News

  • November 27, 2013

    Announcing the TIL Podcast

    til-webA while back, I bought the domain http://tilpodcast.co somewhat on a whim. I had just started listening to podcasts and felt this would be a good theme for one, whatever the that theme may be.  I thought of doing something tech or web development related, but those are a dime a dozen. So I still needed a solid idea for the podcast; then it came to me while talking with two sets of friends on two separate occasions.

    The first one was with my friend Nate, who had mentioned to me that he missed the “academic” conversations he’d have in college since getting a full time job; the more intellectual ones with discussion and debate. That planted the seed. The second one was with a group of friends while we were discussing some recent legislation- there was a lot of back and forth, fact checking, and opinion giving. That’s when the idea solidified. This would be a great idea for the podcast. I pitched the idea to my friends right there and they really liked the idea as well. So with that, the TIL Podcast is:

    A general knowledge podcast where a group of friends get together and discuss current events, news topics, and technology.

    The basic format is this: each week we will have a subject or two and discuss them for about 30-40 minutes (total). We’ll cover what the subject is and some issues surrounding it. We hope to cover a wide gamut of categories from news to tech to whatever seems interesting; we are also up for suggestions.

    We had our first recording earlier this week and it will go live on Sunday, December 1st. The topic is the Coin digital card.  We are all really excited about the podcast and we hope you like it! All of the podcasts, show notes, and more information are up at tilpodcast.co.

     

  • November 7, 2013

    Upcoming News & Events

    Whoa. Almost a month has gone by and I haven’t written a thing on this blog; sorry about that! Since officially announcing my new book, Responsive Design with WordPress, I’ve been working diligently to finish up all of the writing, reviews, edits, and design approvals. I’m happy to say that Monday I will be done completely with the book. In the coming weeks, there will be a lot going on, and I wanted to give everyone a heads up!
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    About the Book

    First and foremost, the book is set to go to print on November 20th, which should put it on the shelves by December 16th. If you can’t wait that long, the ebook is currently in production and should be out before that. I will update this post (and Twitter, and Facebook, and Google+) with the official release date for that.
    In the coming weeks, I’ll probably have lots of news, links, sample readings, and even a couple of giveaways for the book so keep an eye out for that. I’ll tag everything on social media with #rwdwp.

    Upcoming Events

    I’m also going on a bit of a speaking/events tour in the next few weeks. You can see the whole schedule here, but a couple of notable ones are:

    • November 19th at 7pm: NEPA WordPress (@nepawp) @ Vintage Theater in Scranton, PA. Phil Erb will be talking about local WordPress developments. I’ll be in attendance with discounts and more. RSVP here
    • November 21st at 6pm: NEP-Tech group @ Posh in Scranton, PA. I’ll be speaking for about my book, WordPress, and RWD in general. RSVP Here
    • December 7th: Tentatively I will be doing a WordSesh talk. @WordSesh is a completely only, 24-hour WordPress conference. I’ll post more details about that as they come.

    At any of these events (and many more), those who show up will get a coupon for 35% off the price of my book, so come on by and say hi!

  • October 15, 2013

    Announcing Responsive Design with WordPress

    rwdwp-coverIf you’ve been milling around the site lately, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, or Dribbble, you’ll know I’ve been working on a book. Last week I officially launched the site for @NEPABlogCon and I’m happy today to officially announce my second book, Responsive Design with WordPress.

    Responsive Design with WordPress shows readers Responsive Web Design principles, as well as how to develop responsively when using WordPress. With a greater push towards mobile and the emergence of Responsive Web Design (RWD), more and more WordPress developers are looking to create responsive themes for their websites. The book goes into detail, covering what default CSS classes WordPress uses and how to handle them when creating responsive designs. It shows how to implement the multiple images sizes and readers will learn to plan responsive layouts for common WordPress templates such as Archives, Search, Comments, how to find responsive friendly plugins, and more.

    I got the idea earlier this year when I was doing a lot of work creating responsive themes in WordPress and felt that this would be a great follow up to my first book, Building WordPress Themes from Scratch. I decided to send a proposal to a Peachpit/New Riders (or Voices that Matter), a publisher I deeply respect as they’ve published some amazing works by Jeffrey @Zeldman, Dan Cederholm (@simplebits), Jesse Friedman (@professor), Ethan Marcotte (@beep) and more. I was put in touch with Michael Nolan and am eternally grateful that he has given me the chance to write this book with a fantastic team of people.

    The book comes out on December 16th, 2013 – just in time for Christmas 😉 . You can pre-order it at rwdwp.com. Keep an eye out for discounts, giveaways, and more in the coming weeks!

    PS- If you’d like me to speak at an event regarding the book or RWD/WP in general. please get in touch. 

