Category: Articles (Page 149 of 258)

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

How Do You Manage Content Ownership?

August 21, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

I guess the question should be a bit more specific:

How do you manage content ownership with photo sharing services?

Sure, we could talk a lot about a number of different services that allow you to share content – links, videos, short form content, even blog content – and so on, but photo sharing services are kind of all of the rage right now.

And I completely understand why, too. But I’ll come back to this in a minute.

With that said, I’m genuinely curious about your opinion as it relates to services like Instagram and other similar applications.

Highlight Text in the WordPress Editor

August 20, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I worked through a series of posts on how to write a TinyMCE plugin for the WordPress editor (since the WordPress Editor is TinyMCE).

In a recent project, one of the things that I needed to a build was a feature that allowed users to highlight text such that they would select the text in the editor (you know, with their mouse), click on a “Highlight Text” button in the toolbar, then have the text highlight.

Highlighting Text in the WordPress Editor

And, naturally, it would return to its normal state of being un-highlighted if the text is selected and then the toolbar button is clicked again.

Though there’s no reason to share how the plugin is built in its entirety, I thought I’d walk through how I added the new command to the toolbar and used the HTML5 mark tag to include this functionality.

The Dangerous Nature of WordPress Comments (And What I’ve Learned)

August 19, 2015 / Tom

When it comes to posts like this, I often deliberate for weeks on whether or not I should write them because of the various discussions that it will inevitably cause and the blowback that can occur can often times be exhausting (even if it’s deserved).

But that’s not this kind of post. This is a retrospective of my own mistakes, my apologies, and what I’ve learned about moving forward in certain types of situations. More on that in a moment.

Right about now is when the defenses start to go up. Please don’t go into this post with that attitude as it’s not at all about anyone or anything but me. If you already feel like you’re on the defense, take a look at this cool picture taken at River Street in Savannah, Georgia.

Once you’ve calmed down, keep reading :).

River Street in Savannah, Georgia

Okay so before I write any more, don’t get me wrong: Discussions in and of themselves are generally good things to have (except when they go south, but that’s common sense, right?), but right now it appears that WordPress is in a volatile state with regard to various opinions, perspectives, and so on.

Those who follow along with blogs, Twitter, and the like know what I’m talking about. People are being harassed, people are being disrespected, and – for some – it’s more about trying to make a point than it is trying to listen to the points other people are making.

Such an incredible bummer, isn’t it? It’s beyond that, really, but words fail me here.

This should go without saying, but WordPress is representative of many different people of all different walks of life and rather than use that diversity as a way to better ourselves and to grow as people, some are using it as a platform to continually argue points that aren’t productive.

Thus far, I don’t think I’ve said anything new. In fact, I’m talking more about other people than I am myself and, for this particular post, I wanted to actually talk a little bit about myself.

Specifically, I want to talk about:

The mistakes I’ve made,
The things I’ve learned,
And how I’m trying to get better all thanks to the people who I’ve met through WordPress.

So here goes.

Developer Fitness: Getting Back To and Staying in Shape

August 17, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that seems to be unique to open source is many opt to share their annual reports of their business regardless of how the business performed over the year. Others also talk a lot about their mental health – again, regardless of if it’s good or bad. And when you’re part of a larger group of people who are doing the same thing, it’s really inspiring, educational, and also prompts you to aim to be a better friend and peer. An amiable goal by any measure.

In short, it’s something that’s really cool to see even if you opt not to disclose that information yourself.

However, one thing that we don’t see as much of – not because people don’t share it, but because it doesn’t seem to be as popular to share – is the idea of developer fitness. I know people are involved in all kind of things offline. For example, I know Sean Davis hosts a number of workout contests and is also involved in a number of different sports (most recently, racquetball based on his Twitter feed). I also know that Sunny Ratilal shares his FitBit progress throughout the week giving insight into his level of activity.

Cool, right?

Anyway, the point is that I know we’re all active in different ways but we don’t blog about it as much for whatever reason. And I get it: Talking about health, fitness, and exercising is boring. Or it can be boring. It can also be a lot of fun depending on if you’re found the right kind of workout for you (more on this later).

Hey Programmer: Don’t Be a Jerk

August 13, 2015 / Tom

Cliff, a local developer friend, happened to share this on Twitter earlier this year. I’ve been sitting on this post until I found a good time to post it.

“The increase in gratuitous negativity as Hacker News has gotten bigger is the thing I’ve liked the least.” – http://t.co/kXgMFCEjKp

— Cliff Seal (@cliffseal) April 3, 2015

Of course, I don’t know what a “good time” is, but since I’ve had this drafted and I’m on the road right now, this seemed like as good a time as any.

Anyway, I thought that it was something that we could all read, learn from, and carry forward in our day-to-day interaction online.