WordPress 2.0 … Not Too Shabby

Yesterday I spent some time getting the site moved over to the newly released WordPress 2.0 … so far it seems to work well. I had to make a few changes to the K2 theme I use, but I see this morning that Michael has made a new 2.0 compliant version available. There seems to be some nice changes to the whole WP experience … mostly on the admin side of things as far as I can tell. The admin side is streamlined to the point where I don’t feel as though I need to install a theme for that side like I did in the past. I have to admit I haven’t had a chance to really do much more than basic posts, but if the upload function within the “Write Post” screen works as it claims that will be a great enhancement. Some other things of note:

  • The WYSIWYG editor is a nice addition, but I am happy it can be turned off … I’ve never been a real fan of that, but in FireFox it makes it easy to edit text. I still like the old fashioned way though.
  • I like how they’ve moved the lesser used options in the “Write Post” screen to menus that open and close. It would be nice if they would let me set the ones I do use to default to open … Categories comes to mind as one that would be nice to be set to be open for … speaking of that option, in the category selection pane you can now add a new category right there.
  • The speed of the whole thing seems to be improved … I may be just imagining that, but it all just feels more snappy. Either my host has started to get its act together or this thing is really quicker.
  • The built in spam plugin is a nice touch … you do have to register for an API key, but it is a small price to pay. Spam Karma 2 has been great, but an extra layer of protection never hurt anyone.
  • A small, but well done addition is the theme preview … it reminds me of Drupal the way it shows you a thumbnail of what your stuff will look like if you activate the theme.

There is so much more and you can find it all on the web … BTW, here is a link to the new features that really gets into it … much deeper than I can.  At the end of the day it is a nice upgrade.

My Dashboard Widget (Sort of …)

Like most Mac users who’ve made the switch to 10.4 I use Dashboard. I’ve thought about looking at how to create one, but never really had the time … Over the break I’ve been thinking about ripping Apple’s sample Widget code apart to learn how to do it … this morning I grabbed their sample RSS reader code and changed a couple of strings to point to this blog. I didn’t alter the look and feel at all, just updated a couple of things. I know, not very original but its a start. At any rate here is a zipped up version of it. If I can make the time over the break to bang a little more, I will.

Adium … Gizmo Plugin

Almost all my friends here at PSU who are Mac users launch Adium every morning instead of iChat. What do I care, right? Well, the big thing about iChat is that it lets me have a good old fashioned vocie/video chat with them. Sometimes that is just easier when you really need to get things done. The conversation usually ends up with me saying, “why don’t you quit Adium and launch iChat so we can talk?”

This morning I came across a potential solution. I am sure most of you know about both Adium and the Gizmo Project. Adium is a multi-protocol chat program and Gizmo is a VoIP application a little like Skype. Well, here is the Gizmo plugin for Adium … it lets them use their fancy multi-account Adium and gives me a way to “call” them when I have the urge to talk.

The Gizmo Plugin

iTunes Videos … Too Funny & Too Cool

Apple has posted a couple of free videos (please do more Apple!) at the iTunes Music Store. The first is a great rap from SNL last week called Lazy Sunday. For D’Arcy there is also a Battlestar Gallactica episode. Enjoy.

BTW, since I mentioned about the direct linking to podcasts the other day, I thought I’d also share a quick and easy way to get URLs out of the ITMS as well. All you have to do to get the direct link into the store is control click a song, video, or tv show title and you get a handy little contextual menu that lets you select it. Check it out.

itunes url

Blog Study … Podcasting Some Ideas

Tonight Chris Millet and I sat down to talk about the blogging study he is conducting at the IST Solutions Institute here at Penn State. Chris and I headed down to the basement in our old studio to talk a bit about the study and to share some thoughts with the faculty participating … this is a 50 minute, unedited discussion. We didn’t have notes or any real notion of what we wanted to talk about other than how we’ve used blogs to power our classrooms. There are some interesting things. Enjoy it … the podcast is around 45 MB. Thoughts?

Direct link to the podcast.

iTunes Podcasting Stuff

Here is a great little piece of info I just got … there is a protocol for subscribing to your podcasts via the iTunes Podcast Directory — how did I miss that one? All you do is drop your feed into a page (make a link) using the form, “itpc://feed.” Now that is cool. Here’s my feed running through the iTunes Podcast Directory. Now how nice is that … it is a hell of a lot easier than selecting the feed via the RSS or XML badge and using the Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast menu in iTunes … now in my syllabus I can just require iTunes (most of them are using it anyway) and put a big link to the podcasting channel on my class blog and simplify the whole thing. Makes me happy.

Skype and Gizmo

I have been looking at VoIP technology and the associated tools (Gizmo and Skype) for the last few months to see how it can be used in (and outside) the classroom to enable communication … both tools are very cool. Although I believe Skype is more of a peer to peer model, while Gizmo is a real VoIP application. I even switched to Vonage for my home phone — and it is great! I save a bunch of money every month and there isn’t any difference in service. Might be worth a look. At any rate, some people from my new group gave a talk last week about SecondLife — the virtual world software. It was cool that they didn’t all physically show up for the talk, they used the SL space and Gizmo to give the presentation. They even went so far to build a virtual conference room that they all met in and projected that in front of the real room. I think it made an impact — as in, people started to see some interesting application of the whole thing … I wonder if you’d count that as a mash up?

Oh, and speaking of Skype here is a great resource if you like to integrate a “call me” link on your site.