Favicon on WordPress.com

I wonder whether there’s a way to set a favicon on a blog on WordPress.com the way you can on normal websites, like this article on favicons says.

I tried looking into the Media section, but it’s just a list of pictures I’ve attached to posts or my banner. I’m not sure if I’m looking in the right place though. Or whether such an option is even available.

Filed in WordPress, Web Design.

Why Does WordPress Insert Its Version Number into HEAD?

I just noticed from my other blog that uses the downloadable version of WordPress that it inserts the wordpress version number into the HEAD of the blog pages. Why does it do that? Leaking this information in this day and age only lets hackers know that a particular blog is vulnerable, if it hasn’t been updated yet.

It’s interesting that blogs on wordpress.com do not have the version number inserted into the HEAD. So why the hypocrisy?

Filed in WordPress, Security.

WordPress 2.7 Beta 1 Released: Very Promising

WordPress 2.7 Beta 1 has been released, with a Release Candidate probably due on Nov 10 and a final by the end of the month. This new version is very promising, and is much more usable than the older one. I read their previous blog entries about how they got some usability testing done. I can’t wait for it!

Filed in WordPress, Web Design.

Why is My WordPress.com Exported Posts XML Smaller?

I just added a new post to my blog, and exported the posts as usual for backup on my computer. And I noticed that the new export was about 300 kb smaller than my previous export, which is supposed to contain fewer posts. Why? I didn’t prune any comments or delete any spam or edit any other posts.

Did WordPress.com delete something from my export file? Why is it smaller when it should be bigger? Is there a bug somewhere?

Filed in WordPress.

Will WordPress.com Please Provide Us Better Web Statistics?

Yesterday, when I looked at the HTML code for my blog on WordPress.com, I noticed that WordPress.com put some Google Analytics tracking code into the blog. As a blogger, I have no access to that data. Instead, I have the smidgen of information WordPress deigns to reveal in its half-baked, brain-dead stats report. And I can’t even put my own Google Analytics code, because JavaScript is not allowed.

Come on, guys, since you have the data, make it available to us.

For example, after posting my review of Chrome, I’m curious to know what percentage of my readers use Chrome. Ars Technica wrote that Chrome has a 7% browser share on their site. I want to know the Chrome browser share for my blog too.

I also want other details. Mouth-watering details provided by other software. As it is, I can only drool.

So can we have better stats? Please? Pretty please?

Filed in WordPress, Web Design, Browsers.

WordPress 2.6.2 Released

WordPress 2.6.2 has been released. At this time, I can’t seem to find the release notes on the site, but judging from the proximity to the 2.6.1 release, my guess is that it fixes security problems.

Since there are no release notes yet, the quick way to upgrade WordPress referred to in my previous post can’t be used.

I don’t have to update this blog on WordPress.com, but I’ve got another one with a normal WP install to update. So much for getting a life. I’m a slave to technology.

Update: Yes It’s a Security Fix

I was right. It looks like 2.6.2 is a security fix. Here’s apparently what’s new in 2.6.2.

If you allow open registration on your blog, you should definitely upgrade. With open registration enabled, it is possible in WordPress versions 2.6.1 and earlier to craft a username such that it will allow resetting another user’s password to a randomly generated password. The randomly generated password is not disclosed to the attacker, so this problem by itself is annoying but not a security exploit. However, this attack coupled with a weakness in the random number seeding in mt_rand() could be used to predict the randomly generated password.

Filed in WordPress, News.

WordPress.com is Getting More Irritating By the Month: The Progressive Loss of Control

WordPress.com proves that you really need to install your own copy of WordPress for your own blog instead of outsourcing it to someone else.

1. When I first started, I noticed that it plugged in links to its own tag pages into my blog posts. Ugh!
2. Then I found that when I surfed to my posts without logging in, some of them contain ads. Yucks.
3. The latest irritation is this “Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)” content that is embedded right into the content of some posts. The indignity!

There’s a progressive loss of control over the blog when you let others run things. I mean, who knows what they’re going to do next? Change words into ad links within your post itself? Can you even trust these people?

Filed in Outraged, WordPress, Web Design.

WordPress 2.6 is out!

Whoa, after a long silence, which is unusual for it, WordPress version 2.6 has been released. It doesn’t really look like there’s any real compelling new features. Just some bunch of user interface improvements that make things easier especially for newbies.

Oh yes, there’s also a version control system built into this version as well.

Filed in WordPress, Software.

WordPress.com Problems

This new version of WordPress on WordPress.com has introduced some problems:

• After I had posted, over a day or so, it added “ggRIAA” to “RIAA” in my post title for RIAA Lets Its Lap Dog MediaSentry Break the Law. You can see from its URL that the original post did not have ggRIAA, neither did my backup of that post. PS: I’ve since fixed the title that WordPress mangled.
• While posting, I tried to use the word “differentiate” but the software just refused to let me use it, deleting it at every turn. In the end, I had to substitute “different”. Stupid software. Funny, the word “differentiate” works now.
• Hiding the categories section below the post box instead of at the right side is really not a good idea. I have already accidentally posted a number of posts into the “Uncategorized” category by mistake. Categories and tags are something that I regularly use to organize my posts. Putting the “Save” and “Publish” buttons beside my post makes me hit it earlier than I should.