     

  • August 29, 2013

    Regarding Building WordPress Themes from Scratch

    Lately I have been receiving a lot of questions regarding the availability of my book, Building WordPress Themes from Scratch. After speaking with the publisher, Rockable Press, it seems they’ve had to make some unfortunate changes regarding their distribution model. From their website:

    All Rockable Press books are now exclusively available with any Tuts+ Premium subscription, where you can download our entire library as well as accessing a huge number of courses, tutorials and guides.

    At this point, the only way to get a hold of my book is to signup for a Tuts+ Premium subscription, which is $20/mo or $15/mo if you pay for a year in advance. I understand that this might not be the best option for some people, though I will say you get access to a lot of great resources.

    I am currently working with the good folks at Rockable Press about other options to get the book into your hands, including the possibility of distributing it myself. I will continue to update my website with any progress and news as it become available.

    I also wanted to thank everyone for their support and interest. This was my first book and it was very well received. I am currently working on my second WordPress book (out December). Keep an eye out for news on that as well!

  • August 12, 2013

    D23 Expo News & Announcements

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    For the last week I’ve been out in California geeking out Disney-style by visiting Disneyland and attending all 3 days of the D23 Expo. These types of events always provide opportunities to see and do awesome things and this one is no different. In the first two days there were keynote events. Here’s what we saw!

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  • June 7, 2013

    Upcoming Speaking Events

    As it turns out, I’m speaking a couple of times next week on WordPress Custom Post Types- check out the information below and register if you’d like!

    Connecting Custom Post Types
    WP Summit, Online, June 11th, 2013 at 12pm CST
    Use the code 20JOE for 20% off.
    DIY Custom Post Types
    NEPA WP Meetup, Library at The University of Scranton, Scranton, PA, June 13th, 2013 at 7pm EST

  • May 23, 2013

    Some Thoughts on the Xbox One

    I remember when the the original Xbox came out. I was 15 when it was announced and essentially did a proposal for my parents on why they should buy it for me. Must have worked because I got it for Christmas (I was 16 by then). When the Xbox 360 came out, I waited until the very last minute before deciding I should buy it, which means there were no preorders left. I waited in line, at Best Buy, from 7:30pm-9am. Thank God my friends showed up a little after me, so I had someone to wait with, talk to, and take shifts while we each took turns warming up in the car. I’m very fond of the console and the brand, so when the Xbox One was announced, I was pretty excited about it. Here are some of my thoughts.

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  • May 20, 2013

    Tech News for May 20th, 2013

    Generally I will just share a massive amount of links on Facebook, Twitter, and lately Google+, but as to prevent from friends and followers from being inundated with news they may or may not care about, I figured it might be a good idea just to consolidate, so here is your tech news round up for this Monday morning. Enjoy!

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  • June 28, 2012

    Building WordPress Themes from Scratch FAQs

    How do I access the files from the book?

    If you go to Page 140 in the book, you’ll see a section called  “Your Download Links” with a link generated for you! Just click on that link (or type it into your browser if you got the print copy) and the accompany files will be downloaded to your computer. To make things easier, you can also click this link, which will take you to Github 🙂

    Do Lifetime Updates also come with the print version?

    Do they ever! When you buy the paperback version of the book, all you have to do is send a copy of your Amazon purchase receipt to upgrade@rockablepress.com and they’ll send you all 3 digital version of the book as well (PDF, ePub and Kindle). Once you have these three digital versions, we’ll send you the updated versions of the ebooks* when we we launch a revised edition of the book.

    *This does not include an updated version of the print book.

    Do you cover Responsive Web Design in your book?

    Unfortunately I do not. I really wanted to focus on WordPress theming and tapping into the API. I do cover it in my new book, Responsive Design with WordPress, out now!

    Is the book be available on Tuts+ Premium?

    It is! You can also buy it on Amazon again. Oh happy day!

    I found an error! How can I report it?

    Bummer! If you found an error, fill out the contact form and include the page number and what the error is. If you’d be so kind, make the Subject, “Errata.”

    Have other questions?

    Shoot me an email through the contact form on my main site and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

  • September 10, 2010

    The Web is Dead

    In Wired Magazine’s latest issue they proclaim, “The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet.” I was pretty intrigued by this and decided to read the article (and subsequently subscribe to Wired. Well played, Wired). It’s divided into 2 parts, Blame Us (consumers) and Blame Them (corporations), and is very well written. I decided I’d have my students read it so we could discuss it in class; I wanted to get their perspective as college freshmen- people who have been using the Internet probably since 2003 or 2004 (age 11 or 12). I think it was around here that we really started to see the web change (MySpace was 2003, Facebook 2005), so it would be interesting since what we have today is the Internet as they know it. This will work  the same as the last class discussion on Facebook Places. I’ll pose my questions, write the class consensus, and then my thoughts.

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