My Best Tools for
Working with WordPress
A guide to figuring out when–and when NOT
to buy that “perfect” plugin or theme
Solutions that don’t cost megabucks
For the single, or small company developer, one doesn’t necessarily need the highest priced theme or plugin that’s available.
Better Breadcrumbs–A Plugin Comparison
Breadcrumbs can be so frustrating, yet so useful. They give users a shortcut to other parts of your website, as well as a snapshot of the site hierarchy. But, you have to implement them correctly. This is how I accidentally discovered that, and a neat trick by comparing two plugins:…
Hacking Work: Breaking Stupid Rules for Smart Results, by Bill Jensen
Got this for one penny at Amazon. Of course, shipping was $3.99, but it’s still a great deal. The book doesn’t have a boiler plate of tools to use for hacking, but it does give a good sales pitch about the risks and benefits. By the way, the work hacking…
Vendor roulette
Two days ago, a client reported a problem that I suspected was on the web host side. They couldn’t upload media files. This has happened before with Dreamhost, and it was resolved by calling them, and having them clear a cache somewhere. I chatted with a support lady for 90…
Officer, why are you in my room with a flashlight?
I was talking with my landlady last night, and she asked me if I was upset about the cops coming into my room. Say what? This is another episode of my crazy dealings with renting living quarters in Maryland. Some of you may remember a previous landlady’s son being thrown…
Linux update
A while back, I posted a story about my adventures with Linux on an older PC. I was stymied at the time, but I have made significant progress since then. The memory boards I had ordered (and didn’t work), were replaced–good job, memorystock.com, and they fit just fine this time….
Linux will revive an old PC? Not so fast.
I bought several old notebook PC’s a while back, specifically for the purpose of giving them to my grandkids. I wanted to see if I could retrofit them as replacements for newer PC’s, sans Windows. Because, let’s face it, Microsoft has effectively tied their newest OS to any new machine…
A new direction on the job hunt
Okay, I’ve moved through the first two iterations of my job hunt–ramping up my profiles on Google and LinkedIn, and refining my resume so I have multiple versions. That looked promising for a while. On the upswing? I actually got two local job interviews last month. Granted they were referrals…
My 6 month adventure with (shudder) unemployment
This is an update on the original article, written in 2010. Remember those days when people kept saying “Cobol is dead?” We just laughed, and kept on coding. Well, laugh no more. Cobol is not dead–there are still thousands of programmers out there. It’s just finding a new mainframe position…
GTD, My way–an update
This is an update from something I wrote when I was using a (don’t laugh) PDA (Personal Data Assistant). PDA’s were the big rage before smartphones. Since then, of course, software and smartphones have made them obsolete. But, because planning and prioritization of tasks hasn’t changed much, this article is…
Job hunting in 2009–it’s a whole new world
Ah, the good old days. When you could find a job in a day or two. Sometimes within hours. 2009, on the other hand, sucks big time. My last contract ended on May1, and I’ve been looking for a job for 3 months now. I keep a spreadsheet of jobs…