Japh

External File Optimizer [Reboot]

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:18:18 +1000

This plugin automatically combines and compresses JS and CSS files generated with wp_head() and wp_footer(), it even handles serving from a sub-domain. This is a fork of the External File Optimizer…

Quick WordPress 3.0 Menu issue check

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:21:49 +1000

So WordPress 3.0 is out, and it’s awesome!

However… I think I may have already come across a bug in it’s new menus, and I’d like a hand checking if I’m right, or just making things up.

You can help me check by doing the following:

Setup a fresh blog with WordPress 3.0
Create a new menu, and give it a name like “Main Menu”
In the Twenty Ten theme, edit the header.php file, and in the function call for wp_nav_menu, add ‘menu’ => ‘Main Menu’
i.e. change this: wp_nav_menu( array( ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’, ‘theme_location’ => ‘primary’ ) );
to this: wp_nav_menu( array( ‘menu’ => ‘Main Menu’, ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’, ‘theme_location’ => ‘primary’ ) );
Now check if you can still see the sub-pages when hovering over menu items on the blog

Problem I’ve discovered (maybe) seems to be that the menus don’t properly respect $depth. Or perhaps you won’t have the problem at all, and I’ve just broken something somewhere! :)

Let me know your results if you do try it.

jQTouch is now a part of Sencha Labs

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:54:40 +1000

jQTouch is now a part of Sencha Labs:

jqtouch:

The cat’s out of the bag! I was hoping to post something on this later this week, but word has already started spreading and I thought I’d take the opportunity to discuss, in greater detail, what this means. For those who don’t know, I’ve been working at Sencha (previously Ext JS) for about six months now, serving as creative director. We have tons of great things in the works, but for now I’d like to focus on what’s happening with jQTouch:

jQTouch will remain under an MIT open source license We are starting a new foundation at Sencha called Sencha Labs — a home for all of our open source initiatives including jQTouch and also Raphaël, a fantastic SVG library from my new coworker Dmitry Baranovskiy. Sencha’s core products, Ext JS and Ext GWT, will remain dual licensed, commercial and open source GPL.

jQTouch will remain jQTouch The jQTouch library will not be ported into Ext JS, nor will it start to use Ext as a base. It will still be based on jQuery and offer a super easy way to get an iPhone interface using just HTML and CSS.

Jonathan Stark will become the primary maintainer I regretfully admit I have been remiss in keeping up with jQTouch patches and updates. I’ve simply been overwhelmed with work. For those who don’t know, Jonathan Stark has been helping with jQTouch since the beginning — he is a good friend, a talented mobile developer/consultant, and a published author. Hiring Jonathan to spend a dedicated amount of time on jQTouch spells great things for the library, first and foremost looking at better Android support. I’ll refrain from going too deeply into detail, but rest assured, we have great plans for the library.

Lastly, I just want to mention that I will also not be abandoning jQTouch. It’s my baby, and Jonathan and I both look forward to planning its future, making it more powerful, and keeping in touch with you, the community.

I hope that helps keep everyone informed and please, if you have any other questions, just ask. Thanks!

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:37:49 +1000

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

- Arthur C. Clarke

Tip for Call Centre staff

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:18:49 +1100

If I make a reasonable, fair, logical request, don’t make me ask for your manager, just get it done.

Why? Because no matter what you say, your manager will do it.

I don’t make requests unless they’re reasonable, and I haven’t yet had a manager refuse one. Yet for some reason, the first-line always make life difficult, and ultimately end up looking incompetent.

So save us all some time and hassle, use a little common sense, and just get it done!

Email troubles!

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:01:00 +1100

If you emailed me since 9th October 2009 and I haven’t replied… Sorry!

It seems I haven’t been receiving emails sent to certain email addresses of mine since then. I hadn’t even realised til more recently (as I have quite a number of email addresses, so they were still coming through).

