Jason Cosper

Blog

  • Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

    Hey. How’s it going?

    I’ve got some pretty major news that I’ve been sitting on for a while now, but the time has come where I can finally share it.

    Ready? Okay. Here we go…

    After October 26th, I will no longer work with the very amazing and inspiring people at DreamHost. Considering that I’ve been loyal to them for well over 5 years now — and I thought I’d be here for much longer — that’s kind of a big deal for me.

    But that’s nothing compared to what’s next…

    Just under three weeks from now, I’ll be hopping on a plane to Austin to start working with the wicked smart crew over at WP Engine. If you don’t know about them yet, they’re a startup that focuses solely on highly optimized WordPress hosting.

    No mail. No one-click installer full of other stuff. No Rails or Django. Just pure, unadulterated WordPress.

    Now this new job doesn’t mean that Sarah and I are going to be moving to Texas or anything. In fact, I still get to live and work in Los Angeles. I’m mostly just heading out there to get familiar with the team and soak up as much barbecue as stupid Weight Watchers will let me.

    Anyhow, it’s really exciting (not to mention a bit scary) to go from an established company to a startup. But I really believe in what WP Engine is trying to do. It’s a fantastic space and a great idea and I’m ready to help make an impact.

    Wish me luck!

  • Goodbye, Betty Jean

    Shit.

    I just found out that my grandma Betty passed away this morning and I am absolutely gutted. I knew this day was coming and I tried bracing myself for it, but the very second I heard the news, my heart started to ache. Knowing that I’ll never get to see her smile or share a laugh with her again feels like almost too much to bear.

    She was one of the most influential people in my life and now she’s gone. At least she gets to be with my grandpa Bill now. I know that’s what she wanted the most.

    I love you, grandma.

  • Why I Prefer WP Super Cache

    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.

  • CSS3 Hyphenation

    Now that the most recent versions of Safari & Firefox support proper hyphenation via CSS3, I kind of want to implement it on my sites. But thanks to Microsoft Word, I also have some really strong feelings against auto-hyphenation.

    *sigh* What’s a nerd to do?

  • “State of the Word” Slides

    Michael Pick posted his slide design notes for Matt Mullenweg‘s beautiful “State of the Word 2011” presentation and they are totally worth your time.

    Seriously. Read it now and thank me later.

  • API Endpoint

    Hey nerds! A generous soul has gone and created an API endpoint for Hipster Ipsum.

  • Hipster Ipsum: The T-Shirt

    Huh. Someone went and made a t-shirt inspired by Hipster Ipsum. And they even gave it the Experimental Jetset treatment.

    It only appears to be on sale for the next 6 hours tho. And even after the AUD to USD conversion, it’s still pretty close to $40. So if you want it and don’t mind shelling out a little money, act fast.

  • On Being A Sellout

    Damn. It’s been kind of a big week for Hipster Ipsum. Like linked on Kottke, Boing Boing, swissmiss & the Urban Outfitters blog big.

    While I never intended for it to be anything more than something a few friends would laugh at, all of this attention is compelling me to add a couple new features. Hopefully I’ll find a little time in the next week to do both a “work safe” filter and a “submit a word” form, but I’m not going to go and make any grand promises.

    At the end of the day, I’m just happy that people are finding something that I made funny (and/or useful) and I don’t want to squander that. So if anyone has suggestions for features, let me know!

    Update: I’ve gone ahead and made the whole site work safe by cutting the instances of “fuck” and “shit” out of the database. Now you can use the output for whatever work related designs you’d like.

    Update: I added chartbeat to the site just to keep an eye on things and, well, holy crap.

    Update: I put a “submit a word” form up yesterday, but we ran into the submission limit for the free account on Wufoo. I’ve since replaced it with a form I slapped together in Google Docs. I really hope I can get some time to go thru the suggestions soon and hand pick/add some of the better ones to the site. Thanks again for all the love, everyone!

  • Omnibar? Wunderbar!

    Since I’m downright stubborn about switching to Chrome, I was really happy to see that someone had tried to emulate its location bar with Safari Omnibar. It’s got a little way to go still, but it’s got enough promise for me to keep it installed.

    Now all I have to do is break my habit of hitting CMD + L followed by a quick Tab to get me to the search field and I’ll be golden.

  • Blinded By The Lights

    *sigh* I’ll never get tired of looking at this city all lit up.