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November 23rd, 2009

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Here comes yet another way to be notified of new upgrades for WordPress in case you need one. Google has announced that they will be using their processing power to scan the source code of websites to look for the version number of the publishing software they are using and send them a notification through Google Webmaster Tools letting them know that an upgrade is available. In the case of WordPress, the meta tag was moved to the core of WordPress in 2.5. Therefor, anyone running a version of WordPress from 2.5 and above should have it displayed in their source code unless it was either removed or edited out through an action in the functions.php file such as remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’); Also, some plugins have been created that removes the version info as well, typically security related plugins.
Speaking of security, the security through obscurity argument regarding the public display [...]

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(8 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Et Tu Google? Then Fail, Net Safety

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Mark Ghosh

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January 31st, 2009

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Blogging Essays

I trust Google. I use GMail as my primary email address and store stuff in my mailbox that is of crucial importance to my existence as a citizen of this modern world. Over the past couple of months, Google’s Orkut has dealt a deadly blow to that trust that is making me rethink my allegiance towards anything Google.
I am the owner of a midly popular community on Orkut with about 25k users. Since I was given the privilege of being a beta tester on Orkut, I had created a community called Calcutta many years ago and that community has since, taken on a life of its own. It is run by moderators who report to me and I log in every so often to perform maintenance and help the moderators out. My existence is not only a mystery to the members of the community, it is also the source of [...]

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(103 votes, average: 4.81 out of 5)

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WP.com Shifts Into Turbo

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Jeff Chandler

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July 3rd, 2008

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WordPress

Matt and company have announced that WordPress.com now officially supports Google Gears. Gears is an extension which works with the browser to enhance web based applications. It’s known for creating local database and file storage, while running javascript in the background to update that content without slowing down the browser.

Gears support in WordPress.com means you will be able to store all images and other web page components of the WordPress administration panel locally which will speed up access to those files while reducing unnecessary web traffic. To enable this feature, click on the TURBO link in the WP.COM dashboard area. This will be located in the upper right portion of the screen. You will need to have the GEARS extension installed before you will be able to take advantage of this new feature.
[EDIT] Rundown on Fool’s Wisdom of Google Gears Privacy concerned raised. Thanks Lloyd!

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(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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WordPress GSoC2008

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Jeff Chandler

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March 12th, 2008

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Code, WordPress

The guys and gals at Automattic have published their Google Summer Of Code 2008 Codex Article which highlights various mentors and ideas. For those of you who don’t know what the Google Summer Of Code Project is all about, here is a brief intro.
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google will be working with a several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,500 students with over 130 open source projects to create millions of lines of code. The program, which kicked off in 2005, is now in its fourth year. If are feeling nostalgic or are interested in learning more about the projects we have worked [...]

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(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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2006 Web Technology Trends

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Mark Ghosh

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December 12th, 2006

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Blogging Essays, Blogging News, LinkyLoo

2006 Web Technology Trends An essay on web technology trends with some large generalizations, some major points and some minors thoughts from McManus. Whenever I see an article like this, I would also like to see some revenue numbers associated with each entry. Though Google was mentioned quite a few times throughout the article, there was no mention of Google’s stock prices or its market cap (which I think are very valid). Also, it would be very interesting to create a heat map of this article to see which phrases/names/buzzwords were used the most in describing tech trends in 2006.

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Google AJAX Search API

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Mark Ghosh

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August 1st, 2006

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Cool Scripts, LinkyLoo

Google AJAX Search API Just like it sounds, add an AJAXified search box within your blog with this experimental Google AJAX search API. You need to sign up to get an API key. I wonder if they will let you integerate AdSense for search with this.

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