Author: Tom (Page 351 of 427)

Startbox WordPress and View Page Templates

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that I love about the open source community is not only how others can contribute to your work to create a better product, but how your work can be folded into someone else’s work.

Last week, Brian Richards (who works on Startbox WordPress) tweeted me:

@tommcfarlin I really want to appropriate this page template column idea (http://t.co/3ox9IcCv) directly into @wpstartbox. May I?

— Brian Richards (@rzen) January 31, 2013

And I was more than happy to oblige.

This whole short exchange brought up several aspects of open source software that I really appreciate.

Apps or Programs?

February 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

As with practically anyone who considers themselves a digital native, I dig using Twitter. One of the things I love the most is seeing various people’s opinions on many things (not everything, but I digress), especially when it’s related to an interest of my own.

Last week, Baratunde tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/baratunde/status/296319290263629825

Though I respect the opinion, and definitely get where he’s coming from – probably more than I’m going to convey in this post – I disagree with the sentiment.

Finding Functions in WordPress (Those Not in The API)

February 1, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

As significant as the WordPress API is in building plugins, themes, and applications, there are often times where we may find ourselves needing to write custom functions to achieve something that we know WordPress already does.

Case in point: With Page Template Dashboard, I wanted to be able to show the name of the template rather than the filename. I knew WordPress was doing it, but I couldn’t find an actual API function for it.

So what’s the best thing to do in this particular situation?

Static For iPhone – Giveaway Results

February 1, 2013 / Tom

Last week, I did a short review of Static for iPhone. Though you can read the entire review on the post itself, I think it’s worth reiterating a couple of points.

First, here’s Static’s claim:

Static is the easiest way to view the most important statistics from Twitter, Google Analytics, Instagram, Dribbble, and Github.

Secondly, I think that the app stays true to its vision. The user interface is intuitive, looks good, and the developers have released two small updates since my last review.

With that said, here are the winners (completely chosen at random):

Yet Another Blogging Podcast – Episode 4: Finding Your Rhythm

February 1, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

In the third episode of Yet Another Blogging Podcast, I talked about how to go about scheduling your time without completely having to readjust your schedule, get up early, stay up later, or whatever other options a lot of conventional wisdom share.

At this point, you know that nothing that I’m saying is meant to be taken as the definitive guide to blogging. In fact, I don’t believe there is one. Instead, it’s meant to be nothing more than helpful pointers for what I’ve found useful in running this blog.

With that, this is the final podcast in the series in which I talk about what it means to find your rhythm in blogging.