How to configure phpMyAdmin from the MAMP installation to use an actual MySQL root password?

After changing the default password for the MySQL root user, we should not forget to edit the phpMyAdmin configuration file. But how do this if we use the MAMP app from appsolute GmbH for local web development on our macOS device. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to configure phpMyAdmin from the MAMP installation to use an actual password of the MySQL root user.

Set up Microsoft email account on Apple MacBook, iMac, and Mac Pro

To have an access to your Microsoft’s email account from your Apple MacBook (any), iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro you can use the Microsoft Outlook app available from the Apple’s App Store. But you may prefer to use the built-in macOS Mail app for all your email accounts, like I do. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set up your Microsoft email account (Hotmail, Outlook, Live, or MSN) using the built-in macOS Mail app.

Set up Microsoft email account on Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

To have an access to your Microsoft’s email account from your Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch you can use the Microsoft Outlook app available from the Apple’s App Store. But you may prefer to use the built-in iOS Mail app for all your email accounts, like I do. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set up your Microsoft email account (Hotmail, Outlook, Live, or MSN) using the built-in iOS Mail app.

How to check the battery level of Apple Pencil?

The Apple Pencil provides long battery life (about 12 hours, according to Apple) and charges very quickly. If its battery is low, you can connect it to the Lightning port of your iPad and get 30 minutes of use from as little as fifteen seconds of charging. The 2nd generation Pencil has a brand new charging system that allow you to chard it wirelessly. However, the accessory itself lacks a battery status indicator, which shows the battery charge level. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to check the battery level of your Apple Pencil, right on your iPad (mini, Air or Pro).

Speeding up your website using DNS prefetching technique

DNS prefetching is another way to enhance the performance of the front-end of a website. We can use it to tell the browser which assets (actually only the domain names where these assets are located) the user might need in the future — before they even need them. With it, the page loads faster, and users can achieve their goals as quickly as possible. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to speed up your website using DNS prefetching technique.

WooCommerce: Remove links to the product details pages

Sometimes, WooCommerce store owners do not want to display a links to the product details pages on the product listing page on their website. This can be helpful if you are going to use Quick View instead, or your products don’t require much description, or you link to product pages elsewhere. This will leave only the “Add to cart” button available, so customers will not be able to get to the product details page, but they will still be able to purchase the product. In this article, I will show you how to remove the links to the product details pages from the product listing page of a WooCommerce store.

What to do if the "Network Admin" menu item not showing in WordPress Multisite dashboard

WordPress Multisite enables you to create multiple websites from a single installation, requiring only one database and one set of files for many websites. Recently I moved my WordPress Multisite installation to another server and updated my WordPress admin login details. After this, the “Network Admin” menu item disappeared from WordPress Multisite dashboard. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to solve this problem.

Why does the "Anarcho Notepad" and "Authors Notepad" themes display user-entered HTML code as plain text?

The Anarcho Notepad, Author’s Notepad and Simple Notepad themes are easy to customize using the WordPress Customizer interface, where you can find many useful built-in options such as the option category called “Scripts”. But if you were trying to add a custom HTML/JavaScript code using the “Scripts” option category, you probably found that in the front-end of website the custom HTML/JavaScript code is displayed as plain text. In this article, I will show you how to easily solve this issue.

Add Hotjar tracking to a Jekyll website

Hotjar allows you to understand what your websites visitors want, care about and do on your website by visually representing their clicks, taps and scrolling behavior - which are the strongest indicators of visitor motivation and desire. Such information can be very useful for deciding how best to deliver content. The Hotjar Tracking Code needs to be installed within our website in order to start collecting data. Below, I’ll explain how to add Hotjar Tracking Code to a Jekyll website hosted on GitHub Pages.

How to delete discussion threads with incorrect URL in Disqus

The first time Disqus is loaded on a website page, the Disqus system automatically creates a new discussion thread and associates that discussion with the URL of the page used during that first load. This is an incredibly simple, user-friendly solution. However, there is a downside of automatically created discussion threads. Recently, in my Disqus Admin area, I noticed that there are many discussion threads that are a mistake because they contain incorrect URLs. In this tutorial, I will show you how I got rid of my website’s discussion threads with incorrect URL.

WP Plugin: "Social Media Follow Buttons Bar PRO"

“Social Media Follow Buttons Bar PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily add the smart bar with social media follow buttons to any place (post, page, widget, sidebar, footer) of your WordPress website. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “Social Media Follow Buttons Bar”. More features, more power. Up to 10 buttons bar instances, Separate settings for buttons bars, and much more.

How to change the font of the yellow tabs in "Authors Notepad" and "Simple Notepad" themes?

The Author’s Notepad and Simple Notepad themes are easy to customize using the WordPress Customizer interface, where you can find many useful built-in options. But if you were trying to make the yellow tabs on the side of the notepad look different, you probably found that there is no such option in the Customizer. Fortunately, there is another easy solution.

What to do if the MAMP app fails to start MySQL server? (Using the Terminal)

On my macOS devices I use MAMP app by appsolute GmbH for local web development. So far, this is the perfect app for me to have a local server environment. But sometimes there are problems such as the following error message when I try to start the servers:

MySQL wasn't able to start. Please check log for more information

Why is the code from my functions.php file not working from inside the plugin?

