Reviews on Taylor Jasko

Quick Thoughts on Ghost - better than WordPress?

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 20:31:44 +0000

A year ago I ported my older blog, srced.com, to the Ghost blogging platform from WordPress. A couple weeks ago I combined my blog & portfolio together… all powered by Ghost, so I have had quite some experience with Ghost thus far. Here are my thoughts after using Ghost for a year.

The Good

It’s fast. As Ghost is simply a blogging platform and focuses only to be that, it’s faster than full-fledged CMSes like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress.
It just works. The admin interface of Ghost is incredibly easy to use. It doesn’t have very much to it, so it helps you focus on what you want to do best… blog.
Different data-stores. I was happy to see that Ghost supports both SQLite and MySQL. I hooked my installation up to a MariaDB instance, and it works great. I was also happy to see nicely defined indexes in the schema… thank you, Ghost authors.
Theming is brain-dead easy. The theming system in Ghost is completely handled by Handlebars, which is significantly easier to work with than with all the other PHP-based CMSes that I’ve used.
- The Ghost authors also built a nice template structure that you’re basically forced to follow (for right now that is). This was a great move on their part to standardize everything.
HTML in posts works great. Because the editor is Markdown-based, you can throw as much HTML as you want in the editor. This is great for adding in custom styles that you’ll need only in that post. No ugly divs, line breaks, or anything of that nature… WordPress, I’m talking about you!
Static pages. Even though Ghost does focus on blogging, they did add in the ability to create a static page; this is great for about pages and the like.

The Bad

Not for advanced blogs. Remember how I said Handlebars makes templating Ghost really easy? It also can make it insanely difficult to add any non-stock behavior to the themes. Ghost does not support the addition of custom Handlebars helpers, and because of this, it is impossible to add in your own view logic to your themes. For example, I wanted to pop up a message to people when they view my older blog posts… this is not possible on the server-side view logic yet without editing Ghost’s source code.
Ghost has an ugly upgrade process. Because Ghost is based on node.js and that it acts as its own web server, it’s impossible to upgrade the code base without restarting the node process. You can technically change the port in the config, edit the upstream port on your main proxy web server, spool up a new instance of Ghost & reload the proxy server, but this is a nasty process for a regular person. So I don’t recommend Ghost to a novice user who runs a high-traffic blog. There are ways around this (like fronting Ghost with Varnish) and never having stale cache, but this is definitely an advanced setup (this is what I do and it works well).
Not compatible with most shared hosts. Shared hosts will never allow their users to run a custom node.js process on their servers, and because of this, this reduces the target audience of Ghost significantly. However, a multi-site like feature would fix this issue, as shared hosts would have to run only one Ghost instance. Hopefully this will be in the pipeline as a hosted version of Ghost is already offered, which probably uses a multi-site like setup.
No commenting system. Really? When the Ghost authors stated that they’re focusing on a blogging software, they meant it. Ghost does not come with a commenting system; they recommend using something like Disqus. I don’t find this acceptable, but that’s just me. Ghost should at least partner up with Disqus/Livefyre/etc and have a one-click install method to make commenting easier for everyone.
No apps/plugins. It is still in the pipeline to finalize a plugin/app ecosystem.
The live editor is weird. The editor isn’t a normal HTML input, and because of this, the things you expect in an editor sometimes don’t work as expected (like dragging and dropping text).

Summary

Ghost is really neat… it’s open source, the code-base is clean, and it’s fast. However, you really have to have your own server along with adequate JavaScript knowledge to customize it to perfection. I cannot either see a large, high-traffic blog using Ghost as it’s just not as customizable as people need it to be.

2013 Volkswagen GTI Review - A fun driver, for an awesome price

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 23:44:47 +0000

After living in the amazing city of Los Angeles for quite some time, I finally decided to take a big wad of cash and throw all of it towards a new car; that car ended up being the 2013 Volkswagen GTI (MKVI model). As I usually do my reviews a bit differently, let me just start off by saying what features I was looking for in a car and how the 2013 Volkswagen GTI was best suited for me.

Quick Review on the Google Nexus 4

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:39:20 +0000

I recently decided to purchase the LG Nexus 4 (if you’re wondering, I picked up the 16GB version), and I have a bit of mixed results with the new Android and how the overall hardware worked with the software.

The Good

As I always like to start off positive, there are a ton of good key points on the Nexus 4 that drove me to absolutely love the phone.

The Design

The overall design of the phone is amazing, especially for an Android phone. There are no creaking pieces of plastic, it's 100% solid, with two really tough pieces of glass on both the front and the back (they can probably thank Apple for that design). The back has a very interesting finish to it, with the "sparkling dots" that is not too obtrusive, but makes it a very distinctive phone when held in your hand. Although it still wonders me why Google & LG didn't decide just to put the Nexus logo on the back instead of "Nexus" spelled out...

