richardgoodwin.com

As of this writing, wordpress.org is down for updates to accompany the WordPress 2.0 release, but the current SVN version.php shows 2.0 (no more RCx)!

I’ve been running 2.0 for some time now, and it was pretty much a painless upgrade (still 1 step ). Not all plugins will work, but most stand a pretty good chance. I hear that anything that deals with user rights will be broken, as that was an area of big changes. The following links should help new users get up to speed on what to expect with 2.0:

• List of compatible plugins
• Summary of new features

For me, the most welcome bit is the integrated image upload. I can finally set up my wife (and have!) on WP and not worry how she’ll upload/link/resize images. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there.

So go grab the code (should be up any minute now) and get to upgrading! A quick refresher on the process is below, or refer to the documentation in the Codex or this handy link:

1. Backup your database! (use phpMyAdmin or mysqldump)
2. No really, backup your database…
3. Save any non-standard files (.htaccess, custom folders, etc.)
4. Extract 2.0 over the current wordpress installation directory
5. Browse to http://<yoursite>/<wordpress_directory>/wp-admin/upgrade.php
6. Revel in the fact that you live on the cutting edge of software

Support will be provided in the usual spots, including #wordpress on irc.freenode.net and the wordpress.org forums.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, wordpress20, blogging-software, blogging, open-source

The full sequence of Google Holiday Logos are up. i wonder how much it would cost to get him to do a logo for me

Wow, while I was sitting back waiting for Flock to mature, and using Qumana in the meantime, I discovered the Performancing for Firefox extension!
PFF puts a WYSIWYG post editing window right into Firefox, accessed via F8, a icon in the status bar, or by right clicking and using the Performancing >> Blog this item.

The main things I am looking for in a blogging tool are:

1. WYSIWYG (w/ ability to get at HTML when necessary
2. Integrated image uploading (preferably by drag and drop)
3. Previous post editing
4. Categories
5. Hotkeys for formatting/tools

PFF seems to do 1,3,4, and a passable job at 2, where, like many others, it actually just lets you drag and drop an image and it links to the original referring site (naughty!). It does let you resize the image after it has been inserted, which is pretty slick! (Although again, it’s a bit of a hack, because it uses the size attributes of the IMG link to “resize” on display).

It’s usable and convenient enough that I’ll probably use it fairly often, though Qumana remains in the lead with the new image uploading features available in their drag’n'drop tool.

(And yes Viriginia, this post was done via Performancing )

(And just to prove you can edit, here’s an update with a link to an excellent tutorial on PFF!

The ripe old age of 29, which may in fact be roughly the amount of times I’ve posted to this blog.

In honor of almost being middle aged (close enough), I am reading “What Should I Do With My Life” by Po Bronson. It’s not the kind of book that tells you what to do with your life, but rather tells you how other people found their calling(s). Very informal and enjoyable, and Po really helps you relate to the real life stories and people.

Testing video embed.

Congratulations to Chris and Amy!

Wired has YAFEA (yet another Firefox extensions article) detailing the “Hacks you must have”. I keep my list of installed extensions here, using the excellent InfoLister add in.

In other news, I learned today that you can actually have multiple levels of tabs in Firefox. I’m not sure whether I’m more excited about the functionality, or saddened that I actually have that many things to read

Since everything has to be an obsession with me, I’ve spent days searching for the perfect RSS reader. As you might expect, it doesn’t exist   I’ve scoured many a site, including Scoble for recommendations and tried probably 15 different readers, but haven’t fallen in love.

These are the things I want to see most in my reader:

• Integrated posting to WordPress
• Fast and lightweight
• Opening links to full posts is as fast as Firefox tabbed browsing
• Imports Firefox bookmarks and discovers feeds in them
• Refreshes automatically
• Allows me to publish my blogroll, etc. easily
• Various other things that I think of when I see them

To meet most of those requirements, it has to be either Firefox or web based, which I was initially opposed to but am starting to come around to. None of the Firefox readers worked well enough for me, for various reasons. Of them, I liked http://sage.mozdev.org the best, but still didn’t quite click for me.

So, it was off to Bloglines and Newsgator. It’s too soon to give a final impression of either, but so far Bloglines seemed to get me up and moving more quickly, and seems to have more features. I like the idea of Newsgator’s Outlook integration (and in fact tried Attensa (which supports posting, but not WordPress, for shame!) and others) but I couldn’t quite get it to mesh with my normal Outlook habits.

So I think I’m going to set Bloglines as my homepage for a while and see how it goes. I’m interested in feedback and thoughts from everyone else out there.

Stowe Boyd puts out a call for the world to build a better-than-RSS reader. I completely agree, and I think there are a lot of us that don’t use RSS because our reading habits don’t follow the model.