Movable Type recently release version 4.26 of its blog publishing platform.

Version 2.46 is considered an optional performance release that incorporates a number of bug fixes as well as some improvements on its features. This new version is recommended for those who are using Movable Type Enterprise 4.x because of how it improves the search performance for those who have to manage large datasets. It also gives improvements to background publishing and its overall reliability.

We want to let you all know that Movable Type 4.26 is now available. This is an optional performance release which includes bug fixes and feature improvements. The guys at Movable Type are recommending that users only update to 4.6 if the changes documented on the release notes.
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Michael Jackson’s death last Thursday shocked the world. And despite the general consensus that Jackson is a has-been, his death proved that he has made an indelible mark on the world. In fact, the outpouring of sentiments on his death almost bogged down all of the social media sites.

Twitters from thousands of people reporting or giving their opinions on Jackson’s death slowed down the popular micro blogging service to a near crawl. It got so bad that Twitter had to temporarily disable its home page search field. Imagine seeing the number of tweets doubling per second! That could be a record of sorts.

But even non-social media sites were also affected. The web sites of Time Warner, Walt Disney, ABC, CBS and the Los Angeles Times, all experienced slowdowns.

So what is the significance of this? It puts into question how different networks — social media, blog networks, corporate sites — and its respective servers are addressing the growing number of internet users. Is there really a proper scaling strategy to account for the continued explosive growth of the internet, especially when we consider that social media sites are actually enticing more and more people to go online? Heck, even my wife’s 70 year old aunt just opened a Facebook account.

The people at Splashpress Media are undoubtedly such good guys that they’re implementing a very useful new service in one of their blogs.

The very popular Blog Herald recently got a new design revamp as preparation for the introduction of new resources, services and blog guides. And one of these services is now live.

Blog Herald will be putting up a Blog Conference Guide. To be compiled by Easton Ellsworth using Google Calendar. This handy service will give bloggers a quick and easy reference for all of the blog and blogger related events happening all over the world. This is not only a great help for bloggers but for organizers as well. The Blog Herald Team actually encourages people to contact them and contribute information.

Bloggers and site owners who have been relying on Performancing themes for their site’s graphical look will welcome the announcement that all of Performancing themes will now receive an update to make them all compatible with current Wordpress Versions.

The announcement was made by Splashpress Media after Performancing released its 19th free theme. The move to update all of the themes came as a result of observations made by the guys at Performancing that a majority of free themes, including those that were submitted at Performancing’s own Free Wordpress Themes site, do not support the theme for users post release with needed upgrades. The upgrade is a good case of foresight from the guys at Performancing because they don’t want to get into the same pitfall as the other sites that offer free themes.

As expected, the recent elections have sparked anger over the blatant disregard of personal freedom for supporters of the opposition leader Moussavi who say they have been cheated. As expected, the closed state tries to silence protests and other forms of civil disobedience by blocking or interrupting mobile phone services and of all internet-based services Twitter which has been one of the best sources of information, responsible for the organization of protests in the capital Tehran that has managed to go through the information blockade. The portability and effectivity of Twitter to bring instantaneous news out to the rest of the world has put supposedly elected President Ahmadinejad mad as hell at attempts of what he calls are Western powers who have been giving the Iranian political system a shaking it should not have been subjected to.
Twitter being one of the fastest and only available links to the outside world, along with scant video from mobiles that have managed to go through the extensive information black-out has heeded requests by protesters from the opposition party to halt scheduled maintenance to allow a continuance of use of their services that apparently was used to organize the protest movement. Techcrunch and Gawker both have features on the developing story, most of which happens outside of the field of sight of the rest of the world in what is well known to be a suppressive society.
Even the religious leaders of Iran who have always resisted influence from the outside world has been forced to reconsider demands for a re-count of the votes, many of which have been rigged according to the opposition’s supporters.
The tides may be turning in a country that has just recently enjoyed a solid stance against the rest of the world, holding on to their ways of old. Change as President Obama has says, is a question of when rather than a question of how, the use of social media being one of the holes the government may have failed to plug, getting news (real news from the streets) out of the country where none should have ever gone through. This might be one of the most significant roles, social media has played since it was launched as WEB 2.0, and as we see, it is a flood that cannot be dammed by any walls nor blockades, linking humans to others like him with the same thoughts and feelings.

Over at the Gothamist, a new directive from the New York Housing Authority has caught its attention.

The new directive now bans pit bulls from any of the buildings the Authority manages. In addition to this, a new 25-pound weight restriction has been placed on all pets. This means pets should not weigh more than 25 pounds. The previous weight restriction was pegged at 40 pounds. Of course, because of the lower weight ceiling, 24 other breeds are now also included in the ban list. This includes popular breeds like Rottweillers, Dobermans and Retrievers. Residents who currently own pets in the ban list can still keep their pets as long as they have registered them. Some people praised the move saying that animals that big shouldn’t be confined to small spaces but other pet owners are furious. One owner said that a small beagle that’s overweight can easily tip the scales at 25 pounds or more.

No rules have been given for a more immediate problem — residents who keep too many pets in their residences.

