Spent a hour or two tonight trying to get Ubuntu running on my laptop, unfortunately I ran into all the problems described here. The blank-screen experience was a little overly minimalist even for me. Tomorrow I’ll try going full-screen with VirtualBox, like some people in that thread had luck with, as a baby step to a full Linux switch.
The Headers of Twenty Ten
When planning and designing Twenty Ten, the new default theme in WordPress 3.0, we knew that the header would be a really prominent feature, a focal point, and wanted some good defaults to excite people about the theme. Some of the most popular themes on WP.com like Misty Look, Chaotic Soul, Ocean Mist, and Cutline all feature prominent photo headers.
It can be a pain to find appropriately licensed imagery for Open Source projects, so I asked MT to explore a bit from the random photos page on Ma.tt and see what he could find. Here are each of the images he chose, in header form and linked to the original, with the location and story behind each photo.
In December 2005 Automattic had just gotten started and I planned a Europe trip to raise awareness and also meet some of the community there. It started with Les Blogs in Paris, then to London where I met Mike Little (co-founder of WordPress), Mark Riley (then known as Podz), and Khaled for at a WP meetup. Finally I went to Ireland, specifically Blarney, where I met the first employee of Automattic Donncha O Caoimh in person and learned how to pronounce his name. We went on a photowalk together and I caught this lonely figure walking up a private road to Blarney Castle.
Chronicle Interview
When I was in Houston last week I visited the Houston Chonicle for a chat with Purva Patel which ran in yesterday’s paper. Yes, I am wearing a Drupal sticker in that photo. 🙂
WikiLeaks Twist
The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks. This story gets even more interesting.
la Cité des arts du cirque
La Cité des arts du cirque, one of the premier circus schools in the world, had their senior performance; fireworks; wandering on St Denis; I <3 Cheese; scotch and bourbon.
Top Referrers
The WP Dev blog got a ton of traffic today because of the 3.0 release announcement. Here are the top referrers: WordPress Dashboard, Twitter, Slashdot (huh?), Digg, news.ycombinator, Lifehacker, Google Reader, Reddit. So far today Slashdot is ahead of Twitter. Didn’t realize they were even still around! They’ve got staying power.
Son of Gutenberg
Marion Maneker at Slate’s site The Big Money chatted with Toni and I the other week, which turned into this article: The Son of Gutenberg. Not a bad overview “Mullenweg says, with the tone of an idealistic 26-year-old.” 🙂 I hope people still write that when I’m 36.
Your Brain on Computers
Your Brain on Computers – Attached to Technology and Paying a Price, a pretty fascinating read. I think the main subject of the article, Kord Campbell, is the same guy who used to run a photo sharing startup I thought about working at 6 or 7 years ago.
Packing for Montreal
As I mentioned the other day, I’m going to Montreal for about a month and a half, maybe two months. I posted to my moblog about packing and Hanni asked what the final manifest would look like. Here is a breakdown of everything I’m taking for the 1.5-2 month trip, which is about 4x what I normally travel with.
Twitter in Iran
The Twitter Devolution questions some of the assumptions we all had about Twitter’s role in the “green revolution” of Iran. For the record, I didn’t shade my Twitter picture green because it’s pink and they would combine to make brown.
WP-guided Missiles
So Apparently WordPress Can Guide Missiles, some WordPress Javascript makes a guest appearance on-screen in a British TV show.
No Paradox of Choice
Financial Times: Given the choice, how much choice would you like? A refutation of the “so-called paradox of choice [that] is one of the most overrated and incorrectly cited results in the social sciences” according to Tyler Cowen. Hat tip: Ryan Holiday in Tim’s comments.
To Montreal
On Monday I’m going to be leaving San Francisco to spend some time in Montreal, about a month and a half. I really enjoyed my time there last year for the Jazz Festival hence the extended stay this year. I’m looking forward to seeing all the bloggers, WordPress users, friends, and entrepreneurs there. I’m also hoping a WordCamp can happen while I’m in town again.
Automated Snail Mail
Been looking into ways to send personalized letters and postcards through the mail system, old school style. Mail is the new email! The best option seems to be Postful in terms of pricing and API. Wondering if anyone has any experience doing custom mailings like this, and if so what tips and experience you have.
Windows Reboot
Dear Microsoft, every time you reboot my computer overnight without me having any interaction I lose unsaved documents and messages. It completely breaks my trust in a way that’s irreparable. It’s been six years since I first wrote about this. At the time Robert Scoble saw my entry and apologized on his blog in a really heartfelt way. This meant more to me than you will ever know; it was the day I went from being a childish Slashdot-reading Micro$oft-hater to having great respect for a large company made up of individuals who made mistakes but had changed the world. Six years later, though, the bug is still there. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice… well, you can’t fool me again.
Dan Ariely at Automattic
Dan Ariely came to speak at the Automattic office, and passed out prophylactics.
Video Freedom
VideoPress now gives you the option to only use Free formats, which means Theora and Vorbis played via HTML5.
After the Deadline birthday
Gravatar Profiles
Gravatar profiles are now live. The fun thing about these are that they look handy, every linked service is verified, they’re as easy to link as Gravatars (hash of email), and they’re as open as Gravatar, meaning that with the email hash you can get all information someone has made public, in any format you like.
Dan Ariely
Dan Ariely has moved his blog to WordPress.com, and today he has a new book out, The Upside of Irrationality. I was a big fan of his first book Predictably Irrational so I can’t wait to check out the new one. He’ll also be swinging by the Automattic office in San Francisco when he’s in town.