Alright bloggers, web surfers and simple web enthusiasts, we’ve got some fascinating news for you all. Yes, Internet community can’t stop buzzing about the forthcoming release of the new version of #1 blogging software – WordPress 3.0.

• MU or Multi-User option now will be available to all WordPress 3.0 users. In case you still have no idea what it’s all about we can tell that this is one of the best features that will allow you to manage multiple blogs with different permissions – from a single admin panel. Alright, admit it – we all have at least a couple of blogs to work with, right? So MU is a very good – and anticipated – feature.
• Another great innovation is the improvement of support for custom post types. These are great news for bloggers because it simplifies their work in creating and managing content, but it doesn’t mean that categories will disappear.
• Menu management is one of the best improvements in 3.0 release because of the Custom Navigation menu system that will be included into the core – with drag and drop and other usability features brought to various types of menus. This menu enlightens widget management, submenus system and much more.
• WordPress 3.0 will have a new default design theme that will be called 2010 – you can see the live demo of this design on official WordPress website. As you understand according to the new name of default theme every year WordPress will hopefully get a new default theme.

• Custom Background and Image support system will help you create new theme for your blog in a matter of minutes.
• WordPress 3.0 makes it possible to use the specific author templates. So, you can easily mark your own post or entry with your signature.
• Canonical Plugins will be available in WordPress 3.0. This means that from the moment it is launched you will be able to easily use your favorite plugins without being afraid that new release of WordPress will kill them.

Alright, these were the good news and now it is time to point out some disadvantages that WordPress still can’t get rid of (and most likely will not even in WordPress 3.0). It is not a secret that WordPress does have some peculiarities that are not quite comfortable for the users. So, here are some issues that were really irritating in older versions and that we wouldn’t want to see in further WordPress versions.

Security is one of the most important features for any platform and old WordPress versions’ minimal requirements of PHP4 and MySQL4 are quite insecure. But we know that now you can easily migrate to PHP5 though this fact only solves the problem partially.

• Chmod 777 command security risks that were one of the favorite topics to discuss for the at least several years now. Anyways according to the NerdGrind -
  

  This would make your WordPress installation vulnerable to a security attack. Some plugins might ask you to do this temporarily, and then ask you to change the permissions back to 755 after the plugin finishes its setup. This won’t fix your problem without adding more problems. The might allow the plugin upgrade to work, but it won’t fix the WordPress upgrade issue unless you chmod 777 the entire WordPress installation directory, which is a huge security risk, and should never be done.

• Autosave and revisions issues that sometimes expand your database 20 times from what it was just ten minutes ago. There are some plugins for this problem but we hope this feature can be fixed on a higher level.
• Re-installing WordPress database can cause WP database class bug. This may cause troubles for users especially considering Multi-User merging process. Hakre on WordPress states that this bug will remain in 3.0 version too.
  

  When a replacement class is in use, the original WPDB one will get re-created under certain circumstances instead of the replacement one. That breaks the modular DB replacement concept once introduced.

With all that being said, even though WordPress 3.0 may have some bugs (and we’re not saying it will, let’s just hope for the best) the new release is really an amazing event and we can’t wait until it is launched. There is no doubt that the new WordPress 3.0 will change web into a better place, at least a little bit better and safer.

What’s the best thing about it is that most of the Internet users will be a part of these changes. Let us know in the comments what you think the new WordPress 3.0 version will bring into your personal online experience, we’d love to discuss it all while waiting for the big launch!

Beer Geek, Mike Wirth, made this beautiful and informative map of the best breweries in the United States based off of medals awarded at The Great American Beer Festival over the past 23 years. No real surprises for me. But it is beautiful none the less. What about this map sticks out to you?

(Click to Enlarge)

A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday Feb. 27, 2010, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean – roughly a quarter of the globe. The quake hit 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of the capital and the epicenter was just 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city.

(AP Photo/David Lillo)

To kick off the bipartisan health reform meeting, President Obama lays out the plan for the day and his hopes for what can be accomplished. He talks about where we’re at now and why this meeting is so necessary: President Obama explains, “Politics, I think, ended up trumping practical common sense. I said at the State of the Union, and I’ll repeat — I didn’t take this on because I thought it was good politics. This is such a complicated issue that it’s inevitably going to be contentious. But what I’m hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree.”

These days, the internet has grown into a veritable wealth of information for college seekers. Everything from applying for financial aid to taking a course can be accomplished online. Now, a student can even obtain online degrees from one of many schools offering online education as a viable alternative to a traditional classroom education. How different are these two methods of teaching, and do either prove better for the student? There’s an abundance of information regarding online education, and distance education is becoming increasingly popular for students everywhere.

First and foremost, there are some obvious benefits in obtaining instant degrees. For example, juggling a job, school and a home can be very difficult as far as commuting to the classroom every day. With online education, you eliminate the need to attend classes, and instead access your coursework from an internet website. This presents an obvious benefit to the overworked college student because his commute is basically slashed in half. What’s more, many distance education programs allow students to complete the coursework any time during the day, while still adhering to overall deadlines. This allows for flexibility that a traditional classroom setting can ordinarily not provide.

However, is an online education truly comparable to the type of education a student would receive in an actual classroom? Many professionals in the field say yes, and certainly students seeking online degrees can confirm this response. Not only does online learning provide a stimulating environment for students, but it promotes even interaction among every student because everyone has a say in classroom discussions. What’s more, online education programs allow each student to learn with the methods that work best for them. Plus, many employers respect online degrees as much as a traditional college degree, so there’s really no difference in the amount of education or respect a student will receive when attending an online college.

