Blog
Thoughts and things I care to shareUpgraded: WordPress 2.1
I pulled the trigger this evening and upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.1, which you can download here. Along with a reported 550+ bug fixes, there are several new features built into the new version – some listed below.
- Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
- Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
- The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
- Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
- New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
- You can set any “page†to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
- Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
- Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
- Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
- More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which new lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
- Pages can now be drafts, or private.
- Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
- The dashboard now instantly and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
- Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
- Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
- The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
- A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.
Technorati tags: WordPress 2.1, WordPress Upgrade
links for 2007-01-23
- While all tech users shun this kind of thing, I think CompUSA is taking a very proactive approach to helping users get upgraded to Vista. Of course, it won’t hurt their sales any to provide this service, but it’s the kind of hand-holding the general publ
ScobleShow’s exclusive lunch with Bill Gates at CES 2007
How did I miss this? Robert Scoble captured the visit that Bill Gates had with a number of technology and gadget sites.
Some of the sites participating in the discussion are Engadget, Gizmodo, Kotaku, and Joystiq.
The discussion was fantastic in the depth of categories of technology covered. As usual, Bill Gates is a fascinating person with some great ideas of where technology is or should be going. Good stuff – and the best part being a short discussion of Bill’s fun with his Porsche 911 in Albuquerque in the late ’70s. 🙂
Also, if you haven’t seen Robert’s work at PodTech, you should check out his ScobleShow site – there is a lot of great information he’s got posted.
Via: ScobleShow – Exclusive lunch with Robert Scoble and Bill Gates
links for 2007-01-22
- Interesting move by IBM, and one that bodes well for the enterprise. As this eWeek article points out, Lotus is “going back to it roots” in business collaboration software.
links for 2007-01-20
- This is the fun kind of technology story that I wish we would see more often. Research the literally pushes the boundaries of what we accept. Not just the next evolutionary step, but the next dozen past that, just to find where the next bottlenecks are
- Necessity is the mother of invention – always a great innovation motivator! This is a neat utility for the UMPC that helps change which apps is on top instead of fumbling with the taskbar or finding a way to ALT-TAB to your next app.
Music & the working “groove”
More and more lately I’m finding that I work better without distraction. I know that’s kind of a Doh! idea, but I’ve been working for so many years allowing myself to be distracted and interrupted multiple times hourly (forget daily), to the point where its difficult to get back into the “groove” where your focus and attention is solely on what you are working on.
To combat this, I’ve started to listen to music while working on something at my desk. I know there are many who do this already for the exact same purpose, and it seems to really help get a person back into their most productive working mode.
This past week, I have noticed how much more actual work I’ve gotten done when adding this to my work practices. It also has brought home exactly how often I’m interrupted in my tasks. There is a constant stream of people who are stopping by to ask questions – some that they should already know the answers too, but that’s another post – right?
I’ve found listening to tunes is most effective when working on scripts and documentation. There is something about it that helps stimulate the brain to stream the ideas in a more logical, orderly sequence. Strangely, it doesn’t seem to distract me from what I’m doing as I have long believed it would
So I’m really interested, how do you “drown out” the rest of the office to focus on your tasks? What do you do to help foster creativity?
links for 2007-01-19
- Download the 3.4 Technical Preview version of NetFront Browser for Pocket PC
T-Mobile MDA (HTC Wizard) Call Dropping Issue Fixed
I’ve had the worst problem with my T-Mobile MDA dropping calls about 4 minutes into a call. While the exact time of the drop varied (sometimes up to 10 minutes into a call) it was consistent to the point that everyone I talked to knew about when it would happen.
I’ve been searching all over the ‘net trying to find the cause of the issue and a fix/workaround for it. I finally found it! Not only are MDA’s having the problem, but many HTC Wizard class devices like the Cingular 8125.
The problem seems to appear after upgrading to the latest firmware from the provider – in my case the v2.26 ROM from T-Mobile (though I did see it as well with the 2.24 ROM for QTek on my device). The issue is that HTC had implemented a “feature” in the latest ROM that would help a data connection re-establish itself when it was unsure if the GPRS/EDGE connection was there. It would simply reboot the radio portion of the phone – whether a voice (GSM) session was in process or not!
The fix is to simply add a registry key that disables this new “feature”. Now that I know what the fix is, I needed to share it with anyone who passes by my blog. If you have this problem and use a HTC Wizard class device listed below, please check out the fix and the link to where I found it.
list
Here is the fix to the problem, and this page at XDA Developers clued me in.
Due to network conditions, signal coverage and some other factors, there is a small chance the data connection can become detached from the network, but the device is not aware of the detachment. This is normal in real world scenarios. Since data packages can be sent without any error being returned, the device may incorrectly think the connection is still valid. To correct this, HTC introduced a mechanism to watch for such conditions. After the device sends out data without receiving any network acknowledgment for a certain period of time, the device will try to detach from the network and re-establish the data connection. Usually this will silently re-establish the data connection without the user noticing it. Due to radio platform limitations, this task cannot be performed during a voice call. When both of these conditions are met (data being sent out for a period of time with no network acknowledgment, and an active voice call), the device will reset the radio to address the problem.
HTC has provided the following registry key setting to disable the auto-correction mechanism:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEDriversBuiltInRIL]
“GPRSStallWorkaround”=dword:0
I truly hope that this helps you with your HTC Wizard class device – I know I’m much happier now that I’ve found the fix for the problem.
Hugo Ortega goes full time UMPC
I’ve been heading in the direction of using a UMPC for a few weeks as I contemplate my next computer sometime this winter. Hugo Ortega of Uber Tablet has moved fully to a UMPC solution rather than a traditional laptop or Tablet PC.
I’m considering doing a similar thing, though I may end up getting a miniture Tablet PC rather than a UMPC – not sure on that. The performance of most currently shipping UMPCs concerns me, but it sounds like there are more options (including dual core) on the way for 2007.
Anyway, if you are interested in how moving to a Samsung Q1 would work as your main computer, you should watch Hugo’s 3-part video detailing his setup.
Via: Uber Tablet – My Samsung Q1 Story (Video)
links for 2007-01-16
- James Kendrick hits this one out of the ballpark. Apple is having fits because of Cisco’s ownership of the “iPhone” brand. It is quite obvious that Apple is not negotiating in good faith for the usage rights of the name.
@MAC_Arms Pay taxes when you make your money, pay taxes when you spend your money, pay taxes when you successfully invest your money, pay taxes when you save enough taxed money to afford a house, pay taxes to live in your house, pay taxes when you sell the house that you paid taxes on to
Yup, taxes are criminal and we need serious reforms. I've always said that if you want to see a tax revolt, make withholdings illegal and have Americans write a tax check every payday. They'll revolt for sure. You don't miss what you never had.
I think it’s safe to say that @GovEvers should stop blocking audits in Wisconsin and open the books…
“Only AMERICAN citizens should vote.”
Sen. @berniemoreno says voter ID and proof of citizenship are simply common sense.
“We’re talking about a very low threshold — identify who you are and prove you’re a U.S. citizen when you register to vote. I think we’re getting closer to
Wrong. Democrats are solely responsible for hours-long airport lines.
They voted to defund TSA three times and won’t even entertain a conversation about reopening it. Why?
They’re using it as leverage to stop enforcing immigration laws.