Online Tools for Traceroute & Ping
Traceroute not working correctly via macOS Terminal app, which is how I’ve been doing it for years now. For some reason, the traces hang up and never complete for certain sites. After some time troubleshooting and not finding any solution, I decided to look for alternate ways of performing traceroutes and site pings. Fortunately there are tons of free tools. Here are some of the useful services and apps that I’ve found.. Continue reading »
Apple AirTag Review
Recently learned about Apple AirTag. Which is a small round device that you can put in your bag or whatever to track its location anywhere. Think I need to try one of those cool little gadgets. Here’s my experience in a nutshell.. Continue reading »
Domain-Based, Site Specific Email Addresses FTW
I use domain-based emails for 99% of my email activity. The other 1% is comprised of assorted 3rd-party email services and temporary slash disposable addresses (like for testing purposes and one-off sign-ups, etc.). I can tell you whole-heartedly based on 20+ years working online that domain-based email is THE WAY to go. Continue reading »
Breaking Away from Big Social Media
It feels SO GOOD to move away from big social media sites. You know the ones. During the first few years when Facebook and Twitter were first getting started (like back around 2007 ish), I followed the herd and jumped on board. Started posting stuff. Added the little social buttons on all of my websites. Even wrote some tutorials about Twitter and other social media. I was into it. Big time. These days though, not so much. More and more, […] Continue reading »
Evolution of a Work Schedule
My journey from working a boring full-time production job to working as an independent web developer began almost 20 years ago. I spent the first five or six years working two full-time jobs. On top of my regular 40-hour a week job, I worked another 30 to 40 hours a week learning how to build websites. Continue reading »
Deleting Unused Online Accounts
Like many of you, I have been working online for years now, more than most. Over the course of the past 20 years, I have created accounts at hundreds and hundreds of websites. That includes all the work-related stuff, like web development, plus LOTS of social media sites, online services for everything from email to security monitoring. Not to mention all of the accounts created for mundane things like banking, utilities, Internet and phone service, and so forth. Continue reading »
Subscribers: Update Your Feed URLs
This post is for any feed subscribers out there.. please update your feed URL if you want to continue getting Perishable Press articles in your feed reader. Again for those in the back: update the feed URL for Perishable Press if you want to stay subscribed. This is necessary because Google finally has killed the once awesome Feedburner service. Continue reading »
An Epic Design Fail
We’ve all experienced design fails. Sadly, they happen so often as to be unmemorable, not worth mentioning. Design fail examples include things like form controls not working, or confusing user interfaces, or problems with folding phones, or myriad other mobile phone design fails. But every now and then you encounter a design that fails so badly, that you just have to share it. Continue reading »
There is No Operator
I’ve posted before lamenting the absolute pathetic state of big company phone support. Here is a transcript of a recent phone call with a big bank, trying to speak to a representative, but getting the run-around from their crappy telephone system. This was an extremely frustrating experience.. perhaps you can relate? Continue reading »
Browser Extensions I Use Every Day
I love improving my workflow via browser extensions. I’ve written about some great extensions in the past, and since then have continued to refine my collection. Fast-forward 10 years of web development, and I’ve got the number of extensions down from 30+ to around eight per browser. These are essential extensions that I actually use every day. They make my online work/life much easier. Continue reading »
Replacement for JavaScript Errors Notifier (Chrome Extension)
Heads up about the JavaScript Errors Notifier extension for Google Chrome. Looks like it was removed from the Chrome store sometime last year. Not sure of the reason behind it, but can tell you that currently there are no suitable extensions to replace it. Kinda sucks because JavaScript Errors Notifier was one of my favorite “always on” extensions. It makes it easy to spot any JavaScript errors as you develop, design, or browse the Web. Fortunately there’s still a way […] Continue reading »
Check Your Spam Folder
It’s sad that we’ve arrived at a place where it needs to be said. Unfortunately, 3rd-party email services such as Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, and so forth have to deal with tons and tons of spam. So they tend to use very aggressive spam-filtering rules. Overly aggressive, in many cases. Continue reading »
Protect WordPress Media Files
This is an experimental technique that I am playing with. It’s the simplest possible way that I could think of to protect all files in the WordPress Media Library using only Apache/.htaccess. I’ve been testing the code on an image-heavy site and so far there are no issues. So I want to put the code out there for others to test and hopefully provide feedback if anything less than perfect. It’s a super simple method that prevents media files from […] Continue reading »
Important Notice for Email Subscribers
Whoops! I spaced off sending this before July, so figured better late than never :) Hello! As you may have heard, Google/Feedburner is dropping support for their “Subscribe via Email” feature. This free service grabs the latest content from a site’s RSS feed and delivers it via email to a list of subscribers. So whenever a new post is published here at Perishable Press, Feedburner delivers an HTML-formatted copy direct your inbox. The subscribe-via-email service has been available for years […] Continue reading »
Roll Your Own Simple Password Manager on macOS
I’ve tried 1Password and Dashlane, and several other popular password managers for both Mac and PC. It always seems to be the same thing: things start off great and then go downhill from there. For example, I was loving 1Password, and then it locked me out of my password file/account. Likewise for a couple of years Dashlane was great, but then they started making drastic changes like moving from standalone app to browser extension Web-based UI. The confusion involved with […] Continue reading »
Cutting Floor Interview
When I spend time on something, like an interview, I like to know that it was actually published somewhere. Below is an interview that I completed for a web-hosting company that apparently now is missing in action. It covers how I got into web development, upcoming projects, web security, work flow, writing books, WordPress, and more.. Continue reading »
