Steve Grunwell

Open-source contributor, speaker, and electronics tinkerer

Category: Community

A yellow bird perched on a Sakura tree

Quick Tip: Monitor Multiple Twitter Hashtags at Once

Of the major social networks, Twitter is about the only place I regularly participate. It’s far from perfect (and I’ve become quite skilled at the ol’ report-and-block maneuver), but for me, Twitter is that right combination of breaking news, tech discussions, and comedy (safe to say we could all do without the white supremacists and bots on the service, of course).

My employer, Liquid Web, is a Platinum Sponsor of WordCamp US this weekend, and we’ll have a few different hashtags we’ll be promoting. While I’m not directly in sales/marketing, I still wanted to find a way to stay on top of both WordCamp US and Liquid Web-related posts.

There are certainly tools out there for monitoring multiple hashtags, but I was hoping to find a native way within either Tweetbot or (shudder) the official Twitter app. Unfortunately, neither seem to [directly] offer this feature natively.

Continue reading→

I just launched the Engineering @ Growella blog

As you may be aware, I joined a Cincinnati-based startup, Growella, as their Director of Technology in mid-November. Since joining, I’ve been hard at work building our site (which is slated to launch within the next few weeks), building our hosting infrastructure, and generally being the point-person for all things technological at the company.

I’m already learning a lot in my new role, and I wanted an outlet to be able to share those things. I’m also very fortunate that the rest of the company embraces open source software, so I wanted a place (besides this blog) to share what Growella has been working on, the problems we’ve been solving, and any releases of new software.

With all of that in mind, I’m proud to announce that about an hour ago we launched the Engineering @ Growella blog.

Continue reading→

A street in Cuba, full of people and vibrant colors

Software for the Greater Good: Apretaste Brings the Internet to Cuba

During SunshinePHP, I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Salvi Pascual of Miami non-profit Apretaste. Besides talking about the delicious desserts at the speakers’ dinner, Salvi and I chatted about the current state of internet connectivity outside of the United States. I hadn’t realized it before, but barely 90 miles from where we sat there lives a population where nearly three quarters of the people have no internet connectivity, and of those that do less than 4% have access to anything beyond email.

Imagine if you were living in 2016 with little-to-no access to the internet. No social media. No news from the outside world. No cat videos on YouTube.

Continue reading→

Movember 2: Electric Boogaloo

This year I’ll be participating in my second-ever Movember to raise funds and awareness for men’s health issues. You may recall I was the Captain of Buckeye Interactive’s grow team in 2013, and this year I’m helping lead the charge for 10up’s MoTeam!
For the uninitiated, Movember is an annual fundraiser wherein men – starting clean-shaven – grow mustaches over the month of November to raise awareness for men’s health issues. Along the way, we raise money to help fund research for prostate and testicular cancers and support programs promoting strong mental health and physical fitness.

Continue reading→

A wall filled with cans of spam.

Spam Warning: Search Engine Registration

I promise I’m not turning this blog into a list of all the spam I get, but registering that domain for the non-profit my Grandma helped start has opened my eyes to all sorts of shady services preying on first-time registrants. Here’s another example I received just this morning, warning me to “Complete Search Engine Registration” for my domain.

Continue reading→

A wall filled with cans of spam.

Spam Warning: New Domain Registrations

Recently I registered a domain name on behalf of a non-profit organization my Grandmother has been involved with over the last decade. I used the organization for all of the registrant contact information except for the email address (which I didn’t have), so I set it to a specific account on my own domain.

Within an hour of registering the domain name, that inbox started receiving a steady stream of emails congratulating me on registering and offering web design, development, and SEO services.

At first I assumed this was just someone desperate for business who thought to watch public registries for new domains; annoying, but not dangerous. As more and more emails came in, I realized this isn’t just spam but a good phishing (e.g. pretend to be a legitimate company in order to steal your money) scheme as well.

Continue reading→

Recap: CodeMash 2015

Last week I attended CodeMash 2015, my third time attending the conference. Held at the lush Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Sandusky, Ohio, CodeMash brings together some of the brightest minds in Ruby, .NET, and JavaScript for two days (plus a pair of optional “pre-compiler” workshop days before the main conference) of code, networking, and (eventual exhaustion).

Continue reading→

Looking out from the Smithsonian Natural Science museum on a foggy day

Reflections on php[world] 2014

I just got back last night from the inaugural php[world] conference in Washington, D.C., put on by the team at php[architect], and thought I’d share some of my thoughts and experiences:

Continue reading→

Avoiding Swearing for Men’s Health

Sadly, I’m not participating in Movember this year. It’s for rather selfish reasons, admittedly (I’m speaking at php[world] in Washington, D.C. this week, which is the largest speaking engagement of my career, and don’t want to be mid-‘stache during the conference), buthat doesn’t mean I don’t want to be involved with Movember. As I won’t be shaving off the beard for some mustache fun this month, I’d like to propose this alternative:

Continue reading→

Hear me on the WP Decoded podcast!

Nathan Driver and Brian Retterer were nice enough to invite Phil Hoyt and I on the inaugural WP Decoded podcast, where we talked WordPress 4.0, WordCamp Columbus, and why “WordPress 101” sessions at WordCamps are a lot like Freshman Orientation.

Continue reading→

Page 1 of 2

Be excellent to each other.