photomatt

photomatt, 1 day ago to random

WP21

It seems like just yesterday WordPress was becoming a teenager, and in a blink of the eye it's now old enough to drink! 21 years since Mike and I did the first release of WordPress, forking Michel's work on b2/cafélog. There's been many milestones and highlights along the way, and many more to come. I've been thinking a lot about elements that made WordPress successful in its early years that we should keep in mind as we build this year and beyond.

https://ma.tt/2024/05/wp21/

photomatt, 13 days ago to random

Sabbatical Wrap

Today is my first day post-sabbatical, getting back in the swing of things with Automattic. W.org, all the things. What a unique experience! I found the lead up to the sabbatical and planning process to be infinitely valuable, the sabbatical itself to be interesting experentially, and I'm curious to see what the post-sabbatical effects are. I have that nervous excitement like it's the first day of school, which I haven't felt in years.

https://ma.tt/2024/05/sabbatical-wrap/

photomatt, 1 month ago to random

Beeper & Texts

It's such a delight when a plan comes together and unfolds, especially when it's something you've been working on for many years. Today the announcement went out that we're combining the best technology from Beeper and Texts to create a great private, secure, and open source messaging client for people to have control of their communications. We're going to use the Beeper brand, because it's fun.

https://ma.tt/2024/04/beeper-texts/

photomatt, 2 months ago to random

Amazing Brad Mehldau Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oT7O-ujYoo https://ma.tt/2024/03/amazing-brad-mehldau-interview/

fraying, 3 months ago to random

That’s it. I’m getting off Wordpress. https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

On StellarWP Podcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dAELT6F6_A https://ma.tt/2024/02/on-stellarwp-podcast/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

WordPress, Taylor Swift, Super Bowl, oh my

There has been quite a bit of buzz in the WordPress community because during the Grammys red carpet Taylor Swift's website went down and this is what everyone saw: Hey there! That looks familiar. What a beautiful WordPress logo! (Hat tip: Alexa Scordato for telling me about this.) The website also had some ups and downs, we haven't been able to get in touch with anyone on Taylor's tech team, but if you're there, we're standing…

https://ma.tt/2024/02/wordpress-taylor-swift-super-bowl-oh-my/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

Joshua Redman on Tiny Desk

It's hard to pick a favorite tenor player, but the GOATs that come to mind are Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, and I'm missing people but if I had to pick someone to express the human condition and soul, it would be Joshua Redman. He has such incredible fluency with the horn you get an amazing emotional experience with his vibrations.

https://ma.tt/2024/02/joshua-redman-on-tiny-desk/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

National Security

If I were President for a day, the first thing I would do is instruct our national security to patch and secure every American technology company, as they are our gems to the world. I would burn every zero-day I had on a US company and help them patch it. The rest of the world would know our immense defense budget was now being used to secure our companies as well, as China does.

https://ma.tt/2024/02/national-security/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

iFixit Teardown of Vision Pro

When I read things like the iFixit Teardown of Vision Pro, I am moved almost to tears at the sheer beauty of craftsmanship in this thing. It is literally incredible. I have so much respect for the big tech companies like Apple that invest in long-term science, research, and development to create innovations like this. It is literally the engine driving our economy forward.

https://ma.tt/2024/02/ifixit-teardown-of-vision-pro/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

Vision Pro First Impressions

Okay... wow. The hardware and display are like nothing I've ever seen, really feels like it's from the future. That said, I found the setup clunky and buggy. Some might have been user error, for example I kept trying to "select" things with my middle finger and thumb and not my left finger. I almost got stuck in the Persona setup, couldn't continue.

https://ma.tt/2024/02/vision-pro-first-impressions/

photomatt, 3 months ago to random

Samattical

Today is the day! The first day of my sabbatical. What an experience it has been. On Thursday I delivered my very first Ignite talk on the subject! Here it is. The Ignite format is a tricky one as a speaker! I will do better next time. My friend Connie has delivered seven Ignite talks now and I thought hers and Adam Savage's were the highlights of the ones I saw.

