Weeell it’s been since 2016 that I posted anything. May as well. A short list of random tools and things that help me in the day-to-day. Cross-Platform Tools Espanso – text expansion tool. I use it for lorem ipsum and a few other neat pet tricks such as getting the current date or converting the date to/from UNIX timestamp. I have a private GitHub repository and some bash aliases I use to sync this easily with commands such as espanso-push and espanso-pull. It also has a really neat CLI. Obsidian – neat Markdown based journaling and knowledgebase tool. I use […]
Brief Update on Linode Hosting
Back in October I moved to Linode for hosting my site. Happy to report — I haven’t had any problems! Apparently there have been recent issues in late December (apparently many people were suffering some serious downtime thanks to DDOS attacks). But I wasn’t affected much — maybe a couple hours of downtime one day, but other than that, nothing. So I’m very happy here! MySQL Issues The only problem I have been having, however, are intermittent MySQL disconnections. I lost my database for ten minute stretches maybe once every two days. Of course I could see in my Linode […]
Ye Olde Web Design
So here are a couple of websites I did circa 2002 to 2005. I think it’s fun looking at old stuff like this — I mean, these are whole screen screenshots, and they take up a fourth of my screen now. One of them is even from before I used Firefox?! Enjoy the time trip and have a laugh!
Releasing Functions and Shortcodes mu-plugin for WordPress Developers
So I am releasing a plugin for WordPress. It’s pretty simple and contains helpers, functions, and shortcodes I typically use in WordPress installations. Some useful stuff like phone numbers (which can change, and are a total pain in the butt when they do change). It’s honestly just been very helpful for me to be able to quickly clone this into my WordPress installs, so I figured if it helps someone else… why not. Download Plugin Why mu-plugin I figure a downloadable mu-plugin is probably better than something I put in the WordPress plugin repository itself — at least until I […]
2015 Workstation Revisited
Upgraded my computer! Actually since my last hardware post I’ve pretty much replaced most of my computer… ASUS CM1740 MicroATX Case AMD A4-3400 APU (2.7 GHz) + EVGA 500B 500W 80PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V/EPS12V 500W Power Supply Western Digital Caviar SE 160 GB — Dead after 58448 hours and change powered on. Was starting to run way hot. It was at 58 degrees for absolutely no reason when I noticed and decided it had to go. :( 6 GB DDR3 RAM — Mismatched sticks, a 4 GB and a 2 GB. Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Windows 7 Home […]
Looking for a New Job
So! It looks like my job is moving to Wayne, New Jersey. We’re currently in Kenilworth. The thing is — they can’t take me with them! Only a few employees are moving on to Wayne. So it looks like I’m looking for a job again after only ten months — not where I wanted to be! It makes me sad because I really like my coworkers (wrote two of them recommendations on LinkedIn!), everyone I work with is awesome. I also really liked doing what I did, of course… but that’s just the nature of contract work, too. Here’s to […]
My Start Hosting on Linode
So I’ve been hosting most of my sites forever on JustHost. I’ve basically never had a problem except when a bunch of sites aside from mine were down for a couple days. It’s cheap shared hosting and I’ve been here since 2009 without issue — so why move? Well. I wanted to learn more things about running a VPS, and setting up an actual server.
FOLAS Gets a New Website
Happy to announce that one of my local animal shelters has a new website! FOLAS has a complete site redesign live as of today. I created a new custom WordPress website for them after their old site was hacked. Read more in my portfolio!
Twenty
I’ve launched twenty sites since January 1st, 2015. Some of them were just adjusting pre-existing themes, so it’s not like I’m developing from scratch. Only three of them were totally from scratch. I’ve done them all alone, as far as design and development. Copy was generally done by someone else. Seventeen were from work, one is a non-profit (which actually has yet to launch, but is probably 90% done) I did in my spare time. Here’s what I’ve got: Custom Underscores blog-styled theme for dating site messages Custom Underscores blog-styled theme for celebrity images Custom Underscores private site for authors […]
I Like Purple (New Theme for katemwalsh.com)
Made a new theme for this site. Nothing super fancy. Basically just a Saturday project. I like purple and I like storms. I figured since this thing has been here almost a year, it was maybe a pretty good time to create an actual custom theme rather than relying on twentythirteen and slightly modified children. Built on Underscores with Waypoints, Sass, Grunt, Bourbon, and Neat. Thanks to jpaxonreyes@Flickr for the great header photo! Feedback welcome and appreciated!