In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

I searched through the announcement of WordPress 2.5 on the WordPress blog and couldn’t find the actual name of the feature, so I’m calling it “tag auto lookup”.

I think this is one of the better additions to WordPress. One of the problems I had before upgrading to 2.5 was keeping my tags straight, exact spelling in all, to keep my posts organized.

Now when I begin typing in a tag I’ve used before, WordPress searches to find matching tags and allows me to pick from a drop-down menu. This allows me to keep my tags straight. This is an absolute time saver, as I often was forced to edit posts after realizing that I had used a slight variation of a previous tag, breaking the organization of my blog.

So, to whoever thought of this feature; I thank you.

After several hit and misses, I finally found a working fix for the WordPress 2.5 media uploader issue in IE7 (Internet Explorer 7).

Credit goes to the Simmons Consulting blog, and can be found below.

The first fix is in the file wp-admin/includes/media.php … down at line 817, delete the comma …

Change this:

debug: false,

To this:

debug: false

The next file to edit is wp-includes/js/swfupload/handlers.js … down at line 99, delete the comma right after the number 36 …

Change this:

.animate({minHeight:0,height:36,}, 400, null, function(){jQuery(this).children(’.describe’).remove()})

To this:

.animate({minHeight:0,height:36}, 400, null, function(){jQuery(this).children(’.describe’).remove()})

That’s it! The issue should be fixed in the next WordPress update; but until then, the above should work to fix the problem! Works great for me.

From the blog of Sue Waters,

Last year I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work closely with the Al Upton and the miniLegends, a class of Year 3 students, aged 8 and 9…Al’s been blogging with his students for the past five years and this year Al Upton decided to take student blogging, with his new group of miniLegends, to the next level and invited the educational blogging community to mentor a mini.

Unfortunately Al and his miniLegends have had problems this week; the end result being that today he was given an Order of Closure by Risk and management/Special Investigations Unit from the South Australian Education Department to remove his Al Upton’s MiniLegend class blog. [Read Post]

What some people don’t seem to understand is that student, even as young as 8 and 9, find themselves immersed in a digital world where communication happens instantly, with anyone, all over the world. By providing the opportunity for students to interact via blogging, and connect with educators internationally, Upton was providing a positive example of what the Internet could be used for. He expanded his student’s horizons through their blogging, and did so in a safe environment.

Ordering the closure of the miniLegends’ blog was overkill. Shutting down the blog didn’t protect the students, as the blog didn’t increase the danger to students. However, I would argue that not being able to show students how to participate digitally in the global community will do more harm than good. The Government has impeded the progress of this class, and they should be held accountable for their actions.

I’ve written about how I believe the iPhone to be one of the ultimate devices to own and how its release has reshaped what we, especially as gadget lovers, expect from our cell phone. I don’t own one, but I can’t imagine my next phone not being an iPhone It’s that simple.

Spread throughout the Internet, there are examples of what the iPhone can do when hacked, or when a “jailbreak” is applied to open it up for additional programs to be loaded. This has proved to be somewhat of a difficult dance between Apple and their customers as these hacks have rendered some phones unusable.

In response, Steve Jobs announced that an SDK (Software Development Kit) would be released for the iPhone, enabling applications to be written and loaded onto the devices. I thought this was a good approach to what should have been an obvious conflict.

However, according to Engadget, Apple is only allowing software to be downloaded via iTunes AND the company will be hand selecting applications. If it doesn’t meet Apple’s standards, it looks like the application is doomed to die. This is not a good move for Apple, as it really doesn’t solve the problem. Customers are still going to hack their iPhone to get the most out of them.

Yeah, it’s impressive; the world’s thinnest laptop. The MacBook Air was the finale from Steve Jobs at the 2008 MacWorld Expo, and a lot of being written about it. Here’s a few:Forbes - ”Jobs Fails to WOW at MacWorld”
PC World - “MacBook Air: How Complete is it?”
BusinessWeek - “When Apple’s Keynote Bounce is a Thump”

Apple is known for innovation. They’ve conquered the Ipod digital music player market, and they are carving out a very nice slice of the smart-phone market as well with the amazing iPhone. The MacBook Air is innovative as well, taking mobile computing to new levels and showing a complete rethinking of what a notebook is.

In all honesty, the MacBook Air is not designed to be your only computer. It’s meant to a secondary, mobile device, that will allow you to do most of your computing. They don’t say this, but without an optical drive, multiple USB ports, and built in Ethernet, I think this point is made. If you want ultra-mobility, the MacBook Air is for you. If you are a heavy computer user, focusing all your cash and expectations on this device is probably not the best route to take.

I expect to see other members of the MacBook line revamped to include some of the features of the MacBook Air. The multi-touch pad, allowing you to pinch, swipe, and rotate, is a great idea. I could see myself using these gestures often. The only downside of having these features is the major disappointment of having to use a computer without them.