I have already submitted an update with the fix as version 2.9.8.2, but it might take some time to show up in the updates section of your WordPress installation. You can download the version directly to install manually below if you want.

This bug only seems to affect users of WordPress 3 and above who are using the Multi-Site feature, of which support was just barely introduced yesterday.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. As soon as I heard of it I immediately began investigating the problem and working towards a solution.

I plan on releasing the new re-written version of the plugin soon which will make the project a lot more maintainable.

download WP-reCAPTCHA version 2.9.8.2

Now WordPress MU has been merged into the main WordPress project, so everything will be a lot more streamlined. Users can now simply toggle a “multi-site” option to enable or disable MU functionality, i.e., various blogs per website.

Thanks to Tom, support for this new method has been integrated into the plugin, version 2.9.8. The plugin still supports WordPress MU itself for websites that still use it. You can upgrade using WordPress’ automatic plugin updating functionality, or download it below.

download WP-reCAPTCHA 2.9.8

Like I outlined in my previous post, supposedly Apple changed their method of selecting cell towers, but perhaps this was not limited to the iPhone 4 model. Perhaps Apple pushed this new algorithm to iOS 4 in general, which would explain why people are suddenly seeing this problem in the iPhone 3GS as well.

Some people are noticing that they encounter this issue in certain places only, for example at home they do, but not at work, or vice versa. Some attribute this to the possibility that different towers are used in in each of those locations. Some have brought up the fact (?) that the iPhone uses two different frequencies: 850 and 1900 MHz. They think that perhaps one of the locations where there are no problems is using one frequency whereas the other location is using another different frequency.

More and more people are saying that they too are experiencing this issue but with mixed results. Some say it seems to have no effect on the actual reception or call quality, going as far as noting that these things are better in this model than the previous ones despite seeing less bars. This is what I personally have experienced. I held the iPhone 4 in such a way to remove all of the bars, and then initiated and maintained a normal quality 5-10 minute call. There are also mixed results as to whether a case/bumper works in alleviating the dropped bars.

The media has picked up on this issue and it has been reported on by the BBC, ABC, and many others. Many people have called Apple regarding this issue with varying results. Some are sent a free Bumper case, while others are sent a replacement iPhone 4 with overnight shipping in the hopes that it is just a defect in the unit. Apple is yet to provide an official comment on the issue, but it is believed that it will not happen today as today is the official launch date.

I quickly jumped to conclusions and started concocting possible scenarios in which Apple, too far into the development process of the iPhone 4, realized this ‘problem’ and decided to release it anyways alongside the Bumper case, which would supposedly fix this problem by removing any contact between the user and the side-band. A few other people considered this a possibility, recognizing the peculiarity at Apple releasing an official case itself which only ‘protects’ the side-band of the iPhone 4.

But then I read David Pogue’s review of the iPhone 4 for The New York Times that Apple claimed (second page, first paragraph) to have switched its cell tower choosing algorithm. It no longer goes for the tower with the strongest signal, but instead, it goes for the cell tower with the highest quality. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, as I always figured that signal strength determined signal quality but I know next to nothing about those things.

The new phone is also better at choosing the best channel for connecting with the cell tower, even if’s not technically the strongest one. (Ever had four bars, but a miserable connection? Then you get it.)

Although this is most likely true (the press gets access to Apple for questions, etc.), I didn’t believe that Apple would give up those “visual bars” for the sake of call quality. Reason being that most people associate bars with cell reception and consequently call quality, and Apple wouldn’t do anything to confuse the user, even if it ultimately resulted in better cell reliability for the user.

Then I read Walter Mossberg’s review of the iPhone 4 in the Wall Street Journal, in which he says that Apple told him this was actually a bug in how the iPhone 4 displays the bars, as he was still able to place calls just fine.

Yet, in some places where the signal was relatively weak, the iPhone 4 showed no bars, or fewer bars than its predecessor. Apple says that this is a bug it plans to fix, and that it has to do with the way the bars are presented, not the actual ability to make a call. And, in fact, in nearly all of these cases, the iPhone 4 was able to place calls despite the lack of bars.

