fidzu : blog

Hi there,

I am thoroughly giddy for WordCamp US. The schedule looks fantastic. A great collection of Keynote speakers with Amy Sample Ward (NTEN), Danny Sullivan (Google), John Maeda (Microsoft), and Adam Gazzaley (Neuroscape at UCSF).

There are in total 44 sessions, covering three overall topics: "Technical WordPress," "Honing your skills," and "AI." Below you'll find a list of block and block theme-related talks you can follow on the livestream or on demand later on.

And when you read this, I am already on my way to Portland.

Yours,
Birgit

WordCamp US talks and workshops on block development and block themes

Staying within the block editor context, here is the list of talks that tackle the latest blocks buzz.

• Joeleen Kennedy: Modernizing at Scale: How FSE Supports Wikimedia's Evolving UX
• Josh Bryant: Reimagining WordPress Editing: How We Embedded Gutenberg Into Our Product Ecosystem
• Seth Rubenstein: Block Composability: The Past and The Future
• Stephanie Stelzer: Coding the Magic: A Developer's Journey Through Aloha
• Mary Ann Aschenbrenner: Moving a Website from Classic to a Block Theme
• Anton Plauche: Building Resilient Interfaces by Embracing Fluid Design
• Jemima Abu: A PHP Developer's Guide to ReactJS
• Michelle Schlup Hunt: Building Experiences: Design Systems, User Experience, and Full Site Editing
• Tammie Lister: The System is the Strategy
• Jamie Marsland: Launch Your Personal Portfolio-A Hands-On WordPress Workshop
• Ryan Welcher: The Block Developer Cookbook

Developing Gutenberg and WordPress

Jeff Paul posted the members of the Release Squad for WordPress 6.9. It's a mix of community and sponsored contributors. Five squad members are from Automattic; two of them, Jonathen Bossenger and Ryan Welcher are first-timers, paired with longtime contributors on the Triage team and Test team.

In a personal blog post, Exploring work in progress for WordPress 6.9, Anne McCarthy selected a few features on their way to the WordPress 6.9 release and reported on their status. She followed fairly closely the Roadmap 6.9 post and shared updates and discussions that are happening right now, roughly two months away from Beta 1 on October 21.

Rae Morey, The Repository, reported on both publications in WordPress 6.9 Release Squad Named as Features Take Shape.

The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog 119-WordPress 6.8.2 and 6.9, Gutenberg 21.1, 21.2, and 21.3 Releases with Tammie Lister.

If you are listening via Spotify, please leave a comment. If you listen via other podcast apps, please leave a review. It'll help with the distribution.

Release lead Hector Prieto published What's New in Gutenberg 21.4 and highlighted

• DataViews table layout grouping and multi-selecting
• More on DataViews enhancements
• Style shuffling in write mode

In his August edition of the What's new for developers roundup post, Justin Tadlock has a vast array of released or upcoming updates for you to review. He also added three discussions you might want to chime in on if they are relevant to your work.

1. Expanding the Core block library? It might be in the cards
2. Proposing more theme.json settings control
3. Discussion on "composite" blocks

You also learn about Playground updates and Theme related changes and interesting bug fixes. If you only have time to read one post this week, make it this one.

Never ever miss another post from the WordPress Developer Blog! Subscribe!

Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners

In previous editions of this newsletter, I mentioned the new Events plugin by Lesley Sim and Ahmed Fouad called EventKoi. It works natively with the block editor, supports recurring + multi-day events, and gives you beautiful calendar views out of the box. They are running a Founding Partner Lifetime Deal from Aug. 25-31 only. Learn more and get on the waitlist now.

Ajit Bohra and the team at LubusIN have shared their super cool Slider Block that they originally used for their own projects! Now, you can get it from the WordPress Plugin Directory, complete with a handy setup guide to help you get started.

The new plugin WPMozo Blocks and Addons by Elicus comes with a set of very fancy blocks like FlipBox, Image Card, Tilted Image, and some more. Each of them has also many design choices. If you need some interactive blocks on your site, it's worth checking out.