Why do software go downhill over a period of time? Maybe it’s because the developers find that they have added all the useful features they can think of, and then they start reorganizing things because they can’t think of anything else.

Anyway, YUCKS to the new version of WordPress.com.

Filed in Opinion, WordPress.

No Way to Remove Drafts in WordPress.com

One irritating thing about WordPress.com is that there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to remove drafts to my posts that I no longer want. I mean, it automatically saves a draft, and if I abandon it, it keeps it around and pesters me with it every time I want to write a new post.

The only workaround is to load that draft and proceed to change everything in it. Otherwise the pesky thing stays forever.

Filed in WordPress.

Simplest Way to Upgrade WordPress

I’ve long known of this method of upgrading WordPress, but thought I’d publicize it for those who don’t, especially in the light of the recent release of a new version. The easiest and fastest way to upgrade WordPress is to upload only the files that have changed since the previous version. It really makes things so much easier. The difference between versions is only a few files, so just uploading those alone is preferable to uploading the whole kit and kaboodle. For me, the trick has always been to find the list of changed files, which has not been easy, but it seems that the list is placed in a consistent place that is easy to locate.

Of course, since this blog is hosted on WordPress.com, I don’t have to upgrade the blog software at all.

Filed in WordPress.

The Glorious Contempt WordPress Theme

Well, after living for nearly 2 months with the default WordPress theme, which I complained about in the past, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and changed the theme to one called “Contempt”. This theme has the advantage of having two columns even on the post pages, so that they will also contain the Recent Posts list and so on. The default theme does not. With this theme, I think my blog finally meets all the criteria on the blog theme design checklist.

As you can see it looks more or less like the default Kubrick theme, which suits me fine.

How to Get the Contempt Theme with Widget Support

The Contempt theme as implemented in the hosted WordPress.com allows you to add widgets to the side panel. Try as you might, you will not be able to find the contempt theme in the usual WordPress theme repository – or at least I couldn’t find it. If you look for the Contempt theme in Google, you will be directed to the author’s site that allows you to download the theme files – but that set does not allow you to add widgets from the WordPress interface.

To get the version that gives you the widget support, go to the WordPress SVN for the Contempt theme and download every single file and directory. Keep the directory structure when you place install the theme into your blog.

Filed in WordPress, Web Design.

The Incessantly Updating Software: Another Day, Another Version – QuickTime and WordPress

I hate being plagued by software that continually has to be updated with security fixes. I mean, normal upgrades to add features or fix ordinary, non-security bugs are fine – they don’t force you to upgrade all your affected machines at all odd hours of the day or week. Ordinary new versions are like upgrade-if-you-wish sort of things. Security fixes are like upgrade-or-you-die. (Exaggeration, of course.)

Take the case of QuickTime. They just came up with another update. Version 7.4.1. I’m still reeling from their last update, with its refusal to accept my File and MIME settings and its stupid upgrader that resets everything. Honestly, I have better things to do than to keep updating QuickTime and fixing all the stupid problems a new install creates. But it has to be done because they are security fixes. Of course I don’t really know whether the latest update includes a security fix – the Apple site doesn’t say. Or if it does, they’ve hidden the list of fixes in a non-obvious location. How does a company that is famous for its user-friendly Mac create such a user-unfriendly software with a user-unfriendly website?

And then there is WordPress, with its newest version 2.3.3, just released. This blog is hosted on WordPress.com, so updates are automatically taken care of by the web host. But I have another blog running the WordPress software, on a host that goes down repeatedly. With that blog, no month feels complete without a new WordPress update. It happens so frequently that I can virtually upgrade it in my sleep. If not for the rave reviews of WordPress in blog software shootouts, I’ll probably just try another software.

Filed in News, Software, WordPress.

Second Thoughts on WordPress’ Default Theme

I mentioned a while back how I thought WordPress’ default theme fared pretty well against the checklist for blog theme design. I have now changed my mind. After running this blog for nearly two months now, I’ve belatedly realized that there’s a big deficiency in the default theme: the permalink post pages don’t have a side column where the tag cloud, archive links and recent posts are listed. As a result, people who go directly to a permalink page from the search engine won’t go much further than that page.

I wonder whether the other supplied themes fix this problem.

Filed in Web Design, WordPress.

Spam Blogs

If you’re reading this entry on a blog that is not florafaunarocks.wordpress.com (that is, florafaunarocks dot WordPress Dot com), then chances are that the blog you’re reading is one of those spam blogs. The despicable owners of such blogs use programs that grab new posts, then reposts them with some modifications on their own blog. There are an incredible number of them “surfing” around WordPress.com, with the result that any post I make automatically gets reposted somewhere else. It’s very irritating, not to mention a copyright infringement.

It’s easy to spot such blogs. The idiots send pingbacks to your blog, which the Akismet filter automatically catches. Just check your spam comments and you’ll see them. Perhaps WordPress.com should try to collect the IP addresses of all these bots and block them. That’ll clean up things a lot. Maybe we should all report these blogs to Google to get them blocked from the search engine, and kicked out of AdSense.

Filed in: Outraged, WordPress.