Tomorrow, along with the rest of Automattic, I am heading down to La Paz, Mexico for the twice yearly gathering of the company. The virtual company thing is great, but I still think it’s important to get everyone together a few times a year to connect and plan out the next 6-12 months.
Biting
When did it get so cold??? I am cold to the point of desperation there. Now I know, some of you native (or born-again) Notherners are reading and thinking “42 degrees? Ha! That’s jogging weather!” and you are probably right. But how should I get warm? I’m not conditioned to deal with this.
WordPress Song
Devin Reams has done the first WordPress fan song, check out the music video on his site. Too cool for words.
Stephen Fry on WordPress
David Bell writes in that Stephen Fry’s new website is on WordPress, and looks quite dandy too.
Frustrating Amazon
Some days Amazon just drives me batty. Part of it may be the fact that I have 3 distinct accounts on Amazon, all with the exact same login, but which one I get depends on on what password I use when I log in. One of these accounts gives me the discount for using A9, the rest don’t. Depending on which one I logged into last, my A9 search history is hosed. The wishlists are in various states of upkeep, and all different. It’s confusing and frustrating and really turns me off from Amazon. I wish I could just delete all those accounts and start fresh. (If they let me export my wishlist first.)
Fewer Bugs in Open Source
Research proves what open source folks have been saying all along: “An analysis of the 5.7 million lines of Linux source code shows that it contains fewer bugs per thousand lines of code than commercial counterparts.”
Microsoft iPod
What if Microsoft designed the iPod package? Great video and music. I’ll have to watch this again next time I’m working on a new website, less is more. Hat tip: sillybean.
Jakob Nielsen
I went to the BayCHI event last night which had speakers from Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, A9, and Jakob Nielson. I mentioned WordPress and thanked him for his free articles, which I usually enjoy even if I don’t agree with them. Niall snapped a picture of Jakob and I on his Sony F828.
MSN Search Standards
Sam Waudby writes in that the new MSN is (almost) standards compliant. That is really nice. There is one or two silly things, but I think it’s significant that 99.9% of the page including the advertising is XHTML 1.0 Strict. I’m going to point to that the next time someone whines about an ad system messing up their validation. “If Microsoft can do it…”
Carrington
Alex King is on stage at WordCamp Utah and just announced and launched the Carrington theme. It allows really advanced conditional template displays based on any number of variables and executed by naming conventions and its structure. I think this could be the base for a whole new generation of themes and development.
London Meetup Update
I’m here with Khaled and Podz at the Revolution Bar in Soho. We’ll be hanging out here into the night so come by if you fancy.
WordCamp Orlando
Snaps from WordCamp Orlando.
More Blue Skies
It’s been a gorgeous day today, highlighted by a mini-picnic with Heather, Richard, Tantek, and [forgot name] in Yerba Buena park for lunch. I’ll leave you this Friday with Ella’s version of “Blue Skies”. For extra credit compare it with Robert Glasper’s rendition.
One Million Spam Blocked
Every 60 seconds on the web there are 50+ WordPress downloads and 60+ new blogs created. Hat tip: Andrew Nacin.
Security Advice
Security advice from Bruce Schnier:
“If possible, don’t use Microsoft Windows.” There are some other good tips there too, like microwaving CD-Rs and deleting cmd.exe.
Citizen Wausau
Citizen Wausau is a Site About Life in Wausau Wisconsin, and a nice-looking citizen journalism site built on WordPress.
Rob Paterson writes Why do corporation die so soon and cities don’t? Corporations are Machines and Cities are Networks. Along the way he brings it back to WordPress and the Wikipedia.
In victory you deserve champagne.
In defeat you need it.
— Napoleon Bonaparte
Dynamic Textareas
Tools for Textareas, the resizing textarea has been in the WordPress Shuttle development mockups for a while.