PaulSwarthout – Paul Swarthout

Wordle, My Strategy for Success

PaulSwarthout — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 21:47:56 +0000

Like probably every [Wordle] player, I have a strategy of my own. I have eight rules that govern my Wordle gameplay. Using these rules, I find the right answer in 3 or 4 guesses more often than I find the answer in 5 or 6 guesses or not at all.

Cold Weather Growing – Greenhouse 1.0

PaulSwarthout — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 20:46:56 +0000

This is a continuation of my series on Cold Weather Growing. Remember from my last post, I have 2 raised gardens, each measuring 8′ x 4′ x 22″. The one in the front has seen better days. Both were built using unpainted pressure treated lumber that was supposed to resist insects and rot. Apparently the …

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Cold Weather Growing

PaulSwarthout — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 19:38:30 +0000

Running out to check on the greenhouse, I unzipped the polypropylene cover and peered inside. In the frigid 6F morning air, my face was met with a blast of 72F air. Yippee!! I was successful. My plants survived single digit outside temperatures in a greenhouse made of polypropylene plastic over a cheap metal frame.

World War III

PaulSwarthout — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 19:00:00 +0000

It’s 2020. The world is embroiled in a war of epic proportions. This is a true story. Okay, I hear you: “Say what?” We will get back to that in a few minutes. But first, let’s spend a moment with history. A History Lesson During many past wars and conflicts down through history, the phrase …

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To FILE or not to FILE

PaulSwarthout — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:50:47 +0000

…well that IS the question today. A Little Background __FILE__ is a magic constant in PHP. When it is invoked in a PHP script, it returns the fully qualified, fully resolved, path to the current file. What could be easier? It is built into PHP, the popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to …

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Read-only Class Properties in PHP

PaulSwarthout — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 19:26:28 +0000

I’ve been writing PHP code for over 3 years now. Nearly every day, I learn a new “trick” with PHP. Often, those learning experiences start with a Google search, such as “Can I make class properties read-only in PHP?“ The simple and short answer to that question is: No you cannot. But the more accurate …

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Initializing Static Classes in PHP

PaulSwarthout — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 00:32:58 +0000

I have been writing code in a variety of programming languages since the early 1980s. Today, I spend my time developing plugins for WordPress. That means PHP. On the whole, I like PHP. One of my favorite things about it is that whenever I need something special, there is often a built-in function that already …

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