gnupg 1.5.0RC2
* Fixed build with libgpgme 1.3
* Fixed largefile support on 32-bit platforms
* Fixed tests in PECL archive
yaf 3.3.2
- Fixed Memory leak in yaf_loader
- Fixed issue #537 (segfault in macos with 4 bytes length controller name)
- Fixed issue #536 (application.bootstrap not used)
protobuf 3.15.5
New changes in 3.15.5:
* Fixed quadratic memory use in array append (#8379)
couchbase 3.1.1
PCBC-745: throw BadInputException when string cannot be used as CAS
PCBC-746: add tests for transcoding empty value
PCBC-748: fix *Option#expiry() return value in documentation stubs
datadog_trace 0.56.0
### Added
- Add randomized testing to test hundreds of different scenarios #1131
- Add configured http headers to root span #1154
- Add the possibility to freeze a regression in a specific randomized tests scenario #1153
### Changed
- Remove non php7 code from ext/php7 folder #1162
- Remove non php5 code from ext/php5 folder #1164
### Fixed
- Add missing dependency on curl extension for PHP 8 #1144 (Thanks @remicollet!)
- Fix initialization of `curl_multi_init()` for distributed tracing #1159
- Add comment to long running example for method instead of function #1149
- Fix linting + xfail a flaky test #1147
- Update links in README.md to configuration and OT docs #1069
- Fix clang-format installation after circleci image update to buster #1141
APCu 5.1.20
- Fix deadlocks when other apcu_* functions are used inside apcu_entry(). It should now be safe to use any functions inside the apcu_entry() callback.
- Fix division by zero exception in apc.php.
- Fix handling of references in PHP 8 if "default" serializer is used (which is not the default).
- Fix string reuse handling if "default" serializer is used (which is not the default).
- Check for failures when acquiring read locks to report problems earlier (write locks were already checked previously).
- Adjust tests for current PHP 8.1 development branch.
- Remove *_api.h headers. Use apc_cache.h instead of apc_cache_api.h etc.
LuaSandbox 4.0.0
- Add docbook documentation (for php.net)
- Flag optional and variadic parameters properly for PHP reflection
- Remove memory leaks in data_conversion.c
- Drop PHP5 and HHVM compatibility
- Add PHP 8 support
- Windows compilation fixes
protobuf 3.15.4
New changes in 3.15.4:
* read_property() handler is not supposed to return NULL (#8362)
WordPress is open source software, maintained by a global network of contributors. There are many examples of how WordPress has changed people’s lives for the better. In this monthly series, we share some of the amazing stories that are lesser-known.
From a natural interest in computers and fixing things as a young woman, Olga Gleckler from St Petersburg, Russia, found WordPress took her on a journey to becoming a successful female tech entrepreneur. On International Women’s Day, we share her story.
Finding your path can take longer than you expect
From the age of 15, Olga found herself under pressure to find a free place for her professional studies. She said: “I didn’t know how high or low my chances were even if I had very good marks. I could have been just the biggest fish in a small pond. But anyway, I made up my mind to go to technical school.”
On leaving school in St Petersburg with her certificate, Olga felt her knowledge of opportunities was very narrow. She had pictured being an ecologist or guide translator based on the subjects she had been taught at school. There was also an advertising boom in Russia and she began to explore this as a career avenue. She had developed her computer skills and found opportunities to practise by helping her teachers with administrative work.
Though she did not have access to any formal career advice, her journey led her into programming. She said: “The range of technical schools was not wide. I spent four years studying transistor markings, soldering and drawing PCB layouts. Programming courses using Pascal didn’t do anything useful with it.”
A lack of suitable access to English-language courses made things harder for Olga. She was determined that she would master the language later in her life. In the meantime, she left technical school with an honors degree and improved typing skills.
“I faced it was a wild, unfriendly market. I didn’t know how to recognize a genuine job offer or how to avoid the bad ones. It was difficult and I don’t know how long I would’ve looked for work without help.”
Think differently to find where you belong
Olga’s father worked in an IT company and was able to give her some advice and help with potential introductions. When she was still studying, he suggested her strong technical skills might be useful as a substitute typist. When she finished her studies, he helped her apply for a job updating a legal system on clients’ computers.
Six months later, she got a full-time job in the same service department. She liked her position and her clients. However, she was given friendly advice that without a university degree she would not be able to have any further promotions.
At this time, Olga was trying to study PHP from a book. She found it very exciting at first, but a lot of their functions did not give her explanations on how to build something useful. She found when she tried to build practical items from book reading, it did not always make sense and the solutions would often fail.
