WordCamp Argentina finished up today and was a fantastic event, great turnout too. Congrats to the many people who contributed to its success. I haven’t seen any coverage in English yet, but I expect that and photos soon. I’m in Buenos Aires until Sunday night so looking forward to exploring the city much more.
Category Archives: Travel
Turkey Update
The folks responsible for blocking WordPress.com in Turkey have issued a press release, here’s some snippets.
As it is known by public, the entry of the publications to Turkey of the blog service named “woldpress.com” that gives the opportunity of opening free site to internet users is interrupted with the judgement. This judgement is applied on 17.8.2007 and thus the entery of worldpress.com service and the publications of all sub-sites which takes service from this service to Turkey is interrupted.
aI wish they had blocked worldpress.com instead. They seem proud that they blocked all the sites instead of just the ones that they consider illegal under Turkish law.
The reason of this suspention, is that the limitlessly enable to illegal publications of the mentioned blog service, not taking to notice about the suspention of the applications and ignoring the judgements that are given by the Turkish courts related to the suspention of known sub-sites. The free and uncontrolled opportunities provided by the mentioned service are directed baleful people to this service and in a short time wordpress.com is returned to the voice and publication center of separatist-disastrous ideologies, private hostilities, illegal targets.
As far as I know, we never received any notice from Turkish courts about anything, only barely coherent threats and bully-attempts written much like the above.
Thus before ABOUT 17 TÄ°MES we have appealed to the mentioned site administration for the suspention of the unlawful publications , but the site administration did not take any caution about these publications.(one of our applications is published in their sites) Thereon about our applications RELATED WITH THE SUB SITES THAT ABUSE OUR CLIENT’S PERSONAL RIGHTS the Turkish courts have given numerous judgements for the closing of the illegal sub-sites which are broadcasting under WordPress. These judgements are delivered to the center of the mentioned firm in USA and to the agency in Turkey, this time the suspention of the illegal publications according to the judgements of the Turkish courts is asked. BUT, IN SPITE OF THE ALL WRITTEN AND ORAL APPLICATIONS, THE MENTIONED FIRM AND ITS AGENCIES ARE NOT AFFILIATE OUR REQUIREMENTS AND THE JUDGEMENTS OF THE TURKISH COURTS AND THEY INSISTED ON APPLYING.
Just to clarify when they said they contacted us 17 times, that means that they would blast the same email to multiple address and when they didn’t get the reply they wanted they sent the same message over and over again.
In addition to some blogs they complained about, their main request was that we block the name of their client being used by any blog hosted by our site, much like you can’t write “democracy” on blogs hosted by MSN Spaces in China. I’m going to skip some bits to the threat at the end:
There is a lesson which all blog services and internet service providers should take from this judgement. Blog services, especially the ones that give free service, should be careful about the sites that are illegally active through their firms. These services should not remain insensitive to the complints that they receive and especially to the judgements. It is certain that the services which behave opppositely will meet with the same enforcement that WordPress met.
So if you don’t disallow certain words being used on your blogs, you’ll be punitively punished through our state-controlled ISP. Today those words are “Adnan Oktar.” Who knows what they’ll be tomorrow.
Airport Security?
I just found a pocketknife in my laptop bag. This is not unusual, except I remembered that I must have taken it with me both to and from Houston earlier in the week, passing through security both times with a 2 inch blade in my bag. This happened once before, but was caught on the return flight. Total I have passed through airport security at least 4 times with a forgotten pocketknife, and only once did they stop me. A 25% hit rate? That’s just going to frustrate me more next time I’m standing in a security line for an hour.
Airport Power Outlets
Wifi is pretty much a given these days, I want to see a website about which airports have the best power outlets.
In Greece
The past few days I’ve been in Athens and now I’m on Ios island for the Greek Blogger Camp. Having a conference like this in one of the prettiest places in the world is a great idea (go Stefanos) and there is a lot of energy in the Greek blogosphere. Things are very early here, I’ve heard estimates that there are fewer than ten thousand Greek blogs, but it’s obvious that there is a lot of growth coming, they have all the right ingredients.
WordCamp Wrapup
I'm still recovering from WordCamp in some ways, it was such a rush this week almost seems like a vacation. The best summary of posts regarding the event is on [gonzo]musings, The WordCamp 2006 Overview & Wrapup – from 7875 Miles Away. I'm very happy with how the event went, we had well over 300 brilliant and engaging make it a part of their day. There were a ton of great ideas and participation happening from all corners, especially the interaction during the State of the Word discussion. I also learned a ton and next year we will have a better sign-in process, naptime after BBQ, clearer tracks for devs vs. users, and a bit more lead time. Thank you so much to everyone who came out, it was a really magical day. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 20 pounds of Memphis Minnie's brisket in my fridge.
Back to Toronto
After just enough time to do my laundry and eat some BBQ, I’m heading back out to Toronto. My passport is packed! This time it’s for Canada’s Web 2.0 Mesh Conference, which looks to be pretty interesting (despite the Web 2.0 moniker). The folks I met last time were so great, I’ve really been looking forward to this trip. Update: An airline problem has me stranded in Philidelphia for the night, I’ll be arriving at the conference late tomorrow afternoon.
