Monthly Archives: July 2010

New Kindle

Asides

There’s a new Kindle out, which I just ordered. I love the Kindle — even more than the iPhone 4. On my iPhone I do the same stuff I do on my computer, just mobile. The Kindle helps me to read and my life has been more enhanced by books than any other medium I’ve experienced. I’ve bought probably 10 since they came out for me, friends, and family, and sold 100+ to other people. (Before the Kindle came out I randomly got a demo of it from Jeff Bezos at the EG Conference, and it was love at first sight.)

Centered Twitter Backgrounds

Asides

I don’t usually make public feature requests and I know our friends at Twitter are dealing with crazy scaling issues but I would like to register one simple request: the option for centered backgrounds. Background: Twitter lets you upload a background image, but it’s always left-aligned which means unless its tiling interacts awkwardly with the main centered window. But with a single line of CSS, background-position: center, you could use the width of Twitter’s content window (763px) to create something beautiful and exciting that dovetailed perfectly with the main content area. If you’re feeling crazy afterward, allow a different background to be specified for single-tweet permalink pages, which would also make Blackbird Pies even tastier. If your name is Ev Williams, Biz Stone, Dick Costello, Ryan King, Kevin Cheng, Mark Trammell, Doug Bowman… pass this on to someone. (And help me verify the WordPress account.) 🙂 I think a whole new Twitter design community could flourish. And I could forgive you for using a table for layout. Update: This is getting some nice pick-up.

Mena Suvari Mystery

Asides

Yesterday in front of my building in Montreal I ran into (almost quite literally) Mena Suvari. There’s been a large filming crew hanging out the past few days and they relabeled the building from 400 Sherbrooke to Nottingham Hotel. None of the movies under production on her IMDB page seemed likely candidates and in the news she’s mentioned arriving in Montreal but for unknown reasons. I finally talked to a member of the crew and it turns out they’re filming a made-for-TV movie called No Surrender, but I was unable to confirm this or find any more info online. I’d like to see it when it comes out since I might be in one of the shots. 🙂

Grand Unified Theory

Quote

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

A quote from Thomas Jefferson in an oldie but a goodie essay, especially relevant given all the talk about GPL-based business models the past few days: The Grand Unified Theory On The Economics Of Free by Mike Masnick. (Before anyone says it: the GPL doesn’t say you have to give away anything for no-cost. However as a businessman myself, I think it’s an excellent approach sometimes regardless of license.)

Web Designer Magazine Interview

Quote

Q. If you had a crystal ball would you have given more thought to the commercial aspects that WordPress has to offer?

A few months ago I did an interview with Web Designer magazine they just published on the web asThe Wizard of WordPress, An interview with Matt Mullenweg. It includes the answer to the above question. They published it with a funky Warhol-esque cover, but I can’t find an image of that online. (Issue 167 isn’t listed on their site.)

Unbolding

Asides

Bad mornings are the ones where I sit at home compulsively unbolding things hoping that somewhere in there there will be the gem of connection and stimuli that gets me out the door.

Kellan Elliott-McCrea on a 2006 post called Twitter Curve. I really like the word “unbolding.”

Facts Backfire

Quote

“In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information.”

— Joe Keohane in How facts backfire. Hat tip: Ramit Sethi’s psychology bookmarks.

Syn-thesis 1 and Chris Pearson

Asides

I ended up in an impromptu conversation with Chris Pearson and Andrew Warner earlier today regarding the issue of Thesis violating WordPress’ license. For entertainment purposes you can read some choice quotes on Hacker News (here’s another) but the whole thing is worth a listen even though I did not articulate the issues as well I could have. Ultimately the legal, community, and pure business arguments fell on deaf ears, so no minds were changed but yours might be after listening to it. Unfortunately it ends with Mr Pearson basically saying “sue me.” See also: Jane’s post.

10 Million

Meta

Earlier today this blog passed 10 million pageviews since the WP.com Stats plugin started tracking it in May 2007. I would like to take this opportunity to express a special thanks to each of my readers, old and new, especially those that take their time to leave comments. Over the years this blog has begotten numerous features such as clean permalinks, galleries, and asides that have driven core WP development, and I hope that it can continue to serve as a testbed and playground for what WordPress can do.