Archive for 2012
Forcing Facebook to notice new images on your pages
For the past week, one of the websites I manage has been running a “12 days of Christmas sale”. Rather than creating a new article for each day, they’re updating a single article every day with a new deal. Each new deal has it’s own cute little image next to it.
Nikki’s favorite development tools
Someone asked me recently what program I use to build websites. My answer? Several.
Is Amazon Prime finally taking a serious run at Netflix and Hulu Plus?
I’ve been toying with the idea of signing up for Amazon Prime for awhile now… my only issue with it was that I really didn’t want to be locked into a full year’s subscription. Consequently, I check in on it from time to time to see if they’ve made any changes/lowered the subscription fee/added features.
WordPress Plugin – QR Redirector
QR Redirector is an update to my old QR Code Redirect plugin. Unlike the old plugin, which relied on Google Charts API, this version is completely self-contained.
Ooma Review – One Month Later
Some of you may have read my post back in September about how I switched my landline phone service from Comcast to Ooma. Here we are, a little over a month later, so I thought I’d write up a more in-depth review.
Facebook has stopped posting to Twitter
For the last few days, Twitter and Facebook users have been abuzz about linked accounts suddenly no longer linking. People have reported that, while tweets still post to Facebook, the reverse is no longer true… Facebook posts are not being tweeted, and haven’t been for several days now.
How to programmatically import media files to WordPress
On several occastions, I’ve been asked to create a custom import from one CMS to Wordpress. One of the biggest problems I have is moving images and not only keeping the file association but also generating the various image sizes used by Wordpress programatically rather than through Wordpress’ interface.
Security and Anti-theft: When bad things happen to good electronics
The last few days I’ve been looking around at anti-theft options for my phone. The prospect of a weekend in Mexico in a couple of months brought to mind the very real danger of my expensive electronic device growing legs and wandering off while I was on the beach.
How I saved $40+ a month on my landline phone thanks to the internet
Yes, I’m one of those people who still has a landline. I’ve just never been able to adjust to having my cellphone on me constantly unless I’m out somewhere. If I’m at home, odds are my cell is in my purse in the closet where I’m not very likely to hear it unless I happen to be in the same room.
5 things to keep in mind when hiring a web developer
Businesses hire web developers because they need someone who knows how to get their name out there on the web. They hire us because we have technical knowledge that they don’t have available in-house, because they’re not comfortable taking on the task of building a website on their own, or because they simply don’t know […]
How I got rid of cable TV thanks to the internet
I was a cable holdout for a long time, but about 4 months ago I finally decided to take the plunge and cut the cord. I was tired of paying $160+ a month for Comcast’s TV/Internet/Phone bundle. Especially when I was only actually watching around 8 of the 200 or so channels I got on […]
9 tips for protecting your digital life
So much of our lives is online nowadays… and most of the time we don’t really think too hard about how secure our data is. We trust that our passwords are strong enough that no one will guess them. We trust that the services we sign up for have solid protection. But how safe are […]
Resetting a Lost MySQL password
Recently, I had the need to reset a lost MySQL root password. As it turns out, if you have root access to the server, it’s simple to the point of being trivial… so since I’m sure other people are bound to be in the same boat I was (and since I’ll forget it if I don’t write it down), here’s how you do it. Note that the server I was working was running Debian. Other flavors of Linux may require some slight tweaks.
Internet Defense League launching today
Attention webizens… today is the launch that the Internet Defense League. In their own words: “When the internet’s in danger and we need millions of people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action. (Say, a prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.) With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization.”
CISPA may not be the new SOPA… but it’s just as bad
A lot of people on the net lately have been pushing the idea that CISPA is the new SOPA. That may be overstating things a bit, but it doesn’t change the fact that CISPA is yet another bad piece of legislation penned by people who seem to have no clue about how the internet works.
