WordPress 2.6

Posted by Gianluca Varisco on July 16, 2008 under General | Be the First to Comment

I just updated this blog to WordPress 2.6!

Here are some of the smaller features and improvements in 2.6:

• Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
• Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
• Bulk management of plugins.
• A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
• Plugin update notification bubble.
• Customizable default avatars.
• You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
• Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
• Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
• You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
• Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
• Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
• You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
• A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
• Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
• Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

FSFE - 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G

Posted by Gianluca Varisco on July 11, 2008 under Fedora, General | 4 Comments to Read

The Free Software Foundation published in its Community blog the 5 real reasons to avoid iPhone 3G:

• iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can’t be on everyone’s phones.
• iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
• iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
• iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
• iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don’t spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software — like the FreeRunner.

At the beginning, I thought about buying for myself an iPhone 3G (launched today in Italy), but due to its high costs (especially for the version without a long-term contract) I’d probably end to disassembly it as the iFixIt guys did yesterday ;-).

Last but not least, I’m totally in agree with FSFE: it’s not a news that Apple doesn’t care about its customers and their rights (WTF is privacy?).

Novell Collaboration Tour - Milan, 10/07/2008

Posted by Gianluca Varisco on under General | Be the First to Comment

Yesterday I entirely spent the morning at Novell offices in Sesto S. Giovanni (Milan, Italy) for their Web 2.0 Tour called “Collaboration Tour“.

Organized by Alessandra Vidili (Workgroup Sales Specialist in Novell), the event has also seen the partecipation of two of their Italian partners:

• Ounet Sistemi
• MSD Systems

Main topic of the event was their Collaboration Suite, made up of different components and products: GroupWise, Open Enterprise Server, Open Workgroup Suite, Teaming + Conferencing.

What I liked more is, without doubts, their Teaming + Conferencing solution based on ICECore technology: features such as Web and Voice Conferencing, Personal and Team Workspaces, Application and Desktop Sharing are really needed, nowadays, in an Enterprise environment.

Thanks Novell for have decided, at the end, to accept me as attendee

RHCE - What does it mean for me?

Posted by Gianluca Varisco on June 1, 2008 under Fedora, General | 2 Comments to Read

I got my RHCE Certification (805007044027706) less than one year ago (July 27, 2007), just two days after my 19’s birthday. I’m grateful I had this chance during my summer internship at Red Hat, personally and professionally. There’re other Linux certifications outside, such as those provided by LPI, Novell and CompTIA. Do you know other Linux certifications that would like to advise me?

Another question for all the RHCErs: How old were you when you got it?