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Web Dev + WordPress + Security
Category: Tech
84 posts

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Thoughts About macOS Big Sur

I work hard seven days a week. I switched from PC/Win to Mac around 10 years ago because it promised a better user experience. I want consistency more than I want new features. Consistency means greater productivity. I measure the success of each new macOS update based on how much time I have to spend dealing with the changes. Some updates, the changes are minimal and I can keep working without much fuss. Other updates are more extreme, with changes […] Continue reading »

Disable Ask for Location Prompts in Google Chrome

Want to stop Google Chrome browser from constantly asking for permission to “know your location”? This mini tutorial shows how to do it quickly and easily, for Google Chrome versions (around) 83 and better. Continue reading »

Opera and Brave Blocking Legit Images

The Opera and Brave web browsers are blocking many legit images (and likely video and other types of media). Thanks to the Opera settings “Block Ads” and “Block Trackers”, many legitimate (non-ad) images are broken. For Brave it’s the setting, “Block cross-site trackers”. These settings are all enabled by default. Apparently the blocking feature in Opera and Brave is determining (at least in part) if an image should be blocked based on its URL, file name, and possibly factors like […] Continue reading »

Apple Nags Killing UX

Heads up! This post is a giant rant about Apple screwing up the user experience (UX). If that is not what you want to read, then now is your chance to hit that back button and escape. Otherwise, if you feel like hearing all about it, continue reading. With Apple devices in the past, you could log in to an Apple account or not. No hassles. No worries. Just enjoy the software. Enjoy that super smooth Apple user experience. Right? […] Continue reading »

Switching from Photoshop to Affinity Photo: Lessons Learned

This post is a bit different than my regular in-depth tutorials. This is where I scribble down notes and thoughts about my experience switching from Photoshop (PS) to Affinity Photo (AP). As I continue to learn AP and collect more notes, I’ll add them to this post. It’s an informal work in progress. To give some context of where I’m coming from, I have around 20 years experience working with Photoshop (and other Adobe apps). Like many others, for me […] Continue reading »

Remove __MACOSX and .DS_Store from ZIP Files on Mac

Zipping files on Apple/Mac is a chore because of all the hidden files and folders added by macOS. Like .DS_Store and __MACOSX are two of the most common files and folders that are added to zip files when compressed on macOS. The folder named __MACOSX especially is problematic because it contains duplicates of every file in the zip archive. So for example, if you use Finder to compress 20 files, the resulting zip file will contain the original 20 files, […] Continue reading »

Welcome
Perishable Press is operated by Jeff Starr, a professional web developer and book author with two decades of experience. Here you will find posts about web development, WordPress, security, and more »
Blackhole Pro: Trap bad bots in a virtual black hole.
Thoughts
Excellent (and free) tool to test your site's SSL configuration.
Plugin updates! All of our free and pro plugins ready for WordPress 6.2.
Daylight savings is a complete waste of time and needs to be eliminated.
Got a couple of snow days here in mid-March. Fortunately it's not sticking.
I handle all email in real time as it comes in, perpetually clear inbox for years now.
Added some nice features to Wutsearch search engine launchpad. Now 21 engines!
.wp TLD plz :)
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