July, 2012

  1. Sorkinisms Revisited

    I am quite enjoying The Newsroom, but the most recent episode (Bullies) definitely brought the Sorkinisms video to mind. The flashback-as-conversation-with-therapist thing is a fun storytelling device, even if it seems a little familiar…

  2. How to Safely Use Plugin Functions in a Theme

    I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t add this to the conversation. I’ve seen some people indicating that calling plugin functions in themes is a bad idea (here’s an example comment to that effect). I think this is going too far – including a call to a plugin in a theme is fine…

  3. Upcoming Conference Schedule

    I’ve got a pretty fun conference schedule lined up for the rest of the year: WordCamp San Francisco (August 4) – looking forward to connecting with a bunch of friends and fellow developers next week, my 4th consecutive year attending. WordCamp Albequerque (August 24-26 – tickets) – I will be giving a talk for developers…

  4. How to End-of-Life a Plugin

    Yesterday I released a version of Popularity Contest that removed all functionality and simply delivered a message that the plugin was discontinued and not recommended. It was the first time I’ve done this with a plugin, and it turns out I hadn’t thought through some of the ramifications of the changes I made. Here is…

  5. Kill the Location Bar →

    I see proposals like this more and more frequently in the last few years. They frighten me. I don’t want a single entity (Google) to be the gatekeeper of how people access the web (though I recognize this battle has effectively been lost already).

  6. RIP: Popularity Contest

    As previously noted Popularity Contest had a good run but is no longer recommended. As such, I’ve gone ahead and disabled the default version in the plugin repository on WordPress.org, with an explanatory note. This post is part of the thread: Content Presentation – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for…

  7. Entitlement and Acquisition →

    Selling out isn’t a dirty choice. It doesn’t matter what the deal’s details are, or the amount of money, or who you’re selling to. It’s fine. It’s business. If you want to take the money, take the money. It doesn’t make you a bad person.

    I’m fine with this as a stance as long as you don’t try to blow smoke up my arse and tell me you’re in it for the product or “changing the world” at the same time.

    For what it’s worth, I believe that this is something that customers should care about. I believe a license like this is a real solution. It affords developers the right to protect their product and make it commercially viable, but also provides assurances to customers that they won’t be left out in the cold.

  8. #theatershooting →

    I recognize the logic behind the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” argument, but it’s hard to see this tragedy happening without a gun.

  9. Woah, when did SourceForge re-skin itself to be a GitHub clone? Guess I haven’t had a need to visit in a while…