Like the new theme? Want to play with it on your site? Well, it’s not in the WordPress theme directory just yet. But it is in Automattic’s SVN repository…
Grab Reddle via SVN and give it a whirl. And if you want to see what it’s capable of (or I’ve managed to change my theme) check out the demo at WordPress.com.
Huh. A little Hipster Ipsum made it into Android’s Design Pattern documentation.
Tim Denee has put together this really beautiful, free PDF calendar for 2012. If you’ve got a ream of A3 paper sitting around your office, don’t hesitate to print it off and hang it up. [via]
I just found out about head.js, but it definitely seems like something I’m going to have to play with really soon. Fortunately, somebody has already made a WordPress plugin that leverages it — so I guess that I don’t really have much of an excuse for not looking into it now, do I? [via]
Does anybody want to buy a lightly used, month and a half old Peel? It’s a pretty great little device — and its complimentary iOS app is fantastic — but we’re just not using it as much as I thought we would.
What can I say? Sarah is too damn fast with the normal remote for me to even compete. The show discovery functionality is top notch tho, and that’s what I’ve been using the most.
They normally go for $99 (and they’re on sale for $79 right now) but I’d be willing to part with mine for $60. Dive into the comments and make me an offer if you’re interested.
Update: Seriously? No takers? Even if I say that I’ll take $50 for it? Am I going to have to try to sell this thing on eBay?
While helping someone with WordPress move earlier this week, I noticed a bunch of weird Unicode cruft (like ’ and –) in their posts and comments. Apparently, MySQL databases don’t like it when you switch their default character encoding. But different web hosts have different ways of doing things — so default character encodings can (and sometimes do) change while you’re moving a site around.
Anyhow, after a bit of digging, I found a really handy set of MySQL commands that fixed things up. But I like to save time, so I made myself a Gist for future use and decided to share it with y’all…
Hopefully someone else out there finds this useful! I know I’ll probably use it at least once or twice a week now that I’m doing a lot more work with MySQL imports.
Good luck!
When I started over at WP Engine earlier this week, a brand new MacBook Air came into my possession. It’s very pretty and lightweight and I kind of love it more than any other computer I’ve ever owned. So much so that I made the decision to break with my normal tradition and keep this hot little number sticker free.
That declaration only lasted about a day and a half tho…
Why? Well, I just came across the Command Bamboo Back from Grove. And I really want it. Like in a bad way.
It’s not a traditional sticker tho. It’s made out of real bamboo. And the shape carved into it actually changes that (somewhat ubiquitous) glowing Apple logo into something that I love so much that I put it on me forever.
Anyhow, they’ve got a bunch of clever and novel designs over there. If you’re looking for something a bit different, do yourself a favor and browse around their shop.
Even though W3 Total Cache seems to have become the more popular and robust option for WordPress caching, I’ve stuck by and continue to recommend WP Super Cache.
Why? In a word: simplicity.
Now I could write a big long entry on why simplicity trumps a crapton of options and flexibility, but I’d rather have a look at the options screen for each plugin.
We’ll start with WP Super Cache:
This is all you see when you visit the settings page post install. If you really wanted to, you could just turn caching on and call it a day. Of course, you could (and should) go poking around under the hood a bit – so let’s look at the Advanced tab:
So that’s a bit more extensive — and in some places, downright nerdy — but all of the crucial options stay above the fold. Furthermore, the blue button after the first set of check boxes and radio buttons does a pretty good job of saying “this is where all the really important stuff ends”.
Now let’s compare that to the options that W3 Total Cache presents to users post install:
While that’s pretty straightforward, it’s also a lot for someone who’s new to the plugin to take in. Not only that, it doesn’t really make it all that clear what the user should try if they’re getting started.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a me thing at all. As much as I could be a hater, I’m talking from experience here.
You see, I deal with a pretty significant number of WordPress users over the course of my work week. And there’s always a handful that are running W3 Total Cache that have enabled some combination of Varnish, CDN & CloudFlare. The only problem is, they don’t actually have access to any of the those services.
In most cases, they were told they needed to install a caching plugin, pronto. It’s not their fault if they’re taking a shotgun approach to using it. It’s the plugin author’s fault for not making things clearer.
So until W3 Total Cache gives end users a better out of the box experience, I’m going to keep running and recommending WP Super Cache. If you’re tired of being buried under an avalanche of options that you never use, I suggest you check it out.
Update: Frederick Townes responded on Twitter and claimed that W3 Total Cache was incomplete and sporting the “advanced” UI. Hopefully they’ll be able to roll out something a little more end user friendly soon.