It happens that after moving a PHP code from the functions.php file of the theme on a WordPress website to the functionality plugin, it stops working and even leads to an inaccessible of the website, although before that it worked. In this article I will explain why the custom PHP code does not work from inside the functionality plugin, and I show you how to solve this.

What to do if phpMyAdmin from the MAMP installation fails to access MySQL?

On my macOS devices I use MAMP app by appsolute GmbH for local web development. But sometimes there are problems. When I try to access the phpMyAdmin web page located at localhost/phpMyAdmin/index.php, the following error message appears:

How to download a complete macOS Mojave installer app

Attempting to download macOS Mojave from the Mac App Store I found that a small 22 MB version of the “Install macOS Mojave.app” file downloads to the “Applications” folder, rather than the complete 6 GB installer file.

Add Google AdSense Matched content to a Jekyll website

Google AdSense is a free and easy way to earn money by placing third-party advertisements on a website. Did you know that you can use Google AdSense to also show related posts in Jekyll? Yes, there is a feature called “Matched Content”, and it is 100% responsive (mobile-friendly). You also have the option to monetize this unit with relevant ads that are shown alongside your related posts. I decided to try this feature in action to add the related posts unit at the end of each blog post, just above the comments section. In this article, I will show you how to easily use Google AdSense Matched content to show related posts in Jekyll.

WP Plugin: "JavaScript Inserter PRO"

“JavaScript Inserter PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom JavaScript code to your WordPress website, directly out of the WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “JavaScript Inserter”. More features, more power. Unlimited number of fields for snippets, Separate activation and deactivation of snippets, and Automatic backup of snippets to a file. Another advantage is the ability to customize the code editor. You can choose from a variety of color schemes for syntax highlighting, choose whether to show line numbers or not, and much more.

WP Plugin: "Head and Footer Scripts Inserter PRO"

“Head and Footer Scripts Inserter PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom HTML code (plus JavaScript, CSS, etc.) to your WordPress website, directly out of the WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “Head and Footer Scripts Inserter”. More features, more power. Unlimited number of fields for snippets, Separate activation and deactivation of snippets, and Automatic backup of snippets to a file. Another advantage is the ability to customize the code editor. You can choose from a variety of color schemes for syntax highlighting, choose whether to show line numbers or not, and much more.

What to do if the MAMP app fails to start MySQL server?

On my macOS devices I use MAMP app by appsolute GmbH for local web development. So far, this is the perfect app for me to have a local server environment. But sometimes there are problems such as the following error message when I try to start the servers:

MySQL wasn't able to start. Please check log for more information

WP Plugin: "JavaScript Inserter"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom JavaScript code in the head or/and footer section of your website.

How to reclaim full capacity on flash memory card or USB flash drive

Have you ever met this problem that the flash memory card or USB flash drive is not showing the full capacity but a wrong size in macOS? I got this problem every time when trying to erase the SD memory card after working with Raspberry Pi. In this article I will show you how to format to reclaim full capacity on flash drive and make it available for saving data again now.

What to do if any WordPress plugin is automatically deactivated during the update?

Have you recently updated any WordPress plugin, but it was automatically deactivated? Then chances you now getting the following error message (an example):

Warning: fopen(/home/public_html/site/wp-content/plugins/header-and-footer-scripts-inserter/header-and-footer-scripts-inserter.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/public_html/site/wp-includes/functions.php on line 4835

What to do if the "My Custom Functions" plugin fails to activate after a failure?

If you were trying something new on your WordPress website and after editing/entering custom code on the settings page of the plugin My Custom Functions your website becomes inaccessible, you may decide to delete the plugin manually (via FTP) and install it again, but then you will run into the fact that the plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error. In this article I will show you how to activate the plugin without errors and fix the error in your custom code that you entered on the plugin settings page.

What to do if the "My Custom Functions" plugin causes the site failure?

If you were trying something new on your WordPress website and after editing/entering custom code on the settings page of the plugin My Custom Functions your website becomes inaccessible, then don’t panic. You are not the first one to face this situation. In this article I will show you how to get your website return to life and fix the error in your custom code.

WP Plugin: "My Syntax Highlighter PRO"

“My Syntax Highlighter PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that provides a simple way for embedding syntax-highlighted source code within pages or posts on your website, without losing it’s formatting or making any manual changes. Supporting 154 programming languages, 125 shortcodes and 56 themes. The syntax highlighting feature implemented via a CodeMirror library. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “My Syntax Highlighter”. More features, more power.

How to filter a range of IP addresses in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is used to track how a visitors interact with our website. When our Google Analytics report contains data about internal and external traffic on our website, the statistics will be incorrect, as it is adversely affected by our own visits (internal traffic). This includes from our home, our office, and anywhere else we hit our website. It may also include our co-workers, or any member of our team. But we can stop Analytics from tracking our internal traffic by filtering our IP address.

How to filter internal traffic in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is used to track how a visitors interact with our website. When our Google Analytics report contains data about internal and external traffic on our website, the statistics will be incorrect, as it is adversely affected by our own visits (internal traffic). This includes from our home, our office, and anywhere else we hit our website. It may also include our co-workers, or any member of our team. But we can stop Analytics from tracking our internal traffic by filtering our IP address.

