The Role That Wasn't the Problem
A colleague couldn't log into the WooCommerce app. I spent an afternoon fixing her user role. The role was never it — the server was eating the auth header.
Notes from the work.
How I got into this, what I learned shipping real plugins and platforms, and the occasional opinion about why smaller code usually wins.
I Fixed the Certificate — and Next Morning the Office Lost the Site Entirely
A sequel: the site didn't just warn anymore, it wouldn't connect at all. The culprit wasn't the network — it was the server's own fail2ban banning the whole office.
The Site Loaded Everywhere Except the Office: One Expired SSL Certificate
Some users hit NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID while the site worked fine for everyone else. The real cause wasn't the certificate — it was the route traffic took.
The Missing Save Button That Wasn't a Permissions Problem
A MediaWiki Save button vanished after a PHP 8 upgrade with no error in sight. The real cause wasn't the PHP version — it was one broken line in EditPage.php.
From Telegram Analytics to Backend Developer
How a semester spent studying Telegram channel growth data turned into a career writing PHP — and why analytics work is a surprisingly good on-ramp to development.
Shipping a 150 KB Mac App With No Xcode Project, No Dependencies, No Electron
How ChargeBeep goes from one main.swift file to a drag-to-Applications .dmg with a single swiftc call and a 60-line bash script — and where code signing actually bites.
Keeping a Mac Awake Without Breaking Sleep: IOKit Power Assertions vs pmset
Why 'sudo pmset disablesleep' is a trap for a shippable app, and how a single IOKit power assertion keeps a Mac awake with zero privileges and automatic cleanup on crash.
Stop Polling the Battery — Listen to It Instead
Replacing a 30-second battery poll with an IOKit run-loop notification: instant reaction, near-zero idle cost, and a small state machine to fire the alert exactly once.
Why I Write a 200-Line Plugin Instead of Installing a 200,000-Line One
A case for writing small, single-purpose WordPress plugins instead of reaching for a heavyweight one — fewer dependencies, faster pages, and code you can actually read.
What Deeply Customizing LearnPress Taught Me About 'Extending' a Plugin
Notes from rebuilding an LMS on top of LearnPress: when to override a template, when to hook instead, and how to tell the two apart before you start.
Building WebAR Experiences on Top of WordPress
What it's like wiring augmented reality into an ordinary CMS: no native app, no App Store review, just a camera permission prompt and a lot of undocumented edge cases.
Lessons From Freelancing for Clients on Four Continents Before Turning 22
What remote WordPress work across Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Turkey and Canada taught me about time zones, scope creep, and getting paid on time.
Integrating a Bank's Installment-Payment API: Signing, Idempotency, and the Order Lifecycle
Notes from wiring a bank's 'pay in installments' API into WooCommerce: HMAC request signing, a centralized request helper, and a full order lifecycle.
Turning WooCommerce Filters Into Landing Pages Google Actually Indexes
Faceted navigation is an SEO minefield. Here's how I turned a store's product filters into rankable landing pages — dynamic titles from the URL, and strict index control.