Mail Merges in Thunderbird

I send a lot of e-mail, and I often have to send the same message to lots of people. I really hate it when people put everyone in the To field (so everyone gets your e-mail address), and I’m also not a fan of putting everyone in the Bcc field either (as that can trigger spam filters). However, who has the time to copy and paste a message 50 times? Certainly not me, so I started looking for a better solution. Continue reading “Mail Merges in Thunderbird”

Modifying YouTube Video Display in WordPress

WordPress automatically handles YouTube links, which can be very helpful. However, this means you are stuck with whatever WordPress has configured, so if you want to customize how the videos are displayed – like eliminating the related video previews that display at the end of the video – you are out of luck…at least until you install this plugin. Continue reading “Modifying YouTube Video Display in WordPress”

Who Needs Frameworks?

Here is my latest editorial for the May 2013 issue of php|architect magazine:

php|architect - May 2013

Who Needs Frameworks?

Beth Tucker Long

The title alone may get me some hate mail, but anyone who has discussed frameworks with me knows that I’m not shy about saying that I really don’t have a use for them. That’s not to say that I don’t think there’s a time and a place for them, just that for the majority of the projects that I do, a full-fledged framework is way over the top. There is something to be said for having more features than you know what to do with, but there’s also something to be said for not having to slog through 30 files to find what you need – or having to autoload 12 files to do one thing. Continue reading “Who Needs Frameworks?”