as part of the overall bundle. More recently Cloudflare acquired Area 1 to bolster its Secure Email services. But the crux […]
The WordPress Editors
WordPress has seen a relatively slow succession of editors in its 18 year history. But in the past 5 years the situation has changed dramatically as WordPress has experienced a rapid progression in what can be done beyond the Basic Editor. This review will look at this evolution in how WordPress users create and edit […]
Gutenberg vs the PageBuilders- Performance Speed Tests
Among the many WordPress PageBuilders, the conventional wisdom is that Gutenberg Builder is on the rise as long overdue features such as more styling options for blocks and use of block patterens as templates begin to match long delivered PageBuilder capabilities. Perhaps the breakthrough feature is Gutenberg’s delivery of true drag and drop operations for […]
Gaslight Banner Ad from Microsoft
Wikipedia defines gaslighting as Gaslighting is a colloquialism that is loosely defined as making someone question their reality.. The term is also used informally to describe someone (a “gaslighter”) who persistently puts forth a false narrative which leads another person (or a group of people) to doubt their own perceptions… Some would argue that because gaslighting has […]
Cyberattacks By Software Vendors
Cyberattacks are usually associated with data breaches where hackers steal valuable information for sale to a variety of “info merchants”. Or behind the scenes there are BDDoS=> Bot-based Direct Denial of Service attacks designed to cripple competitive websites. But as the Dark Web emerges with increasing malvolence there is an an increase of attacks on […]
How to Find News About WordPress
One of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress is what is the WordPress market share? The answer is easy – go to W3techs.com scroll down and get the latest report on the top CMS system as used by the top 10 million websites in the World.: But as a WordPress Developer or Agency you […]
No PhotoPea in Advanced Image Editor
The Advanced File Manager plugin has two nagging probles. First, its Dark Mode theme titling disappears on hovering over a file. Second, Advanced File Manafger promises PhotoPea image editing But PhotoPea fails to show up. Trying to open the advanced edit, users right-mouse click on an image to open image processing options. The Open and […]
Gutenberg Block Editor, 2 Years Late
Two years after the 2018 introduction of Gutenberg, the Plugins rating tells the story: ,Despite being the default Block Editor on a WordPress Install, Gutenberg can still barely scrape above 2 on 5 in the WordPress plugins ratings. Yet recent WPTavern reviews show some major strides in the improvement of Gutenberg and Block Editor offerings: […]
WordPress Optimizing: Clean-up tools
Banned WordPress Plugins
At a recent WP Meetup about Database plugins I was faulted for not citing which of the plugins being reviewed had been banned by WordPress or other vendors. Yes, I am aware of banned plugins. But I had never deliberately searched for them. However, a Securi note that 78% of hacked websites used WordPress confirmed that […]
Bulking-up WordPress Security
WordPress hack attacks are becoming more prevalent – almost like a multi-headed gorgon, hackers have many more sinister attack vectors as seen in these reports from FossBytes and ThreatPress . These reports describe not just one attack many different approaches to hacking which often involves 2 or 3 step before the main hack attack is […]
Thinking Styles and UI Widgets
There has been a revolution in thinking over the past 50 years. How rationalizations is colored. The dual nature of Decision making. And better processes for thinking in general. The following set of presentationa and talks highlight some of these thinking insights. But there is also a revolution in creating smart UI interfaces in WordPress. […]
Data Recovery Processes
Data loss through a failed PC hard drive or cyber-attack is a galling problem for three reasons. First, you missed the warning signs of disk slowdown hinting at failure or somehow let a hacker get access to your PC or online system to loot or lock it up. Second is that both cyber attacks and […]
Blog Authority and Readability Tools
Google has shaped content on the Web more than any other technology vendor. True, Apple has had a wide influence on the design and style of web pages. And Facebook dominates social media and messaging. And Microsoft owns the Desktop. But with its search engine leadership in all the World except China, Google shapes […]
