With technology changing so rapidly and people in such a big hurry, sometimes older suggestions or out of date recommendations are the first things that programmers run into. You know you’ve fallen for it - a quick google search and you get your first result and you give it a shot; never mind that it’s a blog entry from 7 years ago. (more…)

In a perfect world, when testing your website you’d have a giant device library, a number of different internet connection speeds, and a bunch of users using the system simultaneously. A perfect world? Pfffft. But, I can help you at least get close to this set of requirements for your test. Let’s see how we can use Google Chrome to simulate different devices and change our internet connection speeds. (more…)

I’ve been working with Swagger, also known as the OpenAPI Initiative lately, and I’ve come to the issue of issuing an update to an object. I’m planning on using the HTTP verb PATCH (yes it is a standard in case you forgot… like I did). (more…)

From a very young age, we’re told to brush our teeth regularly. We know we should, but it can be a struggle. The reasons to invest our important play-time aren’t always compelling. (If they were, why would some parents have to check to make sure the children had brushed their teeth before bed?) (more…)

When I went to a University for a Computer Science degree, a required class was Introduction to Java Programming. I remember the first thing the professor taught seemed very confusing at the time. I can still hear his voice very clearly: “So to begin with, we’ll type… string string equals new string.” (more…)

When I was growing up, having chocolate milk was a huge treat. My mom would mix together some sugar and some dry cocoa powder into the glass and then slowly add milk. After some more vigorous stirring, I had my small glass of chocolate milk. It was quite the process, but it tasted great. Imagine my surprise when I found out that chocolate milk also came from the store pre-mixed! (more…)

“Trust falls” are a team-building activity that some of my friends have had to endure. I’ve been threatened with this exercise a few times. But, I’ve never had to do it. Luckily, I’ve been able to convince my team members I will participate without having to test their bicep and shoulder strength. Or, perhaps I’m just not trusting enough. (I once worked at a place that had a few employees that were really good friends... (more…)

Here is a PDF download of the presentation I made at the Greater Milwaukee Area WordPress Meetup. (more…)

I like to think that I’m somewhat of a PHP purist. And, when I travel to user groups, one of my favorite talks to give is named “Tell Aaron What To Do.” Basically, the goal is to solve two problems I pose using plain HTML and PHP. Oh, and do it with core PHP, no frameworks, no libraries, just plain vanilla PHP. At the end, I’ll run a number of integration and security tests against... (more…)

I just finished giving a talk at MKEPUG about 8 PHP Command Line Tips and Tricks. Normally I try to export my talks / slides into PDF. This time, my presentation was a little different - I used embedded video in KeyNote. So, I’ll provide the KeyNote file for download - sorry to those who don’t have KeyNote or a mac. :-/ (more…)