Blog
How to save a remote file to disk with PHP
You may already be familiar with file_get_contents() for reading the contents of a local file but did you know that you can use it to read the contents of a remote file or site? You can then use file_put_contents() to [...]
Refocusing my blog's content
For my first post as a 34-year-old, I wanted to announce that I am refocusing my blog's content. It's a pivot of sorts as I have been pining over what I should focus my content on. I have noticed over [...]
Basic HTTP Authentication with PHP
Basic HTTP Authentication is easily accomplished at the web server level (by way of .htaccess with Apache or inside your nginx configuration file) but did you know you could pull it off inside of a PHP script? You bet your [...]
Making time for side projects
I'm absolutely sick and tired of hearing people complain about not having any time for their side projects. Even worse is when I get asked the seemingly presumptive "how do you find for side projects when you have a family?" [...]
Life of Pi - Working with Pi in PHP
The irrational mathematical constant of Pi can be obtained a few different ways in PHP. There is a function to give you the value as well as a bunch of constants that represent Pi as well as fractions of Pi [...]
How to replace a string with a string in PHP
String replacements in PHP are very simple and as per usual, can be done in a variety of different ways. First let's take a look at the most simple form of a string replacement: str_replace('blue', 'red', 'My favorite color is [...]
Developer titles are bullshit, Part 2 - Universal titles
Last week in part one, I discussed the lifecycle of a developer that just started a new job. The gist was that when someone starts a new role at a company, they generally have to learn the lay of the [...]
How to round numbers with PHP
Rounding numbers can be done a number of ways. You can round a float up or down to the nearest integer or you could round to a specific precision. Even then you can choose whether or not to round halves [...]
Developer titles are bullshit, Part 1 - The lifecycle of a developer
This is a pretty universal truth, most developer titles are complete and utter nonsense. Shit like "Junior Developer" and "Senior Engineer Level 2", sounds like we're playing Dungeons and Dragons. Sad part of this is, most people will say they [...]
Ikea Expedit standing desk
I wholeheartedly decided that I would convert my existing Ikea Expedit sitting desk and bookshelf combo to a "hipster developer" standing desk. Part of the decision was because of my buddy Mike. He was telling me about how using a [...]