WordPress 4.2 was released today, which I was a core contributor to
You can get the details of 4.2 by reading the announcement post.
A couple of my favorite updates are Emoji ( ) and the new Press This editor.
Source: WordPress WordPress 4.2 Powell
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High Tide
On the way to dinner, we found a path with access to the beach. Unfortunately, the tide was so high that we couldn’t even get to the beach.
Miguel decided to climb on a building to get a closer look.
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Saturday Afternoon at the Murder House
For the Mercury meetup, we ended up renting two separate houses in La Jolla.
One of them is very colorful while the other is made of redwood. We’ve been having our meetings in the redwood house which we’ve began to call the Murder house.
Halfway through the day today, we were starting to doze off and decided a half mile walk for coffee was a good idea. Here are some pictures from that.
Later in the evening before dinner, we had a guac-off where Kevin and Beau both made guacamole and we decided who made the best.
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Perceived Speed and Optimization
I was lucky enough to speak at WordCamp Orlando last December.
My presentation, titled Perceived Speed and Optimization, discussed some examples of improving user experience through optimistic interfaces.
Looking back, I probably should’ve waited a few more months so that I could have come up with more examples and I could’ve talked more in-depth about the subject.
You’ll notice that my talk ends at about 12:30 and the video is over 27 minutes long. My presentation ended up being much quicker than I expected. I was so nervous during this presentation due to the size of the theater as well as the caliber of the audience.
I consider this presentation a learning experience and a push to prepare better next time.
For a better explanation of optimistic interfaces see The Need for Speed: Optimistic Web Interfaces.
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Anatomy Of A WordPress Hack -Brennen Byrne
This WordCamp presentation by Brennen Byrne is a great introduction to common hacks such as XSS, SQL injection, and Clickjacking.
The biggest takewaway for me was that security exploits are usually found in the small details.
For example, the XSS vulnerability that Brennen discussed was caused because a single tag out of 5 or 6 was not escaped.
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Rewriting the Game – Getting a Technical Job
Danielle Hubbard, a friend of mine from Midwestern State University, recently gave a talk at ACT-W in Portland.
In her talk, titled “Rewriting the Game”, Danielle talks about her own career, specifically how she got her first job, and what she learned from that process.
Danielle starts speaking at 2:44:30, but some of the best advice I saw happened at about 2:52:41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7oezkvfJco&t=2h52m14s
Some of my favorite quotes of Danielle’s were:
“Don’t make excuses for being a badass. Don’t self deprecate.”
“Are you ready to take ownership of whatever makes you awesome and sell that to whoever is buying?”
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UPE Induction 2015
Yesterday, I was asked to speak the PI part of the MSU chapter of UPE induction ceremony.
Here’s a picture of the new inductees.
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Learning to Code? Just Get Started
Career Foundry recently reached out to me to get a quote for an article they wrote named Learning To Code, A Web Developers Guide
My response for the article was:
Start small with a self-hosted WordPress site and then slowly break it and make it better. Large projects have a habit of becoming demoralizing. Small wins early on are crucial.
Sounds short and sweet, right? And that’s the point. It’s easy to get caught up in questions when setting out on a new path.
Paralysis
These questions often contribute to procrastination, and there’s even a phrase for thinking so much that an action or decision isn’t taken: analysis paralysis.
Interestingly, shortly after I started writing this article, I noticed a tweet from Amy Hoy about this subject.
1/10 people who ask for advice BEFORE they act will ever do a damn thing. 9/10 are seeking advice as a procrastination tactic ¯_(ツ)_/¯
— Amy Hoy (@amyhoy) March 4, 2015
Go Get Started
So, are you interested in learning to code? Great. Now go do something.
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Flickr – Photo Sharing!
Stephane Daury recently shared a link to a Chrome extension from Flickr that opens up a new image each time a tab is opened.
Being a web developer, I am in my browser all day looking at documentation, testing code, learning, and collaborating with coworkers.
Having this Flickr extension for Chrome allows me to take brief breaks from staring at text.
Here are images from the first three tabs that I opened as a demonstration.
Credit: Antonio Aliaga
Credit: Klaus Greipel
Credit: littlekiss
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Easter Kazoo
Sara took Hero to go see the Easter bunny today, which is where Hero got an annoying bunny mouth shaped kazoo.
I wasn’t aware of this noisemaker until we stopped at Walgreens so Sara could pick something up.
Within a minute of Hero and I waiting in the car for Sara, Hero was blowing in the damned thing.
Not wanting to deal with the noise, I compromised. I invited Hero to kazoo himself away outside the car while I listened to some Taking Back Sunday in the car.
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Burrito Friday
I successfully completed another burrito Friday.
I’m not sure how Qdoba ranks by Beau’s standards, but the smothered burritos at Qdoba are probably the best option in Wichita Falls.
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9 truths that computer programmers know that most people dont.
Macleod Sawyer recently wrote a blog post titled “9 truths that computer programmers know that most people don’t.”
While I believe there was truth in each fact, there were a few quotes that stood out.
Under the hood, most critical software you use every day (like Mac OS X, or Facebook) contains a terrifying number of hacks and shortcuts that happen to barely fit together into a working whole. It would be like taking apart a brand-new 747 and discovering that the fuel line is held in place by a coat-hanger and the landing gear is attached with duct tape. Ben Cherry
Programming is thinking, not typing. Casey Patton
For the other truths, visit the full article which is linked below.
Source: 9 truths that computer programmers know that most people dont.
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Modernizing The WordPress Toolbox – Aaron Jorbin
Aaron Jorbin, WordPress committer and developer at Cond Nast, recently spoke at PHP UK Conference 2015 about Modernizing the WordPress toolbox.
While I am a WordPress core contributor, I was not aware of all of the steps that went into updating the WordPress contribution and build process over the past few years. It was interesting to get that information from Aaron in this video.
One of my favorite sections was at 37:54 when Aaron Jorbin says:
It’s important to learn from yourself. If you are a solo developer on a project, you might think, “Well, this experience works for me.” But, you have to ask yourself, “Does it really work for you?”
Take a look at your bash history. How many times are you repeating the same commands over and over again. That you’re doing 3 steps in sequence every day, multiple times a day. If you’re doing that, you should automate it. You should not have to do three steps in a row to complete a task. You should be able to do just one.
— Aaron Jorbin
Also, Aaron mentioned theme days for his personal projects. at about 39:06.
Every Monday Aaron tries to add in new metrics or find a new way to analyze metrics.
Every Tuesday Aaron focuses on tools; focusing on making it easier to write code.
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Guy Party
Sara went to a wine glass painting party tonight, which, let’s be honest, is probably just a pretext for Sara and her girlfriends to get together and drink wine.
That’s great though. Sara needs non-family time.
But Hero didn’t like the idea of mom going to a women only party. He wondered where him and I were going for our guy party.
At first, I told him that we wouldn’t have a party. Then I gave in and walked Hero to the ice cream store to have a guy party.
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Moar Afremov Art
Today, Sara and I received a shipment of three Afremov prints from Afremovart.com.
I bought my first oil painting by Afremov about a year ago, and to this day, I’m still in love with his style.Several years ago, I wouldn’t have considered paying for a painting. But I gladly keep buying paintings and prints by Afremov.
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LifeGift Memorial 2015
Tonight was the LifeGift memorial service where those who died and donated their organs are remembered.
We also went by Cook Childrens Hospital while in Fort Worth to see the memorial at the hospital for the first time.
