Try the latest Breadcrumb NavXT testing release from the Breadcrumb NavXT SVN Trunk.

WP Lynx has also hit a feature freeze for 0.5.0. Open Graph support has been added and all that is left to do is figure out the cause of a few ugly bugs that seem to only appear on my testbed. Additionally, one extra warning message needs to be added to the lynx print adding screen when thumbnails are disabled. See the WP-Lynx 0.5.0 milestone issue list.

Try the latest WP Lynx testing release from the WP Lynx SVN Trunk.

Expect the release of Breadcrumb NavXT 4.1.0 during the last week of May. As for WP Lynx 0.5.0, expect that some time in the first week of June.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Development of features will be complete by the 23rd, and the tentative release date is the 31st. Translators will get a little over a week to update their translations (currently there are about 10 translation sets that are 90% or more complete).

Check in on 4.1.0 development progress on GitHub: Breacrumb NavXT 4.1.0 Milestone Issues

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

BTW, for those of you in the Twin Cities, you can get a preview of both my presentation, and Josh Leuze‘s presentation titled “jQuery the WordPress Way”at the next MSP WordPress meeting. Free pizza and beverages are provided by the Nerdery.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Err, make that a 21.7k. Since I did not see a post about the World Wide WordPress 5k earlier this month, I had assumed it was going to be one of of those “one shot” initiatives. However, today I saw they just moved it to the end of April (to today). Due to this, the MSP WordPress user group did not get together for the WWP5k as we did last year. None-the-less I put in double digits worth of miles weekly again, so I’m going to count Saturday’s 13.4 mile run as my WWP5k run.

Saturday we had some sleet as we left for the run. Luckily, less than 5 minuets into the run we had run out of the rain/sleet and had about 11 very nice miles. During the last 2 miles the wind picked up and the sleet started again.

My goal for next year, other than not forgetting and organizing an run with the MSPWUG, is to get WP Trainer to a more usable state.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Per the roadmap, the real interesting release will be 0.5.0, which will support the relevant portions of Facebook’s Open Graph format. Look for that release in the early summer.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Slated for the 0.5.0 release is the introduction of support for the relevant portions of Facebook’s Open Graph format. Several behind the scenes changes are slated as WP Lynx will be the test platform for the development of the next version of mtekk_adminKit. Expect 0.5 to show up sometime this summer.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Users of the translations will notice that the updated Spanish, Norwegian, and Swedish translations load properly now. Additionally, Estonian and Azerbaijani translations are now available props to Martin Orn and Zaur Bayramov. Note that in this release the following translations were not included due to incompleteness:

• German
• French
• Dutch
• Russian
• Italian
• Japanese

If you are interested in picking up these translations, please contact me so I can give you access to the Breadcrumb NavXT translation project.

You can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

After some searching, I narrowed the field to two candidates, the Princeton Tec Remix and the Princeton Tec Eos. Both are LED based headlamps, the Remix has three low power “indicator” LEDs plus a 1W high power LED. The Eos has only the high power LED. While I would like to have the LED setup of the Remix, it has one fatal flaw. The Remix does not have a gasket seal, and thus it is not waterproof. As my previous two headlamps were waterproof, this single feature sold me on the Eos.

The Eos falls under the “professional” branch of Princeton Tec’s products. Members of the “professional series” are waterproof to IEC Level 2 (down to 1m). This means they all have a rubber o-ring, something none of the “the family” members such as the Remix have. Additionally, members of the “professional series” feature regulated output.

Unregulated lamps will be very bright when new batteries are installed, and they get dimmer as the batteries drain. Regulated lamps will hold a constant brightness until the energy left in the batteries can not sustain that brightness, then they dim until the circuitry cuts out. Typically, this is done using a switching regulator, and is something that my old Matrix had, and was something I wasn’t going to give up.

Speaking of battery life, I’ve ran with the Eos twice a week since the second week in November. Using the medium brightness setting, the included AAA batteries lasted through January. By lasted, I mean they powered the lamp so that the emitted light was useful on the sidewalk. The runs were anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes, with the headlamp on the entire time. This equates to about 24 hours before being too dim.

Note that I have been running on a mix of sidewalks and trails with occasional street lights and headlights from traffic. There hasn’t been much snow, and we’ve had quite a bit of ice on the asphalt sidewalks. Both of these combined require more light to safely see what is going on. Trail running, away from street lights and traffic, with some snow cover, would only require the lowest brightness mode, which according to Princeton Tec, lasts 50 hours.

As with my previous two headlamps, Princeton Tec provides as set of Energizer batteries for the headlamp. While they both used AA batteries, the Eos uses 3 AAA batteries. Other than the batteries, the package includes the headlamp body, a head strap, usage instructions/warranty information, and a Princeton Tec sticker. No felt carrying/storage bag included, unlike my previous two lamps.

While overall I love this headlamp, the one thing that does bother me is the strap. It is a simple headband, without a over the head portion (the Apex has this, as did my previous two headlamps). This is not a problem most of the time, however I think it would provide more stability for the lamp while running. Since this winter has been quite warm, I have warn this over a hat, and without a hat. The slight difference in circumference is enough to require readjusting the band. Too tight and you get a headache, too loose and the light bounces up and down with your stride. Quite annoying if you ask me. Though, this is something you will see with all headlamps with a similar headband except for those that are much lighter.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

They’re selling a Google +1 click jacker, and advertise it as such. From their FAQ:

4) Is this Click-Jacking?

It is, however it has a lot of features that helps your blog stay under the radar. If the visitors are not logged in, the button will not be shown. We have developed an algorithm that doesn’t force all your visitors to click the +1 button, thing which is not recommended. We have been using it on several traffic blogs and we didn’t have any problems/complaints.

4)[sic] Is this within Google TOS? What can happen?

Click Jacking is a black hat technique and obviously not accepted by Google. BUT this script will not get you banned, as it will make all look like you are getting natural +1s and stay under the radar.

So what does it do? It is a plugin that adds a +1 button that hovers under your mouse courser. You click, it +1′s. Awesome, right? But wait, there’s more. The guys at takabd.com are just an affiliate, buyplusoneincreaser.com is the home of the plugin. They’re using the name WPPlusOne, which collides with an existing, legitimate plugin. A little digging reveals, this plugin seems to have first appeared on Warrior Forum. Warriro Forum member Mircea made a post announcing his WPPlusOne plugin.

Unfortunately, additional digging did not result in one finding the actual files to the click jacking plugin in question. Thus, I can not speak on the quality of the code it contains (for all I know it could contain a backdoor like BlogPress SEO). The nature of the plugin should be enough to warrant the “Avoid this Plugin” stamp.

Digging through buyplusoneincreaser’s site reveals some interesting tidbits. Even though the peddlers of WPPlusOne make the claim that you will not get banned for using their script, buyplusoneincreaser’s Terms and Conditions contains this nugget:

7. Liability
BuyPlusOneIncreaser.com is not responsible for the way you use WP Plus One Increaser. We are providing it for testing purposes only!

So the plugin isn’t going to get you banned from Google, but they are not responsible for the way you use it. Oh, and you should only use it for testing. This sounds like they’re admitting that it may get you banned, which contradicts the second #4 point in their FAQ. But hey, don’t fret, they’ll refund your purchase if within 30 days you are not satisfied (e.g. your site gets dropped from Google’s search results). Somehow I don’t think that will help much when you get dropped from Google’s search results.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]