Nerd Life

b2evolution 3.2 will be shipping with an enhanced twitter plugin based on Lee Turner's twitterlution.

The twitter plugin for b2evolution allows to ping twitter in addition to other ping services. It will tweet the title of the new post and it's permalink url. The exact format of the tweets is configurable. By default it also includes a #b2p hash tag which will make it possible to follow all b2evolution bloggers who want to participate.

The plugin can use a different twitter account for each blog. It can also use a different twitter account for each user. (If both are available, then the blog account will be used).

So... if all goes well now... this post should automatically be tweeted to @francoisplanque ... ;)

Lately I have been re-testing most of b2evolution's hosting partners... As the number of hosting test sites grows though, it takes days just to update the testing software on all of them. I guess I'll have the automate that ;)

But that's nothing compared to writing and updating the webhost reviews: I can hardly handle more than one a week and still do it seriously. And that I don't think i'll ever be able to automate :(

Finally it dawned on me that an increasing number of potential users don't even have a clue about web hosting, what it is or exactly why they need it. I started by writing a short intro to web hosting, but I don't think that's enough, especially for people who "just want a blog". Educating them about webhosting is a long an windy road... and I'm wondering if it wouldn't be easier to just host the blog for them... :roll:

b2evolution is available as a Gentoo Linux package.

There's always a nice feeling to stumbling upon a post about switching from WordPress to b2evolution... ;)

Andreas says:

Finally, today I dumped my WordPress installation and switched to b2evolution. Playing around with b2evolution for the last few days, I am surprised how such a nice blog software could exist without me noticing it earlier.

Unlike WordPress, b2evolution has cleanly written structured code and lots of more features (and you don't get new security issues every week or so). Sure, there aren't as many plugins and themes available yet, but skins and plugins are well structured and easy to learn, so it was no problem at all to get all the features.

Migration was pretty easy...

full post here

"Apple's design is supposed to be the ultimate perfection in 21st century computing. We should all learn from them."

I get that a lot when discussing b2evolution's user interface (which, btw, I like to think has improved significantly in version 2.0...)

While I do like what Apple does; while I do think Jonathan Ive is one of the greatest designers of our time; I still need to rant a little before I dive into the present day :>

So here's the top 5 user interaction design "mistakes" I would never have made if I has the final word at Apple's:

1. A mouse where you never really know when you're going to left or right click, unless you really pay attention;
2. An iPod that requires up to ten keypresses to exit shuffle mode while listening to a playlist;
3. A mouse that gives Windows switchers a hard time with no control over acceleration, not even in the most obscure hidden place of the control panel. (Not even from the command line actually);
4. A wireless keyboard with no numpad (not even an option);
5. A battery you cannot replace, not even by turning one single screw. (How comes they got that right on the iMacs?)

And I won't even start with the marketing decisions (leaving a lot of features out of the iPod touch, etc.)

Of course, I'd make a lot more other mistakes, but still... Besides what's the use of a personal blog if not for pointless rants... :P