While traditional colleges will never be eliminated, there’s definitely been an increase in the amount of students attending online colleges in recent years. Many people choose to follow the online education route for the diversity of material they can find, or because the teachers are more approachable via the internet than they would be in a classroom setting. Students definitely need discipline and self-motivation to succeed in obtaining online degrees, but there’s still the same level of help and support from teachers and students online that there would be in a classroom. What’s more, internet college students are learning skills that will be beneficial to them in the workforce and beyond because of the way technology is evolving today.

Life experience online degrees are becoming an increasingly popular way to obtain a college education and many students are turning to online education because of the quality of material, convenience and the level of flexibility inherent in distance education programs. Because there’s no distinct differences between an online education and a traditional education, students are assured they are receiving the same kind of education that they would in a brick and mortar setting. There are definite benefits to online degree programs, and students with discipline and motivation can and will succeed greatly in online education programs.

A look at the costs, benefits and disadvantages of an online college education, versus conventional practices (source : http://www.realonlinedegrees.com)

twitter bird

I have been out searching for more Twitter resources and found the following that may be useful to readers:

(1) Searching twitter:
twitter search box
advanced twitter search
How to Search Twitter – the Advanced Guide

Twittergrader – Twitter Grader measures the power of a profile

(2) Twitter feed:
Here’s how to get your blog (or any other RSS or Atom feed) twittering

(3) Twitter by iphone
Twitter for iphone
On iPhone Please Visit

(4) Twitter articles
10 Traits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
When Tweeting Less Can Help You be a More Effective Twitter User
TwellowHood – Find Local Twitter Users
Building an Effective Business Profile on Twitter

(5) twitter marketing ebook  – PDF download

Health Care

It’s hard to imagine how anything very positive will come out of the President’s health care summit in Washington tomorrow.  An article in Politico describes the atmospherics and the haggles involved in detailed negotiations.

A gaggle of congressional Democrats and Republicans will meet with the President at Blair House for about six hours, apparently all of it televised.  The White House has attempted to portray this as an example of long-promised bipartisanship and transparency.  It’s a mystery how they could think that after a year of partisan conflict in Congress, health care reform can be resolved in six hours, particularly in the presence of TV cameras.  But maybe they don’t think that at all — maybe this is just a cynical scheme to portray the opposition as a hopeless obstacle to justify forcing health care reform through Congress in the most partisan way possible.

The President and the congressional Democratic leadership are not going to suddenly see the value of satisfying Republican concerns about specific issues like tort reform and the possibility of tax dollars paying for abortion and medical care for illegal immigrants.  They also aren’t going to accept the Republican argument that their plan is far too expensive and should be scrapped in order to address more specific measures in a less costly way.  In fact, the Democrats can’t even agree among themselves on many health care issues.

Republicans aren’t going to walk into Blair House, take their seats at the table, slap themselves on their foreheads and say, “You know, those Democrats have actually got a great plan.  Let’s all hold hands and be friends.”  If they’re smart, the Republicans will present at least the outlines of an alternative plan that they can support, in full view of the cameras.  That would defuse some of the charges of obstructionism.  If they’re stupid, they’ll do some pontificating and mainly sit with their arms folded and a petulant pout on their faces.

It’s pretty obvious what the objectives of the two sides really are.  As the Politico article noted,

The Democrats’ unstated goal, of course, is to make congressional Republicans look like a bunch of whiny, cynical, ideologically bankrupt crybabies who don’t have a plan of their own.

For their part, the Republicans are determined not to be lectured to by the President, as evidenced by their insistence on a round (or square) table where everyone sits at the same height, with no raised lectern.  They’re not going to sign on to the Democratic plans (now in three versions), but they want to avoid the charge of being totally negative.  We’ll see how that works out.

The real story coming out of the health care summit may be the confusion and disarray among Democrats.  The Senate has their health care bill, the House has theirs, and neither of the two chambers can muster enough votes to accept the other chamber’s version.  But wait — now the President has published his plan, which is more like the Senate bill but includes things the House wants.  And the kicker is, the President’s plan hasn’t been accepted by either the House or the Senate.

And now they’re all going to gather at Blair House, probably to accomplish little more than making themselves look foolish and ineffectual.  One thing is sure — we won’t hear a bipartisan choir singing “Kumbaya” at Blair House.

Related News:

• Sen Snowe Rejects White House Healthcare Summit Invite
• House passes a piece of health care
• Obama: Health care plan good for businesses
• Will Health Care Summit Jump-start Reform?
• Does My Insurance Leave Me Naked

The International Space Station is one of the most ambitious space projects that man has done, its construction began in 1998 and has an estimated cost of the ESA of 100 billion euros over the 30 years which is probably in operation. Some consider it the most expensive object ever built.

But it was until less than a month since the International Space Station had internet access. Why? if we forget the costs, is technically difficult to achieve decent connections to an object that is 460 miles high and moving at about 27,700 mph. There is also the safety factor: not in the interests of NASA or U.S. government somehow being intercepted communications from the astronauts in space or implanting computer viruses that are at the station.

So how did it? the solution is rather curious. First the security issue: the connection to the sites is not direct, is through a remote session to control the desktop of a computer that is on Earth, using VNC type software. Thus any attack, virus, spyware or malware affects the team on the ground and not notebooks in the international space station.

To achieve a stable data connection using Ku-band satellites under (Kurz-unten band) which are responsible for relaying information from the space station to the base of operations on Earth. In fact it’s the same technology used by providers of satellite internet access. Inside the station there is Wi-Fi routers (Netgear brand, for the curious) that were installed in 2008 and is already used for internal email and videoconferencing between Earth and space.

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