Why oh why do you not want me to blog?
Does it make you uncomfortable in any way?
Does it make your fur feel funny?
Do you wish to critique perhaps?
Or maybe dust off my keyboard?
I need to write and publish my ideas and thoughts to the world yet you prevent me from doing so.
Is there a reason for this?
Or are you just a fur bearing pain in the butt?
Nope…I’m just a cat. What did you expect?
I know it’s a bit late but we did our annual egg standing bit or should I say that my honey did actually since I was headed down to the VA at the time. So for those that still don’t know about this, the Vernal Equinox is the only time during the year where you can easily stand a raw egg on it’s end. If you’re really good you can stand it on it’s narrow end.
So without further ado, here’s a pic of this year’s vernal egginox.
And have a Happy Easter as well everyone.
Long has the Acid Tests been one of the signs of a properly built web browser and the venerable Acid2 test has been the one to beat for years now. The tests are certainly not the end all and be all of web standards compliance but it’s a good start. Back in December when Firefox 3 beta 2 was about to hit the streets and I was testing the nightly builds of beta 3 I ran a post containing the results of running the Acid2 test in Firefox 2, Firefox 3b3pre and IE 7.0 and comparing the 3 resulting images side by side. The results of course showed that Firefox 2 didn’t quite cut the mustard, IE 7.0 failed horribly and Firefox 3 passed with flying colors.
But what about now? What about the 3 main browser makers that are getting close to releasing their next version? We’ve got 3 different beta versions running around and playing in the streets even as I write this so how do they stack up I wonder? Especially the new kid on the block, IE 8.0. Well let’s find out shall we?
For this round I’m using Internet Explorer 8.0 beta, Opera 9.5 beta and the latest nightly build of Firefox 3b5pre. The Acid2 test results are below: (and yes, the nose turned blue when I hovered the mouse over it on the first two results).
Firefox 3b5pre
Opera 9.5 beta
IE 8.0 beta
Whoa! Now wait a minute. Wasn’t it announced on the IE Blog way back in December that IE 8.0 passed the Acid2 test? Why yes, I believe they did. So why the failed result above I wonder? Well, it could be due to the info in this comment left by Chris Phillips left at the Ajaxian. I think I remember reading about this back then.
I wonder if IE8 passed a working Acid2 test:
http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/Or the broken Acid2 test:
http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.htmlAcid2 on the webstandards site is broken because it uses an invalid embedded link that is returning 200 instead of 404.
Source: IE 8 now doesn’t trip on Acid
Yup! I remember now. At the time the IE developers ran their new baby through the test it was “broken” and for all those watching, it passed the test. If anyone is running IE 8.0 beta, give the 2 links a try and you’ll see for yourself.
Tomorrow I’ll run these beta’s through the dreaded Acid3 Test and see what kind of results I get. I can already tell it ain’t gonna be pretty.
Okay, so I’m back. Now let’s make a long, bumpy (the ride) story rather…well…as long as it needs to be.
In 1981 someone dropped their end of a piece of rather large equipment and I ended up with a somewhat broken back–meaning I could still walk…after a fashion…with a lot of gritting of teeth. But because there was a war on at the time (for the US and Soviet Navy submariners there was anyway), I was allowed, with my skipper’s permission, to not only stay in the Navy but on my boat as well.
This injury had cocked my lower spine into a shape resembling a very shallow "S". Over the years, due to that S-curve in my lower spine, my hips began to cock in compensation or more rather in sympathy since the spine and the pelvic bone have been very close neighbors now for nearly fifty years. Despite one neighbor trying to help out another the end result for me was a right leg ending up close to 1-1/2 inches shorter than the left one. That plus the fact that I had been gimping around on this asymmetrical pair of legs unknowingly for at least 20 years or more as the difference in length increased really didn’t help matters much as you might understand.
Then I had 3 hernia’s fixed in one day. Just wait, that actually has something to do with this.
