Jason McCreary

Fast Laravel Case Study: Laravel News

Jason McCreary — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A technical deep dive into caching the most-requested Laravel News pages with Cloudflare.

Shift's first flat year

Jason McCreary — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:40:00 +0000

2025 was the first "flat" year (no growth) in 10 years of Shift.

Flying around the world with Laravel and the Stock Market

Jason McCreary — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:03:00 +0000

The complete story of flying around the world, first class - all paid for by Laravel and the Stock Market.

Why another side-project

Jason McCreary — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Asking myself why I decided to work on yet another side-project.

Launching another side-project

Jason McCreary — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Coming to my decision to launch another side-project and key takeaways for working on side-projects.

A lookbehind at 2023 and lookahead for 2024

Jason McCreary — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A look back at my goals from 2023 and an outline of my goals for 2024.

4 personal finance tips for Indie Hackers

Jason McCreary — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 14:10:00 +0000

A review of the personal finance decisions which increased my calm as an Indie Hacker running a successful SaaS.

A lookbehind at 2022 and lookahead for 2023

Jason McCreary — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A look back at my goals from 2022 and an outline of my goals for 2023.

Spawning workers based on queue workload

Jason McCreary — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The backstory for building a feature to spawn additional worker servers based on the job queue workload.

A lookbehind at 2021 and lookahead for 2022

Jason McCreary — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A look back at my goals from 2021 and an outline of my goals for 2022.

Grinding to $1,000,000 in revenue over 6 years

Jason McCreary — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 12:20:00 +0000

A review of growing my SaaS product to $1,000,000 in revenue over 6 years, both from a business and personal perspective.

Building a PHPUnit to Pest Converter in a week

Jason McCreary — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 10:50:00 +0000

The motivation and execution around building a PHPUnit to Pest Convert in one week.

A lookbehind at 2020 and lookahead for 2021

Jason McCreary — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 21:26:00 +0000

A look back at my goals from 2020 and an outline of my goals for 2021.

Configuration precedence when testing Laravel

Jason McCreary — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 19:35:00 +0000

A deep dive into the precedence of the various configurations when testing Laravel applications.

Install PHPMyAdmin on macOS using Docker

Jason McCreary — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 19:35:00 +0000

Install PHPMyAdmin alongside your local macOS development environment running Apache, MySQL, and PHP using Docker.

Match a Docker container prompt to your own

Jason McCreary — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 19:30:00 +0000

Have your Docker container prompt match your local prompt and add a simple emoji so you know where you are.

Custom command to interact with Docker containers

Jason McCreary — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 19:29:00 +0000

Interact with Docker containers by name using one simple, custom command.

Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on macOS using Docker

Jason McCreary — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 15:07:00 +0000

A tutorial for installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on macOS for local development using Docker.

Avoiding inheritance in Laravel

Jason McCreary — Wed, 13 May 2020 15:16:00 +0000

Developers often choose to use inheritance. However, in Laravel, this may prove to be a painful decision.

Shift Database Outage

Jason McCreary — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:01:00 +0000

Last week Shift had a database outage with a data loss of over 600 orders.

A review of 2019 and goals for 2020

Jason McCreary — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 14:55:00 +0000

A look back at my goals from 2019 and an outline of my goals for 2020.

Testing middleware behavior with controller assertions

Jason McCreary — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 15:00:00 +0000

Test your controller actions use the expected middleware with a simple assertion.

Streamlining Laravel

Jason McCreary — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 13:59:00 +0000

A proposal of the top changes I'd like to see which streamline Laravel and a the developer experience.

Updating Apache, PHP, and MySQL for macOS Catalina

Jason McCreary — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:52:00 +0000

Steps to configure PHP, Apache, and MySQL after upgrading from Mac OS X Mojave to macOS Catalina.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on macOS Catalina

Jason McCreary — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:41:00 +0000

This is an update of a previous post to install Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS for macOS Catalina.

Crafting maintainable Laravel applications

Jason McCreary — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 22:59:00 +0000

10 tips for crafting maintainable Laravel applications which leverage features of the Laravel framework while remaining easy to upgrade.

Maintaining Laravel config files

Jason McCreary — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:52:00 +0000

A review of a recent change to Laravel Shift as it relates to a recommendation for crafting maintainable Laravel applications.

