Author: Brian Richards
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Back to Basics
This year, my goal is to become a better developer than I was last year. Now, that’s no different than my goal in previous years, and if you’re a developer it should be pretty high on your list of goals as well. However, this year I’m approaching the goal in a measurable, tangible way. I’m…
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Recommended Reading for Developers – Building a Better Bookshelf
This year I want to become a measurably better developer. One way I hope to improve in that regard is by reading the best books that have been written on the topic of programming and development. Now, I would consider myself a web developer – I’ve been building websites for the better part of 17…
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Developing for Success
This post originally appeared on WPStartBox.com shortly after this event took place in 2011. I’ve resurrected it to include as part of my own blog. WordCamp Chicago 2011 I presented on “Developing for Success -or- Any Fool Can Do This”. The talk encompassed how I took a leap of faith and launched StartBox and all of…
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Ditching your DVDs for a Better Home Theater Experience
Recently a number of people have been asking me about what I did with my collection of 240+ DVDs. I still have them, but they’re packed away in storage. Last year I set out on a quest to digitally rip every movie we owned so that we could easily watch them on any of our…
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Some Awesome Ben Photos
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Ghostbusters HQ in LEGO
This is an incredible build, very impressive!
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Maybe we’re too caught up on efficiency. We spend …
Maybe we’re too caught up on efficiency. We spend our lives fine-tuning our ability to make money – which is a good thing – but then we use that money to avoid doing some of the only things in a human life that can provide actual fulfillment. We pay someone else to raise and teach…
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Configuring a Local Apache/PHP/MySQL Dev Environment in OS X
Update: If you’re just getting started now, I strongly recommend looking into Vagrant instead of rolling your own environment like I describe. I still use the exact environment I detail below, but am leaning towards Vagrant soon. If you’re a WordPress developer, specifically check out Varying Vagrant Vagrants (VVV) by 10up. PREFACE These are…
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Thankfulness Changes a Person
The following are notes from a teaching I gave on Tuesday, Nov 20, 2012 to a group of some really cool college students. It’s been edited slightly to be readable and make sense here in print, but it’s still missing some of the finer bits (and discussion points) I expounded on during my teaching. It…
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Changes in the Wind, Part 3: Advice for Developers
Note: This is the third part of a three-part series. Part 1 discusses advice for leaders and part 2 is for designers (and everyone who works with designers). Read Part 1 (Leadership Advice) or Part 2 (Design Advice) For the developers in the audience, I want to take a moment to offer some general advice…