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Reset Instagram Password Spam

For the past year or so, I’ve been getting TONS of email spam from Instagram. Asking if I want to reset my password. The problem is, that the email I use at Instagram is private, and exclusive to Instagram. So there is no way of knowing, no way for anyone to know, my Instagram email address. There is only one possible conclusion: Instagram is spamming its own users. 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 »

New Plugins for WordPress 5.5

Forgotten post! I wrote this article way back for WordPress 5.5 but forgot to publish. Rather than delete I am posting it now. I think the information remains relevant for the most part. Read with a grain of salt :) WordPress 5.5 brings some new features that may help a lot of users. The two biggies: sitemaps and lazy loading images. This rundown post explains a bit about each, and shares some free plugins to help should you need to […] 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 »

How to Ask for Help and Get It

[ Screenshot of pathetic Facebook post ]

I see so many technical (and other) questions in forums and social media that go unanswered. Not due to lack of trying, but due to lack of understanding. People posting questions like this (an actual post in a popular PHP group on FB): Continue reading »

How to Disable Chrome Scroll to Text Fragment

It is debatable whether or not Chrome’s new scrolltotextfragment feature is a significant security concern. When in doubt, play it safe. This quick post explains how to disable (or enable) Chrome’s scroll-to-text-fragment functionality. Continue reading »

How to Modify GET and POST Requests with WordPress

I’ve written before about protecting against malicious POST requests using Apache/.htaccess. In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to modify GET and POST requests using PHP and some core WordPress functionality (with no .htaccess required). Normally you would want to manipulate URI requests at the server level, but that’s not always possible (like on shared hosting). So in those cases where you want to modify GET, POST, or other types of requests on a WordPress site, check out the following […] Continue reading »

Stop WordPress from Changing .htaccess

[ Prevent WordPress Automatic .htaccess Modifications ]

In a recent tutorial, I explain how to Stop WordPress from modifying .htaccess. That post explains several ways to prevent WordPress from making changes to .htaccess. This post explains an even better way that is safe, effective, non-invasive, re-usable, and super simple. I’ve been using it on my own sites now for a few years and it works flawlessly. Continue reading »

When, Where, and How to Ask for Help: The Three Golden Rules

When working online or offline in the real world, it’s inevitable that you will encounter issues and problems with products, services, and everything else. This quick post explains when, where, and how to ask for help: The Three Golden Rules. It’s a general guide, aimed at those who may be unfamiliar. Continue reading »

How to Monitor the WordPress Login Page

There are all sorts of plugins that you can use to monitor and protect the WordPress Login Page. That’s not what this post is about. This post is aimed at developers and DIY site admins, who like to keep a close eye on site activity. Talking hands-on with code. How familiar are you with the traffic hitting your WP Login Page? Do you know the difference between a brute-force attack and legitimate login requests? The WP Login Page (wp-login.php) is […] Continue reading »

Custom Widget Names with Dashboard Widgets Suite

[ Dashboard Widgets Suite - Default Widget Names ]

Quick tutorial for my Dashboard Widgets Suite plugin. This post explains how to customize the DWS widget names on the Dashboard. Normally each DWS widget displays the widget name along with “Widgets Suite” and a little gear icon that links to the plugin settings. Several users have asked if there is a way to change the text, specifically how to remove the extra text and gear icon. So this article explains how to do it as of Dashboard Widgets Suite […] Continue reading »

How to Modify HTTP Headers in the WordPress Admin Area

WordPress provides the wp_headers filter hook and send_headers action hook to add and modify HTTP requests. For front-end pages, these are ideal hooks that should be used whenever possible. Unfortunately however neither hook works on all pages in the WordPress Admin Area. After some experimentation, I found an easy solution to modify HTTP headers on any/all pages in the Admin Area. Continue reading »

Ultimate Comment Blacklist for WordPress: How to Stop Spam Without Plugins

[ WordPress Ultimate Comment Blacklist ]

How do YOU stop comment spam? If you’re like a lot of WordPress users, you just grab another plugin or two and call it good. I mean after all, plugins like Akismet work great at stopping spam. The only downside is that, well, you’re relying on another plugin. And that’s fine for folks who just wanna “get ’er done”, although each active plugin requires additional maintenance and server resources. Continue reading »

CLI Forward-Reverse Lookup

In previous posts, I’ve explained how to verify identity of search engines and other bots, by looking up the host name and then doing a reverse lookup to cross-check the IP address. This is often referred to as a forward-reverse lookup, or something to that effect. The point is, there are plenty of free online tools available for performing forward-reverse IP/host lookups. And online tools are great, but it’s also possible to do forward/reverse lookups directly via the command line, […] Continue reading »

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