Techno-sailing through WordPress FAQs

Aaron Brazell is in the middle of a GREAT series on how to enhance WordPress.  He’s been going through several of the questions that have been presented to b5media‘s support forum.  I’ve found his solution for Category Based Themes very interesting because I expect the Google Summer of Code 2007 WordPress Project I am mentoring may build upon this and similar solutions.

 Here’s his guide to this series as it exists today:

Series Guide

  1. WordPress FAQ: How Do I combine Blogs?
  2. WordPress FAQ: What’s up with the Amazon Plugin with WP 2.1.x?
  3. WordPress FAQ: How Do I Use Category Themes?
  4. WordPress FAQ: Where did my Preview Link Go?
  5. WordPress FAQ: How Do I Use Child Pages More Effectively?
  6. WordPress FAQ: How Do I Fix the Blogroll Category Issue in WordPress 2.1

I’m looking forward to seeing what else Aaron presents to us!

A non-CodeGear patent application on “compiling” Object Pascal code?

I read in the Newsgroups today that there is a new patent that’s been filed that affects what Borland can do with Object Pascal.  According to this patent application, Mirkazemi; Aram; (Lindisfame, AU) ; Besharati; Shahram; (Kingston Beach, AU) would have a US patent upon producing JavaScript code from Delphi’s Object Pascal and several other languages

Who knows if this will fly, but the idea of restricting what a company can do with the product they’ve made is just….  irratating!

A key quote from the patent application:

9. A method for producing a web application that runs natively in a browser, comprising: writing in a high-level language to develop a source file; parsing the source file to produce a semantic map; and processing the semantic map by emitting browser-side JavaScript comprising at least one dispatcher having a set of parameters to invoke a code segment utilizing the same set of parameters.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the high-level language comprises a high-level language from among the programming languages consisting of Ada, C, C++, C#, COBOL, ColdFusion, Common Lisp, Delphi, Fortran, Java, Object Pascal, SmallTalk, Visual Basic, and Visual Basic.NET.  

So, this program will take all Delphi source code and forms and convert them to a web app in javascript.

 First, I think it is hilarious to hear javascript described as a low level language, but that’s beside the point.

If Borland wanted to provide javascript as a target, as they do .NET and W32, they SHOULD be allowed to.  It is THEIR product.  They of course would have to do the work themselves, but it is a programming language they’ve made.  Why should they be restricted?  Especially when they’ve been nice folks and allowed programs like Free Pascal the benifit of the Delphi’s innovation.

 BAH!  It’ll probably pass with a rubber stamp of approval.

17060.07% of all web users visit The Code Cave!

Just ask Alexa! 

It’s just too bad that I still have a traffic rank of 481938344,4911027 though…

 Reach for Thecodecave.com: What's This?

Percent of global Internet users who visit this site

Yesterday 1 wk. Avg. 3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change
N/A* 17060.06877570095021% 610.41000385% up 25372036%

Traffic Rank for Thecodecave.com: What's This?

Alexa traffic rank based on a combined measure of page views and users (reach)

Yesterday 1 wk. Avg. 3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change
N/A* 481938344,4911027 404536456,8665655 up 5905,46753

Page Views per user for Thecodecave.com:

The number of unique pages viewed per user per day for this site

Yesterday

 1 wk. Avg. 3 mos. Avg. 3 mos. Change

N/A*

1.2

841.6

down 155346%

 Not that Alexa really matters.  It’s really funny.  I’ve got a high point about three months ago from some post or another.  However, my unique visitor average for the last week is double if not triple what that single day showed.  I’ve decided that Alexa is an “Ignorant Masses” scale.  It measure the folks who were silly enough to skip over the EULA for the Alexa tool bar.  ANYONE who actually has read that thing would NEVER install the it.  Why in the world would I want Alexa to keep a record of EVERY purchase I make on the web, something they are quite clear that they process and keep.  I suspect the majority of the people visiting my site now are those who would look at that EULA and simply shudder or laugh their heads off.  That’s why half of them don’t even show up on Alexa’s radar, IMHO.

CodeGear Names New CEO

Marco caught an interesting story in InfoWorld, today.

As EWeek says:

Borland Software’s CodeGear development tools unit has changed leadership, naming Jim Douglas, a veteran of the high-tech industry, to the position of chief executive officer.

Jim Douglas will be replacing former CEO Ben Smith who guided CodeGear into existence.  EWeek continues:

Smith, who was brought on for his ability to foster startups through their initial phases and broker deals, has decided to step aside to return to the private equity, acquisition and venture arena, CodeGear officials said. Smith had been onboard with the CodeGear team, then known as “DevCo” internally, in a consulting capacity since February 2006.

About Douglas they say: 

Douglas most recently was president and CEO of ReShape, an electronic design automation startup backed by the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Douglas led the company’s transition from an engineering-services firm to a software-business model. These efforts resulted in the sale of the company to Magma Design Automation.  

So, Smith was there to start CodeGear up, and Douglas is now there to guide CodeGear into the future.  I wonder what other changes are in the wind.  Obviously, with this new quarter, there’s going to be a new set of challenges that Douglas is believed to be the right man to face.  Obviously this sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight.  So, my question is what’s the next thing we will see as CodeGear marches forward?

Sorry for the down time off and of over the last 12h

It looks like my host changed their default PHP extension last night around 8pm.  Whatever they did, and I’m very curious, took out WP-Cache 2.  I just got a blank site any time the plugin was enabled.  It didn’t matter if I cleared the cache or even recreated its directories.  I’ll diagnose it later, but for now I’ve moved myself over to a different install of PHP. 

 Let me know if you see any issues.