Totality

Musings

There are really no words to describe the feeling I had seeing the Eclipse today.  I could try to throw out words with empty meaning like "fantastic", or "magical", but they seem to fall flat when I think back and recall how I actually felt. Holly and I had decided early on that we wanted our kids to experience the Eclipse with us; all-together,…

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Level Up Your WordPress Security

Conferences, Security

I had an amazing time speaking and networking at the #WPCampus Event in Buffalo this past weekend.  I was fortunate to be able to share some insight on the realm of Security, and make it (hopefully) more than a fruitless, confusion quest. First of all, here are my slides: https://www.slideshare.net/studionashvegas/level-up-your-wordpress-security And now, the caveats/prologues: I had someone reach out on Twitter and mention that…

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WPCampus

Conferences

I got a crash course in the world of "higher education" when I joined the amazing team at the Vanderbilt Web Communications department. Higher-Ed was a brand new world to me, and while a lot of the same issues carry over from "normal" web design, there's a whole different set of things to worry about. Now, over a year later, I feel like I've…

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Adding a Favicon / Site Icon to your WordPress Site

Tutorial

Chances are, you've bookmarked a site to re-visit it later. And, if you have, you've seen the small icon that shows up next to the site in your bookmarks. See the first three? No icon.  The final one, however does have an icon - called a 'favicon' associated with it.  WordPress, for a long time, didn't have a native way to include favicons -…

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Advanced Custom Fields: Building a Client Friendly “Page Builder”, Part 1

Tutorial, WordPress

There are very few subjects debated so hotly in the WordPress world as the ones regarding "Page Builders". For the unfamiliar, a page builder allows the end user to set up content without needing knowledge of code.  While - to the end user - the allure of being able to have full control over design and content is nice, most developers shy away from them…

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Encryption, WordPress, Terrorism, and the Modern Web

WordPress

Editor's Note: I try not to bring politics into my development discussions, but when they intersect, it's always a good time for a teaching moment. If you leave a comment, be civil and follow the rules of having a good discussion, or I will outright delete your comments. There's no room here for rude people. We're here to talk about encryption, not start a…

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Upcoming Conferences to Consider

Conferences

I love conferences. There is a certain vibe you can only get from being in a room with people who are just as excited as you about a subject.  And not just because there's great speakers: some of my favorite times at a conference come from the "hallway track" - getting out of the session halls and chatting with people I see.  I've made…

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Local by Flywheel: An Overview

Development

I've been using Vagrant and VVV with VV (a site creation wizard) for a while now as the cornerstone of my development workflow. I have customized my VVV quite a bit over the years, and - while I was happy with it - I was always on the lookout for something better to see if it would fit my development workflow better.  On a…

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