Amazon’s search engine A9 is looking really good. I’m on a 9600 connection through my cell phone and Google just wouldn’t come up when I needed to check something. I remembered a9.com and how you could just type the search in after the domain. It was faster than Google and I found what I was looking for.
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.
Free SuSE
Novell is giving away copies of SuSE Pro. Step 3: Profit!!! Hat tip: dented21 in #wordpress.
Death of Windows?
I just tried to run Windows Update, and got a message explaining ActiveX to me and these instructions:
To view and download updates for your computer, Windows Update should be listed as a Trusted Site in Internet Explorer.
To add Windows Update to the trusted sites zone:
- On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
- Click the Security tab.
- Click the Trusted Sites icon, and then click Sites...
- Uncheck the “require server verification” checkbox.
- Make sure the following URLs are listed in the Web Sites list box:
- http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
- http://*.windowsupdate.com
Note: If you need to add a URL to the Web Sites list and the Add button is disabled, contact your system administrator.
What a usability nightmare! Perhaps this degraded user experience in the name of “security” will open the market for systems built on a foundation of security wrapped in an enjoyable and easy-to-use interface.
In victory you deserve champagne.
In defeat you need it.
— Napoleon Bonaparte
IntenseDebate auto-login
WordPress.com User Accounts now auto-login to IntenseDebate blogs no matter where they’re hosted, any website in the world. Connect services like Facebook’s and Twitter’s always require at the very least a click or two, and in worst case can be a full login and several bounces to the origin site, which increases the friction of commenting and can actually decrease the number of comments you get. (Oh noes!) This is much smoother, and faster. Previously this was only available if you actually hosted on WP.com, now it’s for any website, anywhere.
Party
Party was great, thanks to everyone for coming out. The tag for the night is wordpress100k.
PubSubHubBub
WP.com is now Pubsubhubbub-enabled, and the code we used to do that is now available as a plugin as well. It took me 30 seconds to add to this blog using the dashboard “add plugin” functionality and searching for “pushpress.” I love it when we’re able to do these simultaneous releases, it falls in line well with WP.com’s goal of all its useful code being available to everyone, for example the custom CSS release.
New Download Page
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.
Enrique Dans Switch
For the Spanish speakers in the crowd, noted blogger Enrique Dans has switched to WordPress. The switch was done by Blogestudio, whose Luis Rull was my host in Seville. They’ve done something neat with redirecting old links on Blogspot, I hope they publish more about that. (I wonder if they could use Blogger’s new Custom Domains feature to make it automatic.)
To Mexico
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.
Disappearing Words
Citizen Wausau
Citizen Wausau is a Site About Life in Wausau Wisconsin, and a nice-looking citizen journalism site built on WordPress.
Merry Christmas!
I hope it’s filled with lots of comfortable sweaters, like this one.
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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.
WP and Safari
This ZDNet article says Safari doesn’t work with WordPress as well as IE. I’m assuming he’s referring to the quicktags which just can’t be done in Safari because of JS limitations, but is anyone else having issues using WordPress with Safari?
WordPress + Education
There’s a new mailing list for discussion of WordPress and education. If you’re passionate about these subjects be sure to join the conversation.
Aix-en-Provence
Touring around Aix-en-Provence