Category: Articles (Page 220 of 257)

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

Blogging is Narcissistic (Except When It’s Not)

September 17, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that’s becoming more and more common is that certain critics are claiming that we’re becoming more and more of a narcissistic society with our constant sharing of things on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, and so on.

I don’t know if I observation really holds water or not – rarely are things black and white, so I’m sure it’s true in some cases – but I’ve never really considered blogging in and of itself of be narcissistic.

This isn’t to say it can’t be, but I don’t think that it – as a medium – is meant to feed that particular aspect of the human condition.

Please Stop Using doing_it_wrong

September 12, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit that I love memes and that I love picking on some of my closest developer buddies – some of them live a few miles down the road, some of them live hundreds (or even thousands) of miles away.

We all work in a variety of different technologies in a variety of different cultures. Some of us are self-employed, some of us work for non-profits, some of us work for small businesses, and some of us work for large corporations.

But the one thing that we all have in common is that we love to code.

Give it to ’em. Give it to ’em good.

And, honestly, the majority of the people with whom I interact with on Twitter are programmers, too. Generally speaking, I wouldn’t have read half the stuff I’ve read online were it not for someone else sharing a link to their – or someone else’s – stuff.

The Internet is awesome like that, you know.

With all of that said, one thing that I can’t stand seeing is someone telling someone is that they are `doing_it_wrong` outside of talking with their personal friends, or their friends that they chat with online.

Sending Data on POST with WordPress

September 11, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

The title of this particular article is somewhat misleading as it has nothing to do with sending an email upon creating a new post in WordPress, but actually whenever the HTTP `POST` action has occurred.

Additionally, the methodology describing below isn’t relegated to just sending emails – it can be used when any data needs to be managed upon a `POST` request. This includes sending emails, serializing data to the database, evaluating information to be presented on the next page view, or whatever else.

Of course, one of the best ways to actually demonstrate how to do something is to give some practical example, so for all intents and possible, I’m going to show how to structure a project using the event-driven model of WordPress to send an email upon a `POST` request.

Write For WPTuts+ – Here’s How, Here’s Why

September 10, 2013 / Tom

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One of the things that I’m most passionate about as it relates to software is education. This is why I spent a significant portion of my week blogging both here and on other sites, as well.

In short, I think the Internet has given us as all an amazing vehicle for a variety of things – obviously – the least of which is not helping others to move further, faster in the direction that they’d like to take their career.

This is one reason why I try to write for WPTuts+ and why I always recommend others do the same, if they have the time.

Friction Between Developers and Customers: It’s Unnecessary

September 9, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

In my limited experience, one of the most common things that I see in working with software development contracts has to do with the friction between developers and customers.

Or, more specifically, it’s about the challenges of communication. challenges that exist between communicating requirements between both us, as the developers, and our customers.

It’s not at all uncommon to hear:

Customers say something like “my developer didn’t do [whatever it is] I asked him to do,” despite the fact the developer believes s/he did exactly that.
Developers will also say “I’ve built exactly what the customer asked me to do,” despite the fact that customer doesn’t necessarily agree.

So if both parties are working together to build something together, then why is it so common for conversations like this occur?