Nurses Meeting Lounge

If Google is going to be at the center of our digital and online lives, they need to get a lot better about their support organization and how they handle account issues. Check out this story by Mark Ghosh for an example of what happens when things go wrong. What if you woke up tomorrow and your Gmail, Orkut, Docs, Reader, Google Checkout account was gone?

Asleep at the Wheel of Creative Destruction. Umair Haque’s thoughts on venture capital and the current crisis.

Dear MobileMe / Me.com, I really think you’re swell. I’ve been dreaming dreams of sync since my first Handspring, and you are the best I’ve used. Two things would put you over the top. First, the notes application on the iPhone is handy, but please sync this to a quickie app on Me.com so I can put stuff in and out of notes easily. Second, and this is a stretch, I know you don’t like to-do applications, but I also have an inkling you could do something that would make me stop using paper and pen for to-dos. And synchronize it. With love, Matt.

The new year is a list making time of year.  I’ve got nothing much to say right now, so I’ll join in with a “products I can’t live without” type list to pass the time.  This is a list of software and gadgets that I like and use often, complete with affiliate links so I can shill for some extra pocket money.

• WordPress and WordPress.com — I, of course, use WP all the time.  I make a living off of it.  It also happens to be totally badass.  I’m not saying that just because I wrote so much of it, honest.
• Gmail — I’ve been using it full time for a couple of years now.  I am one of those who loves the conversation grouping. It’s a killer feature for me. With the inclusion of IMAP support, Gmail is now my hands down favorite web mail client.
• Google Reader — It wasn’t so great at first, but now it is far-and-away my favorite feed reader.  The scroll tracking plus the keyboard shortcuts make running through feeds fast and easy.
• Kindle — I’ve read over 50 books on my Kindle, and I love it.  It has its design flaws, for sure, but the over-the-air browsing and buying make the Kindle a killer device.  I used to keep over a thousand books in the house. I donated them all to the local library and now buy only electronic editions.  The convenience and efficiency of foregoing paper has won me over.  The DRM most publishers insist on is annoying, however. You have to be prepared the treat the cost of the book as a lease rather than an outright buy and sharing can be a pain.
• iPhone 3G — Finally a phone I actually enjoy using.  The iPhone shows that phones don’t have to have horrible UI and that the mobile web doesn’t have to suck.  Kinetic scrolling is a beautiful thing.
• amazon.com –  A big chunk of my paycheck has been going to Amazon for over a decade.  From books, music, and electronics to toilet paper, I get it at Amazon.
• Apple TV — The addition of movie rentals made this a great little media center.  It’s handy if you have kids who like to watch the same shows over and over.  Ours has played every episode of the Backyardigans approximately 3 bazillion times.  Setup a playlist and hypnotize the little ones while you have your own time out.
• Skype — Sometime over the past year, Skype chat became a preferred means of collaboration for many of the people I work with.  It’s also great for doing video calls with family.  The kids get to see grandma and grandpa every week.
• Facebook — I can’t say I really like Facebook.  It’s certainly more bearable now that the apps have been reigned in a bit and the design cleaned up.  What’s finally made it useful for me is that a critical mass of my actual friends and family are now on it.  Facebook has gone mainstream enough and garnered enough network effect to finally get me logging in more than once a month.
• Logitech MX Revolution — The best mouse out there.  Kinetic scrolling. Enough said.
• Apple Wireless Keyboard — Currently my favorite keyboard.  It’s elegant and usable.  It’s as good as the Mighty Mouse is bad, and the Mighty Mouse is really bad.
• Flickr — A long time favorite.  Pictures of the kids go here.
• Boxee — Great for streaming Hulu, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, etc. to your TV or computer.  Between this and the Apple TV, we don’t bother with cable anymore.
• 1Password — A great password manager and form filler.  The iPhone app is especially handy.
• JungleDisk — Painless backups to Amazon S3.
• Nikon D90 — A sweet little DLSR.

This morning I discovered a black refuse sack of rubbish had been dumped almost in front of my house. This afternoon it’s still there but I rang the litter warden for South Cork, Jim Dooley at 021-4285417 giving my name, address and phone number. Hopefully they’ll get out here soon and find incriminating details buried in the bag but I don’t hold out much hope of that.

From a brief inspection of it, whoever dropped it doesn’t have the healthiest diet in the world. Packets of crisps, cans of Diet 7UP, plastic wrapping, and of course some of the local dogs have got their jaws into it too. Oh yeah, dogs are supposed to be under the owner’s control? ‘Course they are. The dog warden would have a field day around here too.

Anyway, I’m really pissed off at whoever dumped the rubbish. It’s disgusting, ignorant and completely irresponsible. I’ll update this post if the litter warden shows up. Seething.

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This month there were three WordCamps around the world: WordCamp Las Vegas, WordCamp Indonesia, and WordCamp Whistler. Here’s what’s coming up in the next two months. Asterisks indicate WordCamps I’ll be attending:

• WordCamp Higher Ed NorthEast - February 2, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
• WordCamp Paris * - February 7, Paris, France
• WordCamp Germany * - February 14, Jena, Germany
• WordCamp Education Vancouver - February 19, Vancouver, Canada
• WordCamp India * - February 21-22, New Delhi, India
• WordCamp Miami - February 22, Miami, Florida, USA
• WordCamp Denver * - February 28, Denver, Colorado, USA
• WordCamp NOLA - March 18-19, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

After a lengthy delay, WordPress MU 2.7 is now available. WordPress MU is the software that runs on WordPress.com and many other sites.

This is a sync of the code from WordPress 2.7 released last December. It’s taken a while but I think it’s worth the wait as there are many bugs fixed. Besides the merge with WordPress 2.7 there are also a few new features, including Viper007bond’s admin bar which is the most user visible addition.
Check the timeline for further info.

Upgrading from WordPress MU 2.6.5 should be as easy as copying over your existing install but please backup everything. Blog databases must be upgraded but that will occur in the background as usual.

Related Posts

• WordPress MU 2.6.1
• WordPress MU 2.6.2
• What’s this WordPress.com thing anyway?

WordPress.org plugin directory just reached its 4,000^th plugin! I declare January 28^th our official “Thank a Plugin Developer” day. To celebrate take a look at the plugins you use and love, visit the author’s site, find their contact form, and drop them a note. (Or Paypal!)

WordPress creator Mullenweg is many bloggers’ best friend - USATODAY.com. We got some nice press in USA Today in an article by Jefferson Graham, pick up a dead tree copy today if you can to check out the article.

michel v — intraordinaire.com posted a photo:

In front of Pura Tanah Lot, Bali, (during the festival of Ulian Macekan Agung? not sure). Indonesia, september 2008.