Characters Review - Symbols Finally a Cinch to Get

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:04:14 +0000

If you are any sort of designer or developer, you must know how hard it is to get the non-standard symbols out of your font table onto your designs or websites. There are plenty of HTML entities that you can Google to find the "code" to certain symbols, but there was never an easy way to do this. However, most of the used symbols on the web have special names, like "&copy".

Go check out Streetfood Tycoon! - An Addicting FREE Tycoon Game for iOS!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 05:50:23 +0000

Remember back in the day when Lemonade Tycoon was popular? This was easily around ten years ago; however, these games were highly addicting. We’ve seen all kinds of simulation games for iOS in the past few years, but not anything too unique… this is where Streetfood Tycoon by Kuyi Mobile comes in and makes simulation games fun again.

Streetfood Tycoon is exactly what you think it is: a tycoon game with the overall objective of selling streetfood; sounds boring? It isn’t at all! I was addicted to it for all too long. :P

Wacom Intuos5 Review - Multi-touch and More!

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:34:12 +0000

Wacom has done it again with the new release in their Intuos series, the Wacom Intuos5. Wacom is promising a productivity increase with the new multi-touch surface along with enhanced features; let us see how the new Intuos5 stacks up with the Intuos4 we reviewed some time back!

After having a good chunk of time to use the Intuos5 in my overall work day along with in personal design projects, I can now say I have used the Intuos5 enough to write one of the typical full-blown reviews that you all know!

Layer Cake Review - A Must for Developers and Designers

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:55:00 +0000

If you have ever used Photoshop and needed to export certain layers, groups, and slices, you can quickly find out it is the most frustrating process in the design world. Whether you are a developer clipping images out of a Photoshop file to be used in a website or even an application or even a designer sending images over to your developer to use, you know exactly how long it takes to trim everything down… too long.

QuickWeb Supa V8 VM2 (SSD) Review – Very Fast!

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:45:13 +0000

Last week we wrote about the QuickWeb Supa VZ1 VPS, which sported some amazing results for the price. However, like we mentioned before in the review, we wanted to give you the feeling of how fast their SSD VPSes are. I will tell you right from the start, these VPSes are some of the fastest I have ever used. They're really fast... and I mean it!

As we already introduced QuickWeb in our former review, let's just get straight on to the review.

QuickWeb Hosting Review - Fast, Reliable, Affordable

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:09:48 +0000

Finding the perfect VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting company can always be tough. We reviewed other companies like the Rackspace Cloud before, but to be quite frank, they are very expensive. For most people, we really do not want to dish out $30 a month to spend for a server.

Sure, you might be getting a faster network, but for the most part, it is not entirely needed. This is where QuickWeb Hosting comes into play.

Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot Review

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:11:20 +0000

We have reviewed many Unity books before; however, we never reviewed a full-on Unity book geared to Unity-experienced developers. That's exactly why Packt Publishing, with the help of Jate Wittayabundit, released Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot.

With just a word of warning, Unity 3 Game Development Hotshot is far from a beginner's book. You should be familiar with Unity enough and know your way around things.

With that said, let's get right into the review! But first, I'm sure you want to hear a little of my Unity background. Without boring you, I've been a game developer for quite some time and started to use Unity around a year and a half ago. I was able to pick up Unity very quickly as the way the Unity team implemented scripting is just perfect. I would not call myself an expert, but I would say I know my way around.

Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Review

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:57:11 +0000

Want to get yourself delved right into the 3D gaming world but never had the knowledge to do so? With Packt Publishing’s recent release, Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide by Ryan Creighton, it is a great read if you wish to get started in the Unity world.

If you have been following our reviews for quite some time, you might have realized this is very similar to our previous Unity review we put out not too long ago. To keep the explanation simple, Unity 3.x Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide is an updated book especially for Unity 3.x. Not everything is all the same (like the writing), but the main parts of the book are very much the same, except edited for Unity 3.x. Some new topics have been added as well, so keep a watch out for that in the review!

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac Review - Virtualization Just Got Even Better!

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:30:30 +0000

Virtualization has been around for quite some time now, but it was slow to get in the consumer market. Sure, we have some “advanced” solutions like VMware ESXi that are mainly for businesses, but consumer virtualization took off much slower compared to the business market, especially on the Mac.

Parallels are known for two main things: their high-end server software and their streamlined consumer virtualization software. With their current release of Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac announced on September 6th, 2011, we had to get in on the fun.

Focus by Coppertino Review - Make Your Photos Come Alive

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:57:15 +0000

Coppertino is at it again! First we reviewed their wonderful wallpaper changing utility, Wallpaper Wizard, and we’re back with an entirely new application! Focus, one of the brand new applications from Coppertino. Focus is a photo-oriented application that’s made to do one thing: make your photos look amazing!

The entire point of Focus is very simple; all you have is a clean interface to add all kinds of blurring to your photo, which in the long run, makes whatever you’re targeting stand out more than ever.

jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide Review

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:52:40 +0000

If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m one of the biggest jQuery fans out there. When Packt Publishing gave me the opportunity to review three of their jQuery books, I was more than happy to give a full read of all three books and make one huge jQuery book review.