Theme Development for Full Site and Blocks

On the Developer Blog, Justin Tadlock wrote a tutorial on how to use a new extensibility feature to add custom social links to the block editor: Registering custom social icons in WordPress 6.9. If you want to test this for yourself before WordPress 6.9 comes out, make sure you install Gutenberg plugin 21.1 or newer.

I used this new feature to add podcast directory icons for my block theme on Gutenberg Times. The plugin will be in the WordPress repository as soon as I figure out this SVN version control thingy. The code is available on GitHub.

In her latest tutorial, Anne Katzeff, ASK Designs, explores the core Gallery block and shows how to arrange multiple images in a grid of rows and columns. She also mentioned the 'click to enlarge' feature. Katzeff then continues comparing the default gallery block with the one provided by Kadence Blocks.

Web developer Elliott Richmond delivers a thirty-year veteran's verdict: "Menus have always had one job… to help people find their way around a website." His manifesto against mega-menu bloat reveals hidden SEO penalties-link dilution, crawlability nightmares, and semantic confusion plague JavaScript-heavy navigation systems. Richmond advocates for WordPress's foundational principle: semantic simplicity over marketing spectacle. The prescription? Five to seven top-level items maximum, unified cross-device structure, and letting content-not navigation-handle conversion duties.

Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.

Paulo Carvajal shared in his blog post how to build Blocks That Work Seamlessly with Block Themes and the Site Editor. He covers the paradigm shift where everything becomes blocks, emphasizing the importance of integrating with theme.json design systems rather than using hard-coded styles. Key topics include responsive design integration, global styles compatibility, block patterns usage, and performance optimization for the evolving WordPress ecosystem.

Carvajal is also working on the block editor book called WordPress Editor and Blocks-A Comprehensive Guide.

In his livestream, Ryan Welcher let you in on Block Deprecation Secrets Only WordPress Experts Know as one of the Block Development Cookbook series. He cooked up a tasty recipe block and walked through the process of updating it with block deprecations-the secret ingredient to keeping your blocks fresh while maintaining compatibility with older content.

Brendan O'Connell started a video series talking about Remote Data Blocks. the plugin by the WordPress VIP team. Using it helps you connect the block editor to external APIs and sync data in real time to blocks. It also auto-registers custom blocks with a custom schema.

• In Part 1, O'Connell gives you an introduction.
• In Part 2 He covers using the plugin with an Airtable.

WordPressVIP also held a webinar highlighting the Remote Data Block. Rae Morey, The Repository, has the report for you. WordPress VIP Demos Its New Enterprise Suite: Remote Blocks and Parse.ly AI Updates

Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don't hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.

For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com

23 Aug 2025 1:58am GMT

Remarks from Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

22 Aug 2025 7:00pm GMT

A couple months ago, this blog reached a web performance milestone which I shared on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Mastodon, Twitter:

For the first time ever, I've just seen my blog appear in field metrics from CrUX (Chrome UX Report), albeit in desktop only and for the origin not an individual URL. Baby steps. In any case, Core Web Vitals Assessment: Passed

Yesterday, I checked PageSpeed Insights again, and I was excited to discover that my blog is now also appearing in field metrics for mobile as well! And like desktop, the CWV assessment is also passing for mobile. The eligibility criteria for the CrUX dataset includes that "there must be a large enough number of visitors in order to create a statistically significant dataset." Granted, my site is still only getting enough traffic for origin-level metrics, and I can't see field metrics for the homepage URL specifically, but it's another baby step! (Or maybe a toddler step?)

I've really been trying to double down this summer on tuning every bit of performance possible out of WordPress (on the frontend), using my site as a case study, and I've been sharing my findings in posts here. I hope the site traffic is an indication that the community has found my posts helpful. The learnings are also making their way into Performance Lab feature plugins as well as in performance improvements on the roadmap for WordPress 6.9. I have some more posts that I'm working on. You can subscribe to get them in your inbox.