Eventually my hips began to complain while we were out on our daily evening walks. Then they began to complain more, even at work. They would complain by jabbing my hip area with all sorts of things that you might find in a Voodoo ritual such as knives, swords, a various assortments of hat pins and other such pointy tipped implements of destruction. Anyone whose experienced the beginnings of arthritis in their hips knows exactly what I’m talking about.
But that was understandable. The pain was located in my hips after all.
But 4 weeks ago I ended up with a severely uncomfortable sensation in…well, let me explain it this way. If one’s appendix was actually located on the left side rather than the right and one suddenly had an attack of acute appendicitis but turned down just a bit on the pain end of things–that’s what it felt like. In other words it felt very similar to when I popped a double hernia (called a "pantaloon") on my right side just over a year ago.
It got bad. So off to the VA I went.
The good news is that it wasn’t a hernia after all although they understood why I might have felt that way. The bad news is that my left hip seems to be becoming just enough worse to begin radiating pain into my lower left abdomen hence the hernia type pain I was experiencing. So there seems to be only one course of action to pursue now considering all the above…
Lot’s of prescription narcotics.
Then I can start another blog called the "Arrmmphh Buglrmmppf!"
Now wasn’t it worth reading this?
I’m taking a rather urgent trip to the VA to find out about this, that and the other thing especially the other thing. I could be gone a couple of days and if I am, keep the faith and I’ll see you when I get back.
Well, you know what I mean.
Forgot to throw the switch on the Maintenance Mode plugin when I updated to the latest 2.5 trunk build. It also pays not to try to login before the "wp-includes" folder is uploaded. Makes for all sorts of worrisome PHP warnings. I don’t make these mistakes very often but when I do I go whole hog on it.
It’ll be relief when they finally get WordPress 2.5 ironed out sufficiently for the final release to be…uh…released. Personally I think every WordPress user should have to update at least one online blog with the trunk builds once a day at least 2 weeks prior to the release of a major milestone. By the time that 2 weeks ended everyone would finally know how easy it is to manually upgrade a WP install. They would also know all about deactivating plugins before the upgrade and what the term "Back Up" means and how easy that is.
That’s what we need here. A WordPress Boot Camp! For those who really want to know what their WordPress install is all about but were afraid to ask.
Speaking of that, I’d better do a back up. I forgot that last time. 
Today is a very important day for my dear lady. I can’t say what it is since it’s a personal matter but I’d appreciate it if anyone who stops by and reads this would send this marvelous woman all your good thoughts. I’ll take this down once her day is over.
Many thanks!
Yes, WordPress 2.5 RC1 has been released to the public and I, along with many other folks who are "Much More Qualified" than I am, have been beating the bugs out of it. I even joined the wp-testers list in hopes that I might help in this endeavor and the other "Much More Qualified" members have been regretting it ever since or at least tolerating it very well. So far I’ve managed to reply with some hard worked test results to the wrong posts, misspelled every other word greater than 2 syllables and Overlooked the Very Obvious but hey…you gotta go to the next level sometime don’t you? It’s been a long time since I troubleshot problems like this.
I’m having fun though…I think.
Of course I’m coming to realize that if I really wish to become effective at this (praise the patience of the "Much More Qualified" members of the wp-testers list) then I’m going to have to buckle down and learn a lot more about PHP, SQL databases and CSS and how it all applies to the WordPress platform. I figure if I put my mind to it I might be up to speed by the time WordPress 2.6 comes out about this time next year.
And I’m wondering why my head is spinning lately.
A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you.
Source: WordPress Developers Blog
Ironically enough it’s the WordPress "old timers" who might have the most problems with the new admin layout while it’s the new WordPress blogger that might find it much easier to learn than the previous versions were. Time will tell and all that.
If you’re of the mind to try this out on a test or minor blog (it’s still a pre-release and does have bugs you know) or are currently testing the new release candidate, check out Ryan Boren’s WP 2.5 RC1 post and get the new feedback email address. If you have comments regarding the new admin design, this is where you want to send it.
In the meantime, I need some Alka Seltzer and a good night’s sleep.
Did anybody get the image? Anybody at all? WordPress Bugs? Ah, never mind .