TUTORIAL: Using Sass and Compass for managing CSS in WordPress
I don’t often write tutorials but since the rebuild of the WP Engine website some months ago, I have been turned on to the use of a brilliant combination of tools made for development in a Ruby on...
View Article10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 3.3
WordPress 3.2 has been downloaded a killer 12M+ times. WordPress as a whole continues to grow and is touted to be in the approximate 14% of the web zone. That’s ridiculously huge and it astounds me how...
View ArticleTUTORIAL: Adding an oEmbed Provider to WordPress
I don’t often write tutorials. I probably should. But normally it’s only when someone asks me something and I think, “Hey, self… you should write up how to do this”. As if a book wasn’t enough. Last...
View ArticleThe Top 50 Stories Since the Invasion of Iraq
War is over, if you want it. ~John Lennon This is a time of year, as we draw 2011 to a close and embark on 2012, to reminisce about the events of the last year. It’s a tradition followed by...
View ArticleSkunkworks
Back in October, I announced my departure from WP Engine. At that time, though I didn’t talk about it on this blog, I decided to take some time off, more or less. Since 2006, I’ve been hard at work...
View ArticleDude, Shut Your Effing Social Media Mouth.
It’s been awhile since I ranted. Like really ranted. I’m about to change that. <rant> It’s no secret that social media marketing has turned largely douchey. Self-important blowhards show up at...
View ArticleYour Fiefdom Doesn’t Matter (Or Get your Head out of Your Regional Startup Ass)
There’s this thing called Protectionism. Protectionism is largely a political word used to describe the retreat to self-isolationism for the sake of preserving well-being. It was a word tossed around...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Congressman Lamar Smith Regarding SOPA Championing
An email sent to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who insists on pushing the SOPA bill through committee. Dear Mr. Smith- This is an open letter which will be published...
View ArticleCongratulations, Internet. We Won the Day.
Today, I feel like a proud poppa. I don’t want to get too celebratory and put out some kind of aura that our battle against SOPA and PIPA are over. In fact, neither are over. But I’ll get to that in a...
View ArticleBlackouts, Boycotts and Regressing From Progress
A couple of weeks ago, the United States, and in fact, the world saw the internet grow up. Namely, through the use of blackouts – a previously unused tactic of protest and grassroots organizing – we...
View ArticleTUTORIAL: Using WordPress’ Ajax API
WordPress has tons of APIs to do tons of things. It really does. One of the cool ones that I’ve been using a lot lately, has been around for a bit. It’s the Ajax API. Sure, you could write your own...
View ArticleWordPress Plugin: Easy Graphs
Everyone likes data visualizations so I wrote a plugin that will make the quick and secure creation of Pie Charts, Bar Charts and Line Charts easy. The answer is: Easy Graphs. Easy graphs is very...
View ArticleScience is King
I’m a scientist. I don’t have a degree from Stanford or Carnegie Mellon… But I’m a scientist. I hypothesize, test and prove. If the result doesn’t meet my supposition, I accept that and move on....
View ArticleMy Three Tiered System to Job Searching
Over the past months, since I parted with WP Engine, I have entertained many inquiries about my availability for other full-time roles. And I literally mean many. It’s been a great problem to have,...
View ArticleTUTORIAL: Building Custom Rewrite Endpoints in WordPress
Recently I concluded a sizable project that involved deep integration with an external API. I was responsible for creating content pages based outside of WordPress. To be clear, the pages would use an...
View ArticleContest: 3 free copies of the WordPress Bible [UPDATE]
Today marked the drop of WordPress 3.5 and I want to celebrate. Tomorrow, I’m going to give away three autographed copies of the WordPress Bible. You have to be on Twitter. I apologize to those who...
View ArticleFor Photographers, Instagram Square Photos are Worse than a TOS Update
I’m a photographer and I use both my iPhone 4S and my Digital SLR to take photos. There’s a difference between taking pictures and taking photos, however, and the nuance is an important thing to...
View ArticleI Fired Myself
If we’re friends on Facebook or Twitter, you know about my new job in Baltimore. Technically, it’s not a new job yet, as I don’t start until February 4. However, it’s a new job and a return, for the...
View ArticleWordPress Hacking and Cleanup
There’s a brute force attack underway on a global scale. Massive. The attack vector? Keep attempting user/pass combos in an automated way until a breakin happens. If your WordPress site gets hacked, I...
View Article9 Years of Blogging: Lessons from the Trenches
It is May 20 today and that means two things. First, it’s the 5 year birthday of this handsome boy. Without a doubt, his day will be filled with belly rubs and snacks… as it should be. But secondly,...
View ArticleEntrepreneurial Priorities if You Don’t Want to Despise Yourself at Age 80
With the exception of a general, “We’re hiring” post a few days ago, my site has been largely neglected for the past year. It’s not that I don’t want to write. I do. And it’s not like I don’t have...
View ArticleBad Job Board Titles
Human Resources personnel. You gotta love ’em. They’re the people who make sure you get paid every week, or biweekly or however often you get paid. They’re the ones who you talk to when you have a...
View ArticleWeekly Blog Post Challenge
Back in 2004, I, like many other people in the WordPress community began blogging. We didn’t, I don’t think, get into WordPress because we wanted to write code or build a career. We got into it because...
View ArticleIf I Had to do it All Again
As I sit here tonight, at a bar, typing on the WordPress app (which will undoubtedly make my fingers cramp typing long form), I’m thinking about my life. What has made me a man, a developer, a friend,...
View ArticleDishonesty in Digital Marketing
$9.99. We used to look at that number, scratch our heads and rationalize the price as a marketing tactic to make buyers believe a product was cheaper than it was. This is all based on the psychology...
View ArticleNew Adventures with 10up
It’s such a weird feeling. Since I began this blog in 2004, I’ve been able to say I was truly hired exactly one time. That day was Jan 9, 2013. In 2004, I was employed by Northrop Grumman. In 2006, I...
View ArticleLetting Perfect Get in the Way
I’ve been contemplating a phrase for a few days now. It applies to writing code, as I do for a living, as well as a whole host of other things… from relationships, to home life, life goals and...
View ArticleAsynchronous WordPress
This morning, at WordCamp US, I will be giving a lightning talk to a room full of WordPress professionals from around the globe. This talk was given earlier this year at WordCamp Baltimore as a full 45...
View ArticleHow to Create Great Night Long Exposure Shots
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time taking long exposure photos. I’ll be doing more daytime ones soon, but the easiest are night shots. If you spend enough time with your camera, you’ll quickly...
View ArticleA Chance to Purchase Some of My Best Photography
An original taken in Austin, TX on Congress Ave near 2nd Street.
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