On August 27th (next Wednesday) at WordCamp US 2025 here in Portland, Oregon, I'm giving a talk called "The Site Speed Frontier with Performance Lab and Beyond" at 11:30am PDT. I hope to see you there, but it will also be livestreamed and recorded. I'll be blogging an elaborated version of what I have time to share in my talk. (By the way, if you are attending in person, check out My Portland Picks post for what I recommend visitors check out!)

One takeaway I'll be emphasizing in my talk is that we needn't settle with sites merely passing the Core Web Vitals assessment or achieving a "perfect" 100 performance score in Lighthouse. Why be content with a good 2-second LCP when it could be half that or even practically zero? Web performance is a journey, and there's always room for improvement. I can see from my blog's field metrics, for example, that the TTFB is hovering around the threshold between "needs improvement" and "poor". In spite of this, the frontend is so tuned that on mobile the LCP-TTFB in CrUX is 400ms and on desktop it's only 100ms.

I personally love optimizing the performance of WordPress sites, but I get it that this isn't for everyone (nor should it be). By landing our improvements from the Core Performance Team, my hope is that WordPress core (and the ecosystem) will have best practices implemented by default so that site owners needn't worry about performance.

I had to take some PSI screenshots to memorialize the milestone:

Field Data via CrUX

Lab Data via Lighthouse

Where I've shared this on social media if you want to discuss there:

• LinkedIn
• Bluesky
• Twitter
• Threads
• Mastodon

The post Web Performance Milestone appeared first on Weston Ruter.

22 Aug 2025 6:13am GMT

Learn more about the history of Google Pixel products in this interactive web app.

21 Aug 2025 8:00pm GMT

Learn more about all the announcements from Made by Google 2025 with NotebookLM, Audio and Video Overviews.

21 Aug 2025 8:00pm GMT

My good friend Tim Ferriss has launched a new card game with the Exploding Kittens folks, I just ordered it and you should do so too. It's a lovely way to share an evening with a few friends.

20 Aug 2025 11:07pm GMT

Vous venez d'acheter un ordinateur ? Voici les bons réflexes à adopter dès le départ pour optimiser sa sécurité, ses performances et sa longévité !

L'article Nouvel ordinateur : que faire après l'achat ? est apparu en premier sur 20SIX.fr.

19 Aug 2025 9:39am GMT

Votre clientèle vous cherche sur Google ! En 2025, soigner votre visibilité locale est un levier clé pour attirer plus de clients sans exploser votre budget !

L'article Visibilité locale : pourquoi les entreprises doivent (re)penser leur présence sur Google en 2025 est apparu en premier sur 20SIX.fr.

18 Aug 2025 10:16am GMT

Besoin de protéger efficacement votre logement ? Suivez ces astuces clés pour une couverture sur mesure et évitez les pièges des contrats mal adaptés !

L'article 10 conseils pour choisir la meilleure assurance pour sa maison est apparu en premier sur 20SIX.fr.

18 Aug 2025 9:52am GMT

A few days ago, Google and Brookfield Asset Management announced a massive hydropower deal. Google will invest billions in hydropower, beginning with power purchases from two major dams on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. The announcement is a bit of...

19 Jul 2025 2:31am GMT

Last week, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) case. The key question in the case was whether an EIS for a rail spur needed...

01 Jun 2025 10:33pm GMT

On March 11, 2025, ExxonMobil filed a petition for certiorari in the case ExxonMobil Corp. v. Environment Texas Citizen Lobby, Inc. The petition seeks to drastically alter the requirements for establishing injury and redressability under Article III standing. If successful,...

31 May 2025 10:40pm GMT

Acheter des originaux sur le site LesDessinateurs.com Vous pouvez me suivre sur Instagram, Bluesky ou Facebook.

02 Jan 2024 10:41am GMT

Dans le journal L'Equipe du dimanche et du lundi, vous pouviez trouver un de mes dessins en dernière page. Voici un petit échantillon des dessins réalisés en 2023 pour le quotidien sportif. Acheter des originaux sur le site LesDessinateurs.com Vous pouvez me suivre sur Instagram, Bluesky ou Facebook. Acheter des originaux sur le site LesDessinateurs.com Vous …

Continuer la lecture de « Une année de sport »

01 Jan 2024 9:11am GMT

Acheter des originaux sur le site LesDessinateurs.com Vous pouvez me suivre sur Instagram, Bluesky ou Facebook.

30 Dec 2023 1:06pm GMT

Much as I love pasta, I'm not sure it loves me. Last year my carb-heavy comfort food diet led to some weight gain so I looked into low carb pasta as an alternative. There's a lot out there and I'm still trying different brands and styles, but I thought now would be a good time to share what I've learned so far.

Pasta with Butternut Squash and Brussels Sprouts

My introduction to legume and bean-based pasta was thanks to Barilla. I was lucky because I got to attend a webinar with Barilla's incredible chef, Lorenzo Boni. I tried his recipe for pasta with butternut squash and Brussels sprouts which I definitely recommend and have now made several times. If you've seen his wildly popular (150k+ followers!) Instagram feed you know he's a master at making all kinds of pasta dishes and that he often eats plant-based meals. I followed up with him to get some tips on cooking with pasta made from beans and legumes.

Pasta made with beans and legumes is higher in protein and so the recommended 2-ounce portion is surprisingly filling. But the texture isn't always the same as traditional semolina or durum wheat pasta. Chef Boni told me, "The nature of legume pasta makes it soak up more moisture than traditional semolina pasta, so you always want to reserve a bit of cooking water to adjust if needed." But when it comes to cooking, he says that with Barilla legume pasta you cook it the same way as semolina pasta. "Boil in salted water for the duration noted on the box and you'll have perfectly al dente pasta." They are all gluten-free.

Chickpea pasta

When I asked Chef Boni about pairing chickpea pastas with sauce he said, "Generally speaking, I prefer olive oil based sauces rich with vegetables, aromatic herbs and spices. Seafood also pairs well with chickpea options. If used with creamy or tomato-based sauces, keep in mind to always have some pasta water handy to adjust the dish in case it gets too dry." He added, "One of my favorite ways to prepare a legume pasta dish would be a simple chickpea rotini with shrimp, diced zucchini and fresh basil. The sauce is light enough to highlight the flavor of the pasta itself, while the natural sweetness helps keep the overall flavor profile more appealing to everyone." I like the Barilla brand because the only ingredient is chickpeas. Banza makes a popular line of chickpea pasta as well although they include pea starch, tapioca and xanthan gum.

Edamame pasta

I tried two different brands of edamame pasta, Seapoint Farms and Explore Cuisine. The Seapoint pasta has a rougher texture than the Explore. With the Seapoint I found the best pairings were earthy chunky toppings like toasted walnuts and sautéed mushrooms. The Explore Cuisine edamame & spirulina pasta is smoother and more delicate, and worked well with an Asian style peanut sauce. I was happy with the Seapoint brand, but would definitely choose the Explore brand instead if it's available.

Red lentil pasta

Red lentil pasta is most similar to semolina pasta. Barilla makes red lentil pasta in a variety of shapes. But for spaghetti, Chef Boni says, "Barilla red lentil spaghetti is pretty flexible and works well with pretty much everything. I love red lentil spaghetti with light olive oil based sauces with aromatic herbs and some small diced vegetables. It also works well with a lean meat protein." I have to admit, I have yet to try red lentil pasta, but I'm excited to try it after hearing how similar it is to semolina pasta. It is made only with red lentil flour, that's it. It's available in spaghetti, penne and rotini.

Penne for Your Thoughts

Do you remember seeing photos from Italian supermarkets where the shelves with pasta were barren except for penne? I too seem to end up with boxes of penne or rotini and not a clue what to do with them so I asked Chef Boni his thoughts on the subject. He told me, "Shortcuts such as rotini and penne pair very well with all kind of ragouts as well as tomato based and chunky vegetarian sauces. One of my favorite ways to prepare a legume pasta dish would be a simple chickpea rotini with shrimp, diced zucchini and fresh basil. The sauce is light enough to highlight the flavor of the pasta itself, while the natural sweetness helps keep the overall flavor profile more appealing to everyone." Thanks chef! When zucchini is in season I know what I will try!