How to fix: jekyll | Error: undefined method 'to_i' for #<Date:

After successfully installing the Jekyll Algolia Plugin (the gem jekyll-algolia), I tried to push the content of my Jekyll website to an Algolia index. But when I run the jekyll algolia command it throws the following error message:

$ bundle exec jekyll algolia
Configuration file: /Users/arthur/sites/mywebsite/_config.yml
Processing site...
Extracting records...
jekyll 3.6.2 | Error:  undefined method `to_i' for #<Date: 2017-08-25 ((2457991j,0s,0n),+0s,2299161j)>
Did you mean?  to_time
to_s

What to do if the "Convert to APFS..." option is not available or greyed out?

I started up the Disk Utility and tried to Erase the disc and make it HFS+, then convert it to APFS. But after I get HFS+ I noticed that the “Convert to APFS…” option is for some reason deactivated. It is visible but it is greyed out and can not be selected.

How to prepare a brand new hard drive for use with macOS

I bought a brand new external hard drive (disk) Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1Tb. A Transcend company says that it can be used on both Windows and macOS. But most drives (from any manufacturer) come formatted in the NTFS file system format for OS Windows, while for macOS we needed the HFS+ format or the Apple’s brand new APFS (Apple File System) format. macOS can read but not write to NTFS formatted drives. So the only workaround is to format the disc to HFS+ or APFS.

Create a personal bin directory (~/bin) and run scripts without specifying their full path

Sometimes there is a need to download some command-line application (like ExifTool) and run it from the Terminal, but without putting it into a main system directory for the bin files - /usr/local/bin/.

How to convert a hard drive from HFS+ to APFS

Recently, Apple introduced its new file system called APFS (Apple File System). This brand new file system is designed for use on SSD disks, but there’s nothing wrong with using it on usual hard disks. The easiest way to format the disc is by using macOS built-in Disk Utility app. Let’s get started.

How to fix: The volume can't be ejected because it's currently in use (for regular users)

After working with an external hard drive (further simply - disk) I want to cleanly unmount it. But to my surprise when pressing the ‘eject’ button Finder warns me with the following error message:

How to download a complete macOS High Sierra installer app

Recently my sister asked me to reinstall the macOS High Sierra on her iMac because it stopped working correctly. I thought that it would be easy to do but I was mistaken. I successfully installed the macOS Mountain Lion (when using the NetBoot it automatically selects the version of macOS with which the iMac was shipped with). But then I was facing multiple issues trying to update macOS from Mountain Lion to High Sierra via the Mac App Store.

How to fix: The volume can't be ejected because it's currently in use

After working with an external hard drive (further simply - disk) I want to cleanly unmount it. But to my surprise when pressing the ‘eject’ button Finder warns me with the following error messages:

The volume can't be ejected because it's currently in use.

How to fix: fatal: Authentication failed for https://github.com/

After enabling a two-factor authentication in my GitHub account, when I run the Git git push command it throws the following error message:

$ git push
Username for 'https://github.com': Username
Password for 'https://Username@github.com':
remote: Invalid username or password.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/username/repository.git/'

How to fix: MediaKit reports not enough space on device for requested operation

Today I bought a brand new external hard drive WD Elements Portable 1Tb. A Western Digital company says that it can be used on both Windows and macOS. But most WD drives come formatted in the NTFS file system format for OS Windows, while for macOS we needed the HFS+ format or the Apple’s brand new APFS (Apple File System) format.

How to fix: bundler: command not found: jekyll

We can set up a local version of our Jekyll GitHub Pages website to preview our website before making the changes public. But after upgrading MacOS to version “High Sierra” on my MacBook, when I run the jekyll bundle exec jekyll serve command it throws the following error message:

$ bundle exec jekyll serve
bundler: command not found: jekyll
Install missing gem executables with `bundle install`

How to fix: Your user account isn't allowed to install to the system RubyGems

This happened to me after upgrading MacOS to version “High Sierra” on my MacBook. I cloned my application repository and went to execute a bundle install command, but it throws the following error message:

The problem with highlighting PHP code with Rouge

By default Jekyll version 3, ships with Rouge syntax highlighter. It has built in support for syntax highlighting of over 100 languages. I’m using Rouge with fenced code blocks in markdown. But I noticed that in the case of PHP code, the highlighting does not work at all.

Run WordPress Multisite locally on macOS with MAMP PRO app

Recently I have been working on a large project that required using the WordPress multisite. WordPress Multisite enables you to create multiple websites from a single installation, requiring only one database and one set of files for many websites. On my macOS devices I use MAMP PRO app by appsolute GmbH for local development and therefore I needed to get MAMP working with WordPress multisite and sub domains. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to run WordPress Multisite with a MAMP PRO app.

Jekyll + Bootstrap: Dynamic navigation bar with highlighting of the active element

I love using Jekyll and Bootstrap to create static websites. Jekyll is pretty cool, but doesn’t have really much helper utils to get common tasks done well and fast. In building a website powered by Jekyll, I want to have ability to create a dynamic navigation bar with highlighting of the active element in the bar. I also wanted the bar to support the second level elements (i.e. Bootstrap Dropdown menu). Since I don’t like hard coded HTML navigation links, I therefore worked out an alternative, configurable way. This is the solution I arrived at after a few hours of thinking and code writing.

