Blog - page 2

I have recently rebuilt the Binary Moon website. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and a recent issue with my web host pushed me to finally make a start. In this post, I’ll share some of...

As a blogger who works with, and writes about WordPress and its related topics, I always find myself in search of the latest news and updates. However, I don’t listen to podcasts. I find them too long and I get...

Last week I went to see the new Super Mario Brothers movie with my wife and 7 year old son. As a fan of Mario for over 30 years, I was excited to see how one of my favourite video...

In 2018 I launched Brush Ninja and the feedback has been fantastic. Over the course of the last 4 years, through the pandemic and all, it’s been found and used by educators to teach.I think teachers like Brush Ninja for...

I really like Disney+, it’s the only paid streaming provider I use (I also use iPlayer, and the other free UK ones like Channel 4 etc). There’s a couple of shows I’d like to see on Netflix but not enough...

I was thinking recently that I don’t write much about Brush Ninja. Brush Ninja is a free animation editor made entirely with Javascript and given away for free.My goal with the Brush Ninja website is to encourage digital creativity. It’s...

Recently, there have been a number of court cases in Europe suggesting that Google Fonts may not be GDPR compliant. The concern is that when you link to a Google Font using their CDN (Content Delivery Network), it could potentially...

To celebrate Queen Elizabeths Platinum Jubilee I designed a little papercraft version of her crown.In fact, I’ve recently gotten into making papercraft toys, both building, and designing them. Most of the designs I have built are from FoldUpToys – a...

When I was making my generative art I needed to generate a lot of random things. The simplest way to do that with PHP is to use the rand() function.The rand() function selects a random integer (whole number) between 0...

These last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with Generative Art, using PHP. You can see the evolution of my latest series on Twitter. Generative Art is creating artworks through programming. Generative art has a few different names, Procedural art and...

Early on in the development of the new Gutenberg editor I asked how to get a list of all the blocks available in the new editor, then today Keith Devon asked how to do it on Twitter. So I thought...

Plugin notifications have been a problem in WordPress for a long time now. Last week I saw a conversation on Slack where a developer said he thought they were getting out of hand, and then posted this screenshot: So many...

Last week I had a theme customer who wanted to translate some words on their website. The changes they wanted to make were small, and so I wanted a simple plugin to make the changes.I knew that from a technical...

I recently had the idea to make a Twitter Emoji Maze bot, so I tweeted my idea and it was suggested I write a tutorial about how I made it. So I’m going to try to write the article as...

Last week Keith Devon asked if anyone knew how to fix Gutenbergs floated image blocks. For some reason the floated image gets wrapped in a containing div.I’m not sure why this is done, but the code is right there cherry...

Recently I wanted to duplicate a WordPress database table but I couldn’t because I got the error ERROR 1067 (42000): Invalid default value for 'post_date'.This fix also works for other Invalid default value errors such as invalid default value for...

Over the past few years, online privacy has become a significant concern, with companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google being criticized for their tracking practices. The Cambridge Analytica scandal in particular has had a profound impact on people’s attitudes towards...

Recently Justin Tadlock posted on the WP Tavern about the WordPress Privacy teams plans for local avatars in WordPress to improve privacy options in core WordPress.I’ve been thinking about making my own avatar system for years. I like doing creative...

Last week I took part in the first WP Cafe with Keith and Mark from Highrise Digital. The subject was Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor, and talking about the work we have done with it.Below is the video from the...

This tweet from Kelly Vaughn caught my eye recently. It came a couple of days after another tweet from Brad Touesnard who said “I have run out of empathy for people whining about having to learn React”.I really sympathise with...

Justin, from WPTavern, has recently posted an article considering whether WordPress needs a grid system. As a designer, I am inclined to say yes.I have been using the Layout Grid plugin, that Justin mentions, for a couple of months now...