Passions Play

Passions Play:
Tech Notes from Benjamin Turner

  • Password Protecting a Directory Using NGINX

    How to password protect a directory using NGINX. This concept is similar to Apache’s password protection of directories using .htaccess rules.

  • Discovering Browser-sync

    There’s a new tool that I’m loving as I explore various ways to streamline my multi-device development. http://www.browsersync.io/ This tool is a node module, which synchronizes interactions between multiple browsers and devices, enabling multiple, concurrent views of the same state of a website. So as an example, we would start browser-sync on the root directory…

  • Tools to Measure and Improve Battery Life on Thinkpads in Linux

    Here are some tools to start measuring and improving battery life in Linux. Measuring Power Performance ibam Working with Power Settings Tool to help set optimal battery settings: http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-management.html With has a decent intro on makeusof. To summarize, install using apt-get: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw Optionall for ThinkPad: sudo apt-get…

  • Vagrant Tools for WordPress Development

    The whole Vagrant ecosystem is developing rapidly with numerous tools being updated and created. While it’s hard to keep up with all the new individual software entrants, there are a couple of tools that I keep coming back to as I become more comfortable with my WordPress development workflow. Vagrant Tools VVV (Varying Vagrant Vagrants) Alison…

  • Using Sed to Update PHP Short tags

    Why not use the power of Sed to quickly replace PHP short tags? sed ‘s:

  • Using Vagrant for WordPress Development

    Creating WordPress Plugins and Themes is a fairly easy process. However, creating a new WP site on a local machine can be fairly tedious. Add to this the individual quirks of servers, and the setup differences between local and production environments and and you start to appreciate the benefits of a real sand-boxed solution. The…

  • Importing OVF Files Into Virtualbox

    In order to quickly create a new WordPress virtual machine, download a new appliance from Turnkey Linux’s WordPress page. For this specific post, download the ‘zip’ file from the ‘OVF’ link. Once downloaded, unzip the file and hack away! See the screenshots for a quick overview, or dive in and read the article.

  • A Case for Virtual Machines

    When Tinkering Gets Out of Hand As a content management system, WordPress excels at tracking your content. By simply applying a new theme, the feeling and tone of the underlying content can be perceived in new and expressive ways. So, what do you do when you’re ready to go beyond tweaking a few lines in…