WordPress error: Can’t use function return value in write context

My WordPress website crashed after installing an update of one of the plugins. Then I could see only the white screen with the following error message:

Fatal error: Can’t use function return value in write context in /public_html/domain-name.com/wp-content/plugins/some-plugin/inc/php/functional.php on line 19

Add Google Analytics to WordPress website

Google Analytics allows you to get information about your websites visitors such as the devices or OS they were using and their location. Such information can be very useful for deciding how best to deliver content. Below, I’ll explain how to set up a Google Analytics on the WordPress website.

How to fix: Can’t use function return value in write context

After making an update to one of my WordPress plugins, when trying to load plugin settings page, I get the following error message:

Fatal error: Can’t use function return value in write context in /public_html/domain-name.com/wp-content/plugins/rss-feed-icon-for-specificfeedscom/inc/php/functional.php on line 19

Using constants in WordPress plugin

I’ve been writing WordPress plugins for a long time. At the top of the main plugin file, I usually define some constants. These constants contain basic information about my plugin, such as: Name of plugin, Path to plugin folder, Text domain name, and etc. Constants give me the opportunity to have easy and quick access to this information. And if I need to change any of this information, then I just change it once in constant instead of looking for every mention of this information in all plugin files.

How to fix: Jekyll build/serve error message

We can set up a local version of our Jekyll GitHub Pages website to preview our website before making the changes public. But when I run the jekyll [build | serve] command it throws the following error message:

Detect ad blocker and show a message to visitor of website

For many websites that publish content for free, ads are one of the primary sources for getting revenue. This revenue is spent for paying the expenses to run the website. Reduction of the displayed ads means less revenue. If you’re finding that the majority of your website’s visitors are blocking ads then you might want to try displaying a friendly message asking them to disable the ad blocker extension that they have installed in web browser. In this article I’ll show you how I detect the ad blockers and show the message to visitors of my website.

Making smart sticky elements by using a jQuery plugin

Sometimes when I surfing the Internet I see the sticky elements that applied on website. Most often it’s a sticky ads that placed in sidebar. Sticky ad is an ad unit that stays in place while the page scrolls. Some are fixed completely when others (often placed at the end of sidebar content) scroll until they are in view then stay in a fixed position as the user scrolls further down the page.

Including the jQuery library to website

In addition to custom JavaScript files many developers find jQuery useful. jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library available that allows developers to easily and quickly add enhancements to the appearance and behaviors of their projects. So developers can perform common JavaScript functions while using less code.

WP Plugin: "Syntax Highlighter for Post/Page HTML Editor"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that replaces the default Post & Page HTML/Text Editor with an enhanced editor by a CodeMirror library. The WordPress default Post & Page HTML/Text Editor is great for doing some custom changes to HTML markup of your post/page, although it is rather limited. This is where the “Syntax Highlighter for Post/Page HTML Editor” can help. With an enhanced HTML/Text editor you can see a code with syntax highlighting, and with line numbering, so you can easily read your HTML markup and detect any errors.

Social Media Share Bar for Jekyll blog/website

Allowing users to share your articles on social media is a common blog/website feature. More share is equal to more eyeballs on your article. Shares will drive traffic to your blog/website and sometimes it may go viral. But, if you read a lot over the internet then you know how hard it is to share an interesting article with your friends if it doesn’t have a share buttons, so it is necessary to provide an option to share. In this article I show you how I added the social media share bar widget to this Jekyll website.

WP Theme: "Simple Notepad"

We designed this premium WordPress theme for your personal blogs and diaries. This theme is perfect for writers and artists. “Authors Notepad” can be easily customized and already translated to different languages. It utilizes latest HTML-5, CSS-3, PHP and WordPress native functions for creating the awesomeness that looks good on every browser. We are constantly adding new features to this theme to allow you to personalize it to your own needs. If you want a new feature or just want to be able to change something just ask us and we would be happy to add it. We are glad to present you this premium theme. Enjoy!

WP Theme: "Authors Notepad"

We designed this premium WordPress theme for your personal blogs and diaries. This theme is perfect for writers and artists. “Authors Notepad” can be easily customized and already translated to different languages. It utilizes latest HTML-5, CSS-3, PHP and WordPress native functions for creating the awesomeness that looks good on every browser. We are constantly adding new features to this theme to allow you to personalize it to your own needs. If you want a new feature or just want to be able to change something just ask us and we would be happy to add it. We are glad to present you this premium theme. Enjoy!

How to fix: MailChimp Subscriber Pop-Up not working in WordPress

MailChimp is a great solution to add the subscription form to our websites. The only problem is that the MailChimp Subscriber Pop-Up doesn’t work on WordPress websites. I added the MailChimp Subscriber Pop-Up embed code to one of my WordPress websites, but nothing happened when I loaded any website page where the pop-up should have appeared. I searched Google and noticed that many others have the same issue in WordPress.

Exclude Pages from Navigation Menu in Jekyll

My Jekyll based website have a small number of first-tier pages that I would like to display in the navigation menu, but I also have some second-tier pages that I would like to not junk up the navigation menu. There are many ways to exclude pages from the navigation menu in Jekyll, but I’m trying to avoid using plugins, because I believe that the simplest solution is to just exclude second-tier pages from the navigation menu entirely. One quick and easy way I found is to simply harness the power of Jekyll’s Front-matter for any page I want to exclude. It’s a simple two-step process.

