What the Heck WP! My Belated Complaint

I love it when companies (like WordPress) come out with a new upgrade…NOT. Upgrades are supposed to be great. They add features, fix holes, and make things more intuitive. There is a down side though: Companies want to keep things “shiny” so they change the lay-out and interface too.

With this down side in mind I ask, what good is an upgrade if i have to relearn how to use everything from the ground up? This is why WordPress and alike could learn a thing or a two from Apple.

Apple does/doesn’t do  the following when they upgrade:

1. They don’t wait forever, they do small incremental upgrades over the course of the life a their software slightly tweaking things as they head to the next major release. This creates a better learning curve for new features, and less shell-shock when the next full release comes out.

2. They pick a theme/layout and STICK WITH IT. Go back and look at Mac OS 10.1 and compare it to 10.5, its basically the same thing. The theme/layout is just window dressing anyway so just stick with what works. Refinement is fine, but not much more.

My general complaints about the new WP:

1. We are still pigeon holed into one user interface. Why is something that is so easy (choice) for self-hosters so hard for wordpress.com? I’m not asking for the world just maybe two choices or more widget control.

2. The new theme is brighter than your average bug zapper, I literally have to turn down the brightness on my monitor to work with it for more than a half hour. The darker lay-out was one of the reasons I picked wordpress in the first place, photo sensitivity sucks.

3. Everything is crammed into one screen! Tabs are great, stick with the tabs and just give me more features in them. The way it is now if anything new is added it is going to involve a whole new UI “upgrade” to accommodate it.

4. How is it that we still don’t have adsense? i mean really! This idea has been floating around forever.

What the new UI translates in my mind is to that of a little kid with peas on his plate…if you move everything around it gives the illusion that you’ve accomplished more then you really have.

next time WP give me less peas and more functionality…and don’t make me rent a Sherpa to try to find it.

Never Fear, I am still here

So I’ve been on a writing break, but I am back. Right now I’m updating the blog itself; streamlining the categories and reworking some older posts to get rid of errors and such. Stay tuned.

Comments

Every now and then i receive a comment that is totally not worth posting, but at the same time i feel the need to write a post about it. Now i receive several comments daily but because this is my blog not all of them make it up here. When deciding if a comment makes the muster i ask myself three questions:

1. Does the comment directly engage the post.

2. Is the comment something that will add to the blog or is it just a statement that can’t be engaged.

3. Is it totally out there b/s?

Now because its election season there are certain candidates i only write about when absolutely necessary because I know they have a legion of crazy people for supporters that have some pretty nutty ideas. One such person is Mike Gravel and since he is really the only one left that has supporters that leave ridiculous comments this is an open letter to them:

Dear Mike Gravel Supports,

I understand that your guy is having a rough go of it and is being excluded, I think that just bites. I also understand that he never really had a strong campaign to begin with and that most of the media including bloggers are totally ignoring him.

Here at the WingWidget I try to cover things from all angles so i feel that any candidate that is running a nation wide campaign deserves press time including Gravel. There for i say to you his supporters as long as he is on the ballot i will cover him, he may not be a huge part of the article but he will be in it. I do have a request though.

Please stop the comments about “9/11 truth” and if your going to post links please explain them and your motivations for posting them in the first place. The whole 9/11 conspiracy thing is a fringe belief that i do not subscribe to and will not support. Also if you are supporting a fringe candidate like Gravel having mindless links that most people wont click on does not help your guys chances. Instead i invite you to write comments that are empowered, on point, and really highlight WHY anyone should give Mike Gravel the time of day this late in the game.

Thank You,

Your Red Eyed Insomniac

It’s All About The News

When I think about the news it sometimes makes me ill. I personally don’t remember a time when the news was impartial and I wonder if it ever really existed. One of the news sites i frequent is Al Jazeera’s new English site. Indeed many of my entries are at least in part inspired by that source. I get a lot of flack for it too, but really I can’t see why. I find that their reporting is no more biased than any other cable outlet and that they often touch on stories that are totally missed by other outlets. For proof of that check out some of the stories I’ve posted on my other blog. Now maybe their English site is more moderate then their core audience is used to but it really is a great source for the news.

The best way for me to illustrate my view of the news is a quote from the show Boston Legal. At the end of the episode “Let the Sales Ring” Alan Shore (James Spader) makes one of his famous closing arguments on behalf of a high school student that is suing his high school and principle for putting a block on the Fox News Network and no other news source. Its a bit long but totally worth the read! P.S. Sorry about the odd spacing pasting block quotes is one of the weak spots of WordPress.

Judge Peter Harding: Mr. Shore, this is a school. Is it wise to expose students to programs which send a message you’re anti-American if you question the government?
Alan Shore: Your Honor, before we convict them as the network of Conservative values, or any
values for that matter, let’s remember these are the folks who brought you Joe Billionaire and
Who’s your Papa?
Judge Peter Harding: That’s the entertainment division, Mr Shore. I’m talking about the news.
Alan Shore: And I’m telling you it’s all the same. This isn’t about political content. This is
corporation looking to make money. They began as alternative news programming to grab a
market share. They saw ratings and profit in a Conservative demographic and they’ve been
waving the flag ever since and so what! News today, all of it, is infotainment. Last February a
deadly toxin known as Rizen was found in the mail room of the Senate majority leader. Headline
news led with Janet Jackson’s exposed breast. A month ago, while we’re in the middle of a war,
news casts all across the country led with Prince Harry’s costume at a keg party. It’s a business!
And while some news groups go with the deeper social issues like Brad and Jennifer’s breakup,
the one here chooses to run with red, white and blue. And by the way, before you vilify them, a
survey done in 2002 revealed that 70 percent of the people in this country believe it is good when
news organizations take a strong, pro-American, point of view. 70 percent!
Judge Peter Harding: Does that make it right?
Alan Shore: Of course it makes it right! Because the rule in infotainment is, give the people what
they want. This is money, Your Honor, not politics. Let me say, I am a great lover of the news.
Judge Peter Harding: I can see that.
Alan Shore: I watch it all. On days like 9/11 or for other world-changing events the news
programs are nothing short of spectacular. When Martin Luther King delivered I Have a Dream.
When President Kennedy was shot. When we walked on the moon. The Ted Offensive? Our lives
are shaped by these events, in part because of the news. But on all other days they’re
businesses, looking to compete like anybody else in a highly competitive marketplace. They sell
product. And even if you’re determined to believe that this particular network is some evil empire
looking to spread right-wing propaganda, that still doesn’t change the fact that we’re in this room
today, because a principal is shutting down the expression of ideas simply because he disagrees
with the content. If anything needs a champion today, it’s the First Amendment. In a recent poll,
half of today’s high school students thought newspapers should get government approval of
stories before publishing them. The First Amendment has become an endangered species, and
here we have a high school principal practicing censorship. My, my. We do have a problem.

We live in an age of infotainment and its up to the customer to filter out the commercials, its been the same way for decades its just more so no since there are more outlets.