As that was nearly a year ago, I thought we should review another jQuery book from Packt Publishing. With the recent release of jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide, the wonderful people over at Packt were more than happy to send out a book for a review!

ScreenFlow v3.0 Review - Making Screen Recording Even Easier!

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:00:39 +0000

Way back in April of 2010, we published a text review of ScreenFlow v2 as we knew we just had to review one of the best screen recording software for the Mac. Now, a little more than a year after our initial review, Telestream has done it again with their latest ScreenFlow version, version three.

Now that ScreenFlow v3 has been out to the public for around a week now, we just had to get our full review published as we at Tech Cores really appreciate ScreenFlow for all that it can do.

WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials Review

Tue, 17 May 2011 06:04:59 +0000

It’s without a doubt that WordPress is one of the largest content management systems out there. WordPress has been known for its easy-to-use software and along with its extendability.

WordPress’s extendability features, called plugins, have always been loved by WordPress’s users as they provide an elegant system to expand WordPress to do practically anything.

In this post, however, we’ll be speaking about how plugin development in WordPress 3 works. With Packt Publishing’s latest WordPress book, WordPress 3 Plugin Development Essentials, it provides a nice and fairly detailed (281 pages) description on how WordPress 3 handles plugins.

A Tribute to HP's Support - My Experiences

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:55:46 +0000

Back in 2008, I purchased my first HP laptop. It was the HP/Compaq Presario F761US; it was a budget machine, it wasn’t all too fast, and it for sure fit what I needed back then. What I wanted was a safe, reliable computer that could get me through classwork and programming. That machine did it fairly well, but things only got worse over time.

I’ve recommended people to HP in the past, I’ve repaired HP computers myself, and I’ve even given support out to people in need of it. I’ll say this right from the get-go: I’m very knowledgeable on how HP works. Everything that’ll be listed is not only my experiences, but also ones coming from my peers.

Nginx HTTP Server Review - The Best Nginx Resource!

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:44:05 +0000

Even though you may not realize it, every single website you visit has an HTTP server to it. There are many HTTP servers out there, even some based upon open source projects, but the major ones are mainly Apache (most websites use Apache), Microsoft’s IIS (blah!), Nginx, and lighttpd. Nginx has been getting quite a bit of attention this past year for one main reason… it’s fast! As this isn’t a post on Nginx vs. everything else, we won’t get into which HTTP server is “the best”. But if you want a post like that, feel free to post it in the comments below!

Wallpaper Wizard Review - The Best Mac Wallpaper Changer

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:16:42 +0000

Ever since I have switched over to the Mac early last year, I was struggling to find a unique wallpaper changer that actually was modern and with a vast amount of pre-selected wallpapers. You might remember Desktoptopia from some years ago; sadly, that program is long gone but we have a new wallpaper changer in town, this time, it’s called Wallpaper Wizard by Coppertino Inc.

When Ivan Ablamskyi, the developer of Wallpaper Wizard, contacted me about a week ago, I was thrilled to get my hands on a wallpaper changer on the Mac OS X platform. Very few wallpaper changers on this system exist and by finding Wallpaper Wizard, I think my dream of the perfect wallpaper changer has come true. Enough with that; let’s get on with the full-blown review!

Twitter is Cutting the String - You Won't Like This

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:19:10 +0000

Third party Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Echofon, and the newly released MetroTwit for Windows all have something in common; they’re not designed or developed by the folks over at Twitter.

Recently, Ryan Sarver, from Twitter’s platform team, posted a message publicly on Twitter’s Development Talk group.

Here is a little excerpt from his 1,127 word statement:

As we point out above, we need to move to a less fragmented world, where every user can experience Twitter in a consistent way. This is already happening organically: the number and market share of consumer client apps that are not owned or operated by Twitter has been shrinking. According to our data, 90% of active Twitter users use official Twitter apps on a monthly basis. (Ryan Sarver)

You might be asking yourself, what does this mean? Basically as Twitter is growing so much from last year's 48 million tweets to 140 million tweets a day, Twitter has been noticing one trend going on; Twitter developers don't follow the "standards" that Twitter has set on their mainstream applications.

We need to ensure that tweets, and tweet actions, are rendered in a consistent way so that people have the same experience with tweets no matter where they are. For example, some developers display “comment”, “like”, or other terms with tweets instead of “follow, favorite, retweet, reply”, thus changing the core functions of a tweet. (Ryan Sarver)

In the long run, it makes sense for setting these standards, but I really think Twitter shouldn't be as strict. Ryan has pointed out that Twitter revokes hundreds of applications every week for the ones not following these "standards". I agree with Ryan on one hand in terms of marketing Twitter and all, but on the other hand, the "consistent way" just doesn't register in my mind. The "consistent way" Twitter prefers might not be the way that others prefer.

We might be seeing some of your favorite Twitter applications going in the near future. In fact, most of them might be going away soon. Take a look at the quote below: