https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/ News, tutorials, and insights from Million Lights Media en Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/the-case-for-tabs-indentation-as-interface/ Spaces enforce a visual opinion at the point of authorship. Tabs defer that opinion to the reader — which is exactly where it belongs. Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/the-case-for-tabs-indentation-as-interface/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/aws-cdk-static-sites-cloudfront/ A practical look at using AWS CDK to provision S3, CloudFront, ACM, and Route 53 for static site hosting — with pipeline-driven deploys and no servers. Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/aws-cdk-static-sites-cloudfront/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/healthcare-web-development-what-providers-need/ Lessons from building custom web platforms for healthcare organizations — compliance considerations, Elementor theming, and the realities of health system IT. Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/healthcare-web-development-what-providers-need/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/enterprise-wordpress-for-food-brands/ How we scaled WordPress with Elementor and custom API integrations for enterprise food brands — lessons from B&G Foods, Green Giant, Cream of Wheat, and more. Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/enterprise-wordpress-for-food-brands/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/foundations-of-ai-automation/ A grounded introduction to AI automation — where it helps, where it falls short, and how to identify and scope early wins for your team. Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/foundations-of-ai-automation/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/performance-budgets-that-stick/ How to set realistic web performance budgets, integrate them into CI/CD pipelines, and keep them visible throughout the delivery process. Fri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/performance-budgets-that-stick/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/scalable-system-design-basics/ Core principles for designing systems that scale — covering load distribution, statelessness, caching, and database scaling strategies. Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/scalable-system-design-basics/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/human-in-the-loop-workflows/ How to design AI workflows where humans stay meaningfully in control — covering oversight patterns, escalation paths, and audit trails. Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/human-in-the-loop-workflows/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/choosing-the-right-service-boundaries/ How to draw service boundaries that reduce coupling, improve team autonomy, and support independent deployments — practical guidance for architects. Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/choosing-the-right-service-boundaries/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/accessible-ui-patterns/ Practical accessibility patterns for navigation, forms, modals, and content — aligned with WCAG 2.2 and real-world screen reader behavior. Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/accessible-ui-patterns/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/resilience-patterns-for-modern-platforms/ Time-tested resilience patterns for distributed systems — circuit breakers, bulkheads, retries, observability, and chaos engineering. Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/resilience-patterns-for-modern-platforms/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/data-readiness-checklists/ Practical checklists for assessing data quality, governance, and compliance risk before deploying an AI or automation project. Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/data-readiness-checklists/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/front-end-delivery-checklists/ A comprehensive front-end release checklist covering performance, accessibility, SEO, cross-browser testing, and post-launch monitoring. Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/front-end-delivery-checklists/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/carousel-plugin/ A simple infinite-scrolling jQuery carousel plugin for images and text, shared on GitHub as a teaching tool for developers to sharpen their jQuery skills. Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/carousel-plugin/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/accordion-plugin/ After years of creating my own jQuery plugins for websites I've worked on, I'm finally getting around to setting them up as public repositories on GitHub. Fri, 03 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/accordion-plugin/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/password-generator/ A custom password generator built from scratch using vanilla JavaScript, HTML, and CSS — created out of a need for a simple, self-owned secure password tool. Fri, 22 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/password-generator/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-basics-of-using-git-and-github/ An introduction to Git and GitHub — covering version control concepts, basic Git commands, and why Git is ideal for solo and collaborative development. Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-basics-of-using-git-and-github/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/super-basic-wordpress-theme/ A super basic WordPress theme to use as a stripped-down starting point for custom theme development — cleaner than stripping down an existing theme every time. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/super-basic-wordpress-theme/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-installation-of-magento-on-dreamhost/ How to install Magento on a Dreamhost shared server using the CLI — bypassing PHP time limits that cause the standard web-based installer to time out. Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-installation-of-magento-on-dreamhost/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/overview-of-an-open-source-web-development-environment/ A behind-the-scenes look at an open-source web development environment — tools, workflows, and the self-taught journey from wrong to right. Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/overview-of-an-open-source-web-development-environment/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-developing-wordpress-themes-locally-with-xampp/ A guide to setting up a local WordPress development environment with XAMPP — build and test themes locally before deploying to a live server. Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-developing-wordpress-themes-locally-with-xampp/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/mikegen-theme/ The MikeGen WordPress theme — a clean, streamlined two-column base theme built as a starting point for more complex custom WordPress theme development projects. Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/mikegen-theme/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-jquery-showhide-basics/ A beginner's guide to jQuery show and hide — covering client-side JavaScript fundamentals and how to toggle page elements without a full page refresh. Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/tutorial-jquery-showhide-basics/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/design-cheatsheet-for-wordpress-themes/ A design reference cheatsheet for building WordPress themes — covering common UI elements, layout patterns, and styling conventions used in theme development. Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/design-cheatsheet-for-wordpress-themes/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/alternative-cron-job-backups-in-dreamhost/ An alternative Dreamhost cron job backup approach using secure FTP — ideal when GZIP archives are too large to email or when you need a more secure method. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/alternative-cron-job-backups-in-dreamhost/ https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/automatic-site-backups-using-cron-jobs-in-dreamhost/ How to set up automatic website backups using cron jobs in Dreamhost — preserving file uploads and database content on a regular schedule before it's too late. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.millionlightsmedia.com/news/automatic-site-backups-using-cron-jobs-in-dreamhost/