David Artiss

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 perspective of those who failed in their application, the results can be inaccurate or lacking some detail. As a member of the Automattic hiring team, I thought I’d give a more definitive outline.

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 any better?

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 need to go back to the beginning…

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 while, the warnings clear.

But, yesterday, I had the same warnings come on but the lights didn’t go out, even after stopping and restarting the ignition.

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 using WordPress and don’t use WP-CLI, I would highly recommend checking it out (especially so if you’re looking for a job in the VIP team 😉). However, this post isn’t about using it but to give recommendations on how to best write your scripts.

US vs UK Words

We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

Much is said about the difference between the British and US language, often concentrating on differences of spelling or pronunciation. However, what about all those words which we have different terms for?

Who’d want to be a Noogler?

Did you know that new Google employees are ‘Nooglers’, that staff over 40 are ‘Greyglers’, staff that leave are ‘Xooglers’ and those that bring their dogs to work are ‘Dooglers’?

Cute names or something more worrisome?

Well, Automattic has names for its employees too, all based on variation of the company name.

Health matters

One of the things I’ve not really written about is my physical health. Mental health, yes. Now, I’m generally in good health (despite my size – but I’ll get onto that) but have a couple of niggling issues, one of which seems to have stumped health professionals. And my DNA.

So, I thought it time to write some more and, maybe, using the power of the internet I may find a solution. Or solace. Or just pity.