WordPress 2.5.0 was released back at the end of March, but I’m just now getting around to doing my update (been busy, remember? :P). Actually, I’ve upgraded the site to WordPress 2.5.1, so I think that makes it a 3 version update (one was major).

As with any update, it’s possible that you may run into something that acts a bit odd. If you encounter anything, let me know and I’ll take a look into it. I did a quick run though the site, and I didn’t notice anything. Hopefully, everything will work flawlessly.

After a long wait, WordPress 2.5 has finally been released. The update has a lot, for me the key points are improved tag management, a built in image gallery, database optimizations, improved admin interface, and overall improved performance.

Now, I’ll just have to work on updating my theme. /sigh

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about WordPress 2.5. Mainly people feel that the features coming in 2.5 don’t make up for skipping the 2.4  release earlier in the year. Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting 2.5. Why? This sneak peek sums it all up…

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.

There isn’t much I don’t like about WordPress, however I’ve found it annoying that there isn’t a “real” gallery for it. Sure, I could use some kind of flickr tie in, but darn it, I want my pictures hosted on my own site, not somewhere else. That, and WordPress’s current tag management system leaves much to be desired. Those two things alone make me happy.

If you are interested in taking a look at WordPress 2.5, you can download RC1 here.

An urgent update for WordPress has been released. WordPress 2.3.3 addresses a flaw in the XML-RPC implementation that could enable a user to edit posts of other users. You can download the new update here.

Back when I first started my own site, it was black, crimson, and silver. Over the years my site has evolved quite a bit, and along with it the colors have changed. The most dramatic change was back when I started using e107, I found a blue/silver theme that I really liked and stuck with that for a while. It looked nice, but it just wasn’t me and I’ve been wanting to get back to black for sometime now.

While it may not be as black as previous versions of my site, I’ve come up with a new theme that I think fits me pretty good. I just finished it up this morning, so there could still be a few bugs lingering around. If you come across anything that looks odd, or is just totally fraked up, please let me know. I’ll get to the bug squashing as soon as possible.

Hope you enjoy the new layout and the new features!

Those of you waiting for the next release for WordPress, which was scheduled for later this month, will just have to wait a bit longer now. Announced earlier today, WordPress 2.4 is going to be skipped. Instead, they will be moving straight on to WordPress 2.5, which is scheduled to be released in March.

With the new year comes a new release for the e107 CMS. You may recall that e107 is the CMS that I previously used here on d3bruts1d.com. I switched to WordPress because I didn’t need most of what e107 offered,  and with each new release of e107 it failed to offer anything new.

e107 v0.7.11 is a bug fix release, and again offers no new features. The team points out that this will most likely be the last release of the 0.7 branch, and the team will be refocusing their efforts on the development of e107 v0.8. When will e107 v0.8 be released? They don’t have an answer for that, just expect it to be done, when it’s done.

Don’t get me wrong, e107 is a fabulous CMS , however after several years, it was no longer for me.

An update is available for Wordpess. This is an “urgent security release“, that addresses a flaw that could allow your draft posts to be exposed. For more information on what has changed, view the list of fixed bugs and changes. You can download the latest version here.

I was looking at my site’s stats for the past year via Google Analytics, and found some interesting stats. Well, at least they were interesting to me, you might not care one bit about them. :p According to the data reported:

•  I’ve received 2x more traffic from Neowin.net than I have from OverclockersClub.com. I’ve only been active at Neowin since about May.
• I’ve received almost as much traffic from my wife’s blog as I have from OverclockersClub.com.
• Since switching to WordPress traffic appears to have increased. - Though this is more likely due to the fact that I’m posting more.
• Yahoo brings in about 10% more search traffic than Google.
• Altavista, which brings in very little traffic, still brings in more than Live and Ask.com combined.
• The most popular search term is “viewmymessage.com”, which I was complaining about in this post.
• Aside from the index or main page, the most popular pages here are the ones talking about Trillian Astra.

I’ve made some changes to the default Wordpress theme that I’m still using. Most of the changes involve the menu section on the right side of the screen.

First off, I’ve switched to a different “tag cloud” widget. This new widget shows more tags, and gives a better idea of what exactly it is I’ve been writing about. As you can see, a majority of my post involve WoW, Opera, Google, OCC, and Firefox. There are far more tags displayed, so click away! And I’m still working on updating tags for old posts.

Because I’m displaying more tags now, I’ve moved the “topics” section out of the way. Remember, these are just a general grouping of posts, where as the tags are far more specific. The archive section now shows the total number of posts in parenthesis for the period, similar to how the topics section is set up.

July 2005 looks like it was a busy month for me. Matter of fact, most of 2005 looks like it was pretty busy.