WordPress 2.3 was released yesterday. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to upgrade to it, due to a lot of changes, some of which could have broken the theme. But then I played around with it, and nothing conflicted, except for one plugin, which was easy enough to disable. While I’ll have to get another plugin to replace that one, it’s no big deal since I already know which one works with 2.3.
So what has changed in WordPress that concerns users? Let’s take a quick look at some of them…
Tags - WordPress now has tagging capabilities built into the core. Tags can be used in addition to the regular catagories, so people are not stuck using one or the other. While categories can be used to place posts in a broad topic, tags can be used to place it in more specific categories, or used to link to more specific topics. For an example, if I were to do a post on a weekend, I would put it in my Life category, and use tags for the more specific things I did that weekend, such as bike, work, etc. (Ok, so maybe that was a bad example, but I couldn’t think of anything else at the moment)
Update Notifications - Yes, the latest edition of WordPress will tell you when there are updates to WordPress itself as well as plugins you have in the plugins directory. While some on the WordPress mailing lists don’t like this (another post for another day), I love it, since I want to make sure that I have the latest versions of plugins, and checking manually is a time consuming process.
Canonical URLs - I’m not going to explain this, since Mark Jaquith, one of the lead developers, explained it in detail on his blog in a post titled simply enough, WordPress 2.3: Canonical URLs. I do like this, since it can only help me in the search engine wars. And since I can deactivate a plugin that was doing the same thing.
Those are probably the three biggest things that I like about 2.3; there are many more new features to WordPress 2.3 - if you’d like to read them, check out the WordPress 2.3 Announcment Post on the WP Development Blog.
So what is a typical weekend like for me? Well, it all starts at 5:00 on Friday evening…when I go to work. I’ll work until about 11:30, when I’ll go back to my dorm, and eventually take a shower. Stuff will be done on the computer, whether it’s working of stuff or goofing around. I’ll go to bed somewhere between 1 and 3 Saturday morning, and wake up anywhere from 7 to 9 hours later. Stuff will be done on the computer, food will be eaten, and relaxing will occur. Well, at least until 2:00 when I have to be back at work. I’ll make chicken caesar wraps, and then serve food until we close, and then clean up, hopefully being out of the building by 11:30. Then the process that happened after work on Friday repeats. When I wake up on Sunday, it’s time to do any homework that has been put off during the rest of the weekend. If I have free time, I do whatever tech support work needs to be done online, and relax. And then it’s back to class at 9:00 Monday morning.
So I don’t really have much time to party during the weekend. But what do I care? I’m a geek, my drink of choice is Mt. Dew. Besides, it’s somewhat fun working where I work, even though I may complain about it times. And sometimes I overhear things that are…odd. Such as Girls Gone Wild filming at some local clubs….and I heard that from a group of girls…
Classes…people like some of them, while they hate others. For the most part, I like mine…except for one. So what classes am I taking this semester, and how do I like them so far? Let’s take a look…
Evaluation Research: It’s supposed to teach me how to research effectively and efficiently. It’s an OK class. Doesn’t seem hard, and even though the professor has an accent, it’s not that thick; I barely notice it. This should be an easy class to do well in.
Programming & Problem Solving: I’m learning Java. ‘Nuff said.
Philosophy: This would be the class that I dislike. When I registered for classes, I registered for the class that was going to be taught by a professor that seemed cool according to the professor review sites. Well…. I guess the administration changed professors for that class, because the one I have isn’t even the same sex as the one I read the reviews on. The class is Philosophy 101 - so why has it given me more work than my 300 level classes combined?
Constitution, Ethics, Policing: I don’t know how to describe this class without using any of the words in the title. We’re learning about the Constitutional and ethical aspects of policing. This will probably be the easiest class for me this semester.
Criminal Justice System: This will be an easy class as well, since it’s basically a more advanced version of a class I took freshman year. The professor is nice, and tells us what will be exam questions.
There are about 10 weeks left in the semester, so we’ll see then if the classes were really how I thought they would be or not.
Six years ago, something happened that changed the nation forever. Nineteen Taliban terrorists sat aboard four commercial aircraft with one thing on their minds - to strike fear into the hearts of the American people. And succeed they did, but only for a little while. Then as a nation, we banded together, grew closer, grew stronger, and started to rebuild. But we can never get back the lives that were lost. Six months later, in March 2002, we started to send a message, one that we are still sending right now, and will continue to send for as long as we have to: that terrorists are not safe no matter where they may be; you cannot cowardly kill Americans, and get away with it.
Just as previous generations have said they will never forget where they were when JFK was assassinated, my generation will never forget where we were when we learned of this. I was on my way to Mr. Panagoulias’ biology class.
So here’s a thank you. Thank you to the servicemen and women that help protect this country overseas. Thank you to the police, fire, and EMS personnel that protect us at home. And most of all, thanks to those who have given their life in order to protect this country.
Microsoft has released the Security Bulletin Advance Notification for September. This bulletin announces which security updates Microsoft intends to release on the second Tuesday of the month.
On Spetember 11, 2007, Microsift will be releasing one critical security update, as well four important security updates. The critical update will require thecomputer to be restarted.
There will also be one high priority update that is not for security.
