Annoying software: a rogues' gallery From Apple's auto updates that clandestinely attempt to install new software, to the erratically performing Windows Vista in general, to the 80 megabyte Adobe reader "updates", software upgrades increasingly seem to be designed to hog system resources and infuriate computer users. What does Adobe Reader do? Displays PDF pages. How does it do it? With as much bloody-minded bureaucracy, delay and needless interaction as possible. ... Read full entry

Windows XP SP3 upgrade spells trouble for Internet Explorer The imminently due Service Pack 3 for Windows XP apparently doesn't permit rolling back to a prior version of the Microsoft web browser once a new version is installed. Writing on the MSDN website, Jane Maliouta said people who are trying out Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and want to roll back to IE6 would need to complete that downgrade before installing ... Read full entry

New admin UI on WordPress.com, 2.5.1, and 2.6 This might be the time for WP users, still kicking up a brouhaha over the controversial 2.5 release, to take another stress pill... WordPress 2.6 is on the way says WP lead developer, Ryan Boren. I and the other WP devs will be focusing on fixing bugs for 2.5.1 and planning 2.6 features. After the lengthy 2.5 cycle, we'll aim for ... Read full entry

DOS ain't so bad after all. An interesting argument in favour of not replacing or updating DOS interfaces with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) merely for the sake of doing so. There's a lingering temptation among those of us in the industry to replace all so-called "antiquated" means of doing things with newfangled web interfaces. And rightly so, given the many benefits the web provides. Yet, I cringe when ... Read full entry

Uninstall - Is There Such A Thing? Some plugins do linger it seems. When you think of uninstall, do you think of completely removing something? The official definition for the word is as follows, (uninstall) To remove completely from a system. I ask this question because I have discovered a problem that needs to be addressed by WordPress plugin authors. Over the lifespan of a WordPress installation, there may be a number ... Read full entry

2.4 Skipped 2.5 Is Next It now looks like the next Wordpress upgrade will arrive in March, rather than later this month, and will be issued as 2.5 rather than 2.4. As discussed in the developer mailing list, the next release of WordPress will be in March instead of January because of the holidays and the amount of changes that will take place in the codebase as well as the ... Read full entry

Wordpress 2.2.2: disassociated.com has just come back online after we installed the latest Wordpress release. I made use of the Maintenance Mode Plugin while doing this upgrade... basically it displays a splash screen indicating your site is temporarily off-line for... maintenance! Very handy :) Jeffrey Zeldman: King of Web Standards: a great article/profile about Mr Web Design himself, Jeffrey Zeldman! 10 Tips on Writing the Living ... Read full entry