42 Git Questions Answered

Jason McCreary — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:33:00 +0000

Answers to 42 Git questions asked during a recent training I lead to guide a development team from git init to Git Master.

TDD, Outside-In, and YAGNI

Jason McCreary — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 22:25:00 +0000

An outline of developing a feature practicing TDD, Outside-In, and YAGNI to demonstrate the intricacies of these practices working together.

Why your team should not be upgrading old Laravel applications

Jason McCreary — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:21:00 +0000

Why upgrading your old Laravel applications is a waste of your resources with a pitch for Shift do it instead.

Testing the most important piece of your application

Jason McCreary — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 15:48:00 +0000

A guide for testing Stripe Checkout using Laravel Dusk to verify the most important piece of your application - accepting payments.

Testing makes me a confident developer

Jason McCreary — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 11:54:00 +0000

Tests provide confidence the code behaves as expected and confidence to refactor the code in the future.

Laravel - Some Shifty Bits

Jason McCreary — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:10:00 +0000

A review of underutilized Laravel features found by Shift analytics and shared at Laracon US 2019.

Lowering the time cost of testing existing Laravel applications

Jason McCreary — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:12:00 +0000

Ways to reduce the cost of setting up your existing Laravel application for testing.

A Shifty Email Bug

Jason McCreary — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 16:34:00 +0000

I woke up to 56 emails, 17 tweets, 9 Slack messages, and 4 telegrams. It was 7:07 AM.

Start testing your Laravel applications

Jason McCreary — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 13:00:00 +0000

An in-depth guide to using HTTP Tests to get started writing tests for your Laravel application.

Testing validation in Laravel by asserting a Form Request

Jason McCreary — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:16:00 +0000

An alternative approach to testing validation in Laravel which minimizes the number of tests required, while maximizing confidence.

Pricing is hard. Raising prices.

Jason McCreary — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:05:00 +0000

Some insight in how I price my products and services, and the reasoning behind a recent price increase for Shift.

Building Products - Building an audience

Jason McCreary — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 21:41:00 +0000

The second in a series on building products where I review steps done to grow a new audience for my upcoming product Optionality.

Jekyll to Jigsaw

Jason McCreary — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 17:04:00 +0000

Some notes on the process of converting the static site generator I use from Jekyll to Jigsaw.

2018 Lookbehind, Lookahead 2019

Jason McCreary — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 05:00:00 +0000

A look back at my 2018 dev goals and a lookahead at my dev goals for 2019.

Building Products - Starting from Square 0

Jason McCreary — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 05:00:00 +0000

The first in a series of posts on building products from the ground up.

Updating Apache, PHP, and MySQL for macOS Mojave

Jason McCreary — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

Steps to configure PHP, Apache, and MySQL after upgrading from Mac OS X Sierra to macOS Mojave.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on macOS Mojave

Jason McCreary — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 05:00:00 +0000

This is an update of a previous post to install Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS for macOS Mojave.

10 practices for readable code

Jason McCreary — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 15:30:00 +0000

A set of 10 practices for writing code with a focus on improving readability and reducing complexity.

Laravel by the Numbers

Jason McCreary — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 20:30:00 +0000

A unique analysis of data from Laravel Shift on over 8,000 Laravel apps.

Untangling Nested Code

Jason McCreary — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 04:00:00 +0000

How to identify the different forms of nested code and refactor them to more readable code.

2018 Dev Goals

Jason McCreary — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 06:03:00 +0000

A little backstory on the 5 development goals I set to achieve in 2018.

Fake it by stubbing the mock, dummy

Jason McCreary — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 06:03:00 +0000

Why differences in test objects are often inconsequential and how abstraction can improve developer happiness.

Writing Clean Code (Part 2)

Jason McCreary — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 05:03:00 +0000

Three more practices to write clean code and help improve code readability.

SMS admin in 8 lines of code

Jason McCreary — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 15:03:00 +0000

In an effort to provide on the go support for Laravel Shift, I created an SMS based admin using Nexmo and Laravel.

Committing to the wrong branch

Jason McCreary — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 05:03:00 +0000

Exploring the various Git commands you can run when you make a commit on the wrong branch.

References from "Writing Clean Code"

Jason McCreary — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 05:03:00 +0000

Additional references from my recent post "Writing Clean Code" containing motivation and practices for writing clean code.