So, assuming that the issue Walter encountered was the same as those which most people are experiencing, we can expect an iOS update with a bug fix to be released soon. I am sure Apple would be inclined to release an update as soon as possible in order to prevent any possible unnecessary and confused negative press which would claim the iPhone 4 to have inferior reception to previous models, a claim which would contradict Apple’s claims of engineering ingenuity by using the iPhone 4′s side-band as an antenna system for better reception.

This potential explanation for the issue many people are experiencing is not completely out of question yet. Although some people have posted anecdotal and video evidence of this ‘issue’ occurring, I’ve yet to see anyone claim that the call quality itself is actually affected when this happens.

If anyone posts evidence of the call quality consistently diminishing alongside bars disappearing when one holds the phone, then that would be something else entirely, and an issue Apple would be hard pressed to publicly confront urgently.

I began trying to place my pre-order for the iPhone 4 since Tuesday 2 am. Even then, the systems were all being hammered. I woke up at 6:50 am on Tuesday to watch Spain vs Switzerland, which ended in a major upset for Spain, losing to Switzerland with a final score of 0 – 1. As soon as I woke up I began trying to make it through the pre-order process.

There are many outlets from which one was/is able to place a pre-order: AT&T, Apple, RadioShack, and Best Buy. Each of these has to first determine if the customer is eligible for the upgrade, among other carrier related information. There was such an overwhelming demand that AT&T’s ‘eligibility servers’ were over-strained, so much that all operations halted for quite some time. This caused problems for everyone who tried to place a pre-order.

It took constant attempts up until about 5-6 pm to finally be able to place my pre-order; no exaggeration. Just about 20 minutes after having placed my pre-order, there was news that all of the units had sold out, and that further orders would ship until July 2nd. Those units have sold out, and the next batch are scheduled to ship until July 14th.

I personally chose to place my pre-order directly from the Apple Store Online. Pre-ordering from Apple guarantees that it will be delivered to you by launch day: next Thursday, the 24th of June. This saves one the trouble of waiting in line to pick it up in-store, etc. I also qualified for the reduced upgrade price: $199 for the 16 GB and $299 for the 32 GB.

I chose the 32 GB version of the iPhone 4, up from a 16 GB iPhone 3GS, since I am sure I will be recording a lot of 720p video. I’ve already been recording on my iPhone 3GS but since the camera isn’t all that great, it’s not all that frequent. The iPhone 4 isn’t meant to replace a dedicated camera or anything, but it definitely makes point-and-shoot situations a lot more convenient.

I am especially looking forward to the wireless n (802.11n), which will make the wifi network connection a lot faster, especially useful for streaming video such as with the awesome and beautiful Air Video app, which allows me to stream nearly any format video, even matroska (mkv) 720p with subtitles, to my iPhone with transcoding on the fly; meaning I do not have to first convert the video or do any of that. It even allows me to seek through the video and everything looks very nice and clean, not to mention fast. Wireless n in conjunction with the higher resolution, 960×640 resolution display will make things much more enjoyable to watch on the iPhone.

I also appreciate the expected: the iPhone 4 now sports the A4 processor which runs on the iPad at 1 Ghz. The clock speed has not been disclosed yet, but it is expected that it might be slightly under-clocked to preserve battery life and reduce heating issues. The iPhone 4 has also been confirmed to be sporting 512 MB in RAM; twice the amount within the iPad and iPhone 3GS. This will make the phone feel even smoother as well as better support some of the multitasking functionality due with the iOS 4 update.

I also love the new iPhone 4 form factor and design, not to mention it is reportedly the thinnest smart phone to date, which is a huge plus. I won’t know for sure until I hold it in my hands, but I always really disliked the curved, tapered, back of the previous iPhone models.

Problem: Jeff Hunt from Muni Diaries was kind enough to inform me of a pretty big bug in the WP-reCAPTCHA plugin with WordPress 2.9.2. When a user tries to enter a comment and enters the correct reCAPTCHA response, the comment is, regardless, marked as spam and added to the spam queue.

Fix: Simon Wheatley over at the WordPress Discussion Forums realized that the fault lied in the recaptchalib.php file that the plugin uses. Simon speculates that reCAPTCHA changed their implementation. He and another user were able to fix this bug by downloading the recaptcha php library directly from the reCAPTCHA libraries site. Once downloaded and extracted, replace the recaptcha.lib file from the wp-recaptcha/ plugin directory with the one downloaded from the recaptcha site.

