Next WP Lynx Release Roadmap

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

It is time to lay out the roadmap for the next WP Lynx release or two. With WordPress 3.1 looming in the near future (month or so out), and its link/quote/etc posts (Post Formats) support for that is necessary and fits perfectly into the long term goals for WP Lynx. Support for this should exist by the end of the year.

Previously, I was going to skip the 0.3, and 0.4 releases, moving to 0.5 for the next release. Instead of doing this, I will keep with the normal development schedule, 0.3 will the be the next release and will be out before the end of November. New features and fixes planned for 0.3 include:

  • URL shortener support, allow the user to set the included URL to be a shortened URL for TinyURL or other URL shortening services. This will have several tie ins, including Link Print template tags.
  • Link Print templates, these will work similar to the anchor templates in Breadcrumb NavXT and will allow the user to automate changes to the default Link Print markup.
  • Fix various bugs related to multi site support introduced with WordPress 3.0.
  • Add support for full screen editor mode. At the moment, in full screen editor mode, the icon for adding a Link Print is missing. This requires a TinyMCE plugin for adding the button to be created.

These tasks for 0.3 have been listed in order of priority, any that do not make it to 0.3 will be rolled into 0.4. Speaking of 0.4, it is planned for late December/early January. Right now, the tasks for 0.4 are as follows:

  • Tighter integration with WordPress 3.1 Post Formats.
  • Rewrite scaping code to use the WordPress HTTP API, set as default but allow users to use old calling code if they desire to.
  • Enhance the Link Print adding interface, allow user specified image cropping.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

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WP Lynx 0.2.1

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

Available for immediate consumption, WP Lynx 0.2.1 has been released. After being notified two weeks ago of an issue with the install script, I meant to release a fix last week. Today, I realized that my initial fix did not work as expected—good thing I had not released 0.2.1 yet.

This is a very minor update, that will save new users headaches after first installing the plugin. This was verified to work as expected on WordPress 3.1-alpha. Note, there are some bugs when using WordPress in Network/Multi Site mode. I am looking into those, and will address them with another update.

-John Havlik

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Find Me at WordCamp MSP 2010

Posted by in Announcements

WordCamp MSP is in just 15 days. Today the presentation schedule was published. I will be speaking in the first group of sessions, starting at 9:30AM CST. After that, you’ll find me jumping in and out of various sessions (of various tracks). From 3:40PM CST to 5:40PM CST I will be helping out at the Tech Shop.

For those who do not know what the Tech Shop is, it is a place where you will find friendly WordPress experts that you can ask for help. The Tech Shop is being organized and run by the Minneapolis St. Paul WordPress User Group. This is a great opportunity to meet some local WordPress experts and get help resolving any of the issues you are experiencing with WordPress. These can be simple questions about using WordPress, more advanced questions about writing themes or plugins, and anything in between.

So bring your all of your Breadcrumb NavXT and WP Lynx related questions between 3:40PM CST and 5:40PM CST. I will have my laptop, access to a local testbed, and can try to reproduce any of the issues you are experiencing. If things are really “slow” I may even be writing some code (I hope this is not the case).

-John Havlik

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TCF Bank Account Phishing Redux

Posted by in Enemy of the Spammers

Last Tuesday, October 19th, another mass email went out to University of Minnesota students attempting to trick gullible students into giving up their TCF bank online login credentials. This is the second of such I have received in the past two months. This time the message was about the same, pointing to a different compromised site. As before, I am posting the message for the world to see.

Dear TCF Bank Customer,

We have noticed unusual activity in some of our customers accounts and 3rd-party access to Online Banking. Because our customers security is our main priority, we request you to verify your account and confirm you are the owner. Validating your account will require about 3 minutes of your time.

To access the activation form click on the following link:

Click here to access your account

Once you have verified and confirmed your account, you can continue using our services as usual.

Elizabeth G. Hayes,
Security Executive,
TCF Bank.

Do people actually fall for this? While it is not verbatim of the previous attempt, it is very similar (to the point anti spam filters should have blocked it). By the time I actually read the email, the compromised site was already cleaned up. There has been an improvement since the last mass phishing attempt, the “U” now provides spam assassin for the central email accounts, you just have to enable it.

And, just a side thought here, why do we still allow BCC to exist in its current form? If we automatically trashed all BCCs from an external network (or not from our address book/contacts list, or from a pre approved sender list), spam like this would have one less avenue to reach our inboxes.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Breadcrumb NavXT Hits 200K Downloads

Posted by in Announcements

Ok, so this is a bit belated, but just over a week ago Breadcrumb NavXT hit 200,000 downloads since the first beta release of 2.0.0 on WordPress.org back in late 2007. The amazing part is approximately 100K of those downloads have occurred within this year. Also, WP Lynx is approaching the 1000 total download mark, and should hit it sometime next week.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]