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...
My first website was terrible. Not intentionally I hasten to add – but because I was told to make it bad…I started university in 1998, the internet was just starting to become more mainstream. It was still a few years...
My main websites (Binary Moon, and Pro Theme Design) are hosted with Liquidweb on a VPS, but I have many smaller sites and I like to run them on NearlyFreeSpeech.net. The service is great, and I like the ‘pay for...
As an aspiring or established blog writer, you will probably be thinking of how you can attract more readers to your blog. Of course, there are many ways to build a loyal audience, but one aspect which is often overlooked...
I know it’s a little bit old but I read an article on Dustin Curtis blog recently about how perfection is a make or break element of a performance or product – and craftsmanship has been lost… and I don’t...