Well, okay, now that I have that little bit of headline rumor-/scaremongering out of the way, I’ve got to say: interesting things are afoot in the Automattic/WordPress world these days. First off, Matt Mullenweg announced a few days ago that, effective immediately, all WordPress.com (as opposed to .org) accounts would be receiving an upgrade from 50MB of storage apiece to 3 GB apiece. Speculation ran rampant as to how such beneficence could be possible until Matt let slip that Automattic had received an additional $29-30 million in venture capital from several investment partners, including the New York Times(!).
Now add to that other blatant WAGging/punditing about Google buying the Times and you arrive at my far-fetched headline.
Yeah, I know, preposterous and beyond far-fetched. Still, it’s an interesting thought experiment to pursue, namely: what happens if Google gets ahold of the company largely behind the world’s most popular self-hosted blogging solution and owner of a direct competitor to Google’s Blogger service?
Rough-and-tumble times ahead, but I’m sure the Automattic guys will weather it just fine with those VC dollars. *grin*
NetNewsWire 3.1 Is Now Free (As In Beer)
NetNewsWire, by far my favorite RSS/Atom feed reader on the Mac, has gone completely free as of version 3.1. (See the Wikipedia article for the distinctions between free-as-in-beer vs. free-as-in-speech). There’s always been a Lite version of the app, one which limited the feed history to an artificially low number amongst other annoyances. This is excellent news.
Although I have largely moved over to Google Reader for my feed reading needs (due to the fact that I don’t have to worry about syncing items read, feeds, etc., from work to home), this release is enough to get me using NNW again. Sweet!
Let’s Get This Post Off The Table, Shall We?
Y’all know the routine: every once in a while (read: more than strictly necessary), I get a whole mess of links just sitting there in my browser, asking to be posted. So, let’s get to the linkage, shall we?
First off, it’s simply not fair to have so much awesome being used up by the forthcoming Indiana Jones LEGO sets.
Did you want to see all the awesome portions of the recent Simpsons game, but just couldn’t be bothered to buy and play it? Well, this collection of YouTube videos has got your freeloading behind covered.
The GeForce 9800 GX2 — my wallet just hurts with sympathy pain.
A fireworks safety PSA from the Netherlands using an al Qaeda-esque bumbling terror organization to make a point: highly politically incorrect, but oh-so-hilarious:
I’m not quite sure what to make of The Brick Testament. Funny, yes. Disturbing, maybe. Heretical, perhaps.
Continue reading “Let’s Get This Post Off The Table, Shall We?”
New Stuff For The New Year
A very happy New Year to all my readers (you know who you three are… *grin*). I hope yours was a good celebration — ours was spent with friends who left early (but not before I addicted them to the Wii) and then Dick Clark, as per tradition. I admire the man for his fortitude and perseverance, but it’s pretty sad to see how the stroke has ravaged him. I’d put even money on ABC wheeling him out to wave at the crowd next year before allowing Ryan Seacrest the honor of counting down to ’09. Ptui!, says I.
I’ve also released a couple of political-theme t-shirts over at LB Gear for the dark horse ticket of 2008: Giuliani/Paul. (Click the link to have it make a bit more sense).
What? There’s another Paul in the race?
Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my posting has been spotty around these parts as of late. I’m in the first stages of trying out a new “lifestream” plugin for WordPress that aggregates many, if not most, of the information sources I create on a daily basis (del.icio.us, Twitter, etc.). I’ve been trending towards posting a lot more on my Twitter account in particular, as it’s far easier to slip in a few micro posts here and there with the hustle and bustle that is life these days. So, if you’d like to have a broader view on my activity, hit my new Lifestream page. The colors are yet funky and the kinks are being ironed out, but I hope to have it working fully in the next couple of days.
Blogs In Plain English
Donncha posted a link to a very interesting video the other day. If you’ve been searching for a way to explain your blogging addiction to Dear Old Mum & Dad, “Blogs in Plain English” might be just the thing you need:
It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
I Was Going To Post But Space Aliens, Yeah, Aliens, That’s The Ticket…!
Another set of blogging promises made, another set broken. Due to a combination of snow, Philadelphia traffic, filial piety and a particularly nasty bug affecting one of my anti-spam plugins, I was unable to make even a semblance of the promised post yesterday. Apologies.
Eating My Own Dogfood (In A Good Way)
Sorry for the lack of posting. Not only has work been crazy, but I’ve also been burning the minutes on my freshly-received iPod Touch, thanks to Matt Mullenweg and the iPhone contest. WPhone been berry berry good to me. *grin*
Oh, did mention that this is my first official post from the Touch? Whee!
The Necessity Of Software Updates: Forsooth, An Inconvenient Truth!
Al Gore, the man who took the initiative in creating the Internet as well as in establishing a WordPress blog for his “documentary” An Inconvenient Truth, has had said blog mad haxx0red.
Gore[‘s technological advisers] had the blog sitting at a very (read: 18 months) old version of WP, hence it was a ripe target for script kiddiez/purveyors of Internet nastiness. Here’s to hoping he goes out and hires some savvier sysadmins, stat.
A Bitovaketchuppost
Apologies for the lack of posting — it’s been crazy ’round these parts. I’ve got a post cooking detailing the why’s and wherefore’s, but for now, won’t you accept some humble links from Yours Truly?
First up, I think the entertainment studios are learning a hard lesson in not ticking off the talent (that can spell and practices wordcraft for a living, i.e., the writers):
Also, do not mess with Metal Storm. Ever.
Continue reading “A Bitovaketchuppost”
A New Version Of WPhone: 1.4.0 Is Out.
Stephane, Viper and I have released a new version of our WPhone Admin plugin, bringing the tally to version 1.4.0. There’s a good bit to this version, including bugfixes galore and an all-new plugin management interface, allowing users to enable, disable and manage their installed plugins from the road.
Head on over to the site to check it out, or go ahead and download it directly.