I’ve really caught the Mercurial bug recently and have begun chewing coworkers’ ears off about its benefits. I’ve been looking into ways to integrate it into my WordPress-related efforts and, inspired by this recent post on the WP Devel blog announcing a github effort to make WP available via git, I decided to set up an Hg clone (haw!) of the core WordPress codebase.
It’s available here over on BitBucket and, unlike Nikolai’s effort (which only appears to track trunk), I started my clone at the root of the Subversion repository, meaning that all branches and tags are (theoretically) accounted for. I’m currently syncing the two repos by-hand but am working on an automated process that should push changes from the core WordPress SVN server to BitBucket fairly quickly.
I’ll post again later to demonstrate my full process for accomplishing this — it was astonishingly easy, to be honest.
In the meantime, get cloning!
This Is Why GReader’s “Like It” Functionality Is Stupid
I mean, did people like the fact that Kennedy died, or did they appreciate Gruber pointing it out, or…?
And yes, this same complaint extends to Facebook, Friendfeed and any other “social” service that employs such a limited functional metaphor for “I thought this piece of information was important and would like to bring it to the attention of others”.
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!
There’s Just No Accounting For Crazy. Or Masochistic. Or Masochistic-Crazy.
As I wended my way home last night, I was listening to this “week’s” FLOSS Weekly and just about had to pull my car to the side of the road, due to my sheer astonishment. Leo and Randal had a developer on who was promoting Seaside, a web development framework for Smalltalk (particularly the Squeak implementation). Smalltalk. Perhaps only you other CompSci folks out there will get just how insane a proposition developing for the web in Smalltalk truly is. No RDBMs. Everything’s an object, even, say, the number “5”.
Me, I’m of the opinion that I’d be happier being punched in the face. Repeatedly.
Then I’ll go develop a web framework for Ada. With all the business logic in COBOL. Oh, and I’ll host it on a 386 running Minix.
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!
We Only Scored A ‘6.0’ From The Russian Judge
…But still managed to pull out a win in the WordPress iPhone Content contest. Matt Mullenweg announced the results on the wp-hackers mailing list today.
Stephane, Viper and I are super psyched about the win. Our congratulations also go out to Dan and Jared whose entry garnered them some great plaudits as well.
I’ll be claiming an iPod Touch, myself, as the $60/month service charges at&t are levying for iPhone access plans are a bit steep at this point.
Besides, I’m holding off for an Android phone. *grin*
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.
Drive-By iPhoning
I’m posting this as I’m headed out the door:
A forum user graciously snapped a bunch of interface photos of the WPhone plugin I’ve been working on. I’ve gotta say, it’s looking great — hit our screenshot page if you don’t believe me.
The contest ends this coming Monday, with judging to follow shortly thereafter. We’re hoping to have version 1.3 of WPhone out by then with all sorts of nifty keenness.
About That Super-Secret Project…
The full reason for sporadic updates here at Literal Barrage can finally be revealed:
I’ve been spending a good amount of time working on a side project with two other talented WordPress hackers, Stephane and Viper. The project, WPhone Admin plugin, is a WordPress plugin that aims to make administering your WP blog[s] from a mobile device, such as a PDA or cellphone, a quick and easy experience. iPhone and iPod Touch users will get an extra treat, as the interface is coded to look like a native mobile Apple application. (Our initial release announcement has a few more details.)
We’re really proud of the work we’ve put in, so head over and take a look at the site, then download a copy from the official download site.
Haxx0red!
In the interests of full disclosure, I’d like to announce that my blog was cracked into in the wee hours of the morning (PDT) two Saturdays ago (9/21/2007). I have yet to figure out the vector the crackers used to compromise my blog, but I will repost the details that I have found out so that others may be on their guard against such attacks.
Here’s how I figured out I’d been cracked.
Continue reading “Haxx0red!”