👋 I’m Derrick, and this is my WordPress Blarg.

I’m an Enterprise Engineer for WordPress VIP. I’ve been with Automattic/VIP since 2015, and enjoy it every day!

On this site I mostly post absolute stupid garbage. You have been warned.

  • Use Backticks for code in Google Docs

    Use Backticks for code in Google Docs

    Zach Brogan, you are my new best friend! I _strongly_ prefer to write in Markdown, and when doing things in Google Docs, despite it having a “markdown” option, code blocks never worked. This is where the “Backtick” Chrome extension comes in to save the day. It just works, and converts all my backticked words and…

  • Fixing a broken ATOM Feed

    Fixing a broken ATOM Feed

    My city is not known for being technologically adept, and I’m at least lucky they have a website with a CMS. Sadly though, the website offers only a broken ATOM 1.0 feed, a standard that’s old enough to drink in some countries. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with NewsBlur, so I had to sort to building…

  • Quick Tip: Bash CLI params

    Quick Tip: Bash CLI params

    While working on a bash script, I stumbled upon what I think may be the cleanest and simplest way to add CLI params to a bash script so far: This lets you use short (-V), long (–version), space separated (–user john), and equal separated (–user=john) arguments. It’s not perfect, but for a quick bash script…

  • iOS Reminders to Habitica To Do’s via IFTTT

    iOS Reminders to Habitica To Do’s via IFTTT

    After digging around for a while trying to see how I could link up iOS’s Reminders with Habitica‘s To Do’s to help keep me organized, I finally found an easy way through IFTTT. This works easily because Habitica offers a wonderful API💥 Specifically we’re looking at the “Create a new task belonging to the user”…

  • Quick Tip: Get Size of Revisions in WordPress

    Quick Tip: Get Size of Revisions in WordPress

    One thing that you might not think of when watching the size of a large WordPress site grow, is unnecessary data in the database. With the introduction of the block editor years ago, there has been a large increase in the number of revisions a post makes when being edited. This can create a lot…

  • Cool WordPress Plugins: Embed Extended

    Cool WordPress Plugins: Embed Extended

    If you saw my last post, you may have noticed some cool embeds. These are coming from the Embed Extended plugin. This plugin takes OpenGraph data and treats it more like oEmbed data for WordPress. It works great with the block editor as well!

  • My Favorite Firefox Addons

    My Favorite Firefox Addons

    For my own posterity in case I ever lose them, or if anyone is curious, here’s what I use:

  • Photos: Asheville, NC

    Photos: Asheville, NC

    I’m currently away on sabbatical for three months, because my company is awesome (and we’re hiring!) I recently took a trip to Asheville, NC. It’s the first time I’ve ever been that far East, and the first time in North Carolina. It was AWESOME! Please enjoy a small selection of pictures:

  • Quick Tip: Script Debugging in WordPress

    Quick Tip: Script Debugging in WordPress

    If you’re debugging core WordPress scripts, one thing you might run into is dealing with cached copies of the script. Due to how script-loader.php enqueues the core files, their versions are “hard coded” and short of editing script-loader.php as well, there’s a way to fix this via a filter: This will apply a unique ver…

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