Integration of the WordPress Media Uploader into Plugin Options Page

Sometimes I want to create a simple and intuitive graphic interface for my clients in order to give them an opportunity to upload an images on the options page of my plugin. I could make just a text input field where they can place the image URL, and sometimes it’s what I need in a certain situation, but more often it is a not professional to make so. I want to have a happy clients, I want to make a user-friendly interface of my plugins. In this article I will show you how to integrate a beautiful, simple and customizable WordPress Media Uploader into your plugin options page.

WP Plugin: "RSS Feed Icon"

An easy to use and lightweight WordPress plugin that lets you easily add the RSS feed icon by using a simple shortcode in any place of your website, such as: header, post content , page content, sidebar and/or footer. RSS feed icon allows your visitors to receive messages from your Blog/RSS feed by email.

WooCommerce: Remove the "Additional Information" tab

Some of my WooCommerce clients didn’t want to show the “Additional Information” tab on the product details pages on their website. There are 2 simple solutions: CSS one to hide this tab and PHP one to delete it completely. In this article I show you both solutions.

How to fix: No matching key exchange method found by OpenSSH 7.0

After update to a new release of SSH, when trying to connect to my server by using SSH, I get the following message:

Unable to negotiate with 192.168.1.1 port 22: no matching key exchange method found.
Their offer: diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

The best place for publish and download icons + 50% Discount

Hello everyone! For any blog owner or web designer it’s important to know where to download quality resources: fonts, images, icons and more. Since I am not just a web designer, but also an illustrator, so for my projects I draw icons by myself. But sometimes, due to lack of time, I prefer to download already made icons. Today I’ll tell you about my favorite website where you can find free or premium icons for any taste and color. I’ll tell you about IconFinder.com, which has the largest collection of premium icons in the world.

WP Plugin: "My Custom Styles PRO"

“My Custom Styles PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom CSS code to your WordPress website, directly out of the WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “My Custom Styles”. More features, more power. Unlimited number of fields for snippets, Separate activation and deactivation of snippets, and Automatic backup of snippets to a file. Another advantage is the ability to customize the code editor. You can choose from a variety of color schemes for syntax highlighting, choose whether to show line numbers or not, and much more.

WP Plugin: "My Custom Functions PRO"

“My Custom Functions PRO” is a premium WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom PHP code to your WordPress website, directly out of the WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor. This is a “PRO” version of the plugin “My Custom Functions”. More features, more power. Unlimited number of fields for functions, Separate activation and deactivation of functions, and Automatic backup of functions to a file. Another advantage is the ability to customize the code editor. You can choose from a variety of color schemes for syntax highlighting, choose whether to show line numbers or not, and much more.

Adding an email subscription form to your blog by using Feedburner

A great way to keep up to date with a blog that you love to follow is to subscribe to an email subscription of their posts. That way, when a new post is made, it lands right in your email inbox. If you want to offer this to people who visit your blog, it is easy to do. In this article I show you how to add to your blog an email subscription form that connected to Feedburner.

Adding an email subscription button to your blog by using Feedburner

A great way to keep up to date with a blog that you love to follow is to subscribe to an email subscription of their posts. That way, when a new post is made, it lands right in your email inbox. If you want to offer this to people who visit your blog, it is easy to do. In this article I show you how to add to your blog an email subscription button that connected to Feedburner.

Adding a comment count to your blog with Disqus

Most blog owners that uses the Disqus comments system want to display the comment count for each page with comments, on their home page. Luckily Disqus has built in support for comment count. The setup isn’t difficult, but does require a bit of theme editing.

Create HTML link that starts a Skype call

Nowadays most of the people use Skype, but not everyone knows that we can use an HTML link to launch Skype calls from your web browser or emails. Today I’ll show how to add a Skype “Call Me” button to your website or blog and let people get in touch with just the click of a button. Whether they’re on a computer or mobile, they will get through with a voice call or an instant message.

Privacy Policy Template

This Privacy Policy Template is covers the general privacy concerns and regulations. I hope you find it useful and a good starting point in compiling your own privacy policy for use on your own website or app. Feel free to add stuff that I haven’t added, and remove stuff that you don’t like. If there are ways that I can do things better, you should absolutely report issues or send me a pull request because I love them so much.

WP Plugin: "My Syntax Highlighter"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that provides a simple way for embedding syntax-highlighted source code within pages or posts on your website, without losing it’s formatting or making any manual changes. Supporting 13 languages, 16 shortcodes and 36 themes. The syntax highlighting feature implemented via a CodeMirror library.

Replace the Rouge highlighter with Prism.js in Jekyll

By default Jekyll 3, ships with Rouge syntax highlighter. But for some reasons you may want to replace it with Prism.js syntax highlighter. Prism.js is a very lightweight JavaScript library to provide code highlighting on websites. In this article I will show you how to set up it on Jekyll-based website.

Disable the Rouge - Jekyll's default syntax highlighter

By default Jekyll version 3, ships with Rouge syntax highlighter. For some reason, you may want to disable it. For example, if you replace the built-in Rouge to another syntax highlighter such as Prism.js or your own custom highlighter.

Fixing the Jekyll + GitHub Metadata warning

We can set up a local version of our Jekyll GitHub Pages website to preview our website before making the changes public. But when I run the jekyll serve command it throws the following error message:

GitHub Metadata: No GitHub API authentication could be found. Some fields may be missing or have incorrect data.