Ireland Photos
I’ve been pretty behind on my photolog, but I’ve updated it now with pictures from my last trip in December and a couple of days from this trip. More photos to come! The pictures from Blarney Castle this time should be an interesting contrast, as in December the sky and weather was pretty chilly but yesterday we had beautiful and sunny weather.
Driving on the Left
We’ve been driving all around the Dublin area, through Slane, Dunleek, Dowth, New Grange, and finally Drogheda and becoming accustomed to driving on the left has been an interesting experience. First in the rental car there are no fewer than 4 stickers throughout the driver area reminding you to be on the left, and there also seem to be signs to remind you about it around all the tourist areas. What I found difficult wasn’t driving on the left side, which was fairly easy to remember, but rather I found myself aligning myself as the driver with the part of the lane I would be in if I was driving on the right side. Needless to say, this can put you dangerously close to anything to the left of you. So my new mantra (oft-repeated by my sister) has become “Guide to the left.” Thank goodness for collapsible mirrors. On the bright side, left turns are easy.
Note to self
When flying to Canada, BRING YOUR PASSPORT. Update: I wrote the preceding from my Blackberry at the ticket counter. After I found out about the passport, I rushed to the departure area and got the world’s best cab driver. His English was atrocious, but he understood what was going on. There was thankfully no traffic on 280 to SFO to my house and he did it in about 15 minutes. Ran in, grabbed the passport, ran back out. Lost a minute while he tried to ask me if I had “all three things”: passport, tickets, and ID. He says a lot of people run in to get a passport and leave the tickets on the table. He took 101 back to SFO, which had a bit of traffic. Big tip. No line at ticket counter, the flight was delayed. The lady was so kind, she switched me to the last window seat on the flight to Las Vegas and I got an upgrade to first class from Vegas to Toronto. (Maybe I’ll get some sleep.) No line at the security counter so I breezed through. Had time to grab a reuben at the deli. Sometimes I think I lead a charmed life.
In Toronto
I’m getting ready to hop the redeye to the lovely city of Toronto for the iSummit conference where I’ll be speaking about social media (whatever that is). Thursday night there’ll be a GTA blogger meetup which sounds like it’ll be a blast — I had no idea there were so many bloggers and WordPress users in Toronto. If you’ll be in Toronto any time before Saturday please drop me an email or try to come to the meetup Thursday night, I’d love to meet more folks out there.
NYC Valentine
In New York for Valentine’s Day.
30 Boxes
I’ve been really digging 30 Boxes, as reviewed by Mr Hawk here and Mr Malik here, I’m moving all of my calendaring (online and off) into it. They’re doing some neat stuff with profiles and sharing that I think will take people a while to fully grok. The only thing I think it needs is better timezone handling (I travel a lot). Check out their blog. (Powered by WP.) Update: I keep finding cool features like it automatically detects when you enter a birthday and offers to repeat it every year. The whole site is like a giant easter egg.
Home Sweet Home
I’m back in San Francisco. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, except I left at the beginning of December. It has been an exciting month, and I had the pleasure of meeting WordPress users from all over the world in person. I also learned a ton about efficient traveling and getting work done on the road. All great fun, but I am so happy to be back in my own place.
London Meetup
There is a WordPress meetup in London today that I’ll be at. I imagine the topics will cover everything from WordPress 2.0 to the Codex and support. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the people that have been a part of the community for years now.
Landed
Paris has the most confusing airport, although I suppose any airport is confusing if you don’t speak the language. Franck was right. I ended up chickening out and taking a taxi, and I’m not checked in and settled. First order of business: find an adapter for these weird plugs. The weather seems to have cleared up so I’m going to venture out and explore a bit.
French Phrases
After reading about Andy’s adventures I decided I better Google up a French phrasebook for study on the flight. The first hit looks like it would get me in to a little more trouble than I’m looking for. 🙂
In San Diego
I’m heading down to San Diego / La Jolla for the day to install some load balancers for WordPress.com and also to buy “Mr Fancy CTO” Jason a celebratory taco for their Joyent thing. If you’re in the area drop me a note. Update: La Jolla is beautiful, but servers happen. Trying to do things over a serial console is so 1988. (As Jason said.)
In Las Vegas
After a near-miss and frantic rush this morning the American West flight to Las Vegas was great, the pilot did a small deteour after leaving SFO that took us around the coast of San Francisco and over Fisherman’s Wharf right as the sun was coming up, it was one of the more beautiful things I’ve seen in my life. San Francisco is just one of those magical places and I’m grateful for every day I spend there. Now I’m in Las Vegas and it’s surprisingly nippy, I might end up getting one of those awful tourist sweatshirts to stave away the chills. Wifi in McCarran airport is free and fast.
Lucky Orbitz
I just booked a flight to Vegas for the IP4IT conference, where I’m on a panel with Mr. Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, and the Orbitz waiting graphic popped up a talk bubble that said “Say hi to lady luck for me.” How nice! It’s little things like that which make me use Orbitz more and more, not to mention the prices it gives me are great. I’m not looking forward to booking a Thanksgiving ticket to Houston, though. (BTW, if there are any Vegas WP users drop me an email and we may be able to get together, though I’m only there for the day.)