She said: “It was hard to admit a failure even to myself and it was nagging me for a long time. I had to choose something I could handle, that I was interested in and could afford. It turned out to be advertising.”
She spent most of the family’s holidays on learning sessions during the next six years. Olga recalled: “It was tricky for my husband to make me leave a computer, once I was glued to it, so he bought me my first laptop. English was still hard for me, I got high marks through just memorizing all the words in a textbook and how they should sound.”
Doubting your professional skills can happen when you are at home isolated looking after children. Keeping up your interests is important.
Olga’s life took a change after having a new baby and she spent three years doubting her professional skills and her chances of getting a good job. She tried to get back into other interests through studying, baking and drawing, but found ‘the pram was pulling me back’. She found she became very isolated and felt less able to contribute as the family was relying on her husband’s income as she tried to focus on looking forward.
She said: “I was convinced (and saw) that not too many companies wanted a woman in the office, who with a small baby might need lots of leave.”
She finished her education when she returned to work after three years caring for her son. She secured a promotion but with changes in the company’s staffing, things were tense. She found the difficulties there had become more heightened and felt that young female colleagues were treated as ‘pieces of furniture’ by one manager. She did not want to stay in this environment and in a few months time decided to leave.
Your next chapter may be nearby
Determined to not repeat this type of experience, Olga looked at the brighter side. She said: “I wanted to be a marketer. Knowing how tricky it is to sell intangibles, I wanted a solid product to work with.”
It turned out to be more difficult to find a job outside traditional IT as a young mother. Some human resource officers advised her to remain within the technology arena.
Olga remained hopeful and continued to study hard. She had many learning experiences along the way, which she hopes others can learn from too. One was setting a low bar to employers. She said: “Companies I worked in wanted to get all publicity and sales increases achieved through deductions from my salary.” This happened once and the next time she was in this situation she asked specifically about the budget before signing up. “I was assured this would not be the case, but again I found the budget for publicity came out of my wages. It was a tough period of disappointments. So when I was offered a part-time administrative job with basic sick leave, I took it gladly as a reprieve.”
The job was far from home and involved a lot of travelling. Olga spent two to three hours a day on buses with Harry Potter audio books for company. “In these traffic jams, I started to feel English at last and loved it. It gave me a freedom no money can buy. Life was getting better.”
Though the job did not pay highly, it gave her something valuable – a working website. After her boss and the developer parted company, she was asked to maintain the site. Through some studying and reverse engineering, she discovered how it worked and it gave her an insight into how to write simple websites from scratch.
Olga’s first encounter with JavaScript wasn’t easy: “My first JavaScript calculator almost made me crazy, but I pursued it.”
Quickly she started to get small tasks from friends and relatives, usually to solve some urgent problems and started to meet popular content management systems. One of the first she met with was WordPress. There was an issue in a website theme used by a website which had been changed and not maintained. It took a whole weekend to solve, but she was determined to work it out. Back then, WordPress was ‘just a system’. She didn’t know then how much it was to become part of her life.
Olga spent the next two years in this role. As time went on, she started to feel worried and less satisfied with the work. The last straw for her was a negative statement from her boss, who was not a programmer and who hadn’t seen any of the work done on the website. She felt the approach was unfair as she had done extensive work on the site. She recalls: “I became angry, but it was exactly what I needed to move jobs.”
When Olga was job hunting, she didn’t feel she had the courage to apply for a developer’s role, despite the learning and work she had already done. So instead she started working on projects where she felt she was more like a ‘seller of box-ready websites’. It was another tough half a year for her with a lot of work, low payment and plans not turning out as she had hoped. On top of long hours, she ended up with pneumonia. She said: “I see now that I was doing a disservice to customers, websites are not a microwave meal – quick, cheap and dummy. There was no life in the sites without a lot of work which no one was willing to buy. Most of the sites I sold back then died after the first year and they never were truly alive and useful.”
You need to be brave and have courage
Olga really wanted a developer job but seeking jobs of this type was very frustrating. From the job adverts she found, it felt like most IT companies were asking for geniuses who already knew a lot of technologies and frameworks. She found this very demotivating.
She then found a job offer on a website outside the most popular job portals and it seemed like a perfect fit. They wanted someone with experience to write from scratch, understand someone else’s code and maintain it, with an ability to translate technical documentation and articles, and make simple designs for printing products. After completing a trial task, she was taken on, and enjoyed a better salary, in a calm environment with good colleagues and without the requirement for a lot of extra hours.