Syntax Highlighting in Jekyll

Jekyll has built in support for Syntax Highlighting of over 100 languages. You can have code snippets highlighted so that they are easier to read on your GitHub Pages website. In this post I will show you how you can integrate Rouge into your Jekyll setup.

Integrate Flatr button to Jekyll website

Flattr is a free and easy way to earn money from blog posts. My Github hosted Jekyll website is being used primarily as a blog as you can see. By placing a small Flattr button at the end of each blog post, just above the comments section, I can ensure that visitors of my blog have an opportunity to thank me for the article. In this article, I will show you how to easily use Flattr to show “Thanks” button in Jekyll.

Add icon-fonts to Adobe Muse website

The beauty of icon-fonts is that they are in essence, fonts. Which means they can be used much like any other piece of text. Unlike images they can have their colour changed easily, can be scaled and are lightweight in download terms. And they are fully responsive and retina friendly. The huge choice available at Font Awesome, Bootstrap and Google font icons means that you should find the exact graphic you are looking for and when combined with other muse assets you can quickly and easily build buttons, graphics and widgets. In this article you’ll learn how to use and customize the Font Awesome, Bootstrap and Google font icons in any Muse website.

Safari's and Chrome's default styles for HTML5 search input

The new HTML5 form input types save me tons of work on form validation, and they’ll assist your users in filling them (by providing more in-browser features, alternate keyboard layouts and more). It works great, but unfortunately, the Safari and Chrome browsers uses their own default stylsheet for this inputs, and so you can’t style (add a CSS properties) the search input yourself. I didn’t need this in-browser style for my search input, because I want to add my own CSS properties to search input, so after some searching, I discovered the below solution.

Jekyll post not showing up

Some time ago I was faced with such a problem. I have tried to add a new post to my Jekyll website, but I could not see it on the generated pages when I run jekyll serve. So what are the some common reasons for a Jekyll post to not be generated?

How to generate an Envato Marketplace API key

In this tutorial I show you how to generate an Envato Marketplace API key. This API can be used for various things, like:

Add Google Analytics to a Jekyll website

Google Analytics allows you to get information about your websites visitors such as the devices or OS they were using and their location. Such information can be very useful for deciding how best to deliver content. Below, I’ll explain how to set up a Google Analytics on Github website that is built using Jekyll.

Add Google AdSense to a Jekyll website

Google AdSense is a free and easy way to earn money by placing third-party advertisements on a website. My Github hosted Jekyll website is being used primarily as a blog as you can see, so I wanted to host an advertisement at the end of each blog post, just above the comments section. In this article, I will show you how to easily use Google AdSense to show advertisements in Jekyll.

WP Plugin: "Syntax Highlighter for WP Editor"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that replaces the default Theme and Plugin Source Code Editor with an enhanced editor by a CodeMirror library. The WordPress default Theme Editor (in Appearance => Editor) and Plugin Editor (in Plugins => Editor) is great for doing some custom changes to your Themes or Plugins files, although it is rather limited. This is where the “Syntax Highlighter for WP Editor” can help. With an enhanced source code editor you can see a code with syntax highlighting, and with line numbering, so you can easily read your code and detect any errors.

WP Plugin: "Simple Scroll to Top Button"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to add a “Scroll to Top” button to your website in a simple and elegant way. This button appears at the bottom-right of the website once the visitors scrolls down a page on your website. It appears only when visitors scroll down the webpage. As a result, your website visitors can easily scroll smoothly back to the very top of a page with one click of the button. This can be particularly handy for pages with a lot of text/content, or in cases wherever a browser’s scrollbar is just not good enough (or not present at all, like on tablets) to enable one-click, one-screen scrolling. This gives your website better navigation and also adds a more professional look to your website.

WP Plugin: "Best Preloader"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to add the preloader (animated loading screen indicator) to your website in a simple and elegant way.

WP Plugin: "Head and Footer Scripts Inserter"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom HTML code (plus JavaScript, CSS, etc.) in the head or/and footer section of your website.

Disabling right-clicking by using JavaScript

It makes sense to do everything you can to protect your copyrighted content. While there is no way to completely stop people from stealing your images, you can make it harder. Disabling right-clicking is one method you can use to deter casual theft.

Creating pop-up windows by using HTML and JavaScript

Pop-ups windows are some of the most common UI elements that we can find in websites. Sometimes it’s useful to add a pop-up to your pages. You can use it, for example, to create a contact forms (sign-up boxes), photo galleries, or for areas of your website that you might need a link containing “more information”.

Custom 404 page for website hosted on GitHub

Recently I migrated my personal website to Adobe Muse and hosted it on GitHub Pages. Here it is: arthurgareginyan.com. Everything looks good. I tried to preserve my existing URLs. But the process wasn’t perfect. So I created a custom 404 page.

Contact form for static website

I have recently put together an Adobe Muse website hosted in GitHub Pages here: www.arthurgareginyan.com. GitHub Pages accepts static HTML and can’t execute languages like PHP or use a database. I love static websites. They are simple and fast. But they don’t have a back-end to create things such as contact form. So firstly I was just giving my email address on the website, which turned out to be bad idea. Then I googled and stumbled upon Formspree, and I fell in love.

