Update: Ajax Error Log – Version 2.0
Another update! This time to the vanilla/PHP version of my Ajax Error Log. As with the new WordPress version, this update improves the script’s design, performance, and security. Continue reading »
Update: Ajax Error Log for WordPress – v2.0
New version of Ajax-Powered Error Logs for WordPress now available for download. The functionality is the same, but the script is rewritten for better design, performance, and security. Continue reading »
2013 User Agent Blacklist
The 2013 User Agent Blacklist blocks hundreds of the worst bots while ensuring open-access for normal traffic, major search engines (Google, Bing, et al), good browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, et al), and everyone else. Compared to blocking threats by IP, blocking by user-agent is more effective as a general security strategy. Although it’s trivial to spoof any user agent, many bad requests continue to report user-agent strings that are known to be associated with malicious activity. For example, the notorious […] Continue reading »
2013 IP Blacklist
When time allows, I like to post my collections of the worst IP addresses for the current year. Certainly, there are pros and cons to using an IP blacklist. In general, IPs are easily spoofed, change frequently, and are therefore unreliable as a general security strategy. But as a short-term solution, IP blacklists serve as an excellent method for dealing with specific and/or ongoing threats and attacks. Continue reading »
Cool Fractal Videos
Fractals are the best! Here are some of the best I’ve seen on YouTube. Continue reading »
Slowing Down Movies in Quicktime
Just a quick post today.. Awhile ago I was putting together some video screencasts, and needed a way to “slow-down” the video to play certain sections at half-speed. After much trial and fiddling, here are the steps that actually worked to produce a saved copy of the movie (not just run the slow motion effect on the live movie). Continue reading »
New Demos and Tools Pages
Working on organizing the site, I’ve put together two new pages that round-up my Demos and Tools. The demos are organized into sections, Ajax, CSS, PHP, and so on. Most of the tools are for encoding and decoding, but will eventually include stuff for CSS, .htaccess, JavaScript, et al. Both of these new pages are readily accessible from the top menu bar (see left screenshot). It’s better than fun! Continue reading »
List All Files and Folders Recursively via Terminal
From time to time I have occasion to generate a list all WordPress files or similar. As I’m not an expert in Terminal, it took awhile to figure out the magic recipe.. now having collected some useful commands, I want to post ‘em for future reference. Continue reading »
Learn the Way of WordPress
It’s been quiet around here, but I have a good excuse. I spent the last six months writing, designing, and publishing my third book, The Tao of WordPress. This is an excellent book for beginners, students, designers, and basically anyone who wants to learn how to get the most from WordPress. The book “soft-launched” last week, and now I want to share the news with readers here at Perishable Press. Continue reading »
New Design in Progress
My new book is doing well, so I have some time to work on my sites. Here at Perishable Press, I’ll be working on a redesign, refreshing some older content, and posting some new articles. Continue reading »
Set Up WordPress MultiSite on MAMP
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to install and run WordPress MultiSite on a MAMP webserver. Running multiple sites from a single installation simplifies and streamlines administration, and serving it all from a locally installed version of MAMP gives you everything you need to develop your network of sites for the Web. Continue reading »
Run WordPress Locally with _AMP
To run WordPress on the Web, you need a domain name and web host. But you don’t need either of those things to run WordPress on your own computer. You need only to set up a local server environment that includes Apache, MySQL, and PHP. That may sound like a tall order, but thanks to packaged software bundles such as MAMP and WAMP, setting up a robust server environment on your computer is a relative breeze. Continue reading »
WP-Mix – A fresh mix of code snippets and tutorials
Wrapping up 2012, I finally launched xyCSS, which is all about responsive, grid-based design. To showcase xy.css, I used it to design WP-Mix.com, which also serves to house a growing collection of choice code snippets. Currently WP-Mix features over 100 snippets, tutorials, and other useful bits to help with WordPress development and web design in general. The topics are similar to those at Perishable Press (e.g., WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, etc.), but the posts are less-involved and aimed at intermediate […] Continue reading »
xy.css – Responsive Grid Design
For the past year or so, I’ve been heavy into responsive, grid-based design. In December, I “soft-launched” my new site, xyCSS with a simple tweet: Bringing it all together: https://perishablepress.com/xycss/ As implied (and explained), xy.css is a lightweight CSS template for creating semantic HTML5 designs on a responsive liquid matrix. Continue reading »
5G Blacklist 2013
Following up on much feedback (and this post), here is an update for the 5G Blacklist for 2013. As explained in the 2012 article (and elsewhere), the 5G Blacklist helps reduce the number of malicious URL requests that hit your website. It’s one of many ways to improve the security of your site and protect against evil exploits, bad requests, and other nefarious garbage. If your site runs on Apache and you’re familiar with .htaccess, the 5G is an effective […] Continue reading »
Introspection WordPress Theme
Free WordPress theme! The dark/minimalist design of the Introspection theme was originally created for a Pink Floyd fan site. After taking the site down to clear room (and time) for new stuff, I felt the design was too sweet to just let rot away in the archives. So after a few days of generalizing Introspection for public use, I’ve made it freely available for download so it can shine on.. Continue reading »
