Tidbits from Brian - Issue #40
Lost in the Sawtooth mountains ⛰️
We all have certain experiences from our childhood that stick with us more than others. One of mine was in the 5th grade, getting lost in the Sawtooth mountains. ⛰️
The Sawtooth Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in central Idaho, rising to more than 10,000 ft and spanning 678 square miles. If you like remote hiking, it has some of the most beautiful trails in the US.
I attended a small private Christian school in Eagle, Idaho, where pretty much our entire class (15 kids or so) was in Pathfinders (another version of Boy/Girl Scouts). Every few years, they did a backpacking trip where you would hike up into the mountains, camp overnight, and have school outdoors (while earning some badges).
The trip itself went great; it was on the way back that some bad decisions were made. When we were a few hours from base camp, my teacher offered the first five kids down the mountain a free soda. Let’s just say after that, all pandemonium broke loose, and everyone started running running down the trail. Who knew a bunch of 5th and 6th graders wanted soda so bad? 😅🥤
My teacher, a classmate, and I decided to walk instead, as we were already pretty tired from all the hiking. However, after 10-15 minutes, we gained a second wind, and we thought we might be able to catch up to the group if we went off the trail, cutting across the nearest ridge. Let’s just say this was a bad idea.
It was around 6 pm, and the sun was already starting to dip below the peak of the mountains. We were now hiking completely off-trail, and the three of us didn’t have any flashlights. After about 30 minutes, we realized we were lost. My teacher did his very best to keep me and my other classmate calm. But deep down, I was panicking. 😨 We had almost no water left, no flashlights, and no phones (this was before cell phones were really a thing).
We started hiking in one direction. You have to realize how remote this area is; there are no visible signs of life in any direction (no cities, buildings, anything). We went for around three hours and finally stumbled across a dirt road. However, we still had no clue where we were. By now, it was pitch dark; we had no light, and wolves had started howling. My teacher made the wise decision that we should stay put near the road and start a fire. 🔥 Fortunately, he had a flint with him.
So there we were, sitting in the middle of nowhere around a fire, wolves howling. It was around midnight, and all we could do was hope and pray that the rest of our party was looking for us or had sent for help.
Thankfully, around 1 am, we saw some headlights coming down the road. My teacher ran to the road to flag them down. It turned out to be a couple of the other parents who had been out looking for us. We were saved! Ironically, my Mom was one of the parents back at base camp, and let’s just say we’ve never been so happy to see each other. 🤗
I’m sure all of you have had similiar experiences as a kid that have stuck with you. It’s funny because when I think back, nothing really bad happened (thankfully). We were lost for maybe 7 hours, but that experience has always stuck with me for some reason (probably due to my young age). For the most part, I just remember how scared I was as the sun went down and the subtle fear in my teacher’s face.
Long story short, don’t go off the trail! 😅🥾
Updates ✍️
We pushed out two updates for our Perfmatters WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Removed unnecessary documentWrite handling function from delay JS inline script to reduce the size by over 8%. ⚡
Updated admin bar menu UI to show clear all used CSS everywhere, instead of just in the backend.
Updated CSS parsing library to the latest version (8.7.0). Improves support for PHP 8.4. 🚀 Also updated background processing library to version (1.4.0).
Added additional CSS background image inline styles to account for backgrounds set on pseudo-elements of children inside the targeted container.
Removed older changelog entries in readme.txt file and added link to web version. This decreases stored row size. ⬇️
Added WP Rocket filter to disable their critical image optimization when preload critical images is active to prevent conflicts.
Added new Delay JS quick exclusion for Ezoic, and REST API exception for SureForms.
Added built-in minify JS exclusion for WP Recipe Maker. 🧈
Updated network default function to preserve the CDN URL if already set on the target subsite.
Added a UI button to cancel the current database optimization process.
Updated minify exclusion functions to check the entire attribute string of the script or stylesheet instead of just the source URL.
Updated login URL feature with additional check to prevent access to the hidden login slug via an authentication request redirected from a query string. 🔒
Updated buffer class to prevent running on Bricks template URLs.
Fixed an issue where the Used CSS file was sometimes getting falsely flagged as completely unused on certain speed tests. 🧮
We also pushed out an update for our Novashare WordPress plugin. Here are a few of the changes:
Added new show labels control to the follow buttons block.
Updated all blocks to API version 3 to support rendering the block inside the post editor iframe. 💻
Fixed multiple deprecated UI element warnings showing up in the block editor.
Minor code refactoring and style cleanup. ⚡
Fixed a missing anchor link pointing to the license tab in our plugin settings UI.
Fixed an issue where additional CSS classes set in the advanced section of the share buttons block were not added to the HTML output.
