How to Make a Reading Time Calculator for WordPress with PHP
I wrote a quick how-to guide of generating a reading time calculator for your Statamic website a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share how to accomplish the same thing on the biggest platform in the world, WordPress.
There are certainly plugins you can install to accomplish something similar, but I like doing
Microsoft Gives Their Cheap Mouse the Gift of Bluetooth
The new Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 3600 was just recently released, and it's the cheap mouse I've been waiting for! I can't really explain why, but I've long been a fan of Microsoft's cheap wireless mice. Despite my love, they have always suffered from one
Space Black Milanese Loop Band Leaks, Looks Badass
Well, a Space Black version of the Milanese Loop leaked on the Czech Apple Store website today, and it looks slick. Sadly, as a Sport owner, neither this nor the existing Milanese Loop bands looks good with my model.
Apple, please make a matte silver version of the Loop and I'll be there
watch
On the Fitbit Blaze
I've gone back and forth on my feelings on Fitbit's new fitness tracker/smart watch, the Blaze. My first reaction was "yikes," but that changed a bit the more I thought about it.
Fitbit dominates the fitness tracker market with its Flex and Force models leading the way. Those
Game
Those Damn Game Consoles Just Refuse to Fail
Oh tech press, how you loved to shit all over the Playstation 4 and Xbox One over the past 3 years. Here's an excerpt from M.G. Siedler's impressions in November 2013:
Color me officially bearish about the latest generation of video game consoles. All the reviewers seem to want to
feature
What are TLC, MLC, and SLC NAND Flash Anyway?
I mentioned this on the most recent Bite Size Tech, explaining how the 16GB iPhone uses TLC and the 64 and 128GB iPhones use MLC. As stated in the episode, MLC is a little more expensive, but why? I'm not an expert on storage, but I thought this was interesting and wanted to
How I Killed Writer's Block
I was asked this weekend whether I ever find it hard to think of things to write about. I thought for a second and simply said "nope".
A few years ago that answer would have been "yup!" but after years of writing (and producing over 500 posts in 2015), I really
The Force Awakens is Completely Killing It at the Box Office
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of my favorite movies of the year, has been in theaters for 15 days and is already the second highest domestic grossing film of all time. $687 million in just over 2 weeks is absolutely insane! Avatar still holds the top spot, but it's only a little
Set Trajectories, Not Resolutions for New Year's
New Year's resolutions are the worst, aren't they? You feel like you have to make them, and you don't really think about them too much and just kind of blurt something out when people ask and boom, suddenly that's your resolution.
Or maybe you do think about
How to Import More Than 2MB into WordPress
Simple! All you have to do is edit the .htaccess file found in your root Wordpress directory. Simply take the below code and paste it right above the # END WordPress line and save. The next time you go to the import page in your WordPress dashboard, you’ll see 20 MB as the new file
How to Set Up RSS for Your Statamic Website
Statamic is a wonderful web platform. I used to run this site on it and adore just about everything about it. One of the few things I don’t like is that it doesn’t take care of RSS as easily as something like Wordpress or Tumblr, and setting RSS up yourself takes a few
The Best Games Coming in Q1 2016
2015 was a pretty massive year for games, and it looks like 2016 is going to do just as well. The Witness, Firewatch, and The Division are all looking really good for the first quarter, and are at the top of my personal list. Additionally, Nintendo fans, who had a pretty rough 2015, are getting
My Favorite Photos of 2015
I started doing this last year, as it was the first year I got serious about photography and I was reallt proud of the shots I got. I was a little disheartened this year when I looked through my photo library that I didn’t go out of my way to take a lot of
Initial Charge Gets a Sharp Redesign
This isn't really tech news, but I have to give a shout out to Michael Rockwell, who just redesigned his website, Initial Charge and it looks gosh-darn fantastic. It's so good it's making me think about switching some of the details on this site as well.
Oh yeah,
Shawn Blanc Finds His Niche
[embed]https://vimeo.com/145933355[/embed]
I really like Shawn Blanc's work. His website and (somewhat) daily podcast have been going for years and originally focused on technology. His site quickly shifted to focusing on productivity apps, and recently he's simply dropped the "apps" part entirely.
And that'
Every Last Pixel: What I Learned Designing My Website with Statamic
NOTE: I have since switched this site over to WordPress, but the same principles apply, even if a couple of the specifics are a little different. Although point #4 has changed a bit.
After almost a full year using Squarespace, I just moved BirchTree over to the static CMS, Statamic. I originally chose Squarespace because
Behind the Scenes of Star Wars' Holochess Game
I love the Holochess set piece in Star Wars A New Hope, and I was very happy to see it get a quick shout out in The Force Awakens. These two clips made me smile wider than I'd like to admit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sexd06I8mzg
[embed]https://vimeo.com/149357656[
2015: The Semi-Quantified Life
Well this was fun!
I've been tracking some stats over the past year, mostly as a test. I've been tracking my workouts, weight, Twitter, and BirchTree stats. I'm tracking a lot more next year, but this year proved that I could at least do it and get some interesting