2024
December
Mid-December
- A look at my hosting provider's own web builder application. Found it a good app, but not for me. The blogging function isn't as straightforward as I would like; and the layout is difficult to manage on a tablet - drag and drop too fiddly.
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Another quick look at Wordpress, trying a 'simple' template, whose customisation is anything but simple.
Stick with the small-web.
- Decided that the site needs a separate Brewing Diary, so that brewing entires don't get lost in the main site blog. This has subsequently been removed.
Early December
- Back to the small web after nearly a month of work and indecision.
- One issue with the small web, and keeping the coding to a minimum, menus. The navigation has to be copied to each page, and I've just realised that The Blog needs its own entry in the menu bar. Managed to apply a JavaScript 'include' to insert reusable code.
September - November
Not strictly true, spending quite a bit of time with Joomla and Wordpress.
August
2024-08-25
- Spent almost the entire day playing around with Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress - trying to find the best fit, and nothing really fits. I still prefer my 'small web' site.
2024-08-24
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Contemplating if I should go back to Wordpress. Big decision, and I like my minimalist site - but do I now need to something a bit more 'mainstream'? A format that people are more used to? Something with an inbuilt content management system(CMS)?
I've binned my minimal site in favour of Wordpress in the past, to only revert to my small-web site.
Solution - install Wordpress locally on my NAS, and experiment there.
2024-08-23
- I’ve been using IA Writer for quite a while but have struggled to get the template system to work. I used Drafts years ago, so I am now giving that another look. It is a reasonable subscription charge and appears more customisable than IA Writer; I just need to get to grips with the template system - working OK so far, all appears to be syncing well too.
- I’m still going with the idea of posting a day’s worth of blogs all in one go.
- Delivery of detailing bits today - Koch Chemie FSe spray, spray bottle (perhaps an unnecessary addition), Dry Me A River (Rag Master).
- Busy weekend at Curborough Circuit, the forecast for tomorrow isn’t too clever. Charity day on Monday, really good event last year.
2024-08-22
- I contacted the new AROC section a few days ago, very welcoming and friendly, much better than the last group.
- Starting to write the blog in IA Writer, then copying and pasting it at the end of each day may prove to be an easier route.
- Stoplock arrived a couple of days ago, and spent most of yesterday figuring out how to use it without damaging the steering wheel.
2024-08-18
- Excellent day at the National Alfa Day, held at Bicester Heritage. Early start, lengthy drive and sore feet, but worth it. Some photos on Flickr.
- Car polished, plans made, off to National Alfa Day tomorrow. Some Alfisti are travelling way, way further than me.
- Changed my AROC section - several reasons.
- Will decide tomorrow if the long drive to the National Alfa Day is going to be worth it.
- Nice link to the MCMRC photos on the Curborough FB page.
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AROC meeting tomorrow night, so an hour spent cleaning the car this morning.
Cleaning much easier thanks to the Gen-3 ceramic coat, with a coat of Fusso Soft99 topped off with CarPlan Wax Spray Coating. Overkill, quite likely. - Blog format updated.
- Latest edition of Alfa Romeo Driver arrived; gardening completed, feet up with a cool one and indulge.
Dogs decided that it wasn't to be.
- Forecast the hottest day of the year so far, dogs in shade, car shaded.
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Messaged Curborough Sprint Course page on FB with link to yesterday's event.
2024-08-14 - FB message from Curborough site - post with link scheduled for later that day. -
Contacted MCMRC via their webpage, with a link to the photos; nice reply from the Assistant Clerk of Course, over 2,600 views the next day. Not chasing 'likes', but good to know that the photos are serving a purpose.
- Morning at Curborough, afternoon in the garden, ale, sun and Drive Torque podcast. Rain tomorrow, so the photos can wait until then.
- Photos processed - It was either the photos, or Midsomer Murders - the photos won.
- Looks like an interesting read Why Blog? This has now sparked the need for a blogroll of useful links on this site..... more work.
- One of those infuriating, hair-pulling, web days. CSS file didn’t appear to be passing the latest updates to server-side files. Working in Firefox, but not Safari. Took far longer than it should have for the penny to drop - cached files! Sorted.
- Upgraded broadband, all set for speedy posting - Flickr reporting uploading and photo serving problems. Six hours to fix, a bit of a timely warning that serving photos to my website may not be the best option - guess the photos will have to be stored locally.
- Rejoined Twitter (X) - really do have to dig through the rubbish to get what I want. Not abandoning Mastodon, but it doesn't have the scope of information (yet).
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Blogging - toyed with using text files for blog content, thinking it would be an easier option. However there were issues with the screen reader, and the formatting was (obviously) non-existent.
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Finally get connected to fibre, 545Mbs/54Mbs a huge change from 29Mbs/2.5Mbs. The chap from Virgin Media did an excellent job.
Surprising how many devices needed reconfiguring. The new router didn't appear to like the settings on the NAS, wouldn't connect to the ethernet port configured for IPv4, I didn't fancy messing around with a static address for IPv6.
- The garden doing well, with welcome colour from the Sunflowers.
- The Blog, the start of the experiment, it'll be a little like an OBTF (One Big Text File). At the moment I have no idea how this will work out. I need an easy way of adding stuff in the form of a blog, without having to go mad with the coding.
- The Alfa Romeo Stradale 33 unveiled.