Interesting post about the dangers of freelancing on Upwork. They eventually sorted this situation out, but I suspect only because of the huge social media coverage. ∞
Chinese Androids: A Cautionary Tale
Considering buying a Chinese Android phone like a Xiaomi, Vernee, Elephone, Huawei, Honor, etc? They seem to be incredible value for high specification devices, about half the price of a premium brand smartphone. They’re very popular and getting rave reviews in tech forums. But it doesn’t always work out. Let me tell you a story. […]
Review: The Ocean At The End of The Lane
I recently had the opportunity to get an ARC copy of Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at The End of The Lane” which has just released in mass-market paperback. I’ve read a huge amount of praise for Gaiman, he is frequently touted as one of the top fantasy authors in the world. I read a lot […]
Are Short Book Reviews Paid-For?
There has been some discussion lately in book forums about paid-for book reviews, and how – hopefully – Amazon and other retailers will be clamping down on them. Reviews have real value for both authors and potential readers. As a reader, I’ve written a few long form book reviews here on amdsoft and also posted […]
Minimalist WordPress Theme
Reading Tim’s post about default WordPress themes and bloat, I thought I’d experiment with creating an absolute minimalist WordPress theme, which you can see live here on amdsoft.com here at the time of writing. I want a single, functional barely styled skeleton theme a default theme that no one will ever use – Tim Nash […]
Updated WP-CLI backup script
Here’s a new version of the wp-cli backup script mentioned previously. This adds a check that it’s running as a user, and backs up the upload directory too. You need to have wp-cli installed and run this in your WordPress root, as a regular (non-root) user. If you use this I’d love to hear from […]
Fix for WordPress unable to create uploads directory or not writable by server
This is a note to future self as much as anything, but hopefully useful for someone out there. Situation: uploads are failing with “Unable to create directory uploads. Is its parent directory writable by the server?” Check the following: wp-content/uploads is chmod -R 777 (for testing, switch to something more secure after you get this […]
Quick backup script with WP-CLI
Quick backup script for WP-CLI users. This just grabs the DB, active theme, a list of plugins and the wp-config file. This isn’t meant to replace a daily backup of all DBs and changed files, but it is the kind of thing that I find handy to run just before I attempt something stupid on […]
Useful Software for Windows
Updated Aug 2013 This list was created for my own reference to keep all the links in one handy location. It might be useful for ideas for you too when you’re installing a new Windows PC or laptop. Not all of these are free, but the vast majority are. Mozilla Firefox Adblock Plus Web Developer […]
iPhone DCIM empty in Windows
Here’s what I recently thought was a technical problem: I was using my iPhone to record video and transferring it to my PC using the USB connector, when suddenly the DCIM folder was empty. I checked the phone and all the photos and videos were there, but in Windows Explorer they were missing. However, the […]