Configuring a GoDaddy domain name with GitHub pages

GitHub Pages is an incredibly simple, user-friendly solution for hosting a simple personal website. By default the address will be username.github.io. Below, I’ll explain how I set up my github.io user page with my own domain name arthurgareginyan.com that registered trough GoDaddy.com.

WordPress Download Button

The WordPress download button is a special button which are linked to file in repository of your software at WordPress.org. In this article you will learn how to add a dark with gradient WordPress download active button to your website or blog, using just code (HTML, CSS & SVG data), without any image files. The design of button and WordPress icon will be generated by code.

WP Plugin: "Social Media Follow Buttons Bar"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily add the smart bar with social media follow buttons to any place (post, page, widget, sidebar, footer) of your WordPress website.

GitHub Fork Button

The GitHub fork button is a special button which are linked to repository of your software at GitHub.com. In this article you will learn how to add a GitHub fork button to your website’s or blog’s post, using just code (HTML, CSS & SVG), without any images files. The design of button and GitHub icon will be generated by code.

Change the MIME type of file by using Subversion

MIME stands for “Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. It’s a way of identifying files on the Internet according to their nature and format. For example, using the Content-type header value defined in a HTTP response, the browser can open the file with the proper extension/plugin. Or, if this is a screenshot of plugin which located on WordPress.org repository, then it must be opened in the tab of web browser rather than downloaded to computer. Next, I’ll show you how to set the correct MIME Type of a file using Subversion (SVN) from the command line.

Git commands that you need to know to work with tags

Like most VCSs, Git has the ability to tag specific points in history as being important. Typically people use this functionality to mark release points (v0.1, v1.0 and so on). In this post, you’ll learn how to list the available tags, how to create new tags and how to rename or delete the tags.

WP Plugin: "All Meta Tags"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom meta tags to your WordPress website, directly out of the WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor.

Loading scripts on WordPress admin pages

Sometimes you may want to create a separate style sheet and/or JavaScript file for settings page of your plugin, versus inserting it into existing code of this page. But how load this script on only a plugin’s or theme’s settings page (on certain /wp-admin pages)?

Migrate events of Final Cut Pro X

To migrate an Event from the application Final Cut Pro X (hereinafter FCPX), from one Mac to another Mac, not enough simply to move this event at the same place on an another Mac, because so event do not appear in the library of FCPX.

How to fix: "Setting locale failed."

In different situations (for example, during the installation of Perl applications, or when I use apt-get install) I get the following warning message:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = (unset),
LC_CTYPE = "UTF-8",
LANG = "ru_RU.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

How to fix: CodeMirror editor is not loading content until clicked

I am used CodeMirror 5 in different projects. Now I using it with WordPress plugin API and it’s working perfectly except that the editor is not loading all content until clicked. Nothing appears below line 26 until you click the mouse below that line. The content is there, but it is not visible. It just comes up as a large blank white space. If you click above it, it doesn’t appear, you need to click below it.

Increasing the upload_max_filesize

The default upload file size for php (and, consequently, for WordPress) is 2 MB, which is a problem if you want to upload a files that’s bigger. Follow these steps if you get this message:

The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini

Add social media buttons to your website

The social media buttons lets you add icons of the popular social networks which are linked to your social media profiles. You will learn how to add a vertical and horizontal line or lines of social media buttons to your website’s post, sidebar or footer, using whatever icons you prefer.

WP Plugin: "My Custom Styles"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom CSS code to your WordPress website, directly out of your WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor.

JavaScript with the attribute “CF-Hash” mysteriously added to a source code

I just noticed that one of my articles on the website has a strange JavaScript code added to my raw code that I show in article.

Upgrading the SVN working copy to new version

Today I upgraded the Subversion on my computer from 1.6 to 1.7 version. Subversion version 1.7 has a new repository structure and requires to upgrade all existing working copies.

Access to the Library folder (~/Library) in the Finder

From version of Mac OS X — 10.7, the folder “Library”, in the Finder, by default is hidden from the user.

How to fix: "Every call to the add_setting() method needs to have a sanitization"

Some time ago WordPress.org is changed the rules of the publication of a themes to their repository. And then, I have not been able to publish update of my theme, because of the following error:

REQUIRED: Found a Customizer setting that did not have a sanitization callback function. Every call to the add_setting() method needs to have a sanitization callback function passed.

WP Plugin: “RSS Feed Icon for SpecificFeeds.com"

An easy to use and lightweight WordPress plugin that lets you easily add RSS feed icon which connected to SpecificFeeds.com with the shortcode in any place of your website.

Terminal Tweaks for OS X Lion 10.7

Given time, the performance of any computer will tend to degrade – even Macs. In this post I’ll show you tweaks that I use on my MacBook White with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Syntax highlighting by CodeMirror & WordPress

About using of JavaScript library CodeMirror together with CMS WordPress and its integration into WordPress projects (themes and plugins).

Antivirus on a Linux machine

How to, on a Linux machine, using the ClamAV, detect malicious code (trojans, viruses, malware & other malicious threats).

SSL Certificate automatically by a BASH script

To quickly and easily create a self-signed SSL certificate for Web servers Apache and Nginx I wrote a little script in “BASH”.

Find and remove .DS_Store and .AppleDouble

How to find, remove and prevent the creating of the .DS_Store files and .AppleDouble directories on a networked drives.

Full controlling the ASUS router via command line

How to full controlling the ASUS router with original firmware via a command line by the Telnet access protocol.

