How to create relative data files on your Commodore 128

The CBM DOS can write “relative data” onto disk, based on individual records. The advantage is that all space is allocated once and then randomly accessed if and when it’s needed – much like the tracks on a CD. This approach is different from sequential files, which have to read or write the whole file … Read more

How to create sequential files on your Commodore C128

Sequential files are files to which we can write arbitrary data and read it back later. We can even append data to the file later without having to re-write the whole file. This works with the Datasette (tape drive) as well as floppy drives. Here’s how to do it in CBM BASIC 7.0: Creating Sequential … Read more

How to check the Fan Speed on your Mac

Sometimes you may want to know how fast your fans are spinning, more as a “number value” rather than a “noise value”. While you can hear when your Mac in front of you is working hard, it’s impossible to tell how fast those fans are spinning when you’re miles away from your Mac in a … Read more

How to disable System Integrity Protection on OS X El Capitan

System Integrity Protection was introduced in El Capitan to add another layer of security to OS X. The system prevents the root user from doing things that are potentially harmful. Apple did this because any app at any time may ask for the administrator password and execute commands with elevated permissions, which is a big … Read more

How to turn plain URLs into clickable links in WordPress

The marvellous P2 Theme has an interesting feature: write out a plain link, and it magically becomes clickable without explicitly adding the a href tag.

This may not be a big deal if you’re writing posts in the visual WordPress editor rather than HTML, but for those of us who like to write in HTML, it’s just one less thing to worry about.

I was investigating this feature recently, and it turns out WordPress has a built-in function that can do this: they call it make_clickable(), and it works with URIs, FTP, Email addresses and anything starting with www. The function is really easy to use too: it only takes one parameter (a string), and returns the clickable HTML code.

$clickableText = make_clickable($plainText);

Let’s see how to use it in context, using the TwentyThirteen theme.

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How to display Jetpack stats per post in WordPress

Some websites employ this or similar technologies to show how many views a single post has had. I was wondering how they did that without starting to count stats that have already been counted for several years, either by Google or by Jetpack.

Yesterday I came across this post by a WordPress dev named Topher about how to render Jetpack Stats: http://wpgr.org/2013/03/02/rendering-jetpack-stats/

I decided to test this in TwentyThirteen, and it works a treat – here’s how to do it. The principle will of course work with any theme.

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Zen Dash – Version 1.5 released

I’ve just released an update to my Zen Dash plugin. Besides adding funky zen-bamboo artwork to the WordPress.org page, I’ve made the following minor amendments: the option to hide the Jetpack menu now only shows up when Jetpack is activated, otherwise it’s hidden I’ve verified compatibility with the immanent release of WordPress 4.4 added funky … Read more