15 Feb 2022 6:46pm GMT

Julia is a new film based on Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz and inspired by My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme and The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme. Julia Child died in 2004, and yet our appetite for all things Julia hasn't waned.

I grew up watching Julia Child on TV and learning to cook the French classics from her books, And while I never trained to be a chef, like Child I also transitioned into a career focused on food, a subject I have always found endlessly fascinating. I enjoyed the new film very much and while it didn't break much new ground, it did add a layer of perspective that can only come with time. In particular, how Julia Child became a ubiquitous pop culture figure is addressed in a fresh way.

I reached out to the filmmakers,Julie Cohen and Betsy West to find out more about what inspired them and why Julia Child still holds our attention.

Julia Child died over 15 years ago and has been off TV for decades. Why do you believe we continue to be so fascinated by her?

In some ways Julia is the Godmother of modern American cooking - and eating. Her spirit looms over cooking segments on the morning shows, The Food Network, and all those overhead Instagram shots the current generation loves to take of restaurant meals. Beyond that, though, Julia's bigger than life personality and unstoppable joie de vivre are infectious. People couldn't get enough of her while she was living, and they still can't now.

There have been so many Julia Child films and documentaries, what inspired this one?

Well there'd been some great programs about Julia but this is the first feature length theatrical doc. Like everyone else, we adored Julie & Julia, but a documentary gives you a special opportunity to tell a person's story in their own words and with the authentic images. This is particularly true of Julia, who was truly one of a kind.

The impact of Julia Child how she was a groundbreaker really comes across in the film, are we understanding her in a different light as time passes?

People understand that Julia was a talented television entertainer, but outside the professional food world, there's been an under-recognition of just how much she changed the 20th century food landscape. As Jose Andres points out in the film, almost every serious food professional has a sauce-splashed copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" on their shelves. We also felt Julia's role in opening up new possibilities for women on television deserved more exploration. In the early 1960's the idea of a woman on TV who was neither a housewife nor a sex bomb but a mature, tall, confident expert was downright radical. She paved the way for many women who followed.

The food shots add an extra element to the film and entice viewers in a very visceral way, how did those interstitials come to be part of the film?

We knew from the start that we wanted to make food a major part of this story, not an afterthought. We worked with cook and food stylist Susan Spungen to determine which authentic Julia recipes could be integrated with which story beats to become part of the film's aesthetic and its plot. For instance the sole meunière is a key part of the story because it sparked her obsession with French food, and the pear and almond tart provides an enticing metaphor for the sensual side of Julia and Paul's early married years.

Note: Susan Spungen was also the food stylist for Julie & Julia

Julia is in theaters now.

23 Nov 2021 11:30pm GMT

I met Rick Rodgers early in my career as a recipe developer and food writer when we were both contributors to the Epicurious blog. Not only is he a lot of fun to hang out with, but he has also been incredibly helpful to me and is usually the first person I call when I'm floundering with a project, client, or cooking quandary. His interpersonal skills, business experience, and cooking acumen explain why he's been recognized as one of the top cooking instructors in America. Literally.

You built a career as a cooking instructor and cookbook author. How many cookbooks have you written?

I was asked recently to make an official count, and It looks like an even hundred. Many of those were collaborations with chefs, restaurants, celebrities, bakeries, and business entities, such as Tommy Bahama, Williams-Sonoma, and Nordstrom. I made it known that I was available for collaboration work, and my phone literally rang off the hook for quite a few years with editors and agents looking for help with novice writers or those that wanted a branded book.

Which cookbook(s) are you most proud of?

There are three books that I get fan mail for almost every day: Kaffeehaus (where I explore the desserts of my Austrian heritage), Thanksgiving 101 (a deep dive into America's most food-centric holiday and how to pull it off), and Ready and Waiting (which was one of the first books to take a "gourmet" approach to the slow cooker). These books have been in print for 20 years or more, which is a beautiful testament to their usefulness to home cooks.

