How Secure Are Your Passwords?

acnorrisukWebLeave a Comment

The web is great for many things. You can shop, find information, communicate with people, share our thoughts and experiences and watch videos of monkeys riding on pigs. The problem is, to use many of these services you need to set up accounts, and that means having to create passwords. A lot of them. Creating a good password can be difficult. The best passwords are a string of … Read More

Browser Plugins Are Your Friend

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When you’re searching around on the web, there are certain questions that crop up over and over. “I wonder what font this site has used?” , “What colour is that background?”, “Is this site responsive?”, “What cookies has this site set?” The answer to all these questions can usually be discovered by searching through the developer tools, but for many of these … Read More

Information Superhighway

acnorrisukTechnology, WebLeave a Comment

Whether it’s a news article, a tweet or a video - we’ve all said it. Whether we’re on a bus, at a cafe, waiting for a train - we’ve all said it. Whether we’re alone or with a friend - we’ve all said it. ‘Grr! Stupid internet. Why are you so slow!?’ It’s only been around for 24 years, yet most of us … Read More

What Does ‘From Scratch’ Really Mean Anyway?

acnorrisukProgramming, WebLeave a Comment

The other day someone asked me what I do for a job. I have to confess I could only manage about 5 whole seconds of the awkward, strained silence that always ensues following the phrase ‘digital developer’ before I inevitably caved and said that I make websites and stuff. ‘Oh, right’, they replied. ‘Do you do that from scratch?’ This question really … Read More

Notes from a Snooping Developer

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I have a new hobby. No it’s not Tree Shaping, Extreme Ironing or even Beetle Fighting (all real hobbies by the way). What I like to do is snoop on other people’s websites. How have they built it? What tools have they used? Have they used a CMS? What does the code look like? How did they do that cool animation … Read More

UI Vs Code

acnorrisukProgramming, Web

Like most people working in the web industry I have spent a lot of time learning how to code. I’ve amassed countless hours in text editors creating websites, games, mini-projects and feel pretty comfortable in that environment. However, the more I know, the more I seem enjoy taking a step back and letting someone (or more accurately something) else do most of the … Read More

WordPress Starter Themes

acnorrisukWeb

Whenever I need to create a new website using WordPress I’m always struck by analysis paralysis. Do I make it from scratch? Do I use a ready-made theme? Do I use a theme framework? It’s often a really hard decision to make as it doesn’t always become clear until later in the project which method would have worked the best. … Read More

Keeping up with the Web

acnorrisukOther, Web

I have a friend who’s been a web developer for over 10 years. When asked about what his job involves he replied ‘I basically have to re-learn everything, everyday’. Web development is a fast paced and ever changing industry. Popular tools and common practices from even just a few years back are now obsolete. In another few years the things we think are … Read More

Brackets and Text Editors

acnorrisukProgramming, Technology, Web

As a web developer or programmer you spend most of your time writing and editing code. So a text editor isn’t just a tool, its more like a colleague - a friend - a companion. Because of this, people often get very protective about their chosen text editor, boasting its functionality, defending its shortcomings, and once they’ve picked one they’re set for … Read More

X - The Ultimate Theme?

acnorrisukOther, Programming, Web

Having used WordPress for a while now I’ve developed a sort of love/hate relationship with it. Love: A plugins for every need Hate: Plugins which break your site Love: Thousands of themes Hate: Spending days fixing themes Love: Lets clients edit content themselves Hate: Confusing content structuring (plugin, page, post, widget?) Luckily, there’s a new theme which solves most of these problems. The … Read More