The advert turned out to be a direct ad from one of the sales departments in a technology company. By succeeding in the task set, Olga had bypassed the Human Resources team which she felt would not normally have considered her.
Her boss agreed to her working remotely most of the time. It solved any potential leave problems which Olga had thought may be an obstacle.
For Olga it had been 14 years since the original decision to become a programmer and it was only the beginning.
After a few years at what she describes as an ‘amazing experience’ in this workplace, Olga felt able to move on to her next challenge as a developer.
Decision-making can benefit from wider knowledge
After working with different systems Olga became sure that WordPress is the best CMS for developers and clients. But she was disappointed to find that the ease of use meant that good code was not always a priority for some of the sites she looked at.
“The biggest flaw of WordPress – it’s so easy to make things work that some may feel they don’t need to bother to do things right, but this becomes a problem later.”
In custom themes for a site, she also saw sites being made and clients left without any further support, or items hard coded when clients actually needed more control to change regularly.
Olga used to rely on examples she could easily find, documentation and search engines to improve her understanding in using WordPress. She discovered that just by searching for a specific feature or a solution, you can miss the whole picture.
She turned to online courses to get more comprehensive knowledge and then started to attend WordPress events, firstly online and then by foot, trains and planes! She discovered a worldwide community that was very much alive. She didn’t know when she started studying online materials and attending discussions that she would end up contributing herself to the Learn WordPress platform a few years later.
WordCamps and contributor days became a big part of her life. From her early days attending events and starting out contributing to WordPress, she is an active member of the WordPress.org Global Marketing and Polyglots Teams, and supported the recent WordPress release. She is just beginning her first WordCamp organiser experience, joining WordCamp Europe 2021 on the Contribute Team.
Olga said: “Through the wider WordPress community, I knew not only where to look but also whom to ask. Most importantly, I found allies who don’t think I’m going crazy by speaking with delight about work, and with whom I share a passion and fondness for WordPress. This is what matters.
“Now, after more than seven years of full time development, I am still enjoying endless learning, frequent discoveries, mistakes and an impassioned wish to do better.”
This and a desire to help others use WordPress.org is part of Olga’s continued contribution to its Support and Marketing Teams, and led her to be involved in the Release Marketing questions and answers in 2020.
There is no chequered flag on the way
The road to freedom and becoming her own boss has not been easy for Olga. It is the path that got her where she is today, and she continues to find joy in it. She retains the lessons she’s learned and is always hungry to learn more.
“I travelled through a very uneven path, with a lot of obstacles and noise, but for me it’s like a kaleidoscope where a little turn presents a new picture, a new “ah-ha” moment, new excitement after seemingly pointless efforts.”
She added: “When in doubt I remind myself about David Ogilvy (generally considered the Founding Father of the modern advertising industry) who tried a lot of things before he struck gold with advertising, and maybe that’s why he did.”
Finally, she learned not only to keep a good spirit and try different things, but also to dare as you move forward.
This post is based on an article originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories would otherwise go unheard.
Growth is among the most desirable goals for any web design business. Whether you’re a freelancer or an agency, it’s likely that you’ll want to become bigger and more profitable over time.
It takes a lot of planning and hard work to get there. And your business will continue to evolve all the while. Things such as pricing, workflow and ideal projects will change along with you.
One thing you may not expect with that growth is the continued pull of your legacy clients. Those who you’ve worked with for years and have long been a part of your journey.
For these folks, you’re not necessarily that big-time web designer. To them, you’re a trusted source of information and maybe even like a member of the family. You’re the person they call on year after year.
While that’s a great thing, it may also feel as though you’re stuck between the future and your past. These longtime clients may still expect things to work the way they always have, even if it doesn’t fit with your current business model.
So, how can you keep old friends happy while forging ahead? Here are some tips to help you manage.
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The first challenge is to look at what role a particular client plays in your business. For example, are they considered vital? If they left today, would your revenue suffer?
You might also think in terms of the services you provide them. Are they using a content management system (CMS) that you specialize in? Is their website outdated and difficult to maintain?
If the client in question fits seamlessly with what you’re doing, awesome! But even if they don’t, take a moment and consider what it would take for the relationship to change in a mutually-beneficial way.
Sometimes, this is the perfect segue into a redesign or some other shift in services. It brings your client in line with your preferred practices and may spark a renewed energy. This is also a great way to bring in some extra money.
