Hello all,

A week ago, Wordpress released a patched version of version 2.3, which included a couple of security patches. Its highly recommended that you update to Wordpress 2.3.2 if you’re running on 2.3.1.

WordPress 2.3.2 is an urgent security release that fixes a bug that can be used to expose your draft posts. 2.3.2 also suppresses some error messages that can give away information about your database table structure and limits and stops some information leaks in the XML-RPC and APP implementations. Get 2.3.2 now to protect your blog from these disclosures.

Go to the Wordpress blog announcing the release for more information. To download, go to the Wordpress download page. Additionally, you can also view the list of fixed bugs, and changes introduced from 2.3.1 to 2.3.2.

Since this is a security release, its highly recommended that you update to the latest version. You might find the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin useful

Technorati Tags: wordpress, wordpress upgrade, security release, wordpress automatic upgrade, wordpress 2.3

Hello all,
    The version 2.2 of the popular blogging platform, and the one which powers Blogging India, Wordpress, is now out! It was in the beta stages for a couple of weeks now, and it has been finally released to public. Its been named “Getz”.

    Before I give my opinion, check out the releasing post at the Wordpress blog which has every change given in detail.

    The most important changes are as follows -

• Wordpress widgets by default. A very good add on for a beginner user, who doesn’t want to meddle with the code for a “cool” look. Now, you can drag and drop widgets into your sidebar, courtesy an AJAX interface. Ofcourse, you could do it earlier too, with a small plugin, but now, it comes built in with Wordpress.

• Full Atom support. People who like Atom feeds rather than RSS feeds (I myself prefer RSS, though Atom is the happening thing) will find this news with a cheer
• Easy “Blogger” import. Have a blog on Blogger? Need to shift to Wordpress? Don’t want to meddle with a lot of options? Well, Wordpress developers have heard your kvetches! Please welcome a brand new Blogger importer interface! All you have to do is fill in your log in details, and at the click of a button, you’ve transferred from Blogger to Wordpress! Can it get any easier???!!! Hats off to the Dev team!
• There are also security and speed updates, code cleanups, heavier code commenting etc. They’ve also introduced something which “protects you from activating a plugin or editing a file that will break your blog”. I’m yet to see what that means, but since I don’t do online editing anyway, I don’t think I’m likely to figure out anytime soon! Anyone gets a good picture of this thingy, drop me a mail please.

    Well, that should cover the most important points. Detailed views coming up in a few days time… But before I end my post, I would just like to say,

    Thank you Oh, and the “The Alexa Code - PART III” will be published sometime tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, 2.2, released, widgets, wordpress widgets, inbuilt

Hey all,
    TechCrunch has a brand new article about a brand new service named Fotowoosh, which is said to make a 2D image into a 3D visualization!

 
(Please note that these images were copied right from TechCrunch, and not tested by me. Oh, dont worry Arrington, not hotlinked )

    It is a service from Maryland based startup - Freewebs. Fotowoosh will turn ANY image (better with outdoor images) into a 3D visualization. The 3D image is constructed in Virtual Reality Modeling Language(VRML), a format which may require you to have a VRML reader, but hopefully later browsers will integrate it into their systems.

    A good VRML client(or the only one I could find) is Cortona. Its free to use, and the 2MB extension is available for all major browsers - IE, Firefox, Netscape, Opera etc.

    I’ve applied for a beta tester invite… Hope I receive it so that I can really check this thing out Meanwhile, you can check out the demos they have on their site…
   
    Freewebs raised $11 million in venture capital last August. I’ve used Freewebs before, and found it to be crap Fotowoosh might be a great venture to bring up their reputation among the more experienced cycle, and not just newbies.

    TechCrunch also reports that Microsoft has been working on something similar, christened Photosynth. Ofcourse, this has been in the news for around 1 and a half years now

Technorati Tags: fotowoosh, 2D to 3D, techcrunch, photosynth, freewebs

Hi all,
    You might noticed that we now have a “Tag Cloud” on our sidebar. For the newbies, a tag cloud is a randomised display of tags(or commonly used words in your site) with the most popular displayed most prominantly, and the prominance decreasing with popularity.

    If you want a tag cloud, such as this one as demostrated on our page, theres a cool Wordpress plugin available. Cloudy coded by Chris is one of the most useful little plugins available for Wordpress blogs.

    Cloudy gives you the ability to make a tag cloud and adjust its options (sizes, word lengths, excluded words(all commonly used words are excluded automatically), colours, justification and so on… ).

    Installing Cloudy is quite simple. Download the ZIP file from the author’s blog. Unzip it into your Wordpress/plugins directory. Enable the plugin “Cloudy” from your Wordpress Plugins panel, and add a line of code(given below) in your  theme’s “sidebar.php” where ever you want the cloud to appear -

<?php
$myCloudy = new cloudy();
$myCloudy->print_cloudy();
?>

    Voila! You have your simple tag cloud for Wordpress set up Cloudy scans through your entire blog, and show up words which appear maximum number of times Handy eh?

    Now, there ARE other methods to make tag clouds.

• To make your OWN tag cloud, check out the Phraction blog. Not reccomended for beginners.
• You might want to look into Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin along with its manual(”UTW for dummies” by Lorelle) if you want advanced options. This one is quite powerful and customisable, but then, I never got it to work on my blog. I wouldnt reccomend this for beginners. But UTW combines many features, like bookmarking, feeds, tags, site search tags, technorati tags, and tag clouds. I use different plugins, and a few edits of my own, for each of these features.
• If you have the “Jerome’s Keywords” plugin installed, then there is yet another easy way to create a tag cloud. ChipsTips has a great plugin to create a tag cloud easily IF YOU HAVE JEROME’S KEYWORDS INSTALLED.

Well, these are the more popular and easier methods for a tag cloud of Wordpress. Cheerios for now

Technorati Tags: tag, cloud, tag cloud, simple, Cloudy, UTW