Writing Clean Code

Jason McCreary — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 05:03:00 +0000

Three simple practices to help write clean code and improve the readability of a codebase.

You changed the code, you didn't refactor the code.

Jason McCreary — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 14:37:00 +0000

A closer look at the important difference between changing code and refactoring code.

Starting an online workshop for Git

Jason McCreary — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 14:37:00 +0000

The backstory for my plan to host an online workshop on Git.

15 years of amateur trading

Jason McCreary — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 15:37:00 +0000

I started invested in the stock market when I was 20. Over the past 15 years, I learned these valuable lessons.

An edge case for cache busting

Jason McCreary — Sun, 14 May 2017 15:37:00 +0000

Most high performance web sites optimize for the sad path. In this article, we address a way to optimize for the happy path too.

Compensation tips

Jason McCreary — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 15:37:00 +0000

Advice on compensation, seeking raises, and determining when to change jobs shared from my own experiences.

Using git bisect

Jason McCreary — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:37:00 +0000

A real world example of using git bisect to find a bug deep in my application code.

Stop aliasing core Git commands

Jason McCreary — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 15:37:00 +0000

Some claim aliasing core Git commands is the "Right Way". It's not.

Lumen is dead. Long live Lumen.

Jason McCreary — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:37:00 +0000

Why I believe Lumen is dying and what the future holds for Lumen.

Accepting Adam's TDD Challenge

Jason McCreary — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:37:00 +0000

A response to Adam Wathan's challenge that isolated unit testing is incompatible with TDD.

A closer look at git rebase

Jason McCreary — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:37:00 +0000

For some, git rebase falls on the magic end of the spectrum for Git commands. In this post, we'll take a closer look at git rebase.

Git - Command line vs GUIs

Jason McCreary — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:37:00 +0000

A case for using Git from the command line instead of GUIs.

When to make a Git commit

Jason McCreary — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:37:00 +0000

2 rules I follow for when to make commits.

Pivoting from Laravel Shift

Jason McCreary — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 17:37:00 +0000

Why I chose to pivot from a recent, successful product to a new product.

Shift Developer Platform

Jason McCreary — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:37:00 +0000

Announcing a platform for developers to build custom Shifts.

3 Git Commands I use every day

Jason McCreary — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 17:37:00 +0000

Some insight into three of the Git commands I use every day.

Getting Git - A Video Series

Jason McCreary — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 17:37:00 +0000

The pre-announcement of my new video series "Getting Git" - a comprehensive guide from git init to Git master.

Practicing YAGNI - Show me the code

Jason McCreary — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 17:37:00 +0000

A write-up of the code samples given during my "Practicing YAGNI" talk at ZendCon 2016.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X Sierra

Jason McCreary — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 04:00:00 +0000

This is an update for Mac OS X Sierra of a previous post on installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Mac OS X.

Updating Apache, PHP, and MySQL to Mac OS X Sierra

Jason McCreary — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Steps to configure PHP, Apache, and MySQL after upgrading from Mac OS X El Capitan to Mac OS X Sierra.

Update PHP on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 23:37:00 +0000

How to upgrade or install a different version of PHP on Mac OS X.

Laravel Shift - 1,000 applications upgraded

Jason McCreary — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 15:37:00 +0000

A retrospective on creating Laravel Shift as it reaches its milestone of 1,000 Laravel applications upgraded.

The Proximity Rule?

Jason McCreary — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 23:37:00 +0000

A recent coding style I call the "Proximity Rule". Might be called something else, but I still like the code.

Practicing YAGNI

Jason McCreary — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 23:37:00 +0000

A summary of my talk at Laracon US 2016 on "Practicing YAGNI".

From Mentoring to Pair Programming to Coaching

Jason McCreary — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 23:37:00 +0000

Going beyond mentoring or pair programming with personal development coaching in PHP, JavaScript, Objective-C, TDD, Git, and more.

Programmer - Stages of Development

Jason McCreary — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:37:00 +0000

A rant on the different stages a programmer reaches during their development.

Shift: Laravel Automated Upgrade Tool

Jason McCreary — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 00:37:00 +0000

Introducing Shift - a Laravel framework automated upgrade tool.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X El Capitan

Jason McCreary — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 04:00:00 +0000

This is an update for Mac OS X El Capitan of a previous post on installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Mac OS X.