Oxygen and the WordPress ThemeBuilders
WordPress has seen a wave of Themebuilders over the past few years and coming from two sources – themes with builtin PageBuilders and PageBuilders taking over many theme functions. On the theme side there are 7 popular themes which come with PageBuilders as part of the package – Avada with Fusion Builder, X with Cornerstone, Monstroid2 with Power Page Builder, Strata with an included […]
Elementor + Livemesh Free Addon Plugin
In the next few months , the OpenSourcery will be featuring good plugin add-ons to the popular WordPress PageBuilders. What are the popular WordPress ? Beaver Builder, Elementor, Divi and Thrive Architect are used on a number of my clients websites. And Elementor leads WordPress PageBuilders with the most active user – over 3 million. […]
WordPress PageStyling with PageBuilders
WordPress Page Styling has moved from being the primary domain of the Theme chosen to display the website to what can now be called PageBuilder PageStyling. Now this transition from CSS styling via Theme to broader control of CSS styling options has been picking up pace in the past five years. The break up of […]
Online Diagramming Apps
Online Diagram apps are bringing full-feature Flowchart and Diagramming to online users. There is almost a surplus of diagramming systems available to users with tools like Draw.io[no limit free edition], SmartDraw.com [$10US/month/user, 7day free trial], Lucidchart.com, [$10US/month/user, no time limit free edition],Gliffy.com [$8US/month/user, 14day free trial] and Cacoo.com [$4US/month/user, 14day free trial]. This mark the […]
Interactive News
If this post’s title sounds like an oxymoron – it is deliberately so. Print newspapers are declining – not yet Dodo material. Even in Toronto with 4 daily print newspapers [Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post and The Sun – note each of these are Internet editions], the newspapers are surviving. The […]
Website Backups – WayBackups
As a website developer it is amazing and disconcerting the number of times the “problem du jour” is a website backup recovery. Yes, just getting a website recovered either after a hack attack or sometimes simple “misplacement” is a 4-8 times a year consulting task. Now the reason this is surprising is because most hosting […]
WordPress PageBuilders as PageStylers and ThemeBuilders
This is a story about the intense competition among the WordPress PageBuilders for the past 3 years has added substantial PageStyling and ThemeBuilding capabilities to all the top tools. Consider the following table of the top WordPress PageBuilders: Tool Free+Pro Cost site/year WP Plugin Rating Active Sites Beaver Builder Yes , $99US unlimited/yr 4.98 500,000+ […]
GDPR Key Requirements and Rules
There are two very useful studies that examine the nature of GDPR. The first is the Enterprise approach of IBM which has a five point plan that is matched to the GDPR regulations on both data protection as well as data privacy. There is a strong opening Assessment/Audit of the current usage of personal data throughout an organization’s web […]
Automation of Website Translations
About five years ago for a consulting assignment, we looked at programs that could automatically translate from one language to another. Of course, Google Translate and Babylon were two major players. Well as more Web users are looking for an economical automated translation of the text on a website from one language to another, there […]
Mobile Development With “No-Coding-Required” Mandate
While doing a review of Google Sites, a second “no coding required” app making system was encountered. Forrester calls this tool system – Mobile Low-Code Platforms For Business Developers. Forrester and Clutch identify this as a fast growing development segment as companies look to speed up data and information exchange internally between offices and divisions […]
Web Development Tools Overview
While completing a posting on the Mobile Mandate in Web Development, I ran across this excellent review of contemporary Web Development skills and tools. What makes this video compelling is that there is a natural order to the explaining the tools. Thus, the progression is from HTML and CSS to SQL,PHP and Vanilla JavaScript and […]
US CyberSpy vs CyberSpy Incompetence
Spy vs Spy was a Mad Magazine comic strip started during the Cold War era in 1961. Drawn by Antonia Prohias, the strip featured two spies one level too clever such that they inevitably did themselves in with scheming stunts of self-destruction. These spies were Maxwell Smart over confident and Inspector Clouseau clumsy clowns as […]
