This morning, the latest version of my favorite forum software, bbPress, was released. While this is a beta and not a final release, it’s still a major event for the project: this release is in the form of a WordPress plugin, instead of a stand-alone application as it’s been in the past. In December 2009 I wrote about this decision – and at the time I was rather disappointed with the change in direction; but now my views have changed. I’m also excited to see that Matt and his company, Automattic have decided to invest the time and money needed to make this happen; there for a while it looked like bbPress really was dying.
Thanks to services like StackExchange and its numerous clones, it seems the days of standalone forums are numbered; when combined with the increasing strength of WordPress as a full-blown CMS, this move actually makes a lot of sense.
I’m excited both as a user and developer – this opens many new doors from both perspectives, and will certainly increase adoption of the software, as integration with the current version is a bit tricky.
Congratulations to the entire team on this release; it really is a major milestone for the project!
Wow! It’s been over a year since this blog o’ mine has seen any activity, though I’ve certainly not forgot about it. A lot has happened in the last year, so I’ll use this post as a bit of an update (and a warm-up for my return to blogging).
I’m not going to promise you’ll see a new post daily as was once the case, though I’ll try to ensure something new is up at least once a week.
It’s time for everyone from the industry, developers, and the government to declare war on ransomware and make it as hard as possible for them to ply their insidious trade. There have been false starts and baby steps, diligent fighters without enough resources, and vendors that have only given a nod to the issue. It’s time to use every tool reasonably available to stop this scourge.
For so many in the industry that have dedicated so much of their time and effort to this fight, this statement may seem to diminish their efforts, but that is not my intent.
Recently a programmer I know decided that it was time for a career change, leaving the IT field entirely. This gave me cause to think; what does it take to be a great developer. Many people go through school believing they have what it takes, only to receive a rude awaking once they enter the real world.
Before I go on, I think it’s important to define what I mean by developer, and the differences between a developer and a programmer.
For those outside of the IT field, developers are looked at as miracle workers – through us, business leaders think anything is possible (and they often see no reason why we can’t work our latest miracle by the next morning). In reality though, we do work miracles; we save companies vast amounts of money every year through increased worker efficiency and automation, we enable new lines of business that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, and reduce energy costs because we keep the office lights turned off.
Like many in this field, I am always looking for ways to improve my workflow, improve my productivity, achieve more. Part of this is evaluating new tools that help me get work done, tools that become critical to my process. While looking at something that could be useful, I had a startling realization — but there are a couple of things I’d like to cover first.
Supporting What You Love I always try to pay for things that make my life better and support businesses that give me real value.
