One of the “Christmas gifts” that was awaiting me after being on leave for a few weeks, was my own .blog URL. As of now, you can visit my website on job.blog. Easy to remember, easy to search. No worries, jobthomas.com will still be available too. If you want to get your own .blog address, […]
Category archives: Blog
WooCommerce in Real “Live”
My slides for the very first WordCamp Harare are now available. I spoke about my experience of setting up my first live WooCommerce store after having worked with WooCommerce for 2 years in testing environments. https://speakerdeck.com/jobthomas/woocommerce-in-real-live
Zwarte Piet and My Own Racist Blind Spots
In 2011, I met my South African wife in Belgium. Her friend Crystal was visiting the town where we both lived in late November that year. Both of them were absolutely shocked when they saw Zwarte Piet (or Black Pete). Blind spots Up until that point, I had never ever considered the racist implications of […]
Afrihost, or How Customer Service Should Work
Update: https://twitter.com/jobtex/status/1040526000809861120 For the last three years, we’ve been customers of South Africa’s internet service provider Afrihost. While sometimes the product was failing, their support has been amazing throughout. Yesterday, we stopped using Afrihost, because the fibre provider in our neighbourhood doesn’t have a contract with them. So this seems an appropriate moment to say thank […]
Automattic, in 2016, in Whistler
Our company is getting pretty big.
Contributing to Code without Coding
I’ve been working at Woo for over almost two years now. During that time, I’ve learnt a lot. While working with the different plugins, themes and extensions we offer, it is normal to encounter bugs: small (or big) things in the software not working as they should. Using Software and Reporting Bugs Just using the software […]
WordPress Customisation for Dummies (Like Me): Workshop WordCamp Cape Town 2016
A lot of beginners encounter all sort of tutorials on how to add some custom code to the functions.php file or even more basic: change the layout beyond what the customizer allows. Aspects In this workshop, I introduce WordPress beginners to some good standards in terms of customisation. Choosing a plugin that allows custom CSS […]
Routers Scare Me (So Here’s a Tutorial for Myself)
I work for a web company, and because of that a lot of my friends and family expect me to know everything about the Internet. Well, I don’t. I’ve just learnt to use Google efficiently. And for that very reason, routers scare me. Because when I’m trying to configure the connection to the Internet, I […]
My Biggest Problem with Creationists (and Evolutionists)
My biggest problem with “Creationists” and “Evolutionist” is how much they simplify reality.
From (Too) Long Talk to Workshop That Works
To Really Work Very often, when conferences list workshops, what is offered is not an actual “workshop” but just a long talk. There are several reasons why you should avoid that. First of all, you’re communicating to the audience that they’re attending a workshop. As the word says, there should be work involved. If your audience […]
Say hello to WooCommerce 2.6 “Zipping Zebra”
I’ve updated all of my test sites already and have been playing around with the newly added “Shipping Zones” for a while. WooCommerce 2.6 is an amazing update and you should get it for your store as well. Read the post on our development website on how to update safely. Oh, and I even made a […]
Field Notes: Grow Leadership Academy 2016
Last week, I wrote my first post on the official blog of WordPress.com. It’s a report of the great teaching experience we had at the Grow Leadership Academy in Athlone, Cape Town.
Ethical Consumption in South Africa: Chocolate and Coffee
When I arrived in South Africa about three years ago, fair trade was not really a consideration here. Very few brands were offering clear information about their supply chains and the control or transparency of those chains by external organisations. In the last few years, there has been quite a big change. Why should you care? […]
ScaleConf 2016: Scaling Support by Education Customers
https://youtu.be/ZP1jImalXfU A few months ago, I spoke at ScaleConf 2016, which was quite intimidating. It’s a developer conference, and I’m not a developer. I posted my slides a while ago, but now you can also watch the video as well. I hope you like it! I really enjoyed infusing Thomas Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shifts I […]
James K.A. Smith Quote
In its truest sense, eros signals a desire and attraction that is a good feature of our creaturehood. . . . To be human is to have a heart. You can’t not love. So the question isn’t whether you will love something as ultimate; the question is what you will love as ultimate. And you […]
Thrice – Black Honey
Very much looking forward to the full album.
Nicholas Wolterstorff Quote
Disrespect, and thereby also wronging, is determined, on the one hand, by the actual worth of the recipient, not by what agent or recipient happens to believe to be that worth; and on the other hand, by whether or not the respect-disrespect import of the action is such as to befit a person of this worth, […]
What’s on Tap? My (Menu)bar Apps
I always find it interesting to see what software people use. The menubar in OSX gives a good overview of what people have open all the time. Here is my list. First of all, I use Bartender to limit the amount of apps visible. All apps that aren’t visible at first glance are just in […]
Bono & Eugene Peterson: The Psalms
https://youtu.be/-l40S5e90KY The Psalms Fuller Theological Seminary, with several famous theologians on staff–including Richard J. Foster, Miroslav Volf, and Joel B. Green–has documented a meeting between Bono and Eugene Peterson. Bono has never hidden his Christian background; he reached out to Peterson when The Message translation of the Bible was released to say thanks and invite […]
Field Notes: CMS Africa Summit 2016
My colleague Marjorie wrote a great recap of our trip to Uganda two weeks ago.