Site Update:

2017 – Finally got round to adding some more content.  I’ve temporarily removed the photography section as it needs a revamp. The photos can still be found on flickr in the meantime.

2015 – New Theme, New Content and a mission to finally give this site the attention it deserves.. we’ll see how long that lasts this time round.

About Me

I am a Web and Interactive Developer living in Birmingham, UK. I graduated from The University of Birmingham with a B.Eng. in Computer Systems Engineering and have too many years of experience in web development.

I have been a Senior PHP Developer and Technical Lead at GoRaise since 2017, working with a small team of in house developers as well as managing outsourced development of GoRaise’s applications and diverse application stack.

Before that I worked at Two Thirds Design since it was founded in July 2006, Two Thirds is a popular up and coming design agency specialising in cross-media applications and design for education and the private sector.

Latest articles

Customise WordPress editor’s font options
tip, Uncategorised, WordPress

Customise WordPress editor’s font options

tools on a table
OSX, Tools

Quickly batch install Mac Apps with Bash

GetMacApps is a great little website that lets you build a custom bash script that lets you automate installing your favourite apps as easily as pasting a single line of code into the terminal window.

You can preview my chosen apps by following this link: My install manifest

or create your own at http://www.getmacapps.com/

If you want to view see the bash script the site generate you can view it here:

http://www.getmacapps.com/raw/embvawlksr2p

And in finally to use just paste the following line of text into your terminal:
N.B. the link below installs the apps I want and regularly used, you’re probably going to want to create your own..

curl -s http://www.getmacapps.com/raw/embvawlksr2p | sh

Source :

Zenith Z-19 Terminal
Linux, OSX, Tools

Useful Bash Aliases for GIT

Switching from SVN to GIT can be awkward especially if your used to SVN shortcuts like
svn co for svn checkout and
svn up for svn update

the solution is these nifty terminal aliases.

git status, git add, git commit, and git checkout are such common commands that it is useful to have abbreviations for them.

alias gs='git status '
alias ga='git add '
alias gb='git branch '
alias gc='git commit'
alias gca='git commit -a'
alias gd='git diff'
alias go='git checkout '
alias gk='gitk --all&'
alias gx='gitx --all'
alias gp='git pull'
alias push='git push'
alias gr='git rebase '
alias gm='git merge '

alias got='git '
alias get='git '

Source(s):

Downloading WordPress minus the content directory.
tip, WordPress

Downloading WordPress minus the content directory.

The default version of WordPress comes with an entire content directory full stuff you probably don’t want or need like the default themes and the hellodolly.php plugin unless your setting you your site for the very first time, even then probably not.

There is however a well hidden version of WordPress that comes minus a content directory, it’s purpose is to optimise WordPress’ auto update function, if you click the update WordPress button in the dashboard and watch carefully you’ll see a url similar to this flash up on your screen:

https://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.8.1-no-content.zip

simply substitute '3.8.1' with the version you require.

This is really handy if you’re managing your site with SVN or GIT or Composer and want to reduce the amount of clutter and extra files you download.

WordPress AutoUpdate fix for Version Controlled Sites
WordPress

WordPress AutoUpdate fix for Version Controlled Sites

So.. since version 3.7 WordPress has had a neat auto-update function, unfortunately, WordPress is also quite cautious so it checks to see if the website is using any kind of Version Control and if so disables the auto update function.  BUT what if your using version control but not to actually manage what version of WordPress is installed.

Luckily this line of code will override the “under version control” test of the auto update and re-enable automatic updates.

add_filter( 'automatic_updates_is_vcs_checkout', '__return_false');

re-enabling the auto-update functionality.

Source:

Websites

Corporate sites, web portals, e-commerce solutions and promotional microsites.

Interactive Applications

Design and authoring of interactive media presentations.

Web Applications

Content management systems, calendars, media libraries and custom applications.