Google Sites: Website Builder
A video demo of using Google’s new Sites Builder Model for Live Editing of a Web Page All of the Website Builders tend to follow a consistent layout of their Page Design tools. First and foremost, users get to see a live Web Page Canvas where all their edits are shown live.– so as users […]
Appointment Scheduling
Appointment Scheduling is a pervasive requirement for a wide range of service businesses.Think of rentals of equipment, rooms, expertise. Or scheduling events, classes, and training. Or booking flights and other modes of transportation. Or the range of personal care appointments made by doctors, dentists, chiropractors, yoga instructors, physiotherapists, hair stylists, beauty spas, etc, etc. The […]
Gutenberg Rejuvenates Visual CSS Styling Editors
One of the glaring deficits in the Gutenberg Editor is the lack of styling options for many of its blocks. Specifically our tests of websites using only the 41Core Gutenberg blocks had the fewest styling options of all the page editors by a wide margin.This is especially telling in comparison to the amount of easy […]
WordPress UI Christmas Presents
The WordPress Year long race to launch the Gutenberg Block Editor in 2018 has triggered a whole Christmas bag of related WordPress UI developments. And many of those UI tricks and plugins have been either introduced or refined and released for a year end Holiday treat. But perhaps the singular WordPress Christmas present has been […]
WordPress Gutenberg Editor Episode
The Columns Block was the cliffhanger in the rollout of the Gutenberg Editor with WordPress 5 a week ago. It simply did not was glitchy right through WordPress 5 RC3. So when WordPress 5 was announced for release in two days, this reviewer had some concerns. But lo and behold, the Columns Block appeared to […]
FOSSHub Discoveries: WinDirStat
FOSSHub is the place to go to get Free Open Source Software without hassles, relentless advertising or a myriad of hoax offers. The screenshot above shows some of the free open source graphic software packages available for Linux, Mac and Windows use. Note not all of the software is available for all 3 major operating […]
WordCamp Toronto 2018 Features Gutenberg
WordCamp Toronto 2018 is coming to the North York Civic Centre at roughly the same time as WordPress 5.0 and the new Gutenberg will be released. So it should not be a surprise that the WordCamp theme is Gutenberg and the Future of WordPress. The timing could not be more fortuitous because the much delayed […]
Keywords Help Everywhere
Having been badly cash-burned by Facebook and Google on their pay for click schemes, this reviewer has concentrated on 2 different SEO Marketing strategies. First, conversion lead strategies like one-time discount prices for trying a service, or free copies of tutorials in exchange for an email address or free advisories with links to other providers […]
Google Cloud Summit Toronto 2018: Mixed Messages
Systems as a Service are slowly hollowing out corporate data centers while bringing every major system direct to the Web to serve customers in myriad ways. And there are a Trio of Cloud Computing Disruptors – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – that are slugging it out for top dog position among […]
Zedity: Killer Addon to WordPress Classic Editor
Gutenberg as upcoming replacement for the Classic Editor this Fall is forcing an issue for WordPress users from newbies to hard-in-the-trenches WP Pro Developers – what is the best WordPress editor for them to use? There are three main candidates. The tried and true Classic WordPress Editor known as TinyMCE with maybe some addons to […]
WordPress Debugging 101
This is a case study in debugging WordPress when things go crazy wrong. Here is the problem: It is really very simple – when I try to upload images to the Media Library it says the file has been uploaded but only a blank thumbnail appears in the Libraries gallery There are several blank thumbnails […]
How Gutenberg is Shaking WordPress UI Foundations
But It Is Theme And PageBuilder Vendors Who Are Currently Transforming How WordPress UI Design Is Actually Done Let us be clear, Gutenberg is by itself having a profound effect on WordPress UI Design and Development. Here are some of the major trends. Gutenberg brings the 3rd Generation JavaScript frameworks to WordPress. In the case […]