Due to the DoS attack router stops working

How to fix the issue if, in the logs of the router, you see the message about a DoS attacks and then your ASUS router is down until you reboot it.

Enable Telnet on the ASUS RT-N12E/LX router

How to, in the original firmware, on the router Asus RT-N12E/LX, enable the Telnet access protocol, even if the firmware is not supported this function.

Modify or disable Mac OS X Lion’s file locking feature

Whenever you try to modify a file that you have not touched in over two weeks, you’ll receive the following message:

The file [File Name] is locked because you haven’t made any changes to it recently.

Secure copying files via SSH

How to, from the terminal, securely transfer data between a local host and a remote host or between two remote hosts.

Convert many disk image formats to ISO9660 from Terminal

There are many formats of disk images which is not possible to mount with standard Linux tools. But, with “Iat” tool, we can convert it to ISO format and then mount it with mount command.

Find and delete the zero size files and empty directories

How to, in the terminal, using the find utility, find and optionally delete all zero bytes/size/length files and empty directories in the specified directory including subdirectories.

Find and remove duplicate files from the terminal

If you have a lot of media files (photo, music etc), then most likely you also have a lot of duplicate files. In this article I’ll show you how to find and remove duplicate files, from the terminal, by using fdupes utility.

How to fix: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance”

How to, in the CMS WordPress, fix the error due to which is displayed the message

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.

Setup Wi-Fi Adapter and Configure Wireless Interface

I’ll show an example of how to configure a connection to a wireless network from the console of the Debian system by using Wi-Fi Adapter “ASUS USB-N10 Nano” (ID: 0b05:17ba, Driver: rtl8192cu).

Connect Raspberry Pi to the WiFi network

By default the Raspberry Pi uses DHCP to configure its network interfaces, including, on the model B, the built-in ethernet port. In this post I’ll cover how you can set up your Raspberry Pi to automatically connect to your wireless network and obtain a static IP or configure WPA2 using wpa_supplicant. All you need is a WiFi dongle.

How to fix: “ping: unknown host ***.com”

How to fix the issue if you see the message about the host is unknown when attempting to ping a domain name.

How to fix: “Host key verification failed”

When attempting to connect using SSH, the connection may be automatically rejected with the following error:

Host key verification failed

Connect to Raspberry Pi from a Mac using Ethernet

The Raspberry Pi is a great single board computer. However I don’t always want to hook up the Raspberry Pi to some screen and keyboard when working with it. I like to do everything using SSH which is enabled out of the box if you are using the Raspbian distribution. So just hook up it to your router and start hacking. But what if now you don’t have router and only have the Mac?

Horizontal Navigation Menu in Blogger

Navigation menu is an essential part of any blog or website. It helps visitors to easily get the required content the whole blog. I’ll show how to add the horizontal navigation double menu. In the left part which is Pages and in the right part is Labels (Category).

Putting two pictures side by side or creating gallery

When you have many images that you want to include in a blog post, it is important to place them compactly. This way, the reader won’t have to scroll down forever and ever to see your images. Here’s a simple solution to do that.

Google Chrome Theme “White Knight”

Some time ago, for web-surfing, I used Google Chromium Web browser (open-source version of Chrome). Then I created the theme “White Knight”, now I want to share it.

WP Plugin: "My Custom Functions"

An easy to use, with intuitive interface, WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to easily and safely add your custom PHP code for execution in the WordPress environment directly out of your WordPress Admin Area, without the need to have an external editor.

AFP and Bonjour under Linux

For quite some time I use my Linux machine as a file and backup server (Mac File Server and Time Machine Volume) for all Mac’s in my network which is accessible from the Finder in Mac OS X.

BASH aliases

You can create shortened commands by using aliases. Aliases are very convenient to use for frequently used commands.

Migrate iWeb projects

After purchasing a new Mac, we have to think about migrating projects of sites from iWeb from the old Mac to a new one. While using Mac, everything, as always, is simple.

Recursively replace spaces with underscores in file and directory names

A safe solution to recursively replace spaces with underscores in file and directory names starting from the current directory.

Creating public/private key authentication for SSH

If you use ssh to connect to the remote host, one way to ensure the security of the connection is the use of public/private SSH key, because password is not passed across the network and the system is resistant to attacks by “brute force”.

WP Theme: "Anarcho Notepad"

Inspired by the idea of anarchy, we designed this free WordPress theme for your personal blogs and diaries. This theme is perfect for writers and artists. “Anarcho Notepad” can be easily customized and already translated to different languages. It utilizes latest HTML-5, CSS-3, PHP and WordPress native functions for creating the awesomeness that looks good on every browser. We are constantly adding new features to this theme to allow you to personalize it to your own needs. If you want a new feature or just want to be able to change something just ask us and we would be happy to add it. We are glad to present you the Most Anarchist WP-Theme Of All! Enjoy!

Clean Linux

The junk gobbles up our disk space and drags down our Linux machine. From this article you will learn how to clean up junk files and thereby speed up your Linux machine by using the terminal app.

The graphics in the console Ubuntu

In the version of Ubuntu 7.10 and above - framebuffer is turned off by default. To enable it we will conduct described below.

External optical disk drive from the external HDD drive

Turn already unnecessary container under the hdd or external drive into an external optical disk drive.