Z-Type is a game that helps you practice typing. Fantastic to play when you’re switching to Dvorak. Hat tip: Lloyd.
Newest Addiction
My newest addiction is chocolate covered cashews. YUM!
Photo Matt in Snow
So apparently the first year I’m not home for the holidays Houston decides to have a white Christmas, snowing in places that have only seen snow maybe once before in my lifetime. As an early present, however, my friend Jess sent me this awesome picture. Update: One from Sarah too! (And another)
Groupon WP
Groupon has been in the news lately as a rumored 6 billion dollar acquisition target, and of course their blog is powered by WordPress. On that fact alone I’d say, go for it Google!
Tired/Wired
Tired: Being hired by Yahoo. Wired: Being bought by Yahoo.
It Is Time
The live redesign has started. There will be constant and possibly dramatic changes to this site’s structure, layout, and design until it is done. Check back often and feel free to comment at any stage of the process.
The Memos
Memos from 1972 made in Microsoft Word, incredible. The superscript feature always bugged me too.
J.K.Rowling’s Site
Compare the flash and text-only versions of J.K.Rowling’s Official Site. Separate but equal, right? Hat tip: Jakob.
Google Browser Sync
Google Browser Sync is the best tool of its kind I’ve seen, and it’s a problem that has been my own personal pet peeve for a REALLY long time. It looks like Google is going to be the one to finally unify desktops. For pure-bookmarks sync, Foxmarks actually much smoother, and lets you use your own FTP server for the tin foil hat crowd.
My WordPress Tattoo – Baker’s Hours
Ed Morita writes about his new permanent WordPress tattoo. I knew once the temporary ones starting taking off it’d just be a matter of time. 🙂 Lorelle has a good writeup here, and so does Mashable. As for people asking — there are no plans to change the logo ever! I think the W is pretty timeless.
A Meditation on the Open Web
Skiing in Deer Valley
I went skiing for the first time in Deer Valley. Includes a video of the one time Barry fell, but not the 15 times I fell.
Yahoo, Microsoft, PHP
If Microsoft were to buy Yahoo, I wonder if it would have an impact on PHP?
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. 🙂
Cease and Desease
I just got a “CEASE AND DESEASE” order by another braindead person thinking that WordPress, or “WORLD PRESS” as the email says, has anything to do with sites that run it. (The reference to “WORLD PRESS” means he must have known about my plans for world domination.) The most interesting of these was when I was contacted by the FBI about a fugitive on the run that had a WP blog under an alias.
SxSW Pool Team
There’s going to be a pool (billiards) competition at SxSW this year in Austin benefiting charity and I’m thinking about putting together a WordPress team for it. Are you a world-class pool player, WordPress user, and going to be in Austin the night of Sunday March 15th? Leave a comment saying why you should carry the WordPress banner and I’ll pick the two best to represent the WordPress community at the event.
Top Emailers 2008, etc
As an update to last year’s post:
- Toni Schneider — 1,052
- Maya Desai — 826
- Mom — 659
- Raanan Bar-Cohen — 452
- Donncha O Caoimh — 424
- Barry Abrahamson — 386
- Mark Riley — 222
- Jane Wells — 218
- Ryan Boren — 200
- Andrew Ozz — 197
- Matt Thomas — 193
- Liz Danzico — 148
- Mike Hirshland — 144
- Heather Rasley — 139
- Joseph Scott — 129
I’ve expanded the list to 15. A lot of the same folks at the very top, but new faces in Liz and Jane from 2.5 and 2.7 usability cycles. Also three people on the list have changed their domain in the past year, just like I did. It must have been a year for that.
Also for fun here are some yearly posting stats courtesy of Alex’s queries:
| Posts | Avg. Words | Total Words | Avg. Comments | Total Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 360 | 139 | 50,190 | 1 | 390 |
| 2003 | 429 | 168 | 72,359 | 3 | 1,287 |
| 2004 | 990 | 54 | 54,257 | 6 | 6,236 |
| 2005 | 624 | 48 | 30,090 | 9 | 5,963 |
| 2006 | 313 | 70 | 22,010 | 11 | 3,503 |
| 2007 | 334 | 60 | 20,267 | 17 | 5,919 |
| 2008 | 302 | 50 | 15,206 | 21 | 6,493 |
As you can see I’m doing fewer posts with fewer words than ever, but getting more comments. At this rate I’ll be down to 40 words per post next year. Yay brevity. 😉
Working on collating some travel / WordCamp stats.
Hosting
Announcing the new WordPress hosting page. Update: I forgot to thank Chris Messina for helping out with the design of the page.
About.me and Wakemate
Today has been a very exciting day. First off, About.me has been acquired by Aol, as good friend Tony Conrad writes about on his blog. A great deal on both sides, I think Aol got a steal and a great team here. Second, one of Audrey’s earliest investments Wakemate has finally shipped their first version, which I’ve been using the past two nights and has been great. (I’m averaging 60 so far.) Reserve your Wakemate here.
Thank you, Ubuntu
Thank you, WordPress.com! You’re very welcome, I’m installing Ubuntu this weekend because of this blog.