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 [...]
Oude Kraal
Yesterday, we went to Oude Kraal for the first time. It's a very nice place next to the Atlantic Ocean, owned by South African National Parks with great braaing spots next to the water. Stunning way to end the day. Here are some pics of the evening.
Beaverlac
Last weekend, Kim and I went to Beaverlac, one of the best camping sites in South Africa. It's about a two-hour drive from Cape Town - not including a dirt road that's quite rough on our '98 Corolla - and the perfect weekend getaway. It was the first time I tried my new (second-hand) Sigma [...]
Kruger National Park 2016
Last month, I went to Kruger National Park again. While I had been to Kruger a few times before, I had never gone up north. This time, we stayed at Shingwedzi. It was an amazing trip. There were several animals that I saw for the first time: tsessebe antelope, eland, grysbok, the very unique roan antelope (which we [...]
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 [...]
Whistler
Once a year, our entire company meets in person. Last month, 500 Automatticians travelled to Whistler, Canada, for a week of working together and having lots of fun. I went for a few hikes, did a photo tour during which we saw a black bear, drank some nice alcohol at the Whistler Beer Festival. Whistler was [...]
Dublin
My team consists out of people spread over three continents and several times zones. Once a year, we meet, and in 2016 we opted to go to Dublin, a city neither of us had been to before. The time together was great, and Dublin was a good scene for the event. The city has a [...]
Berlin
Last July, we went to Berlin with the whole Woo team. It was great staying in the heart of this beautiful city. My first time visiting Berlin was amazing; the city is vibrant, diverse, colourful. Definitely worth another visit. Highlights were taking the stairs up the Berliner Dom, seeing Protest the Hero live, and the Museum [...]
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 [...]
Betty’s Bay
Once a week, we gather with about 15 people from church to discuss the Bible and share our lives. Going away for a weekend together is always a great way to get to know each other even better. This weekend, we went to Betty's Bay and had an awesome time together.
August Burns Red, Facing The Gallows, Zombies Ate My Girlfriend (Cape Town)
Last week, August Burns Red came to South Africa for the first time (or Africa for that matter). CULTURESHOCK was able to get press tickets and I got the photo pass for it. It had been almost two years since I last did some proper concert photography, but I'm happy with the result. Hope you like [...]
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 [...]
Mischa & Jonathan: Colour
As I explained yesterday, I made two separate series of the shoot with our friends Mischa and Jonathan. Here is the colour edit. Mischa and Jonathan liked the idea of having a vintage look in an urban setting, so added a metallic blue tone to the pics, while trying to preserve the beautiful orange and [...]
Mischa & Jonathan: Black and White
Recently, our friends Mischa and Jonathan got engaged. I got the honour of taking a few pics with them. They wanted to go for an urban vibe. The nice thing with Cape Town is that the surrounding mountains are always lurking, so in several pics, you can see them peeking in. In case you haven't [...]