How did you get started as a cooking instructor and what are some highlights of your teaching career?

I was a theater major at San Francisco State College (now University), so getting in front of a crowd held no terrors for me. When more brick-and-mortar cooking schools opened in the eighties, I was ready for prime time. During that period, there were at least twelve cooking schools in the Bay Area, so I made quarterly trips here a year from the east coast, where I had moved. My Thanksgiving classes were so popular that I taught every day from November 1 to Thanksgiving, with a couple of days off for laundry and travel. The absolute pinnacle of my teaching career was being named Outstanding Culinary Instructor of The Year by Bon Appétit Magazine's Food and Entertaining Awards, an honor that I share with only a handful of other recipients, including Rick Bayless and Bobby Flay.

Flódni

How have cooking classes changed since you started?

Because there are so many classes available, I can teach at any level of experience. At the cooking schools, we tended to walk a fine line between too difficult and too easy. The exposure to different cuisines and skill levels on TV also has seriously raised the bar. Unfortunately, students want to walk before they can run. They want to learn how to make croissants when I doubt that they can bake a pound cake correctly. It is best to build on your skills instead of going right to the top. That being said, in my online classes, I am concentrating on the more challenging recipes because that is what the market demands of me.

Tell me about your baking school, coffeeandcake.org

As much as I loved my cookbooks and in-person classes, I knew there was a more modern way to reach people who wanted to cook with me, especially since so many cooking schools had closed. I retired the day I got my first Social Security check. But…as I was warned by my friends who knew me better than I did…I was bored, and wanted a new project. I heard about online classes through other teachers who were having success. I found an online course specifically for cooking classes (Cooking Class Business School at HiddenRhythm.com), got the nuts and bolts down, and I finally entered the 21st century!

How do you decide which recipes to teach?

I felt there were plenty of other places to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies and banana bread-just take a look on YouTube alone. I had a specialty of Austro-Hungarian baking thanks to my Kaffeehaus book, so I decided to niche into that category. I have branched out to a few other locations, but my goal is to expose students to something new and out of the ordinary. I also survey my students on what they would like me to teach, and those answers are amazing. People are truly interested in the more difficult desserts. Perhaps it is because so many people discovered baking as a hobby during the pandemic?

For students who have your cookbooks, what are the advantages of taking an online class?

There is no substitute for seeing a cook in action. Plus you get to answer questions during class. In a recent class, I made six-layer Dobos Torte in two hours' real-time to prove that you can do it without giving up a week of your life. And we don't have to travel to each other to be "together." My classes are videotaped so you can watch them at your convenience.

What are some highlights of your upcoming schedule of classes?

Honey cake

In October, I am teaching virtually all Hungarian desserts, things that will be new to most people. I am making one of my absolute favorites, Flódni, which is a Jewish bar cookie (almost a cake) with layers of apple, poppy seeds, and walnuts between thin sheets of wine-flavored cookie dough. San Franciscans in particular will be happy to see a master class that I am teaching with the delightful Michelle Polzine, owner of the late and lamented 20th Century Cafe and author of Baking at the 20th Century Cafe. We will be making her (in)famous 12-layer honey cake on two coasts, with me doing the heavy lifting in New Jersey and Michelle guiding me from the west coast. That is going to be fun! In November and December, I am switching over to holiday baking and a few savory recipes for Thanksgiving, including my fail-proof turkey and gravy, which I have made over 300 times in classes over 30 years' worth of teaching. It ought to be perfect by now

Head to Coffee and Cake to sign up for classes or learn more.

05 Oct 2021 3:56pm GMT

03 Dec 2014 8:12pm GMT

16 Jul 2014 6:08pm GMT

Après presque un mois et demi d'absence, deux bouclages d'albums et plein de projets, je trouve enfin le
temps de poster quelque chose sur ce blog ! Ces jours-ci, je vais avoir pas mal de choses à vous montrer !
On commence tranquille avec un petit dessin aux couleurs estivales.

14 Jul 2014 4:25pm GMT