Web Developers’ Conference Wrap-Up

It is indeed testament to the community that exists within the realms of the ‘internets’ in the UK (though not exclusively to the UK) that an event like this could come together in the way that it did, let alone be as successful and informative as I felt it was. I’d like to extend a congratulations to Alex and Dan for pulling it all  together.

An event re-capped

James Box’s Presentations from both SkillSwap and WDC were excellent. The former of the the two is available here. I’d also like to thank James for my new-found Nabaztag obsession. Quite what my actual pet rabbit will make of him is yet to be seen.

Joe Leech’s short but insightful presentation on user-testing was brilliant and I learnt a lot in a short space of time. He’s also a top bloke.

Patrick Lauke’s rants were great too. Especially enjoyed his presentation at SkillSwap and I spent the next day adding :focus and :active elements to my page in places I had never even considered.

Chris Garrett’s talk on beyond the browser was an interesting one. It constantly amazes me what is possible with the technology we have and Chris really knows his onions.

Elliot Jay Stocks, Elliott Kember, Dan Williams, Dan Donald and John Gibbins’s panel was great and I think the students really appreciated having great insights from top professionals. I particularly enjoyed hearing about topics as broad-ranging as Google Chrome to Freelancing.

Jon Tan, Mel Kirk, Rick Hurst, Joe Leech and Myself spent the last 45mins of the day on a panel discussing the merits of working in the South West and career direction. It was a cool experience for me and I really enjoyed sitting along side people I have respected for such a long time. I hope I made a valid contribution, some of the advice dispensed by my fellow panelists was absolute gold dust. (by-the-by I forgot to name drop Jon Hicks as an inspiration, I had a total mind blank when we were asked who to watch out for)

A personal thank you to…

Alex and Dan for putting it all together and being so enthusiastic about everything, it’s great to see such passion and devotion.

Jon Tan for being a total star and keeping me all up-to-date with what was going on leading up to the event and for also organising a great post-event meal and drinks.

Elliot Jay Stocks for being truly great company and for shouting Myself, Chris and Alex a lovely breakfast at the Lounge, North Street on a damp, cider-induced-hangover-riddled Thursday morning.

Chris Garrett for not only being a really nice guy, but for suggesting the ‘Bristol-geek-out’ pub quiz team. An idea I think would be cool to run with if we can recruit a few more members.

John Gibbins, Joe Leech, Dan Williams, Mel Kirk, Rick Hurst, Dan Donald, Elliott Kember,  James Box, Patrick Lauke and anyone else who shared a chin-wag over a beer. It was great to meet you all, the only shame for me was I didn’t get to speak with some of you for as long as I would have liked too.

Links from elsewhere

• James Box’s presentation from SkillSwap and from WDC
• Dan Donald’s WDC round-up
• Jon Tan’s Photos on Flickr - (I’ve used one for this article)
  
• Elliot Jay Stocks’ round-up

WordPress has an ugly wp_head (but a pretty face)

There was a time when I’d just simply comment it out to be honest as I found it was adding a lot of code in to my site that I didn’t actually need. However, when I came to using some excellent plugins such as Joost’s Meta Robots I released I did actually need the wp_head tag.

So what was the problem?

By default wordpress adds in several extra lines of code for using things like Really Simle Discovery, Windows Live Writer and the wordpress version. Thats all fine and dandy if you use those tools or want your wordpress version on display (which to me is a bit of a security risk anyway), but want if you don’t? Functions.php to the rescue then.

In essence, the functions.php file acts a bit like a plugin; you might have had a play around with it if you’ve ever set-up a wordpress blog that uses widgets. We can use this file to change what wordpress outputs into the wp_head tag.

Here’s how

If you want to remove anything from the wordpress head you need to write in the following format between php tags as below:

<?php remove_action('wp_head', 'title of what needs removing'); ?>

So to remove the Really Simple Discovery Code add:

<?php remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link'); ?>

To remove the Windows Live Writer add:

<?php remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link'); ?>

And to remove the wordpress version add:

<?php remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator'); ?>

Of coure if you want to add more than one you can always put as many as you need between on set of < ?php?> tags.

Happy blogging

a4uexpo a go-go and a place on a panel show

In just 35 days it will be a4uexpo time again and in a further 29 I’ll be on my first panel at WDC, where did all that time go? Anyway, here’s a bit about both events.

a4uexpo, 14th-15th October 2008

It’s going to be even bigger this year, with 3 Networking Parties, over 80 Speakers & and loads of top name exhibitors. I’ll be working my backside off over the two days with the Existem team but if you do bump into me over the course of the day or at the parties do come say hi and we can chew the proverbial ‘geek fat’.

Jason has already posted about what his highlights for 2008′s event are & both John & Kieron are running giveaways on their blogs.

Web Developers Conference 12th November 2008

Alex invited me to sit on a panel at WDC this year and talk about designing, specifically in the South West. I was humbled to be asked and I’m looking forward to working along side people I have looked up to for some time such as Jon Tan & Elliot Jay Stocks.

I’ll be joining a solid panel line-up of Joe Leech, Jon Tan, Rick Hurst and Mel Kirk. The other panel will consist of Elliot Jay Stocks, Dan Donald, Elliot Kember and Dan Williams.

Aside from the two panels there are also talks from James Box, Patrick H Lauke and Chris Garrett which will be fab and I’m hoping to catch them myself.

If you’re attending please feel free to come and say hello and have a chat.