Fixed an encoding issue with certain Pinterest descriptions when added to page images for the image grid via JS. 🖼️
Removed trailing empty block style in the main stylesheet that was previously used to fix a block editor enqueuing issue.
WP Coupons 📣
I can confirm that WP Coupons has now been acquired! Appreciate everyone who shared it around on social media, included it in their newsletters, etc.
I'll let the new owner make their own announcement, but it is someone very active in the WordPress and blogging space for well over a decade. It's in good hands. 😊
Interesting things 🔎
Misc.
Curious about how much you've spent on Amazon over the past year, or throughout your entire account's history? Here’s how to find out.
Discover five hilarious (and brutally honest) reasons why developers might come off as jerks — and why it’s not entirely their fault.
Doing hard things: staying motivated when everything sucks.
Woolly Mammoth, Dodo gets another shot as startup raises $200 million. I think I’ve seen this movie before. 😅🦖
FDA bans the use of Red Dye No. 3 in foods. It’s about time! The United States is so far behind in terms of healthy food.
Netflix announces price increases for all three of its plans. I’m pretty sure we’ve almost come full circle where people will go back to cable instead of paying for all the separate streaming services.
Chinese researchers achieved a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for a whopping 18 minutes! 😎 This is breaking the previous record of a little under 7 minutes. A nuclear fusion race is on.
WordPress
Who really owns WordPress? I thought this diagram from Jono Alderson was quite interesting.
WordPress ticket #30465 was opened 10 years ago – is 2025 going to be the year it gets resolved?
Meet Disembark, yet another way to easily package up your WordPress site for a new web host. 🚚
Elementor has introduced a new WordPress theme: Hello Biz.
I had fun with Jonathan and Kurt on the WP-Tonic podcast. We talked a little about how I got into WordPress, performance, etc.
GenerateBlocks 2.0 Release Candidate is out! So excited for the final release in early February. It will be one of the best updates of the year.
Performance
Remember that using inline SVG icons are usually easier, but they aren't the best approach performance-wise. Check out how to decrease your LCP. ⚡
Arjen Karel published a great little workaround on how to load your Elementor background hero images as regular images in HTML. This means optimization plugins can do all their magic on them.
I really enjoyed this post from DebugBear on how to fix your LCP score by improving render delay. So much, in fact, that I added a link to it in our LCP doc.
If you have Cloudflare Pro or BunnyCDN, you might want to check out this new free Edge Images plugin from Jono Alderson. 😮
There was a small update to the data collection period UI in PageSpeed Insights. Very much needed!
A friendly reminder that the prior cache benefits of using popular third-party libraries are no longer there. It’s always better to host them yourself or from your own CDN.
You might not have a web performance problem. Remember, the real-user data scores are what you want to monitor, not necessarily the lab data. 👍
group.one expands its SaaS product portfolio with the acquisition of GTmetrix.
Chrome DevTools is getting a “Copy console” option. This will make it easier to debug console warnings and errors.
Field/CrUX data is now available in GTmetrix. This will come in very handy!
Marketing
Google search ranking volatility tools cool down. 2024 was a whirlwind for many website owners when it came to SEO fluctuations.
X has been rolling out profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts. This was definitely needed!
Brett and I have been using the new card mirroring feature in Trello. It works awesome, and now I don’t think we could live without it.
AI
DeepSeek. Wow, where to begin? CNBC did a pretty lengthy video on the topic, which is a good way to catch up.
Speaking of DeepSeek, there have already been apparent security leaks.
Have you seen this? It’s a self-driving fridge hit by a self-driving Waymo recorded by a self-driving Tesla. 😂 You can’t make this stuff up.
Grok standalone AI app comes to the US App Store, not just an X feature.
WEF jobs report warns that 39% of skills may be obsolete by 2030. I definitely see a hybrid situation happening at the moment.
Bitcoin (not financial advice)
Tether is bringing USDT to bitcoin, with both on-chain transactions and Lightning! FYI, the total USDT volume topped $10 trillion on-chain in 2024.
The SEC has rescinded SAB 121. Basically this means that banks are now allowed to custody assets like bitcoin. It’s about to get interesting. 🏦
The Joltz wallet launched. It’s the world's first self-custodial wallet for Taproot Assets. It’s available via TestFlight for Apple and Android is coming.
Africa produces 3% of global bitcoin mining hashrate, all via renewable energy.
If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area, hit me up, and we can grab lunch! 🥗👋
It’s fascinating how childhood experiences, especially those that test our resilience, leave lasting impressions. It’s moments like these that shape us, making us more aware of how small we really are in the grand scheme of nature.