In the last couple of years I’ve been exploring and learning more about myself – what “makes me tick” or, rather, what makes me unique (as we all are). If you look on this site’s home page, you’ll see a number of these things. Right now it reads… Mildly bipolar, an ambivert, aphantasmic and a […]
Author archives: David Artiss
WordCamp London 2019 – Third time’s a charm
No sooner have I got back from Belgrade, I’m on a train to London. I noted the irony of flying over my hotel as my plane came into land yesterday but a day at home between trips was appreciated. For the third year running, I’m back for WordCamp London, an annual conference for all things […]
Support Driven Expo Europe 2019
I missed last year’s Support Driven Expo but, this year, I’m in Belgrade, Serbia for their 2019 expo. Support Driven is a community of people involved within support and these expos are an opportunity for that community to meet, chat and watch some (hopefully useful) talks.
Down the middle: life as a confused average
Whether political leanings or my psychological makeup, I am straight down the middle. Average. A fence sitter. Except I’m not. And although I don’t doubt the accuracy of tests that find this, they’re all fundamentally flawed.
The Automattic hiring process
The Automattic hiring process is known for being pretty unique. But having been through it myself and now managing other people through it, I genuinely think it’s an amazing, forward-thinking way to do it. There are plenty of blog posts around which tell you of the hiring process but with many of these from the […]
Privacy screen battle: 3M vs Kensington
About 18 months ago, I bought a 3M privacy screen for my Touch-bar model MacBook Pro 13″. It was one of the few (from a known brand) on the market for this model at the time. However, I’ve now also purchased a Kensington model – 50% more expensive than the 3M version. But is it […]
Farewell to Hair: a new chapter starts
Back in December I started rehearsing for Hair, which is due to hit the stage in June. A few days ago, though, I informed the production crew that I would be withdrawing. Not only that but I’ve announced my intentional to (semi?) retire from the world of musical theatre too. But to explain why, we […]
Warning lights on your Mazda 3? It may be nothing
I’ve owned my Mazda 3 for just under 2 years now. On cold, damp days I often find that a number of warning lights come on, related to lane guidance (Lane Departure Warning System – LDWS), automatic full-beam (High Beam Control System – HBC) and automatic braking (Smart City Brake Support – SCBS). After a […]
VIP return to Lisbon – a story of blood, pastries and Kombucha
It’s that time of year again when the teams within WordPress.com VIP have a meetup. As usual, it’s all about the food, bad flights and weird accommodation. Last year, the Triage and Developer team went to Lisbon and this year… we’re back. With a twist. But still with lots of pastéis de nata.
WP-CLI: Best practices for your scripts
WP-CLI is a rather splendid command-line method of interacting with your WordPress site. You can use it to automate installs, update plugins and all sorts. At WordPress.com VIP, clients use it, in particular, to power batch updates – maybe some image compression that they’ve not done in the past, re-categorising articles, all sorts. If you’re […]