The network discusses the growing rift between Steve Jobs and his former CFO regarding and issue that surfaces regarding Jobs landing in hot water with the SEC over some stock options that were seemingly over the edge. Stock options to major companies have always been part of corporate culture and the same is with Apple, one of the biggest earners in today’s technology driven world. The scandal has some millions of dollars in question regarding the value and amounts of shares the former colleagues used to share that some accuse the former CFO of blowing the whistle out on which led to his eviction from the board of directors in 2006. After all the finger pointing and accusations, Steve lands in the sights of the SEC more and more who are interested at the matter due to taxes and other financial issues and so does the long gone Apple executive.
Apple elevates the matter by hiring a former competitor from Palm and the other party hires another top Apple executive and the battle continues between the two principal characters. The events at Apple is no nothing new and anybody in the Valley accepts the fact that this is no coincidence. Technology driven firms fighting out each other, slinging mud left and right is a battle for control or at least a part of the market shares in the ever growing smart-phone market which has boomed in the last few years with Apple at the helm of course with their show stealing iPhone.
Seems corporate life will remain as cut-throat as it always is for all over the industry the same events happen over and over with much documentation on the net with the millions of people, experts and analysts each having their own views. So what do we make of all the fuss? Cash people and lots of it, for these companies make millions if not billions and even such lowly incidents brings publicity which in turn brings in more cash as people become interested in the events and products in question. That is the norm of corporate life, where what you know or don’t know can indeed make or break the bank, figuratively of course or not.

News that all major players in the electric car race have standardized their plugs for a combined effort is welcome news indeed. but is it really a question of feasibility and inter-cooperation? Nope, it’s about dominance in a rising green car market that rivals the likes of events in the IT industry where profits is a direct result of dominance of a budding market worth billions. From Europe to the US, these auto makers have seemingly agreed to take up the cause and band together to come up with products that would work all over the globe. Electric cars in their many forms and shapes are sen to become the transport industry’s future for our most popular mode of conveyance the lowly automobile is the major source of one of the most damaging greenhouse gasses the world over. Electric cars are clean and more efficient that their oil-based counter parts yet they are indeed having to deal with such trivial issues as a standardized plug that would allow a European made car to work in the US.
Imagine a simple issue as a PLUG becoming the nagging point in the industry who claims to be aiming to provide a better world for the rest of us. The auto industry has been the major and is one of the most polluting industries in the history of this earth and it’s about time they took up the cause. Or simply put, it might be a simple way of avoiding the fate of the many other automakers who have already succumbed to the economic crisis that have come and gone, sending them into oblivion as history’s unsuccessful companies.
It’s about time these people placed profits behind the main and ultimate goal of the drive to come up with feasible electric vehicles and that is to lower their impact on the world. Imagine an issue as simple as a plu which you can in theory change with ample know how or can you? The issues plaguing the auto industry is far beyond helping the earth and is more on the profits they will be making, for they are businesses after all and the main goal of businesses is to make money!

The post is a common occurrence in today’s world and may hold the key to explaining our insatiable desire for the latest and best gadgets as they come out of the production line. People as we all know (yes, you and me) have an insatiable appetite for anything that you can pop into a bag, pocket or purse that makes life a bit easier. Give me an example of an executive with less than one mobile phone, a couple of media players and several LCD TV’s at home and that’ll be a first.
People as a whole have a desire for anything that can make life easier failing to realize that it may be ruling their world from the bottom-up, even turning it inside out from time to time. Like the ever present Twitter and the millions of twitterers out in the world and you’ll see how mobile technology and the software world mixes into a world changing experience for all who uses it. From Larry King and Ashton battling it out to get to a million “twits”, to the ranting of John regarding the invasive character of twittering anytime, anywhere media has indeed changed.
Productivity, effecivity, easy, techy and everything else in between seems to be driven by technology and the way we have molded the internet into a sort of conundrum that has dissolved the thin red line that divides public and private life. The interesting post, “Imagine the Coolest Gadget Ever“, can be seen here which is a good description of the way we live our lives today, read on and enjoy.

Years back when the industry was still in infancy and Microsoft has been ruling most of the IT industry in terms of profits or should we say overall dominance, Yahoo and Google came up with the bright idea of a system that would allow subscribers of their free web-based email service to do lots of nifty stuff with contacts and friends who also had accounts with the same email services. Microsoft has introduced the same functionality to their long standing HotMail web-based messaging service which many have been waiting decades for. Yahoo and Google have long been in the fray of web-based systems and it seems Microsoft, the former dominant software maker of days gone by is finally realizing the benefit of such additional services for their many HotMail users.
Many say it’s about time and others say they shouldn’t have bothered but anyway, it is up and it’s getting better. Hotmail has long been the free email system of choice in the UK and in the US but when Microsoft introduced the infamous Ms Messenger which like their other software products can be compared to an old clunker against Yahoo and Google’s Corvette’s. The many errors, requirements on the hardware and software side, just for you to properly access the Messenger service dissuades people from using it and add to that the ever invasive WGA that installed itself whether you like it or not many began to shun away from MS Messenger and Microsoft’s overall image in the industry.
They might be a fledgling in that arena but they will surely catch up, this may sound crazy but it adds more options for users on the already congested Yahoo and Google servers. Maybe Microsoft is getting more life out of super-computers in their data centers that used to be the best, trying to get more out of them int he face of stiff competition that has steadily nibbled at their profits. Or whatever the reason for the late introduction, we might never know (ask Gates ?!????).