I realize this is a pretty major bug and I am going to submit an update to the plugin shortly, but will take time to propagate throughout the WordPress servers in order to ‘update automatically’ through WordPress. This is why I included the fix above so that users can apply the (easy) fix themselves in the meantime.

Please let me know if you encounter any other issues or need any additional help.

Update: I have submitted a formal, official fix as version 2.9.7 of the plugin to WordPress. It will take some time (maybe a few hours) before it propagates throughout their servers in order for you to see the update notification in your WordPress installation so that you can update automatically. If you are in a critical environment, you can use the proven fix outline above which is similar to the one I used in the plugin update. However, when you eventually do see the update notification for the plugin, I highly recommend you update anyways to stay in sync with the rest of the population (That way your plugin will be version 2.9.7 and not the old 2.9.6).

I am sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused. Please understand that I reacted to the problem as soon as I found out about it and submitted a fix to WordPress all within the span of about 45 minutes, while also making this post for those of you who need the fix as soon as possible. I also posted a link to this on twitter in case anyone might see it there. It turns out that it was actually a very recent change in the way the reCAPTCHA servers do things (in particular, an address to the verification server) and not a fault (bug) in the plugin logic itself, thankfully, which is why it was a pretty easy fix and why it was just noticed by people today.

Thanks again to the aforementioned people for bringing this problem to my attention.

So anyways, the routine that I am following is the StrongLifts 5×5 Beginner Strength Training Program. It consists of two work outs, A and B, which are alternated.

Work out A consists of 5×5 Squat (5 sets, 5 reps, of course), 5×5 Bench Press, 3xF Inverted Rows (3 sets, rep till failure), 3xF Push-Ups, and 3×12 Reverse Crunches.

Work out B consists of 5×5 Squat, 5×5 Overhead Press, 1×5 Deadlift,  3xF Pull-ups/Chin-ups, and 3x30sec Prone Bridges (To think I used to do these for one full minute each lol).

There’s more information on that page, such as the benefit of each and how to do each of them with proper technique, it’s a great reference by the way, though the author (Mehdi) used to be a lot more active in the past years, it seems he has slowed down the activity on the site because he is writing a book of his own for now.

Today I completed the third workout (Workout A). I am doing Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (At around 6pm). For the first week (First two workouts), I only did the bar (A 7 foot, 45 lb. Olympic Bar I might add haha), cause I’m weak sauce for now. Actually I’m sure I can do some good amount of weight, but I want to do this gradually, as is my technique which I’ve learned from personal experience. I’ve just been trying to be positive that I use proper technique, referring to reference pages and videos as required.

Today I added an extra 10 lbs. It definitely felt a lot more…well, like a workout, haha. By the way, I just recently realized that pull-ups and chin-ups are distinct, pull-ups being a bit more difficult in my opinion, so I am planning on doing more pull-ups :) The next workout scheduled for Saturday.

After about 2-3 hours of work I had a working prototype which was able to download the source file from wikipedia and parse it into the most pure and basic form with each event separated into the year and the actual event description. The download happens asynchronously thanks to the open source ASIHTTPRequest project. The actual parsing is done in two parts by NSXMLParser. In the first iteration, the XML is parsed to retrieve the actual article content. In the second iteration, result of the first iteration is fed back into the parser in order to retrieve the actual events list. Once the events list is retrieved, it is then parsed one last time with regular expressions, thanks to RegexKitLite, in order to separate the data into key-value pairs of event year and event description.

The prototype’s intention was mainly a feasibility study in the realm of data retrieval and parsing. Now that I have successfully retrieved and parsed the data, I should be able to build an actual application and hopefully present the data in a nice, slick interface. This app is of course nothing revolutionary haha, but it’ll keep me busy and practicing Objective-C and the iPhone SDK, whilst hopefully being the first app I publish to the App Store.

Anyways, I’m going to go watch District 9, even though I already saw it, with Joel and my brother. By the way, I watched Avatar yesterday in 3D IMAX and it was amazingly awesome. I loved it. It was like what I imagine watching color television for the first time must have felt like.