Writing
Howto's, snippets, and articles I've written over the years.
Useful Oh-My-Zsh plugins
May 3rd, 2015Oh-My-Zsh describes itself as a 'community driven framework for managing your zsh configuration' and comes with lots of zsh plugins (189 currently) but none are enabled by default. Some zsh plugins are tailored for your specific operating system whilst others are aimed at helping improve developers workflow. Wether you're using Ruby, Python, PHP or Javascript as your main language or you're a systems administrator, there will be a plugin to help. Here are the zsh plugins I'm currently using.
Install Beanstalkd on Ubuntu 12.04
April 22nd, 2015A simple guide on how to install Beanstalkd on Ubuntu 12.04.
PHP: How to pear install HTTP2 and HTTP_Request2
April 16th, 2015Whilst working on a project recently I've found the need to install the HTTP2 package from the pear repository. I couldn't find any useful notes on how to install HTTP2 via pear so here's my notes on how to pear install HTTP2.
Staffs Web Meetup February 2015
February 21st, 2015On Thursday night I attended the Staffs Web Meetup, a monthly event aimed at providing an informal environment for people involved in all aspects of the web industry to meet up.
You may need to re-run your boot loader[grub]
February 19th, 2015After updating an Ubuntu server I occasionally see the message `you may need to re-run your boot loader[grub]` after updating the kernel. Here's how to actually update Grub.
Exim Command Cheat Sheet
February 13th, 2015I've had this Exim command cheat sheet in Evernote for a while and thought it would prove useful to others.
How to use different PHP versions on OSX with Apache and Homebrew
February 4th, 2015By default Apple's OSX (Mavericks) comes with PHP 5.4 installed but if you want to work on a different version you're pretty stuck. My solution to this is to use homebrew to install PHP5.3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 and then simply change the PHP module loaded by apache. Here how to do it.
Sample xdebug.ini file
January 28th, 2015I use Xdebug when working on PHP websites and often have to manually install it before starting and debugging. I usually find myself searching the internet for a sample xdebug.ini file to use after installing. So here's a sample xdebug.ini file for my future self (and anyone else it may help).
How to forward a domain to a Vagrant VM with Apache on OSX
January 27th, 2015I do a lot of my development work using Virtual Machines and Vagrant. This provides an easy way for me to get a working environment up and running locally on the many projects I work on daily. However, one of the problems with this is that these VMs aren't accessible externally. This can be a problem when you need to show your work or use a third party service that needs access to the site. Here's how to forward a domain to a Vagrant VM using Apache's mod_proxy.
Using a Standing Desk for Work: Week 1
January 19th, 2015Its been a week since my post last week, "Using a standing desk for work: Day 1" so I thought I'd write a update.
Using a Standing Desk for Work: Day 1
January 13th, 2015We've been toying with the idea of using a standing desk for work quite a while after we had read about them on the internet. The benefits of using them are still unproven but after experiencing back-ache, abdominal issues and muscular pain I tried using a makeshift setup to see if using a standing desk for work would improve things.
Scriptaculous Ajax Autocomplete callback example
December 6th, 2014Recently, whilst working on an old website at work, I found a need to add additional parameters to a Script.aculo.us Ajax.autocomplete call The documentation show that this is possible via the callback function but unfortunately there isn't an example provided.