Why Am I So Passionate About A Piece Of Software

heartwpI’ve been sitting back in the chair today thinking about the events that have taken place within the past 48 hours. I really bit my tongue before I decided to go through with publishing the post regarding the removal of themes. I checked out the developers IRC channel, I checked out the forum, I looked high and low for an explanation as to what happened and I couldn’t find any. While Thord of the BlogHerald was successful in contacting Matt, I assumed sending an email asking for an explanation was fruitless because I assumed his inbox is swamped with mail, why bother. After confirming that the removal of themes did happen, the only thing I had to go on was Justin Tadlock’s post and David Coveney’s post. That isn’t a lot to go by but because I didn’t see an announcement published on the developers blog, I went with the story as factual after witnessing a number of others reporting that the theme removals did happen.

I don’t want to dwell on the event because it is now a wait and see game with a detailed post by Matt being the only thing that will straighten out this mess. However, I am beginning to wonder if I over reacted? It sounds corny, but I seemingly have a passion for WordPress. The software, the people, the community. Plugin authors, theme authors, those who create patches for bugs, core developers, everything that makes the entire system tick. I want to see everyone that is part of the equation win without any unfair treatment. Make no bones about it, I support Matt and the rest of the team to the fullest extent but if I come across something I disagree with, I’ll make it known.

I feel odd that I’ve entrenched myself in this situation. I believe emotions got the better part of me last night when I wrote the post. I’m not a theme author nor am I a plugin developer yet, I still find a way to get involved with the issues surrounding each topic. I try not to be the one to always bitch and moan. Instead, I try to lend constructive criticism when I can. I’ve always described myself as no expert but simply an end user.

The basis of this post was to try and get my thoughts down on paper to figure out why something that happened with a piece of software ignited an emotional trigger. I wonder if I am too involved with the project, with the people. Do I need to back away? Can one be too passionate about something that it causes one to act and think irrationally? What the hell is wrong with me?

Whats Up With Migratr

MigratrLogo

Alex has written a post detailing what’s been going on in terms of development for his nifty online photo migration tool – Migratr.

For 1.0 I’d REALLY like to have Webshots and Zooomr supported. Both are, however, being unusually silent regarding API keys. This is especially frustrating from Zooomr, as they posted to the dev group a month ago saying they were going to start handing out API keys, I put in a request, and STILL haven’t heard from them.

Migratr has evolved far beyond its original incarnation as a Flickr > Zooomr migration utility, but until I have Zooomr added to my roster, I won’t be able to consider Migratr a full 1.0 release.

Migratr is an awesome piece of software that lets you backup and migrate your online photos from one service to another, as long as support for that service is built into Migratr. If you want to read a detailed review of this software check out ( Migratr – Backup And Migrate Your Online Photos ) In fact, I used this program 15 minutes ago to download all of the photos I have hosted on my Flickr account.

Skype Releases Version 3.5

Skype.com LogoSkype, the popular VoIP client has released version 3.5 of their software. This release includes a number of additional features. Some of these features include:

  • Sharing Videos: Contacts can now watch your favorite videos when they click on your mood message.
  • Video Snapshots: You can now captures snapshots of friends or family during video calls. You can then use a frame from that video capture as your profile picture.
  • Skype Prime: Skype Prime has launched into Beta and is a global marketplace for sharing and learning skills. You can get paid to helpe people around the world by offering all kinds of advice, or use the service to learn something new. In effect, you can now create your own help line and be paid for it.
  • Call Transfers: Skype users can now transfer calls to Skype Contacts. If you are a Skype Pro Subscriber, you can transfer calls to mobile and landlines as well.

That Skype Prime feature seems interesting considering many Americans are becoming fed up with calling support centers filled with folks who can’t speak our native tongue fluently, resulting in a massive amount of frustration. Perhaps we can take support matters into our own hands.

Download the latest version of Skype here.

Some Ideas I Had – Feedback Needed

Some Ideas I Had I just wanted to pass along some ideas I had concerning this site. Your feedback to these ideas or perhaps some of your own would be highly appreciated. The first idea is, creating a live chat area where visitors of this site can get together to chat about the various topics this site covers.

The chat room could be available 24/7 or I could schedule chats which would occur at a specific date and time. I was going to give this a try tonight using Meebo, but I experienced an enormous amount of problems.

The second idea is attaching a forum to the site. The forum would contain sections that would cover the various topics covered on this site. It would open up yet another, community avenue for this site where like minded individuals can get together and talk about what’s going on. I’m not sure if this site has enough traffic, or if the readers of this site would have any interest in becoming a participating member of the forum, so do me a favor and let me know if you like the idea.

If I decided to attach forum software to this site, I would us Vbulletin. Vbulletin is still the best forum software in my opinion and I have a few years of experience using it. I know of an Ajax powered shoutbox which could be used by the forum members as a chatroom, which would solve idea #1. The only problem with using Vbulletin is the price. It currently costs $85.00 for a lease of one year. I’d be willing to chip in $20.00 towards the price, would anyone else be willing to donate towards the forum? If so, let me know.

Those are the ideas I had floating around in my head and I figured I’d toss them out here to see if there were any takers.

FireFox 2.0.0.6 Released

FireFox LogoFireFox’s built in update checker happily notified me of the update as I browsing around today. 2.0.0.6 contains 1 critical security fix and 1 moderate security fix.

 

 

Fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.6

  • MFSA 2007-27 Unescaped URIs passed to external programs
  • MFSA 2007-26 Privilege escalation through chrome-loaded about:blank windows

That about sums up what was contained in the update. Considering one of the flaws that was fixed is rated as critical, I advise you to upgrade as soon as possible. You can download the latest version of FireFox by clicking here

WordPress Releases 2.2.1

WordPress 2.2.1 is now available. 2.2.1 is a bug fix release for the 2.2 series. Since 2.2 was released a month ago, the WordPress community has been improving fit-and-finish by identifying and fixing those little bugs that can be so annoying and by fine-tuning some small details. The result is a nicely polished 2.2.1 release. The full list of bugs fixed in 2.2.1 is available here. Here are some highlights.

Unfortunately, 2.2.1 is not just a bug fix release. Some security issues came to light during 2.2.1 development, making 2.2.1 a required upgrade. 2.2.1 addresses the following vulnerabilities:

Jeffro2pt0.com has successfully been upgraded to version 2.2.1