https://ma.tt/2024/02/samattical/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Automattic’s Big Re-Org

Considering I am going on sabbatical in 83 hours and passing the CEO torch to Toni Schneider until I return in May, it seemed like a perfect time to do a giant re-org! Just kidding. But we did introduce a concept into Automattic that I think will provide a lot of clarity for the teams within Automattic, and hopefully for the broader WordPress ecosystem that works and partners with us.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/automattics-big-re-org/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Freedom Grants

The Audrey Scholars program is still getting started, but I wanted to introduce another opportunity: Freedom grants. As the page says "If you are an open source contributor, and you feel your current political environment is incompatible with open source values, we would like to offer the opportunity for a grant to help you get set up in a new environment.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/freedom-grants/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

New York!

You tear me apart. The greatest city in the world. (San Francisco has its allure.) I am so drawn to the impeccability excellence of uptown. Just at a baby shower at 111 West 57th… wow! You have never seen a better building, everything is executed to the highest degree par none. Yet, I’m so drawn to downtown. The jazz. The creativity, the spark, the drive.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/new-york-2/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Art No One Can See

Proprietary software is like creating art which no-one can see. Open Source elevates software engineering to a collaborative art form. Code is poetry. — Tom Willmot Some choice words from Tom Willmot, who was watching Kirby Fergusen's Everything is a Remix, which I’ll check out now.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/art-no-one-can-see/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Open Source Creed

Every human has an intrinsic right to put their creative work into the commons. Once freed, work can never be withdrawn, and it has the opportunity—but not the obligation!—for everyone to improve upon it. (v1)

https://ma.tt/2024/01/open-source-creed/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Forty!

Birthdays are so great because they're about generosity. The act of giving, helping, is so generative. It's what we can all do for ourselves and each other. But accepting is really hard, too! Gosh! Let it in. Sometimes we don't let the gifts in. Approaching forty has felt impossibly light and heavy at the same time for me. It's so cool to be typing this into something…

https://ma.tt/2024/01/forty/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Sonos Tip

If you're obsessed with Sonos like I am, a nice MacOS utility is the Menu Bar Controller. Hat tip to Mike Tatum, who happened to be the gentleman who convinced my parents it was okay for me to drop out of college and move to San Francisco to take a job at CNET. Mike's now at Sonos and in October arranged for some top execs at…

https://ma.tt/2024/01/sonos-tip/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

On Mastodon

This is me on Mastodon, it's really me, also added to my Gravatar.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/on-mastodon/

cabel, 4 months ago to random

Wordpress advertises that you can customize the look of email newsletters, but I couldn’t find settings for that — so I wrote support. They replied and said actually, no, there are no settings for that.

But first, their AI Support Bot took a crack at an answer — and absolutely, confidently hallucinated two settings that don’t actually exist. I thought I was losing my mind because they just weren’t there.

That feels worse than just not replying at all, right?

Support tells me, “Wordpress does not provide direct settings” to change these options.

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Birthday Gift

It's true, it's true, I turn forty years old in ten days. What do you get the guy who has everything? I admit I'm not the easiest to shop for, I can be quite particular in my preferences of this cable versus that one, but the good news is the gift I most want for my 40th is something everyone can do.

https://ma.tt/2024/01/birthday-gift/

photomatt, 4 months ago to random

Books 2020–2023

I'm a few years behind in posting my book lists, and past few years a good amount of my book reading time shifted to other mediums. I have been rediscovering the joy of books so here's what I read the past few years as a motivation to myself to pick it up more in 2024. 2020 The Gift by Hafiz…

https://ma.tt/2023/12/books-2020-2023/

andybaio, 6 months ago to random

This is apparently an internal Automattic memo making the rounds on Tumblr, indicating that they’ve failed to get Tumblr activity/revenue up since its 2019 acquisition and it will now be maintained by a skeleton crew of Trust & Safety and support folks, with the majority of its 139 employees moving to other projects inside Automattic.

manualdousuario, 7 months ago to random

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