Author: Tom (Page 191 of 428)

The Journey of a Presentation

November 4, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things I got into earlier in my self-employment career was trying to speak at local meet-ups, conferences, and so on.

Sometimes, circumstances make it difficult to accept those engagements (priorities and all :). But I’ve always found different types of people have different styles of presenting.

Install PHP CodeSniffer with Composer

November 3, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A little over a month ago, I talked about how to install the PHP Code Sniffer in an MAMP-based environment. Though you can read the post in its entirety, the short of is this:

Setup Pear
Install the package via Pear
Grab the rules for the WordPress Coding Standards
Begin evaluating your code

Easy enough, right?

But here’s the thing: As mentioned in the article, some may opt to use Composer to install the package. In fact, someone also mentioned this in the comments.

And since Composer is the default dependency management application for PHP projects, it makes sense to use it, right?

Composer

The funny thing is, since I’ve written that article, I’ve been using Composer in a few projects. So I thought it would make sense to show how to install PHP CodeSniffer with Composer.

WordPress Options and Theme Modifications

November 2, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

When The Customizer (once called The Theme Customizer) became part of WordPress, we saw a resurgence in the Theme Modification API.

The Theme Customizer

At one point in WordPress history, the get_theme_mod and set_theme_mod was how we handled theme modifications (hence the function names). Then, we began to use the options table as a way to manage the various settings for our plugins.

And then we began to use the options table as an easy to way to store settings for our themes. It was like we moved the Theme Modification API to the backseat and pushed forward with options.

Should we have done that (or does it even matter)? And what’s the difference in these APIs, anyway? Why do we still have both of them, which is best to use and when?

Acquisitions

October 30, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

For the past few weeks (years, even), it’s so easy to find articles that read something like this:

Today, I am incredibly proud and excited to share that VMware has announced plans to acquire Boxer. The Boxer team will be joining the industry leader in
enterprise mobility as a part of the AirWatch® team within the VMware End-User Computing business unit.

Case in point: This is an excerpt of an article that I read just recently. And when I read that, it stirs a mix of emotions.

Andy Adams and Pressware

October 29, 2015 / Tom

Periodically, I talked about Pressware – what’s going on with the business, how I run it, and plans that I have for it.

For those who have been reading for some time, you know that I’ve teetered on the line of offering both products and services.

When establish your own business and work to make it, ahem, work, there’s a period in which undergo what it is that you love doing.

And I don’t mean what you enjoy doing. Nor do I mean what you can do to earn money. I mean what you love doing.

Sure, businesses need to earn money to be sustainable. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do so while trying to maximize the work that you enjoy doing above all else.

If you stay on this route, and you’re able to be successful, it becomes challenging to handle all involved tasks.

Remember: Businesses are more than creating things and getting paid for it.

There’s insurance to take care of
There’s benefits to take care of
There are budget to follow
There’s forecasting to handle
There are relationships to form
…and many more and so on.

Sure, I could go on and on about this aspect of the business, but why would I do that? It can be enlightening for some. Today, though, I’m happy to share that Pressware has grown by one.