Category: Articles (Page 128 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

Thinking Through Problem Spaces in WordPress

May 4, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

I enjoy talking with fellow developers about the problems they are thinking about as it relates to their field, and the problem spaces in WordPress is no exception.

That is, I enjoy hearing about what they are working on, what they are thinking about, or what they are tinkering with as it relates to their primary line of work.

Tinkering

For many who read this blog (and this includes myself though I’m the one actually writing it), we spend a lot of our time working within the WordPress space but does mean we spend a lot of time thinking about the WordPress space? Furthermore, does this mean that we spend a lot of time thinking about problems and potential solutions to what we see in our area?

First, this is not something that’s unique to our space. I believe that you can find this in any programming community.

Secondly, I think that this notion of thinking about a particular set of problems is something that’s a bit more abstract than what we usually discuss or see written about on other blogs.

A Problem Installing the Certificate With Let’s Encrypt

May 2, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

When it comes to making HTTPS available for everyone, the Let’s Encrypt project is great; however, if you’re running a shared host and you have an add-on domain, then there may be a problem with trying to install certificates for each of the sites.

Fortunately, many cPanel installations have an option for installing certificates by Let’s Encrypt.

A Problem Installing the Certificate With Let's Encrypt

But what happens when you try to install a certificate, and you see the following error message?

There was a problem installing the certificate. Please contact support for more information.

Depending on your set up, you may never see this message. But if you’re working within a shared hosting environment or you’re trying to configure a certificate for a set up with an add-on domain, then there’s a specific way to resolve this.

Running a Business in Technology, Part 2

April 28, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Yesterday, I started a recap of the talk that I gave at WordCamp San Diego 2016 in which I discussed what it’s like to be running a business in technology.

The Beaches of La Jolla

If you haven’t read the article, the general points were:

Technology drives our business
We should elegantly solve problems
This helps us; This helps our users

And that was the first part. The second half deals with how actually to keep up with technology, especially as it changes seemingly every single week.

This part of the talk focused on those who are managers of developers, those who are developers managed by someone else, and those who are self-employed.

Running a Business in Technology, Part 1

April 27, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Running a business in technology can be a challenging thing especially if you have a background in technology.

No, it’s not that I elevate those in technology above anyone else in any other field, but it’s that I know this field, and I know the challenges that come with how we may want to implement solutions versus how others may want the solution implemented.

Talking about running a business at WCSD. Photo Credit to @damiensam.

In a sense, we have to balance a level of pragmatism with what we’re delivering to the business and with how we may want to engineer the final solution. At the same time, we have to do this while keeping up with the changing landscape of technology.

At WordCamp San Diego, I spoke with Personal Growth – Running a Business and Keeping up with Changing Technology. In this post and the one following, I’ll be discussing some of the points outlined in that presentation.

Three Reasons For Attending a WordCamp

April 26, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

As I’m decompressing from the whirlwind that was WordCamp San Diego, I’ve been going through notes and bookmarked posts on the topics for many of the things that were discussed.

Taken at La Jolla Shores one evening after the conference.

But my mind is also drifting to several emails, messages, and notes I’ve received this year about those who are interested in attending a WordCamp but have yet to do so for one reason or another.

Though I’m considering writing several posts over the course of this week all related to the material covered at the conference, I thought it might be worth sharing some of the reasons that I enjoy going to WordCamp.