Updating Apache, PHP, and MySQL to Mac OS X El Capitan

Jason McCreary — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 04:00:00 +0000

Steps to configure PHP, Apache, and MySQL after upgrading from Mac OS X Yosemite to Mac OS X El Capitan.

100 days practicing TDD

Jason McCreary — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 23:37:00 +0000

A retro after practicing test driven development for 100 days.

Math in Dates

Jason McCreary — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:37:00 +0000

Finding the frequency of dates that satisfy a simple math equation.

Two Weeks of Extreme Programming

Jason McCreary — Wed, 20 May 2015 23:37:00 +0000

Some initial thoughts after two weeks on a new team practicing extreme programming.

The Time I Left Steve in the Grand Canyon

Jason McCreary — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 04:00:00 +0000

The time I left Steve in the Grand Canyon Years ago my college roommate and since long-time friend, Steve, and I hiked the B...

I Don't Disagree

Jason McCreary — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 21:58:00 +0000

A rant for simpler, clearer communication.

Removing Comments

Jason McCreary — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 15:37:00 +0000

A closer look at the practice of removing comments from code.

Migrating from Octopress to Jekyll

Jason McCreary — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 16:37:00 +0000

Back to the basics with just Jekyll.

I'm going to kill you Zason!

Jason McCreary — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:37:00 +0000

Childhood fun that took a wrong turn.

Are you a Boy Scout?

Jason McCreary — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:37:00 +0000

A look at how the simple practice of "boyscouting" can improve your code.

How Task Driven Development Kills the Craft of Software Engineering

Jason McCreary — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:58:00 +0000

A look at how the process of task driven development kills the craft of software engineering.

Got Slack?

Jason McCreary — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 01:28:00 +0000

Got Slack? A look at what slack is, how slack is used, and why you need slack?

Configuring Apache Virtual Hosts on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Tutorial for configuring Apache Virtual Hosts on Mac OS X.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X Yosemite

Jason McCreary — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 05:00:00 +0000

This is an update for Mac OS X Yosemite of a previous post on installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Mac OS X.

The Reading List

Jason McCreary — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:19:00 +0000

A list of books culled over the years on the journey to improve my craft as a software engineer.

Finally, I speak PHP

Jason McCreary — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 19:32:00 +0000

After 3 years of rejection, I am finally speaking at a PHP conference.

Failures and Fuck-ups

Jason McCreary — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:00:00 +0000

A distinction between failure and fuck ups.

The Debugging Golden Rule

Jason McCreary — Tue, 20 May 2014 01:23:00 +0000

Developers need to remember the Debugging Golden Rule.

A rockstar developer can't save you

Jason McCreary — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:53:00 +0000

A rockstar developer can't save you. Why? Because the developer gap.

Letting a successful app fail

Jason McCreary — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 21:29:00 +0000

Making the difficult decision to let PocketBracket, a successful app, fail.

Beerio Kart

Jason McCreary — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 19:05:00 +0000

The rules for turning Mario Kart for the Nintendo 64 into a drinking game.

A Comment from StackOverflow

Jason McCreary — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 02:59:00 +0000

Thoughts on the responsibilities of a top user on StackOverflow after a comment from another user.

Launching my first Kickstarter project

Jason McCreary — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:49:00 +0000

The story behind launching my first project on Kickstarter.

gh - Open GitHub from the Command Line

Jason McCreary — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 01:53:00 +0000

A shell script to open GitHub from the command line.

Recruiter Methods

Jason McCreary — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:22:00 +0000

A closer look at the methods employed by recruiters.

Convert uniqid() to a timestamp

Jason McCreary — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:04:00 +0000

A proof on how you can convert uniqid() to a Unix timestamp in PHP.

Journey to become an iOS Developer

Jason McCreary — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:04:00 +0000

A rant on my journey to become a real iOS developer.

Fixing PHP Errors

Jason McCreary — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:04:00 +0000

A guide to interpreting and fixing PHP errors.

Contribute

Jason McCreary — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:36:00 +0000

A post from my talk as MOSSCon about contributing to Open Source.

Buying a hatchet in Manhattan

Jason McCreary — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:05:00 +0000

The time I bought a hatchet at the Home Depot in midtown Manhattan.

