One question that I see asked a lot in the WordPress Support Forums is what to do when their website simply displays a white screen. This most likely represents a PHP fatal error that stops the server from generating the HTML for the browser to display. How to Find the Problem When PHP has a […]
Author: Scott Tirrell
Fun Atari 2600 Games
I was recently listening to Michael J. Nelson and Conor Lastowka’s podcast, 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back which discusses the book, Ready Player One. Check it out. They are two of the hilarious people behind Rifftrax. However, I did call them out for the claim that there are no good Atari 2600 games. While many […]
Setting up Mac navigation shortcuts in iTerm 2
If you’re a Macintosh user, it is probably second nature to use ⌥← to go back one word and ⌥→ to forward a word. Similarly, ⌘← will bring you to the beginning of a line while ⌘→ will jump you to the end. However, by default, iTerm 2, a great replacement for macOS’s included Terminal application, is not […]
Searching your shell command history
Recently I was working with a colleague through Zoom and sharing my screen. As he watched me furiously tapping my up arrow key like I was playing a Mario Party mini game to cycle through my history of Unix commands, he gave me a great tip. To search through the history of previous commands you […]
AppleScript for playing Rifftrax
Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a huge fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and, an off-shoot of that, Rifftrax. One of the great things about Rifftrax is that they sell some MP3-only commentaries. Since they don’t need to license the movie, they can target summer blockbusters like Star Wars: Rogue One, Twilight, […]
Tab Modifier Plus Chrome Extension
As a web developer, I often find myself with local, staging, and live versions of the same website. Obviously, one can tell which environment one they are on by viewing the address in the browser bar. I find it handy to have an additional visual cue, though, to make it even clearer. I have found a […]
“Indie Game” – Movie Review
It has been a while since I saw the first installment of “Indie Game,” a documentary that showcases independent game developers and their creations. Included in “Indie Game” are Super Meat Boy, Fez, and Braid, which have been recent stand-out games. I noticed on Netflix that a “follow-up” documentary was available for viewing, “Indie Game: After Life.” I really enjoyed […]
“Man vs. Snake” – Movie Review
I just caught “Man vs. Snake – The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler” on Netflix and this is the kind of retro and nostalgia that I love. I think that “Man vs. Snake” could almost be a spiritual sequel to the popular video game movie, “King of Kong.” You have some of the same cast of […]
Dynamically Overriding a Page’s Template
It is easy to override the template for a post or page in WordPress in a few ways. For example, the naming of page template files can be used to override a single page’s template: page-{id}.php page-{slug}.php Or, a page template can be chosen in the Page Attributes section when editing a page: This works great […]
“From Bedrooms to Billions” Movie Review
Those who know me know that I am hopelessly mired in the past. I have a working Atari 7800 and an Atari Jaguar (and regret parting with my Atari Lynx and Falcon). I still like 80s music, tv shows and movies. And I make regular pilgrimages to Funspot in New Hampshire, a great classic arcade to scratch […]