WordPress 2.5.1
Wordpress 2.5.1 has been released.
Version 2.5.1 of WordPress is now available. It includes a number of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and one very important security fix. We recommend everyone update immediately, particularly if your blog has open registration. The vulnerability is not public but it will be shortly.
Instructions for updating are located here, or you can use subversion.
Spring Cleaning
Web Worker Daily has an excellent article about Spring cleaning for the web worker. They suggest:
1. Clean out that inbox: Whether you’re using Google Apps or some other email client, taking control of your inbox can have an enormous payoff.
2. Get your backups going: No matter how many times they hear it, some people just don’t think about backups until after their first disastrous data loss. Don’t let that be you.
3. Cut down on noise: Remember when mailing lists were your only way of getting information? How many are you still on that you never, ever read? The same applies to RSS feeds. If your reader is cluttered, trim, trim, trim.
4. Tidy up your browser: If you use a browser that lets you install extensions or add-ins - as most of them do these days - this is a great time to review the ones that you’ve got installed.
5. Eliminate software clutter: How’s your Start Menu or Applications folder? Full of stuff that you never actually use?
I would say its also a good time to do a fresh install of your operating system. Over time operating systems can start to become sluggish from every day use. I usually do a fresh install about once every six months.
Revision3 Rocks Hard
The Revision3 crew rocks hard.
Mozy Remote Backup
So earlier in the week I had Verizon FiOS installed and went with their 15Mbps down 2Mbps up package. I decided to try out an online backup utility now that I have a decent upload connection and did some research for what the best tool would be. I have all my files backed up locally with a RAID 1 setup but wanted another solution in case that drive setup was ever damaged or stolen.
Ars Technica has a great review of online backup solutions. In their review they looked at four great utilities: Carbonite, Mozy Remote Backup, XDrive, and Iron Mountain’s Connected Backup/PC service. I decided to go with Mozy because it had the best price/storage ratio ($4.95 per month for unlimited) and also offers multiple encryption methods which was a definite plus for me because it meant I didn’t need to first encrypt files using Truecrypt which would make it more likely that files wouldn’t be backed up regularly. The other utilities supported encryption too, but didn’t meet the price/storage ratio that Mozy has.
When you install the Mozy software you have the option of choosing an encryption key supplied by them or you can create your own. I chose to use my own and used KeePass to generate a 500 character key. Mozy does a nice job of warning you about using your own key; if you lose it they have no way of getting the key for you so proceed with caution. During the initial install Mozy by default chooses the most common places people want to backup, the My Documents folder and their web bookmarks. Later you have the option of using expert mode and adding your own folders for it to backup. The initial backup can take a few hours, I’m currently backing up a 1.8GB folder and it’ll take roughly 6 hours. Before Mozy uploads any files it uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption then connects to their servers using 128-bit SSL encryption. After the first backup Mozy only uploads files that have been changed so uploading is much faster.
Mozy offers four different restore options to choose from: If you need to restore a few files you can just right click the folder and select Restore Files in Folder, there’s a Web Restore option which is handy for downloading files onto a computer that doesn’t have the Mozy software install and the data restored is less than 20GB, or on the system you have Mozy software installed it creates a virtual drive that allows you to easily see all the files it has backed up to choose what you need. They also offer a pay option which you can choose and they will burn all your data onto one or more DVD’s and ship it to you with FedEx.
All in all I’m very satisfied with the Mozy remote backup solution and its nice having the software automatically run whenever a file has changed so I don’t need to keep track of it and risk having an outdated file stored.
Iron Man
Amazing new trailer for Iron Man.
Scheduled for release on May 2nd.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Here’s the new teaser trailer for the upcoming Indiana Jones movie.
Can’t wait for May 22.
Mozilla Launches New Sync Project
Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) have introduced a new project they’re working on called Weave. Weave allows a user running Firefox 3, which is currently still in beta, to sync their user data with Mozilla’s servers. This is great because it allows you to keep your data synced across multiple computers and phones wherever you are (Mozilla plans to eventually launch a mobile browser). Weave will be helpful for users like myself who browse the web a lot on their phone or pda. No more needing to email myself a link that I want to checkout later.
Update: Ars Technica has an excellent write up on how to setup Weave with Firefox 3.
TechCrunch to Endorse Presidential Candidate
TechCrunch has opened a poll for readers to vote on which candidate they would like TechCrunch to endorse. What makes this poll a bit different is TechCrunch will be endorsing two presidential candidates, one from each party. You can vote once a day.
TechCrunch has also been interviewing each candidate on technology issues which you can listen to at TalkCrunch.
Testing Out Hulu
I was able to snag an invite from GigaOM to the Hulu beta. So far its pretty cool. They offer full episodes of shows like The Office, Chuck, Family guy, plus more. Here’s an episode from The Office:
I had to resize the episode so it would fit in the blog without overlapping the sidebar, but on the Hulu site you can watch a larger version as well as full screen.
Update: Ars Technica also has beta invites to give out.
Facebook Apologizes for Beacon
The New York Times has an article on their Bits blog about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook apologizing for their Beacon program and now allowing users to opt-out completely instead of having to opt-out on a per site basis. This is a nice gesture, but I feel that Beacon should have been an opt-in program from the beginning.
