Pressing info about WordPress

Web logs have been creeping up and have grown very popular over the past 10 years. Over time, the name was shortened from "web log" to "blog." Blogs are a great creative outlet. They are like the (public) diaries of the 21st century. Blogs give anyone the chance to have an online presence and voice. Why do you think I use it? Some people create blogs for entertainment, others do it to share important information, still others do it for commercial reasons.

Regardless of your reason for writing or reading blogs, they have become a huge part of our online culture.

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress(and a mentor for YRS's Festival of Code) was kind enough to answer some of my questions.

What is your background, Mike?

I am a long term software developer. I wrote my first program back in 1978 whilst still at School. I started learning programming in earnest round about 1982 on home computers. I started my first professional computing job in 1990 and have worked in software development ever since.

What inspired you to create WordPress?

WordPress was a fork of an older piece of software that had been practically been abandoned. Matt(the co-founder) and I took that code- because  of its open source and licensing, we were allowed to do that- and updated it, fixed bugs, and released it as WordPress.

What makes WordPress different than other blog template sites?

WordPress is now much, much more than blogging software- it is used on some very sophisticated complex sites. But what set it apart in its early days was its ease of use(something it still prides itself in) and the modern(at the time) standards compliant output.

What advice do you have for aspiring hackers?

Get involved in an Open Source project. If you are not confident with coding, start by testing bug fixes that other people have created(usually in the form of patches or pull requests from a git repository) and figure out if the fix works, and why. When you become more confident, try creating your own fixes to bugs and submit those patches. Expect to find you've not fixed all cases or missed some aspect. On a good project, someone will give you a constructive criticism about your patch. And telling you exactly what is wrong with it in detail *is* constructive- it just doesn't always feel like it!

What's the next project?

My day job is developing WordPress solutions for clients, consulting, and training in WordPress. There is no "project."

Favorite code language?

No real favorites; I've worked in more than 20 programming languages and a good few mark up languages(including some I created myself) I do have a soft spot for Perl though I don't use it often.

Read any good books or seen any good movies lately?

I am always reading good books! I recently read the Game of Thrones set, re-read both the Twilight and Harry Potter series, and am currently reading a fascinating book. It is called "The Introvert Advantage" by Marti Olsen Laney, which is giving me some helpful insights in to my own head.

Whilst I love movies, I don't seem to find the time to watch any at the moment.

Readers, f you've got something to say, or really just want to vent, I suggest you start your own blog! Perhaps Mike can give you some WordPress pointerS!!

Giphy- The One Stop Shop for GIFs

When I first discovered Memes, I thought that there would never be a greater thing to distract me from being productive. What great entertainment they provide! Comedic photos with captions, what could be better? Then I discovered GIFs, or Graphic Interchange Format. Photo videos with captions! Brilliant!

GIFs were introduced by CompuServe in 1987. Much like everything that was produced in the 80's original GIFs were a bit tacky and overdone. (Think big shoulder pads, huge hair, fluorescent makeup, and lots of sequins and spandex.)

I stumbled upon Giphy a few weeks back. As soon as I realized what it was, I tried to pull away, but it was too late and I was already sucked in. This genius website is a compilation of thousands of GIFs. It makes it very simple to find themed GIFs and is an amazing GIF search alternative to Google.

Basically any themed GIF can be found using the search bar on the site. I spent about an hour on the Mean Girls category pages, alone. The opportunities for distractions from work, school, or the gym are endless. Enter with caution, it is addictive, but amazing!



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One of the founders, Jace Cooke, was kind enough to answer some of my questions about Giphy.

1. What is the background of the creators?

 As you know, the founders are myself (Jace Cooke) and Alex Chung. We've been friends and collaborators for a few years.  My experience is in product design while Alex is a true hacker, working everywhere from MTV to Paul Allen's R&D team.  We also both have had previous companies acquired (Facebook and Google, respectively.)  

2. What inspired you to create Giphy?

Giphy started as fun side project based on conversations about how and why people communicate (or could communicate) with moving images.

3. What makes Giphy different than other search engines?

Well, I can't say definitively that we were the first animated GIF search engine, but I personally don't know of any other sites collecting hundreds of thousands of GIFs in one place, with robust tagging and links to every source.  Plus I don't think of Giphy so much as a search engine anymore, but rather a growing destination for discovering, hosting and creating GIFs.  

4. How long did it take to create the site?(From idea to tangible, working product)

The first version of the site took ~5 weekends to build.

5. What advice do you have for aspiring hackers?

Pick a small problem that irks you.  Try and solve it.  Share your solution.  Figure out everything you did wrong.  Repeat.  

6. What's the next project(if you can tell me!)?

Giphy has become our full-time project for the foreseeable future.

7. Favorite code language?

Whichever requires the least lines of code

8. Read any good books or seen any good movies lately?

I'm obsessed with every essay and talk Bret Victor puts out.

Thank you, Giphy, for this amazing site!
 
Go for it. Giphy if you dare!