Tidbits from Brian - Issue #23
Consistency is key. 💡
The older I get, the more I realize that consistency is the key to almost everything, from running a business to staying healthy. If I could go back in time, I would shake the entrepreneur inside of me and just say to focus on one thing for the next decade.
However, it’s a double-edged sword, as I think learning through failures is also invaluable. I’ve documented many of my failures over the last 20+ years.
I think a better mindset or way to approach things is “consistency through failure.” It’s the idea that you hone the skills you’re good at while failing, and eventually, you should find something that works. Life is all about trial and error; we learn as we go.
Updates ✍️
We pushed out two updates for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin this month. Here are a few of the changes:
Added new preload option to add the Fetch Priority attribute to different resources on the site to help improve LCP.
Added built-in lazy loading exclusion for fetchpriority attribute.
Added Delay JS quick exclusion for Termageddon + Usercentrics.
New AJAX backend/UI to save data and perform plugin actions. No more page reloads to speed up configuration. ⚡
Switched individual JS delay to use the same inline script as delay all to take advantage of delayed triggering of event listeners.
Fixed an issue where an empty notice was appearing when a database optimization process completed.
Fixed an issue with critical image preloads where an image with an empty src attribute would prevent other similar ones from being added on the same URL.
UI improvements to input row sections.
New AJAX backend/UI to save data and perform plugin actions. No more page reloads to speed up configuration. ⚡
Adjusted clean_html utility function regex to better handle large inline data scripts.
Added
skip-lazyclass to built-in lazy loading exclusions.Added right-to-left admin styles for better usability on RTL sites.
Fixed an issue where certain HTML characters would not print correctly when saved in a fetch priority selector input field. 🐛
Fixed an issue where fetch priority selectors would sometimes not get the correct priority applied when set to low.
Renamed Bricks Delay JS quick exclusion, as it can target more than just their slider.
Updated background processing library to version 1.1.1. 🔧
Translation updates.
Also, if you missed it, check out our video with Kyle from The Admin Bar. We dove into everything new in Perfmatters since our last video. 📹 He’s also created a playlist if you want to watch them in order. We’ll be doing more in the future!
Interesting things 🔎
Misc.
Zillow Home Loans will now offer a 1% down payment option. I have a feeling this won’t end well. 🤦
Backblaze is raising their prices. I’m a big fan of their service, but it’s probably the biggest price increase I’ve ever seen from a subscription. Decisions, decisions.
This is hilarious. Someone built a frontend to Reddit that looks like Outlook, so you can browse it all day at work. I’m not responsible if you get fired.
An interesting and technical read on fighting API bots with Cloudflare Turnstile.
An eSignature feature is coming to Google Drive and Google Docs! This could come in handy.
At first, I liked Chrome moving the recent downloads location. But after a while, I prefer the old location. You can change it back.
The new Apple Discovery feature is actually amazing! One step closer to being as good as Spotify in terms of finding new music.
Sublime, my favorite text editor, released a big update earlier this month.
WordPress
Sometimes I get asked why we don't have upsell notifications, reminders, etc., in our plugins. This is why. Check out this screenshot.
NASA’s new website (currently in beta) is powered by WordPress. Awesome! 👩🚀
WordPress 6.3 (which launched August 8th) was a massive release. Here’s a comparison of the # of commits to the prior 10 versions.
I agree with Matt; this one little UI improvement in WordPress 6.3 has made a big difference.
You can now get a 100-year WordPress hosting and domain plan from WordPress.com for $38,000. Yes, you read that right. 😮
group.one (the owners of WP Rocket, RankMath, etc.) has acquired BackWPup.
A new Chrome browser extension enables one-click plugin and theme testing with WordPress Playground. Pretty cool!
The first learn WordPress course cohort will teach participants how to develop blocks. This is definitely needed; we’ve had to stumble our way through it.
Performance
The Performant Translations plugin is now available for testing. For sites with translations, this offers a huge boost in performance by converting
.mofiles to.phpfiles. They can now be parsed faster and stored in OPcache. 🚀Looking forward to the new typography management feature coming in WordPress 6.4. I hope they will solve local hosting for everyone going forward. We’ll see.
Marketing
Threads is now available on desktop via the browser. The funny thing is, I still haven’t found myself using it much. Other than drooling over Andy’s amazing photography skills.
A redesigned Slack UI is being rolled out. Looking forward to trying it. Although, honestly, this is one app where I would probably prefer less change.
Some guy joked about slowing down your site on purpose to increase the time on website metric. But some people actually took it seriously. 🤦
I have four invite codes for Bluesky. First come, first serve.
bsky-social-ji2bc-2qisn
bsky-social-45gdr-v2qtw
bsky-social-77qka-dqqpv
bsky-social-7ckza-jl6tv
X Pro (previously TweetDeck) does support multiple accounts all from the same interface using delegate accounts. It works well!
AI
You can now use Bing Chat in Google Chrome! Glad to see them open this up to other browsers. Safari support coming soon.
Google’s Duet AI is now available in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and more for $30 a month.
Video AI is rapidly improving to the point where soon you’ll be able to duplicate yourself with just a short video clip. 🤖
Bitcoin (not financial advice)
Grayscale's victory over the SEC is a pretty big deal for the entire industry. Here’s a great thread from Jake Chervinsky.
Bitcoin mining startup raises $13 million to turn trash into BTC. Pretty cool!
New peer-reviewed piece highlights how bitcoin mining could help renewables and drive decarbonization of the grid.
Terrific new report on bitcoin's ESG impacts by Brian Consolvo for KPMG.
Viktor Bunin, Protocol Specialist at Coinbase, wrote a good summary on Lightning for those who haven’t checked in on it in a while.
If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab lunch! 🥗👋