Welcome! This is the developer site for Mike Weiser. I’ll continue adding posts and links to projects and featured portfolio items. Thanks for visiting. — Mike W.
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Why WordPress?
Why am I using WordPress for this website? Some thoughts below…
I wanted a website to share my software developer portfolio, career experiences, and academic adventures. I’ve got some experience in PHP (programming language), and WordPress is the most popular PHP framework – although it’s often referred to as a “content management system” or CMS. As a life long learner, this seemed like a good way to get started with WordPress and level up my overall skills.
I composed and produced the soundtrack for Sanford Harmony Game Room. The app teaches social and emotional concepts to children and is available for free in the app store. It was developed by one of my favorite companies, Little10Robot. Check them out for more family friendly games and apps. Great for the kids in your bubble!
I’ve tried a number of different approaches to learning new software development skills including online bootcamps, college classes, books, manuals, tutorial videos, and online forums.
You may have heard something like “you don’t need to remember everything because you can just google it.” There is truth to that, but I think it’s important to have a certain amount of knowledge available and easily accessible in your memory. I’ve found that short, quick, and repetitive exercises improve my retention of programming concepts and syntax.
One of my professors recommended a JavaScript book in the series “A Smarter Way to Learn.” I really like how the book introduces a concept and then has you practice it 10 or 20 times in a row using short exercises and quizzes (available online with the purchase of the book). The series also has titles covering jQuery, HTML/CSS, and Python.
There are elements of the short/quick/repetitive style in freeCodeCamp’s content, but I often find myself wanting more practice on one concept before moving to the next.
That said, both freeCodeCamp and “A Smarter Way to Learn” give you quick feedback when you answer the question or complete the short exercise. I’d like to find more content like this for learning new technologies and reviewing skills that may have become stale or outdated.
Please leave a comment with educational content that works for your style of learning.
I just finished jotting down some instructions for deploying your WordPress website on an AWS EC2 instance running Ubuntu 20.04. This was not a coding project, but there were challenges getting the different software elements to “play nice” with each other. WordPress, AWS, Ubuntu, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Adminer, and HTTPS were the main components I used. These steps assume that you already have an AWS EC2 instance running Ubuntu 20.04 with SSH access and a WordPress site running properly on your localhost. Here are the main steps…
- Create MySQL user and grant privileges on AWS EC2
- Export local database than import on AWS EC2
- Route domain names with domain registrar, AWS, and Apache
- Update site to use HTTPS
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Forward Fest 2020
Forward Fest is Wisconsin’s largest technology and entrepreneurship festival that went virtual this year due to COVID-19. I stumbled upon an invitation to the festival in one of my social media accounts this month.
I have attended three events so far with a couple more planned for early next week. The networking/social events were better than expected. Both had attendees give short introductions. One of the events had the larger group divide up into 4 – 5 person zoom chats with some guided discussions and questions.
The value really comes from the diversity of the people attending. I was encouraged to meet many women, people of color, and a mix of ages with interests/careers in startup businesses and technology. Looking forward to the events next week.