Common debugging for PHP and MySQL

Jason McCreary — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:28:00 +0000

This post provides a basic checklist for common database debugging when developing with examples in PHP and MySQL.

Updated: WordPress Multitenacy

Jason McCreary — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:33:00 +0000

An update to my solution for a multitenant WordPress install. With improvements in maintainability and extensibility.

PHP Namespaces: Avoid use

Jason McCreary — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 02:46:00 +0000

A look at how use breaks PHP namespaces and why you should avoid using use.

Why I leave a job

Jason McCreary — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:51:00 +0000

A reflection on the core criteria of a good job after deciding to leave The New York Times.

How to win Family Feud

Jason McCreary — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:32:00 +0000

A strategy for winning the Family Feud game show based on probability and extensive viewership.

Forward-Compatible Code

Jason McCreary — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 03:01:00 +0000

While updating some legacy code to be backward-compatible I found that forward-compatibility was equally important.

Benchmark: Octopress vs. WordPress

Jason McCreary — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:50:00 +0000

A follow-up post reviewing the benchmarks performed during my recent migration from WordPress to Octopress.

Why Apple should buy Spotify

Jason McCreary — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:51:00 +0000

An app developer's take on why Apple should buy Spotify.

Migrating from WordPress to Octopress

Jason McCreary — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:21:00 +0000

A post on my recent migration from WordPress to Octopress as a return to simple blogging and a site with greasy, fast speed.

A response to "Micro-Optimizations in PHP"

Jason McCreary — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A response to a post on PHP Micro-Optimizations floating around the PHP community recently.

Why [certain language] developers are better developers

Jason McCreary — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000

An evaluation of the argument 'Why [certain language] developers are better developers' and why it might be valid.

Tough Mudder Kentucky

Jason McCreary — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A review of our second Tough Mudder. This course in Kentucky. As well as a quick look at why I am a Tough Mudder.

Be a Better PHP Developer: Coding Standards

Jason McCreary — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The next installment of a series on how to be a better PHP developer, and better developer in general. This post covers PHP coding standards.

Install PEAR and PECL on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

This post outlines how to install PEAR and PECL on Mac OS X.

Speaking at WordCamp Louisville 2012

Jason McCreary — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I'm speaking at WordCamp Louisville 2012. I had a great time last year and look forward to presenting my talk from WordCamp Chicago – 21 Ways to Make WordPress Fast.

Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

This post outlines installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Mac OS X. In addition, I cover configuring Virtual Hosts and installing PHPMyAdmin.

Updating SVN for Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

This post outlines updating SVN for Mac OS X. I updated after realizing new apps used SVN 1.7 while Mac OS X Mountain Lion used SVN 1.6.

Drunkwalking

Jason McCreary — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:00:00 +0000

An unsolved, bedtime mystery from college.

Ice Cream Tragedy

Jason McCreary — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:00:00 +0000

When my sweet tooth lead to an embarrassing moment at the airport.

In Code: Fashion vs. Style

Jason McCreary — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:00:00 +0000

While talking about technologies and trends, I heard an interesting analogy - the difference between fashion & style as it relates to code.

Once I Gave Money to a Bum

Jason McCreary — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

A story from my childhood explaining why I don't give money to bums.

21 Ways to Make WordPress Fast

Jason McCreary — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

WordPress is slow. We know. It's on you to make WordPress fast. This post offers 21 ways to make your site and WordPress faster.

WordPress Multitenancy

Jason McCreary — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

WordPress Multitenancy - a simple solution to a complex problem. This post covers creating a multitenant architecture for WordPress. Aimed at improving scalability and maintainability.

Speaking at WordCamp Chicago 2012

Jason McCreary — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I'm speaking at WordCamp Chicago 2012. I had a great time last year and look forward to presenting my new talk – 21 Ways to Make WordPress Fast.

Be a Better PHP Developer: The Basics

Jason McCreary — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

After reviewing thousands of lines of code over the last few years, I compiled a list of simple tips to help you be a better PHP developer.

Developer vs. Engineer

Jason McCreary — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

After interviewing with some top tech companies, I realized the difference between a developer and an engineer.

Migrating WordPress to Amazon EC2

Jason McCreary — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000

After my shared hosting plan expired, I migrated to Amazon EC2. My WordPress site now runs on a micro instance. Free for the next year.

Day 9: Bear Encounter

Jason McCreary — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the ninth day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 8: Trail Mode

Jason McCreary — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the eighth day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 7: Rain

Jason McCreary — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the seventh day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 6: Trail Legs

Jason McCreary — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the sixth day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 5: Beast Mode

Jason McCreary — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the fifth day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 4: Trade Offs

Jason McCreary — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the fourth day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 3: Going the Distance

Jason McCreary — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the third day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 2: Men and Boys

Jason McCreary — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the second day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Day 1: White Blaze

Jason McCreary — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The journal entry from the first day of my Georgia section hike through the Appalachian Trail.

Appalachian Trail Gear List

Jason McCreary — Sun, 06 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The complete gear list for my Georgia section hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Bootstrapping the Appalachian Trail

Jason McCreary — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

In May I set out a 14 day, 206 mile hike through the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail continuing on to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Louisville PHP User Group

Jason McCreary — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

For years I searched for a PHP User Group in Louisville. No more. I'm starting the Louisville PHP User Group and leading our first meeting.

Another year of PocketBracket: A March Madness App

Jason McCreary — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

A look back on 4 years of developing, managing, and marketing PocketBracket - a March Madness app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices.

Installing and Configuring AWStats on Amazon EC2

Jason McCreary — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Step by step instructions for installing and configuring AWStats on Amazon EC2, as well as a script that automatically configures and updates sites for AWStats.

Generate user password for CakePHP Auth

Jason McCreary — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A script that hashes password for existing user records when using CakePHP Auth.

Netflix Feature Request: Multiple Account Profiles

Jason McCreary — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0000

After recently sharing my Netflix account with my parents, I noticed a missing feature I believe is common in shared systems: User Profiles. This post is a letter to Netflix requesting this feature.

Installing, Configuring, and Deploying I/O Docs

Jason McCreary — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

This post covers installing, configuring, and deploying (Heroku) I/O Docs - a live interactive documentation system for RESTful web APIs developed with node.js and redis.

Unexpected behavior with drop-down option order using minYear, maxYear in CakePHP

Jason McCreary — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

A rant after encountering unexpected sort order when using minYear and maxYear attributes to control options in an drop down. The solution involved an undocumented, and in my opinion unnecessary, attribute.

Tough Mudder Indiana

Jason McCreary — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

An article about our first Tough Mudder - the Tough Mudder Indiana at Badlands Off Road Park in late November 2011.

Installing Node.js, npm, and redis on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:00:00 +0000

After scouring the web for days, this post aims to provide concise, central instructions for installing Node.js, npm, and redis on Mac OS X.

Tough Mudder Challenge

Jason McCreary — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0000

In two weeks I, as part of team #tigerblood, will accept the Tough Mudder Challenge - a 21 obstacle, 12 miles challenge course.

Review of PHPMyAdmin 3.4

Jason McCreary — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0000

PHPMyAdmin 3.4 came with many UI changes. After a few months of using PHPMyAdmin 3.4, I'm weighing the pros and cons.

CakePHP Auth Component loginRedirect Behavior

Jason McCreary — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I came across some interesting behavior with CakePHP's Auth Component. The solution didn't align with the documentation or my understanding of the Auth Component's login redirect. This post covers the problem and my solution.

My Talk at WordCamp Louisville: Configuring WordPress for Multiple Environments

Jason McCreary — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:00:00 +0000

A follow up post from my talk on Configuring WordCamp for Multiple Environments at WordCamp Louisville 2011.

I'm Speaking at WordCamp Louisville

Jason McCreary — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I'll be speaking at the 2011 WordCamp Louisville this Saturday, October 1st. This will be my third time speaking at WordCamp and second time for this talk – Configuring WordPress for Multiple Environments.

Install siege on Mac OS X

Jason McCreary — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0000

I've taken an interested in performance lately and heard about siege. The blog articled I found to install siege failed on the first step. So I decided to write my own in hopes it would help any non sysadmin developer that wanted to install siege on Mac OS X Lion. Although this should work with Leopard and Snow Leopard.

My Talk at WordCamp Chicago: Configuring WordPress for Multiple Environments

Jason McCreary — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:00:00 +0000

A follow up post about my talk on Configuring WordPress for Multiple Environments at WordCamp Chicago. It includes a link to the original blog post, slides, code samples, and a note about the proposed Unconference Talk.

