WP-Orphanage is now available via the WordPress Plugin Directory, to take advantage of the auto-update feature. In addition, WP-Orphanage is also hosted on GitHub.com in case any developers want to contribute changes.

Spotted on WordPress TV. Lots of examples of how to make your plugin less flexible, less secure, and more prone to misbehaving.

Video After The Jump

The slides are available on slideshare.

WP-Orphanage is a WordPress plugin that automatically adopts all of your orphans automatically, and will set a Role for them on the blog they are trying to log into. You have control over which Role they are set to in wp-admin.

The v1.1 update fixes a bug introduced in the option screen in v1.0.1 and is recommended for all users of this plugin.

Many thanks to Vince from Alphak.net – Born to Be Wired for reporting this error and helping me debug the solution.

This cartoon pretty much sums it up for me. I live to create and would do that happily without monetary compensation. I create and my primary medium is the web. In other words I code to live, not the other way round. This is one of the reasons why 90% of my tools are open source.

If I had admin access to all the servers in the world, I’d spend my time improving the web and fixing code. Writing code is my passion. Of course the reality of being a geek for hire means that I have to also manage expectations.

There is a certain balance that must be struck while doing the work that I do. On one hand I have the responsibility to write clean maintainable code. On the other hand, I have to deliver that code to a client and of course they have their own idea of what should be delivered. The third and fourth hands are busy doing right by the users and figuring out how to provide (equal) value to any number of other parties with a stake in the finished product. Come to think of it, it’s less of a balancing act and more like juggling a Venn diagram. A Venn diagram made of cats. All why striving to maintain a healthy ratio between productivity and profit.

Like most brains for rent, I don’t get paid for my time – I get paid for my expertise. I get paid to see things my clients can’t. I’m hired to mold their ideas into implementations. I may bill you by the hour, the sprint or the project, but at the end of the day my job is to make everything I touch better.

You see, I know my craft inside and out and take the study of its patterns and methodologies very seriously. So, clients that work with my process and go with the flow always get more value than they pay for. The ones that refuse to participate, collaborate, and grow with the project end up getting their code mailed to them in a zip file instead of seeing their idea launched. The first group gets to see the gauges on their metrics light up; the other is still wondering why I “just didn’t do it for them”. Its been my experience that those same clients have a long history of ‘bad programmers’ without realizing what the common denominator is. (Hint: its them).

You know, there is one service I don’t offer. I can’t make up people’s minds. And I can’t do their work for them. In other words, if you just want me to whip something up based on your poorly constructed notes and vague contradictions, I won’t be able to oblige, try as I might. It takes courage and imagination to build something impressive. So, when all you bring to the party is a hastily copied idea and no desire to iterate and improve upon the work that came before you, all you’ll ever get is a pocketful of unfulfilled wishes and a project that arrives stillborn.

Now, that I’ve figured this out, it’s about time I started attracting more like minds to create awesome shit with, don’t you think?

P.S. – To all the amazing folks I’ve worked with over the years, thank you for being super-cool and letting me make your stuff better!

This talk is an overview of that capability and stern reminder that its not about the WordPress plugins you install, but the Information Architecture you implement that will make your site a success or not.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and let me know!

You’ll also need to change the path to your log files, as well as the path to your public webroot folder. Finally, up the client_max_body_size to match your upload_max_filesize and post_max_size settings in php.ini.

Finally, this assumes you are running your PHP fast cgi process on port 9000.

This is the recipe for WordPress (single site). I’ve also posted one for Drupal and WordPress MU / BuddyPress.

Download Nginx vhost Recipe for WordPress

Please post ways to improve this in the comments. I use this on a number of production sites, but there is always more one can do. Thanks to all of the blogs and articles that I ripped off helped me understand Nginx and got me started.

You’ll also need to change the path to your log files, as well as the path to your public webroot folder. Finally, up the client_max_body_size to match your upload_max_filesize and post_max_size settings in php.ini.

Finally, this assumes you are running your PHP fast cgi process on port 9000.

This is the recipe for Drupal. I’ve also posted one for WordPress and WordPress MU / BuddyPress.

Download Nginx vhost for Drupal with imagecache support

Please post ways to improve this in the comments. I use this on a number of production sites, but there is always more one can do. Thanks to all of the blogs and articles that I ripped off helped me understand Nginx and got me started.

Be sure to change domain.tld to your actual domain name. The wildcard record will allow your site to respond to ANY sudomain request, which may not be something you want.

You’ll also need to change the path to your log files, as well as the path to your public webroot folder. Finally, up the client_max_body_size to match your upload_max_filesize and post_max_size settings in php.ini.

Finally, this assumes you are running your PHP fast cgi process on port 9000.

This is the recipe for WordPress MU / BuddyPress. I’ve also posted one for WordPress (single site) and Drupal.

Download Nginx vhost Recipe for WordPress Mu and BuddyPress

Please post ways to improve this in the comments. I use this on a number of production sites, but there is always more one can do. Thanks to all of the blogs and articles that I ripped off helped me understand Nginx and got me started.

SELECT table_schema "DB", sum( data_length + index_length ) / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 "Size (GB)" FROM information_schema.TABLES GROUP BY table_schema;

Props to: Prakash Babu