A review of the Writing in the Sciences online course that I recently finished. The course is taught by Dr. Kristin Sainania a Professor of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University. It is a free 8-week series of canned videos, online quizzes, and homework assignments designed to improve your writing. Course Structure Each week […]
Articles
Deploy WordPress Plugins Using Github Actions
Using automation makes your current life easier by taking tasks off your hands; plus makes your future life easier by documenting a repeatable process. I recently automated the publishing of my code-syntax-block plugin to the WordPress repository using the Github Action created by 10up. What are Github Actions First, Github Actions allow you to hook […]
Async is the Key to Distributed Work
I wrote A Year Working Remotely after my first year at Automattic — a company now at 1,000 fully distributed employees across 76 countries. This is a 6-year follow on sharing additional learning on work and productivity. A colleague Alister wrote a great post, Three Years of Working from Home, that covers personal care tips, […]
Conditionally Load Block Assets
One of the great features of the WordPress Block Editor is all the specialty blocks that can be created. This can also be the downside, each of these niche blocks might load their own view assets; and if not done right, all these assets could load on every page. Web. Bloat. View assets are typically […]
Lessons from Walt Disney
On a sunny day, my family and I went up to San Francisco to visit the Walt Disney Museum. The museum is located in the beautiful Presidio near the Golden Gate Bridge. I simply hoped to enjoy a nice day out of the house, maybe something the kids would like–I didn’t expect to be inspired […]
Linting Markdown Syntax
Linting is the process to check code for potential errors and enforce a style guide, but linting is not just for code; you can lint markdown documents for the same reasons. Markdownlint is a Node package to lint markdown syntax, use markdownlint-cli for use on the command-line, or use the Visual Studio Code plugin for […]
Using the Pomodoro Technique
I recently started using the Pomodoro Technique to help me focus. I find it a useful productivity tool to fight distractions. The technique is a rather simple process: Set a timer for 25 minutes, Work focused on your task, When the timer goes off, take a short break (5min) Repeat After completing a few sets, […]
Build a Block Series – Part 7: Placeholder
In this seventh part, I do away with screencasting and work on improving the editor interaction with the QRCode block. Specifically, showing in the editor how the QRCode will look when published. Previous screencasts: Development Environment WordPress Plugin Anatomy of a Block Block Attributes ES6+ Syntax QRCode Intro One of the primary tenets of Gutenberg […]
Unix Crontab
Introduction cron is a utility that you can use to schedule and automate tasks. By defining items in the cron table, called crontab, you can schedule any script or program to run on almost any sort of schedule. A few examples: Download RSS feeds daily at 6:30am, Run a program 5 minutes after midnight on […]
Notes on Technical Writing
Over the past year, I’ve worked on and off documentation for WordPress. I started contributing during a freeze around launch to help developers transition to the new platform. I found writing documentation is something I enjoy, plus rewarding to help and educate people. Though it’s not a primary part of my job, I’ve continued to […]
Bauhaus Centenary Block
To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Bauhaus design house, our team created a celebratory block for the WordPress editor, see our announcement post on Automattic.design. The Bauhaus Centenary block is available as a plugin with three styles – basic forms, year, and ribbon – that embraces the character, variety, and edge of the Bauhaus […]
Build a Block Series – Part 6: QRCode
In this sixth screencast I get down to implementing the QRCode part of the block: loading the qrcode.js library and trigger it using the saved URL to create a QRCode. Previous screencasts: Development Environment WordPress Plugin Anatomy of a Block Block Attributes ES6+ Syntax QRCode Implementation In the cast, I alter the block’s save function […]
Hi, I’m Marcus Kazmierczak
I'm an engineer trying to do my small part to make the web a little better. I believe open source can help empower people, and grow our collective knowledge; moving the world forward. I hope this site is a small contribution to that collective.