LetsEncrypt is available as a beta so everyone can have free SSL, and PHP7 is released which will double the speed of many PHP apps, including WordPress. And it was the first day of WordCamp US, if you missed it definitely livestream tomorrow. (I’m doing the State of the Word at 5pm ET.) A pretty awesome day for the web.
Party Update
It’s rainy and chilly, but the party is still on in full force. I updated the entry with some frequently asked questions. I’m really excited about some of the folks coming out, it’ll be a great mix. Perhaps some of the writers can help me with the 1.5 release announcement. *duck*
Make-A-Wish on 1.5
The Texas Make-A-Wish Foundation manages their entire site with WordPress 1.5, very cool. Dig those Pages.
WordCamp Bulgaria
WordCamp Sofia in Bulgaria, dinner, after-party.
Very sad to hear that Marvin Minsky has passed. Here are some notes I took at a talk of his in 2007. See also: Philip Greenspun’s remembrence of Minsky.
Lockergnome Reviews WordPress
Lockergnome reviews WordPress and gives it 9/10. “I have never seen such a great interactive community before in my life.” Also talks about Blogger, which I’m personally a big fan of and it’s usually what I recommend to new bloggers. They also have the coolest logo and clothing in the biz.
Liz Gannes breaks the story that Automattic has made its first investment, in newspaper toolmaker OwnLocal.
On Packing
Luckily most of my clothes look the same when wrinkled.
One-click Restores
VaultPress now supports one-click database restores direct server-to-server so you don’t need to download or upload anything.
Panels Finished
My last panel was yesterday at 5 PM so now I’m taking as much time as I can to catch the panels that are left and learn a few things. Speaking was more stressful than I expected but most of the feedback was good. I still need to check out the web feedback though, as people are probably more candid online than when they’re shaking your hand.
Inline Editing
In our blog session Jay Allen described his vision for inline editing of weblogs, it looks like Owen is taking the first steps though I’m not sure why he’s doing it as a theme and not a plugin.
Spammer Compliments WordPress
A spammer, or a former one, compliments WordPress in this interview about 5 minutes in. It’s an interesting listen regardless. Hat tip: Praneet Kandula via email.
More Inline Editing
Gregory has a plugin that allows the sort of inline-editing we’ve been talking about the past few days.
Usable Security
Usable Security is a new blog about—you guessed it—the intersection of usability and security. This comes up every few weeks since I improved the error messages on the WordPress login (and bbPress) to specify which part of the login was mistaken, the username or the password. Security folks see this as a problem because you’re revealing more information but I see making the error message more generic as premature security optimization. Plenty of systems where login names are public or easily discoverable, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, most email systems, and so forth, seem to be doing just fine.
7 Days of Plugins
Scott is doing 7 Days of Plugins.
Next Web, day 1
First day at the Next Web Conference in Amesterdam, Netherlands, followed by dinner and party.
XFN Graph
XFN Graph is a tool that you give a URL and it then spiders all the XFN relationships and shows them in a neat graph/map.
WordPress Lessons
WordPress Lessons on the Codex are looking good, in fact the entire Codex is becoming a fantastic documentation resource. Kudos to Lorelle for kicking these off.
Drupal 4.6
Drupal 4.6.0 is out and has some very cool new features, not the least of which is it’s joining the generation of new publishing tools that ping Ping-O-Matic by default. 🙂 Congrats to the Drupal team on the release.