Guidance Text using CakePHP’s Form Helper

Jason McCreary — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0000

A quick post on outputting the proper markup for guidance text using CakePHP's Form Helper.

WordPress Database Connection Error After Migration

Jason McCreary — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Sharing my *moment* with WordPress and its dreaded "Error establishing a database connection" after updating the database.

CakePHP not inheriting custom app_controller and app_model

Jason McCreary — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

My CakePHP project fell down a rabbit hole earlier after creating a custom app_controller and app_model from something that should have been a no-brainer. Hopefully this helps someone else.

Conditional Validation in CakePHP

Jason McCreary — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:00:00 +0000

I needed to perform conditional data validation in CakePHP for a project recently. This is a review of the internal options to do so and my own approach.

A Week with Apple TV and Netflix

Jason McCreary — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Some thoughts after a week with the new Apple TV and signing up for Netflix.

Facebook Places vs Foursquare

Jason McCreary — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0000

A rant on the recent competition between Facebook Places and Foursquare as it relates to intellectual property and the technical industry.

Electrosis

Jason McCreary — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:00:00 +0000

The process by which energy transfers between electrical devices and us.

Root Cause Analysis

Jason McCreary — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0000

A rant that revisits the most important and unfortunately most forgotten component of problem solving - root cause analysis.

PocketBracket 2.0 Update with an iPad Giveaway

Jason McCreary — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

For this year's 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament I updated PocketBracket with a new UI and several user requested features. To build the buzz in the ever competitive app market, I'm running an iPad Giveaway.

An Active Choice: No Flash Support for iPhone, iPad

Jason McCreary — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

I constantly see headlines for articles that just whine about the lack of Flash support on the iPhone OS. This is my believe as to why Flash is not supported in the iPhone OS.

Elevator Etiquette

Jason McCreary — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

After an awkward elevator ride at the end of an already long day, I established an elevator etiquette.

Routines of a good developer

Jason McCreary — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

A reflection on the routines I believe make me a good developer and look for in developers around me.

AWOFT: Meetings

Jason McCreary — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Some quick guidelines on how to keep your everyday work meetings from being a waste of time.

iPhone App: LastPlayed

Jason McCreary — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

A description of my recent iPhone App - LastPlayed. Including development notes, marketing strategy, future direction, and an invitation for your feedback. Complete with a shameless plug for you to download the app for free.

My Last IE6 Hack

Jason McCreary — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Today I wrote my last IE6 hack, to overcome a common CSS bug, and I say good riddance to this nearly decade old browser.

Installing a trampoline on 18′ Hobie Cat

Jason McCreary — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000

As I didn't find a good DIY guide after a few Google searches, I wrote this post after installing a new trampoline on my 18' Hobie Cat.

iPhone App: PocketBracket - March Madness

Jason McCreary — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:00:00 +0000

An article about the process of creating my first iPhone Application - PocketBracket: March Madness. I revisit everything from development to marketing, and the story doesn't end there.

JavaScript Tab Solution using Prototype

Jason McCreary — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

A JavaScript tab solution with a nice Scriptaculous Effect that uses semantic markup, CSS, and degrades gracefully.

JavaScript Accordion using Prototype

Jason McCreary — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

So there are several accordion solutions out there. But after reviewing a few, I created this hybrid using lean markup, simple CSS, and the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries which degrades better than its predecessors.

The Fallout of Babel

Jason McCreary — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

A rant on what diversity, particularly in the development community, costs in respect to advancement.

CSS Organizer and Minifier

Jason McCreary — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0000

A specification for developing a functional CSS Organization and Minification tool that can be used to manage CSS files.

JavaScript Cookie Object using Prototype

Jason McCreary — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0000

A Cookie class in JavaScript, using Prototype, allowing multiple data objects to be stored in a single Cookie. Class contains methods for data management and storage.

"Hello World"

Jason McCreary — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000

If you didn't guess from the title, this is my first article. What does it contain? A look back at the development of this site, of course. I outline the pieces of this site with general development tips.

Why ColdFusion is Dead

Jason McCreary — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000

An explanation on why I never adopted ColdFusion. Including a deeper look at several features, or lack thereof, that drive me nuts and some suggestions on how things could turn around.