June 30th, 2017

A Decade of Breadcrumbs

Posted by John Havlik in WordPress > Plugins

Ten years a go, I released the first version of Breadcrumb Navigation XT after adopting it from its original maintainer, Michael Woehrer. At that time, I did not fathom the journey I would take with it.

Within the first few months after adopting Breadcrumb Navigation XT, a settings page was added and it took on a new name (now known as Breadcrumb NavXT). Fast forward to today, it has been rewritten from the ground up twice (in 2.0 and 3.0), translated into 18+ languages (counting >80% translation completeness), downloaded more than 4 million times, and used on over 600 thousand sites.

In commemoration of this anniversary, Breadcrumb NavXT 5.7.1 was released today. Originally, the intent was for Breadcrumb NavXT 6.0 to be released. However, Breadcrumb NavXT 6.0 is not ready yet, and a fall release is a more realistic target.

Lastly, in August, I will be giving a presentation at WordCamp Minneapolis/St. Paul 2017 covering the highlights of my decade long journey with Breadcrumb NavXT.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

June 30th, 2017

Breadcrumb NavXT 5.7.1

Posted by John Havlik in WordPress > Plugins

This is the first, and hopefully only, bug fix release of the 5.7 branch of Breadcrumb NavXT. Two bugs were fixed in this release. One relating to the bcn_display_json_ld() function and the other pertaining to the injection of separators in the breadcrumb trail.

Breadcrumb NavXT 5.7.0 introduced the new bcn_display_json_ld() function. However, there was erroneous instance of $linked that caused a PHP warning. This has been resolved in Breadcrumb NavXT 5.7.1.

The second bug involved missing breadcrumb separators after removing a breadcrumb from the trail. Breadcrumb NavXT 5.7.1 uses an improved method of determining when to insert a breadcrumb separator that does not exhibit this behavior.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

June 9th, 2017

Raspberry Pi Zero W and Funtoo

Posted by John Havlik in Guides

After finding the PaPiRus ePaper panel, I picked up a Raspberry Pi Zero W to drive it. To be perfectly honest, the early Raspberry Pis never really excited me. However, the Raspberry Pi Zero’s small footprint caught my attention. Add in WiFi and Bluetooth, as found on the Zero W, and you have a solid IoT starter board.

Thanks to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi, both Funtoo and Gentoo have guides on setting up Funtoo/Gentoo on a Raspberry Pi. Getting a base system up and running is straightforward. Though, if you have to compile anything it will take a while.

June 2nd, 2017

Dell TB16 vs TB15

Posted by John Havlik in Reviews > Hardware

A year and a few months ago, I picked up a Dell TB15 to use with my new XPS 15 9550. Since then, the TB15 was discontinued due to hardware issues. Last December, the WD15 as the only available replacement, even though its link was USB C, not Thunderbolt 3 like the TB15. However, Dell has since released the TB16, which officially replaces the TB15.

Since January, Dell has replacing existing TB15 units with TB16 for customers who open a support ticket requesting an exchange. Additionally, it appears that Dell is, as of late April, proactively sending out TB16 units to those who purchased a TB15 unit from Dell.com—this is how I ended up with a TB16. In addition to the TB16, Dell includes a letter explaining the exchange process and a shipping label for returning the old TB15.