Category: Articles (Page 129 of 258)

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

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.

Displaying The Most Recent WordPress Query

April 25, 2016 / Tom

Looking the most recent WordPress query that is run on a given page can be useful for several reasons:

you see how the information in the database is retrieved,
you learn how the underlying query system works,
you’re able to benchmark your custom queries,
and more.

In a recent article for Envato, I share a 60-second video on how you can quickly take a look at the last query executed on a given page.

Pressware Partnering with Evermore

April 21, 2016 / Tom

When Evermore was first released in 2014 and participated in some in-depth coverage and discussion with Post Status, my interest was piqued.

Evermore on Post Status

That is to say that I was interested in what they were doing, but I had no clue if it would pan or not. After all, in the last few years, we’ve seen an influx in various WordPress hosts some of which are managed, some of which are simply aiming to cater to the WordPress market.

But Evermore positioned themselves differently.

Evermore

Two years later, they are going strong (“stronger” would probably be the more accurate term to use) and delivering a unique solution for a certain type of client in the WordPress economy.

And I couldn’t be happier to announce that Pressware is officially partnering with Evermore.

A WordPress Plugin Bootstrap File

April 19, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

The longer I work with building custom solutions for others in the form of WordPress plugins, the more I am a fan of having a WordPress plugin bootstrap file.

Honestly, this isn’t anything new, but it’s something I like to discuss periodically because the methods in which we build plugins, the ways posts can become outdated, and the strategies that we employ as we get better at what we do for a living change over time.

At least I hope they do. If you’re doing the same thing now that you were three or four years ago, then you’re a stellar developer. Or you haven’t grown that much. :)

But that’s content for another post.

When it comes to the work I do for others, the work is primarily in the creating plugins (which I enjoy building). So it’s only natural that I’d have things to add continually to this topic, right?