In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “If I Had a Hammer.” I don’t usually do these daily prompt posts, but today’s topic is something I can definitely write about. And I’ve been wanting to write more anyway, so here goes. If you could learn a trade — say carpentry, electrical work, roofing, landscaping, plumbing, … Continue reading If I Had a Hammer
One of the coolest gifts I got this past Christmas was from my wife. It was a homebrewing starter kit. She has since referred to it as the gift that keeps giving. Because I’m now obsessed. I finally got around to opening up the kit at the beginning of February to brew my first beer. Even after … Continue reading My new hobby has consumed me
As I was trying to reset a password on my Relay For Life account, I ran into this awful case of really bad user experience (UX). When I’m first taken to the form there is no indication or hint as to any rules for the password field. Sometimes you’ll see rules or restrictions for password fields … Continue reading Give me a hint
A big perk of working for Automattic is the meetups. A couple times a year each Automattician gets the chance to meet up with colleagues in various places around the world. The location can be anywhere from Utah to Hawaii to Cyprus.
At the time of writing, I’m sitting on a flight returning from the annual Akismet team meetup. This year we chose Destin, FL as the location. Over the past week we have spent time invaluable time together, and I wanted to share some thoughts and experiences on what makes these weeks so special.
In keeping with my tradition set last year, I’m going to set some goals for 2015.
Sure, goals and resolutions for the new year seem kind of cliché. But setting goals for yourself, both personally and professionally, are a great way to help you grow and achieve success. If you don’t aspire to reach a goal, it’s harder to stay motivated.
A new year is a time to hit reset, and give myself a clear starting point and deadline. Setting public goals gives me some accountability. Here they are in no particular order:
Our story starts in March 2014. Akismet needed some stickers to hand out at a spam conference. So I took an earlier concept by my partner in swag, Nick, and updated the design. What I designed would subsequently create an entire world where good and evil robots battle for victory over the Internet. Ok, so … Continue reading Akisbot lives!
A week and a half ago our little family traveled north to Norwalk, Connecticut. It was a dual-purpose trip serving as both an anniversary getaway to celebrate six years of marriage, and as a meetup location for my wife. She writes for a blog called Daily Mom and this gave her a chance to meet some … Continue reading Road trip: Norwalk, CT
After realizing my previous plugin idea had already been taken, I decided to stay in the same vein of Twitter sharing for the next idea. I wrote a plugin called Tweet Prompt Box that adds a small call to action box at the bottom of a reader’s browser. It appears as they scroll asking them to … Continue reading Plugin released: Tweet Prompt Box
I suffer from an ailment of never being content doing only the work required day to day. Lately I’ve been getting the itch to start building something from scratch again. The last thing I put a lot of time into building was BrewTrackr, and that was almost three years ago. So the next step, and … Continue reading An itch
I’m laying in bed, unable to sleep due to both excitement and nerves, thinking about the events of tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll get on a plane and fly to Park City, Utah, to meet about 250 colleagues I’ve been working with for nearly a year but haven’t met. Every year the entire company gets together … Continue reading Meeting hundreds of people at once
Dan Hauk 