Finally the problem has been sorted out though! So I’m trawling through over 300 emails, and I’ll get to yours soon (If I haven’t replied to you today, shoot me another one!).

Thanks so much to WebFaction for helping me get the issue sorted too.

“Sunset”, painted for my wife in Brushes for iPhone

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:07:40 +1100

“Sunset”, painted for my wife in Brushes for iPhone

"Money talks, I’ll not deny. I heard it once, It said goodbye."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:59:10 +1100

“Money talks, I’ll not deny. I heard it once, It said goodbye.”

- Unknown

"You have to fiddle on the corner where the quarters are."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:09:04 +1100

“You have to fiddle on the corner where the quarters are.”

- Robert Altman

"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows..."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:24:21 +1100

“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.”

- Martin Golding (via wtfcode)

Regular question time?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:56:22 +1100

Last night I was avoiding doing a few things due to it being a VERY long day, so to perk myself up, I decided to put the following question to the floor on Twitter:

“Anyone have a PHP or Javascript / jQuery related problem for me to solve?”

Which got a bigger response than I was expecting, with several questions coming in, and a few RTs.

So I was wondering… should I set aside an hour or so each week, at a regular time, and take development related questions?

I’m thinking primarily PHP, WordPress, Javascript, jQuery, MySQL related questions. The kind of ones that I can solve in 30-45 mins.

Recently some people had been having problems working something out for an entire day, and I was able to help and get it sorted within 30-45 mins. Just stuff you either don’t understand, is proving troublesome, or you’re not sure how to approach etc.

So… thoughts? :)

Fantastic tilt-shift / time-lapse video by Keith Loutit

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:57:00 +1100

Fantastic tilt-shift / time-lapse video by Keith Loutit

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:18:15 +1100

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

- Greek proverb

aidanward: Some Tasmanian landscapes for your viewing...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:40:59 +1100

aidanward:

Some Tasmanian landscapes for your viewing pleasure.

So many ideas, so little time...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:19:09 +1100

Working on a few things at the moment. I think all of them have potential for making money, but whether any of them actually will (or whether I’ll get enough time to actually finish them before someone else beats me!) remains to be seen.

I’ve begun work on a web application, which is an interesting process in itself, and has already clarified for me the best way I can learn Ruby on Rails, which is a longer term goal.

I’ve also begun an outline and draft for a book I thought of a while ago, and am trying to get a back log of blog posts scheduled on my Bonsai blog (http://www.potensai.com/) too which is taking some self-control.

So I’m feeling more proactive than usual lately, but these things come in fits and starts anyway!

I think I need to give myself some deadlines and rewards / punishments(?) to help ensure I meet them! Ever had to do this for yourself? Any ideas to help me? ;)

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:06:32 +1100

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

- Michelangelo

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!"

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:19:25 +1100

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!”

- Mae West

Learning another (programming) language

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:06:39 +1100

I have a web application I’m working on and keen to get it into it’s first incarnation and up and running.

The problem is, I’d really like to learn Ruby on Rails and do it in that, but I already know PHP so well that it’s very slow going by comparison. This is really frustrating!

I can see why it’s the case though, as I couldn’t have developed an app like this when I first started PHP either. I guess learning a new language while also planning and building an app is a big challenge…

Perhaps I should just build it as a PHP app for v1, and then do a rewrite to Ruby on Rails for v2…

WooShirt

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:17:09 +1100

It seems I won a WooThemes Ninja T-Shirt yesterday. Very pleased! Something appropriate to wear for some late night hardcore development >:D

No idea what it looks like (deliberately not spoiling myself, I love surprises)

Do I have a void to fill?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:21:16 +1100

I figure if it’s good enough for John O’Nolan to try, then I might as well give it a shot too. I’m not yet convinced that I need Tumblr in my life though.

If I have something to say in 140 chars or less, I have Twitter. For anything long, I have my blog… where does Tumblr fit for me?

I guess we’ll see :)