A client/designer relationship can often stagnate simply because there’s not enough communication. This can quickly change with a little initiative on your part.
Of course, not everyone will take you up on the offer. But it can’t hurt to ask.
Adjust the Rules Where Necessary
The way you worked even a few years ago may be vastly different than today. For example, maybe you weren’t quite as busy back then. Thus, a client could email or call anytime with a request. Now, you’re so swamped that you have implemented a ticket system. If only everyone was on board.
These types of changes can be difficult for clients to grasp. Not because they necessarily want to be troublemakers. Rather, they’re likely so used to working with you in a certain way that policy changes don’t show up on their radar. They pick up the phone because that’s what they’ve always done.
For designers, the problem is that you end up different rules for different people. Maybe your most profitable client uses the ticket system, but the smallest insists on taking up more of your time. That’s not really fair to anyone.
Here’s where some gentle reminders can make a positive impact. The hope is that, once a client uses your new process a time or two, they’ll be comfortable enough to keep on doing so.
If they still don’t get the hint, well, you’ll have to make a decision. Is it worth a battle or do you just live with it? Only you can answer for certain.
Stick to Your Current Pricing Structure
The longer you have been in business, the more likely it is that your pricing structure will have changed. This will have the biggest impact on longtime clients, as they’ve gone through those different phases with you.
What? You haven’t raised prices on them? It’s understandable. Sometimes we allow clients to stick with older pricing as a way to say “thank you”. Or perhaps we don’t want to deal with the anticipated blowback for doing so.
Except in very special circumstances, it’s a bad idea to provide deep discounts or failing to raise rates accordingly. It’s not only tough on your bank account, but it can be mentally frustrating as well. You’ll likely dread any work from a client who is paying half or three-quarters the rate of all the rest.
This isn’t your client’s fault. They’re simply paying what you’re charging them. It’s ultimately up to you to ensure that everyone’s paying the current rate across the board.
In the end, this will help you maintain a healthy relationship. You’ll feel like you’re being compensated fairly and that your hard work is appreciated. And clients are usually willing to pay that extra premium for someone they can trust.
Should You Bring Longtime Clients Along for the Ride?
The reality is that, as your business changes, not every existing client is going to be a perfect fit for where you are right now. To paraphrase an old saying: you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole.
That’s why it’s important to look at each client’s status within your portfolio. It’s an opportunity to figure out which relationships are working, along with those that aren’t. From there, you can try and make improvements where possible.
Ultimately, some clients may not come along for the ride. That’s OK – it’s part of the natural evolution of a business.
Then again, you might be surprised at how flexible some clients are. With a little communication, they could be with you now and well into the future.
What is a UX designer? And what is UX design? Jaci from the Interactive team will answer those questions and more in this video.
Transcript: Imagine you walk by a store and a very cool display catches your eye. You go inside, only to discover that the store is impossible to navigate. You’re not sure in which direction you can walk, there are racks blocking the aisles, and, for some reason, the cash register is in the bathroom.
And it’s broken.
I’m guessing if this store actually existed, it would close pretty quickly because it creates a poor experience for its customers.
Similar to a chaotic store, careless web design can end up hurting your business. If your website doesn’t look great, is difficult to navigate, or doesn’t work the way it should, people will go elsewhere.
This is where I tell you that you can prevent people from leaving your site. In this video, I’m going to go over how you can create a website with user experience (UX) in mind. I’ll cover:
UX design is a principle of good web design that focuses on how to create a website that works well for users.
The end goal of UX design is that you’ll have a great product that looks nice, is structured well, functions properly, and keeps people coming back.
I guess that’s more than one goal…
In addition, good UX can help your website show up in search engines. If your site works well, you’ll likely be able to keep people on it longer. If people don’t quickly return to the search engine results, this is a signal that your site offers something valuable.
Your website may be pretty on the outside, but if it’s difficult to navigate when you look a little closer, your designer was not focused on UX.
People don’t only access your website from a desktop computer. In fact, there’s a chance you’re watching this video from your phone. Am I right?
Tablets, smartphones, laptops, desktops…people have plenty of options when they’re surfing the web. If your website doesn’t respond to different devices, it’s bound to lose traffic to competing websites that do adapt.
So if your website gets cut off on tablets, or is significantly slower on mobile, it’s time to make adjustments. Your UX designer can handle that.
Usability
Think of usability as getting your site visitors from point A to point B with little to no issues.
Say you have a short paragraph of text on your website encouraging people to contact you, and you’ve linked to a page with a contact form within the text of that paragraph.
