Since the recent release of WordPress 2.1, I thought I would proactively check all of my WordPress plugins for compatibility.
I was pleased to find out that through using the suggested plugin development practices that all of my plugins worked without changing anything. Whilst I was checking the source code for them over, I did squish a few small bugs at the same time; so there have been very minor upgrades to all of the WordPress plugins.
Happy blogging.
Apparently there are a lot of people that don’t understand what duplicate content is when publishing content online and/or when applied to search engine optimisation. The fine folk over at the Google Webmasters Blog have clarified some points but I’ll recap if you can’t be bothered in the jump.
Google define duplicate content as blocks of text replicated across multiple pages, either within the same domain or across multiple domains. The content does not need to be a direct copy, a similar but slightly different copy would also be considered duplicate content.
Google report that most duplicate content they encounter is served unintentionally. The most common culprits for duplicate content are alternate versions of the same page such as for printing or a mobile device. The other example they cited is an online store, listing the same item more than once on distinct URLs which are actually linked.
Fortunately, Google also advised what isn’t duplicate content. If you were to translate your page using the Google Translate service, then that wouldn’t be considered duplicate content. That does beg the question though, what if I personally translate an article into German, French and Spanish but it doesn’t match what Google translate produced; would that still be considered duplicate content?
What will Google do if they find duplicate content? In the vast majority of cases their preference is towards filtering the content, however they can/do also adjust their algorithms from time to time as well. If you’ve got two copies (normal, printer) available on your site and you aren’t blocking either one; Google will decided which one they think should be listed and not include the others. This is sub-optimal because you could find that Google chooses your printer version over your normal version, eck!
The Google Webmasters have also provided some helpful hints too:
/mypage, /mypage/ and /mypage/index.html – pick one method and stick to it.I’d like to know a little more about using Google Translate and translating your content in general. I also think there has to be a nicer way to handle regional sites than simply getting the regional domain as well; for a lot of people that simply isn’t possible.
Someone in the Ruby community thought it was a good idea to write a piece of software that tested your unit tests.
Heckle runs your standard Ruby unit tests and reports as per normal. Heckle then alters a certain amount of your Ruby source code and then re-executes your unit tests, reporting on the subsequent run against the altered source code. If your unit tests don’t fail after Heckle has mutated your initial source code, then it proves that certain sections of your application either aren’t covered by tests at all or that they aren’t thorough enough.
I don’t know how many people would use a unit testing utility like Heckle, however anything that can be used to increase the robustness of your code is a good thing I think.
This evening I went through the process of upgrading WordPress to the recently released 2.1 series.
As a force of habit, I follow the guidelines for upgrading WordPress. Depending on the site of your blog, following the guidelines can be a little time consuming; things like backing up your database an other important files. Regardless of that small inconvenience, I follow it through and I’ve not had a problem during any WordPress upgrades in the past. I’m sure that the day I don’t follow it through will be the same time that I encounter my first problem, so I’ll just keep following the guidelines and live a pain free life.
Once all the formalities of taking backups and unloading plugins was handled, the actual upgrade was painless and very fast. Once the new copy of WordPress was on the server, I went through and reactivated all of my plugins and made sure they were all still working with the new WordPress 2.1 source code and to my surprise, everything was functioning as expected.
If you’re looking to start a simple web site for yourself or a small company, I’d recommend giving WordPress a look for your content management solution. It really is an elegant and extensible platform for publishing that just works.
Yesterday Allen Jasson, a 55 year old IT worker from Melbourne was denied access onto a Qantas flight destined for London because of his shirt. The mans shirt had a picture of George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America with an overlay saying something to the effect of ‘Worlds #1 Terrorist’.
Qantas have stated they refused Allen Jasson onto the flight as they considered it a security risk and that it was offensive to other passengers on the flight. How they managed to take that rather large leap into terrorist, I don’t understand. Unless you were an absolute advocate of George W. Bush, I don’t even think that it could have been considered offensive.
When will the bullshit stop.