Have Laptop Will Travel

WordPress 2.0.8 RC1

Originally posted on February 1, 2007 @ 7:30 pm

According to Mark Jaquith, development continues on WordPress 2.2 and 2.1.1, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about the 2.0.x users who haven’t upgraded to the latest 2.1 series.

As part of the ongoing commitment to support WordPress 2.0.x until 2010, Mark and the other WordPress development team members are readying the release of WordPress 2.0.8.

For those of you who are into bleeding edge software distributions, download WordPress 2.0.8 RC1 and kick the tires a bit and help be apart of testing of one of the best blogging and content management software packages available.

For my software geek friends and readers, here’s what to expect in WordPress 2.0.8 Release Candidate 1:

  • a security fix for wp_remote_fopen()
  • better compatibility with PHP 5.2
  • a fix for feed links when using a /%category%/ permalink structure
  • misc HTML validation fixes
  • misc obscure error fixes

I’m currently running WP 2.1 on Have Laptop Will Travel but still run 2.0.7 on some of my development blogs and sites while the kinks get worked out in the 2.1.x series.

Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft

Originally posted on February 7, 2007 @ 8:52 am

Poking around the internet this morning, I came across a pretty good read on identity theft protection.

Being well armed with information about computer security and identity theft is just as necessary as having up-to-date software.

You should find out all you can to minimize your chances of becoming a victim of identity theft.

I’ve had friends and family members who were victims of identity theft and it turned their world upside down and took months and sometimes years to get it all fixed.

In the end, while technology can help protect all of us, the fight against identity theft must be fought with some common sense.

To find out some good tips on protecting your identity, check out the following article on Protecting Yourself Against Online Identity Theft.

China’s Xunlei Downloading Service Powered By Google

Originally posted on January 5, 2007 @ 3:13 pm

GoogleGoogle has signed a deal to provide the search engine for Xunlei, a Chinese download service for videos, games and other content.

Google said in a statement today it plans to finish deploying its search technology within the peer-to-peer service early this year.

In addition, the companies agreed to cooperate on marketing and product development. Financial terms were not disclosed.

According to various reports around the net, Google has bought a stake in Xunlei through a partnership with Ceyuan Ventures, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm, the state-owned China Daily reported.

Apparently Xunlei is a real popular service in China and this new partnership provides Google with an “excellent platform” for its search products and services, Kai-Fu Lee, corporate vice president and president of Google in China, said.

We believe through this cooperation our innovative technologies will bring the best user experience to more Chinese users.

Google’s push to become a bigger search player through partnerships follows its failure so far to dominate the market in China like it does in the United States.

Homegrown Baidu leads the Chinese market by a wide margin, with Yahoo coming in second and Google third, according to consulting firm Analysys International.

USB PC Repair System

Originally posted on January 12, 2007 @ 12:01 am

The Daily Cup of Tech computer help site put together a USB-drive based collection of software that’ll help you fix up any ailing PC.

USB Thumb DriveSorry Mac users, this post is for Windows users only but feel free to let me know if there are similar utilities for Apple Macintosh users so I can help them too.

I know just enough about Macs to get into trouble, so any advise you have is very much welcome.

Ok, on with the show… all wrapped up into one convenient, 14.2MB zip file, the USB PC Repair System contains 37 fix-it programs, many of which I already use and have in my tool box but I figured this would be good to share with others.

Here are just a few of the programs in this USB PC repair system, complete with links:

The PC Repair System is a free download and contains 37 applications in all.

So how does it work?

  1. You extract the contents to any USB drive 32 MB or greater.
  2. Remove the USB drive from your system and plug it back in.
  3. You’re off and running!

Take a moment and check it out. You’ll be very happy with this package for sure.

Update: Apparently the site is getting hammered with heavy traffic on the download, so to help out, now you can download it from me:

I’m not sure how long I’ll have this available, so grab it while you can.

Wait! Don’t buy Windows Vista!

Originally posted on January 26, 2007 @ 9:46 am

Unless you’ve recently emerged from a coma, you know the consumer versions of Microsoft’s new Vista Operating System ship Tuesday.

Microsoft Vista

Over the next few weeks, NBA star LeBron James will try to convince you to move to Windows Vista as part of Microsoft’s massive ad campaign.

Microsoft’s new OS is the best Windows ever, just don’t buy it and here’s why.

“Just say no” to LeBron James and Windows Vista, at least for now.