With usability in mind, it may be better to have your contact form directly below that paragraph or add a noticeable button that directs people to your contact page.
While you may think it’s common sense for people to click the link in the text, another person may miss that link or get confused and wander aimlessly through your pages.
Your UX designer should throw all assumptions out the window when updating your website.
Navigation
If people can’t find what they need on your website, they’re going to get frustrated. Frustrated site visitors likely won’t become customers.
A UX designer will organize the structure of your website so that it’s as simple as possible for people to find their way across your site.
You may notice that many websites have a large navigation menu at the top of every page so people can hop to different sections. This is a great way to keep your site organized and keep people from losing their way.
Design
It’s not 2005 anymore. Websites need to look good.
Let me ask you this. If you landed on a website that looked like it was made when dial-up was considered groundbreaking, would you trust it?
Good design can help communicate your brand and can help people feel more comfortable navigating your content. A UX designer will keep this in mind when working on your website.
You don’t want your design to be too distracting, but you want it to be eye-catching enough that people want to stay on your site.
We’re almost done here, but I just want to talk about one more thing related to UX design: user interface (UI) design.
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As I mentioned, UX is a way of designing that incorporates people’s needs and behaviors.
UI, on the other hand, is just a portion of UX.
I can best explain this using a smartphone.
So when you use your phone, you interact with the interface. Things like apps, a search bar, and the design of the home screen all make up the UI.
The UX includes the interface, but it doesn’t stop there. Things like the phone’s physical design, the home button (or not), the power button, and the headphone jack (or not) can all be considered part of the UX.
So both UI and UX are important, but UX is a more all-inclusive term for things that users interact with.
Either way, UX design is incredibly important for your website. If you don’t think your website creates a good experience for visitors, it may be time to partner with a UX designer.
Our team of designers knows how to create websites that people love, so don’t hesitate to contact our team by phone, or through webfx.com.
Before you watch the next viral video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and Revenue Weekly, our email newsletter, for the latest in digital marketing.
Polygons just seem to be a natural fit for web design. For one, they’re incredibly versatile. These shapes can both stand out on their own or be combined to create something altogether different. Whether you want to craft an element that is abstract or realistic – it’s within reach.
At the very basic end of the scale, a polygon may be used to create a button or a simple background. But they can also serve as incredibly detailed UI elements as well. The trick is in leveraging the power of both CSS and JavaScript to put these creative ideas together.
We’ve collected some stunning examples of what polygons can do. You might just be amazed at some of these implementations – let’s get started!
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A series of shaded triangles has been turned into…a school of fish? That’s right. This pure CSS animation brings a little bit of ocean right to your screen. Notice the lifelike movement of each fish – complete with a perspective shadow below.
Here we have a masterful representation of an origami bird. The use of both shapes and shadows makes this look just like the real thing. A gentle animation serves as the perfect finishing touch. This entire piece is done with HTML and CSS.
This nature scene uses polygons to create depth and a little bit of fantasy. The jello-like liquid motion is recognizable, but still tame enough avoid conflicting with the content overlay. A fun illustration that lends itself to storytelling.
Ikko Tanaka was a Japanese graphic designer whose work often made interesting usage of polygons. Therefore, it’s only fitting that his creations are remade via CSS. This presentation captures Tanaka’s style and is also a great example of CSS grid, clip paths and other advanced techniques.
Speaking of beautiful tributes, here’s one to the late great David Bowie. The rock music icon is the star of this jQuery-powered low-poly animation. Ever into technology, Bowie himself may well have loved this depiction.
Sporting an eye-catching CSS grid layout, this book display would be a perfect fit for an eCommerce shop. Thanks to the diamond-shaped grid, it’s at once complex, symmetrical and easy to digest. A snazzy hover effect also adds to the atmosphere.
Check out this fun memory matching game. It utilizes super-cute polygon illustrations of animals and other common objects. CSS makes it enjoyable to look at, while JavaScript powers all the behind-the-scenes functionality.
Background textures are a common use for geometric shapes. You can see why when viewing this example. It utilizes Delaunay triangulation to create a colorful-yet-subtle animation that would be sure to grab a user’s attention. Imagine using it in a hero area or other prominent place.
The level of detail in the above code snippets are an inspiration. Each takes simple polygonal shapes and turns them into works of art. It’s a testament to the power of both code and creativity.
Looking for even more incredible polygon examples? Be sure to check out our CodePen collection for a complete set!
