Back in 1998, enthusiastic about the launch of my first proper website, I spent a lot of time thinking about the content, the design and the marketing tools to use to make it the next big thing. Overwhelmed by the...
So a few people have been writing about my estimated reading time function recently. In particular – it got mentioned on WPTavern in a post all about adding an Estimated Reading Time to your theme.Then I got this tweet: Hey...
Last week there was a second exploit found in TimThumb. Thankfully it was no-where near as bad as the first one – but it raised an interesting question of whether TimThumb is even needed anymore.TimThumb was made to be useful...
It’s been reported today that there is a new TimThumb exploit found. Unfortunately nobody told me about this before the exploit was announced – in fact I found out about the bug through wptavern.com so I haven’t been able to...
I seem to find myself working with Youtubes thumbnail images quite a lot (for instance on Miniclips videos section) – and I am always having to go searching for the parameters to use to generate those thumbnail images.The highest quality...
I was asked recently how to get into WordPress themeing and so I thought I would answer publicly. Perhaps my thoughts can help others.When I first started using WordPress things were much simpler. The default theme was an index.php and...
Last year WebDesign.Tutsplus published a short tutorial showing how to create a stack of paper using a single html element and some css. It was nice little tutorial but the end effect wasn’t fluid. It relied on hard coded widths...
I had a weird problem yesterday where I had applied a css transition to an element that was fading from opacity:0.1 to opacity:1 – and along the way it seemed to change in size or position.The reason for the change...
WordPress has a built in function, called human_time_diff, for creating messages that say how long ago a post was published – however I think it is confusing when you have posts from a long time ago that read “posted 15...
I have a theme coming out soon that displays the ‘estimated reading time’ for each blog post on the homepage.The theme is inspired by the new blogging service Medium – but I first saw the idea mentioned on Brian Crays...
I’ve made quite a few WordPress themes in my time, and so I thought I would write a few blog posts sharing some of the code snippets that I find myself using repeatedly.First off is some numeric pagination using native...
Last weekend I went to WordCamp EU – Europe’s first WordCamp – and my first WordCamp.I’ve always fancied going to a WordCamp conference but never known what to expect – or even what I would get out of it. I’ve...
I like BitBucket – all the cool kids use Github, but for small businesses BitBucket is great. Why? Because it has free private repositories for teams of 5 or smaller. And that’s me right there.Currently I am using BitBucket for...
Open Source software is awesome. If it weren’t for WordPress then I’m not sure what I would be doing – but that doesn’t mean open source software is perfect, or that it fulfills all requirements.The beauty of open source software...
I’m thrilled to announce my latest project – Brush Ninja. Brush Ninja is a browser-based animation app that aims to bring back the simplicity and creativity of early versions of similar platforms.Sketch StarI am employed by Miniclip, an online games...
I was recently asked to put together some SEO tips for people at Miniclip (where I work) who are planning new projects. Essentially it was meant to be some tips for them to keep in mind from a business perspective...
It’s only been a year since I last redesigned Binary Moon – I’m generally content to redesign, and then sit on things for a while, let it stew and evolve. However a lot has changed in the last year. Design...
WordPress is now 10 years old. I started using wordpress 9 years ago – which means I joined the WordPress community early on. The reason I chose WordPress is simply because of the fabled 5 minute install process – I...
WordPress blogs have become an important tool for promoting businesses. There can be a bit of work involved in maintaining this online presence, and your boss may expect you to get involved – this person may even decide to hand...
A few years ago, it would have been possible for somebody with no knowledge of marketing or business to launch a blog and end up making a decent amount of money. Others were quick to realise this and so things...
Ghost is a project born from frustration with WordPress. Ironically it seems to be mostly WordPress power users who want to use it. The Ghost team – led by John O’Nolan – put Ghost on KickStarter last week and it...