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General

This week I’m sick of it

Swings and roundabouts but this week I am sick of it.

  • I’m sick of sanitising when I open the gate to our block of flats
  • I’m sick of sanitising as I grab a take-away coffee
  • I’m sick of sanitising as I enter the supermarket
  • I’m sick of going shopping at 7am to avoid people
  • I’m sick of doing the covid-shuffle as I pass strangers on the street
  • I’m sick of walking on grass or rocks to maintain my distance when walking along the shared path
  • I’m sick of Zoom
  • I’m sick of being excited to get on a Zoom
  • I’m sick of catching up with friends over Zoom instead of spending three hours talking shit in a restaurant
  • I’m sick of movies going straight to streaming because people need it right now
  • I’m sick of this fucking home office
Continue reading “This week I’m sick of it”
Categories
General

Nick Cave’s stream is not the problem

I don’t think the stream, per se, was the problem with the Nick Cave concert last night. It’s was a Vimeo embed, they know how to stream and devices optimise for video. It’s the page around it that @dicefm needs to fix.

Continue reading “Nick Cave’s stream is not the problem”
Categories
Design

Accessible photo tinting

A very common pattern on the web is to overlay text on a photo. It’s a lovely effect but one that requires care to get right.

The difficulty arrises for the web developer wishing to produce an accessible site because they can never be sure what the colour of the photo will be.

Continue reading “Accessible photo tinting”
Categories
Code

Using real cron for WordPress with WP CLI

For WordPress site owners wishing to use real cron via a crontab job, it’s fairly common to see advice to use curl to request the site’s wp-cron.php file on a regular basis.

In the days before the WordPress CLI (WP-CLI), using the wp-cron.php file was the only technique available to site owners wishing to use real cron events.

Continue reading “Using real cron for WordPress with WP CLI”
Categories
Blog

Accessibility is more than access for all

I’m in London visiting friends for a couple of weeks and, predictably enough, took them to see West End production of Hamilton the Musical. Unfortunately one of my friend’s health has deteriorated over the last few years so queuing for entry to the theatre is a problem. We needed an access ticket.

This doesn’t feel like an access ticket, it feels like a VIP ticket.

Continue reading “Accessibility is more than access for all”
Categories
General

Vote Yes! Pull Request

Vote Yes! Pull Request is a small collection of custom styles to replace the approve button in Bit Bucket. ?️‍?

Add the following to the bitbucket domain using Stylish.

@import url(https://peterwilsoncc.github.io/vote-yes-pull-request/bb.css);

Why? Because I am not one to let an offhand comment go unimplemented.

Categories
Code

Allow developers to make mistakes

Occasionally I look at the theme for one of the first WordPress sites I developed. I look at my early PHP, my early CSS, my early JavaScript & my HTML about ten years into my career.

The HTML has at least lost its font tags and table based layouts but my overall reaction is to wish I could curl up and hide.

Continue reading “Allow developers to make mistakes”
Categories
Quick Notes

The best developers

Someone has started the the best developers shit storm on Twitter. Again.

The best developers are lucky enough to do work that pushes them to grow.

One of my earliest jobs was at Rove Live. I thought I’d hit the big league but, thinking back, my code could have been better. I improved as a dev.

I developed corporate sites next, small shops and sole traders. My code was better and I thought I’d hit the big league. I improved as a dev.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend the last year working at Human Made and on WordPress core…

Categories
Quick Notes

Public speaking

I enjoy public speaking. I am very thankful to James for years of gentle cajoling to get me on stage at the WordPress Melbourne meetup.

I’ve realised the audience is at a meetup or conference to enjoy themselves, they’re on the speaker’s side and they want them to do well.

The audience will forgive a speaker stumbling over a sentence or fudging a line because the audience wants to learn from the speaker.

I still get very nervous and need to sit quietly before a talk but knowing the audience is looking to have fun does help settle the nerves.

 

Categories
Quick Notes

The language of technology

The language of technology is easy. It’s evolving so new terms come in the lexicon gradually and we pick them up as they arrive.

At least, that’s how I find it. I’ve grown up with tech – right back to the secondhand Apple IIe given to me as a kid and the World Wide Web I discovered at university.

For someone obliged to use technology it’s harder. Mention browser tabs to them and they may ask what a browser is? What does it do?

When creating websites it pays to remember that for most people: the language of technology is hard.