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Kilroy Says: Download WordPress 2.8 at your own risk
Written by Kilroy
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:55
1 Comment

A long time user and avid fan of WordPress (WP), I have to say I love the WordPress community. I'm talking about a bunch of folks who work hard for free to bring you great themes like the one you see on this site every flipping day. They do it for the love (and little else) and I am very appreciative. I mean where else are you going to get awesome themes and a user friendly platform like this for free? And that's one reason I have never complained about the hiccups which sometimes occur when using WP…until now.

It was announced today that WordPress reached a milestone with it's latest "upgrade." The milestone in question was that WordPress 2.8 has had over 1 million downloads. Everyone on the thread over at the WP Blog was positively giddy. I'm wondering why? Maybe it's because their sites didn't crash after upgrading to this latest version. My experience on the other hand wasn't so pleasant.

Since upgrading to WP 2.8, my backend (no pun intended) has been broken. Additionally, several experimental themes I'm working on will no longer work with my site. A little research revealed that scores of people have sites which are now busted to hell because of the latest WP upgrade. And yet, we're breaking out the champagne to celebrate 1 million downloads.

With so many people's sites wrecked due to the 2.8 upgrade, why in hell is WordPress still offering it? As soon as they were aware of this, at the very least they should've put up a warning to download at your own risk and at most, pulled 2.8 until 2.8.1 stable was released. No. Instead, we're encouraging people to download and install it.As I said in the preface to my comments, I love WP and I've seen a lot in the years I've been blogging with them, but this I don't understand.

 
KILROY SAYS… Don’t Forget Father’s Day is this Weekend!
Written by Kilroy
Wednesday, 17 June 2009 15:57
5 Comments

As a public service announcement to dads everywhere, we at MTW wanted to point out that Father's Day is this Sunday, June 21, 2009.

You might have missed this, since no one advertises anything about Father's Day. There are no flower sales, or touchy-feely commercials about calling long distance to dad. Nope, as always, dads get the shaft.

Don't get me wrong, Mom's are important. You wouldn't be here without your mom. And in the sexist, atomic family of the 1950s, Moms stayed home, wiping noses and butts, making lunches and keeping the home spotless. In our modern world, Moms have to go to work, and share the household duties with dads (hopefully- if dad isn't helping in the modern home, he's a slacker).

Every year, Mother's Day is a big deal- people are encouraged to send mom flowers, take her to dinner, buy her perfume, clothes, etc. It's the ultimate girly holiday, surpassing even Valentine's Day where gals only get gifts from their mates. On Mother's Day, a mom can wrack up just as many presents as she would get for her birthday or Christmas.

But what about dads? In an era where both parents have to work at least one job, you'd think that dad's would get an equally-extravagant holiday. I'm not asking for flowers or perfume, but how about a nice steak dinner? A new tool from Sears? I don't recall one commercial this month for Father's Day.

That really isn't fair, when you crunch the numbers.

Moms play the mommy card up until you turn 18. Then it's kind of rare that you would drive home to get a band-aid on a boo-boo. I can't see anyone jumping in their car during a storm and driving to mom's house to snuggle during a storm.

Dads, on the other hand, see their parental workload exponentially increase after the kids leave the nest. Ever hear of someone having their mom fix their car? Or come over and mow their yard? Fix their roof? Fix plumbing?

That's right, dads are the preferred handyman of choice for most folks as they grow older. Especially when dad retires and is bored out of his mind with nothing to do.

What about moms? Does babysitting grand kids count as much of a chore as putting in a toilet? Changing the oil on the family minivan? If you paid non-family members for these services, you'd end up spending FAR more on a plumber than a 'sitter. You'd spend more on a mechanic, than a 'sitter.

And what do dads get for this lifetime of manual labor? Ties. Maybe a DVD. A card that we really don't want but can't throw away for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

We don't get national advertising campaigns guilting our kids into showing us appreciation. We don't even get to sleep in- our holiday falling on a Sunday where we're still expected to get up and go to church. Nor do we get to stay up late- Monday is a workday.

Nope, Dads, as ever, are underappreciated, even on their "special" day of the year. Moms get all the glory; Dads get screwed.

This Father's Day, give your dad some frickin' appreciation for his hard work. Don't get him a craft project to do with the kids- he'll be doing those the rest of his life in the form of odd jobs at the kids' homes when they grow up. Let Dad have a frickin' day off. No work. No getting dressed up or going out somewhere he doesn't want to. Instead, make Father's Day a one-man vacation, where the kids and spouse wait on dad and don't gripe at him or ask him to take out the garbage.

Make Father's Day the day your dad wants, not a sad imitation of Mom's day.

 
KILROY SAYS: You Need to Sit Closer to the TV!
Written by Kilroy
Wednesday, 10 June 2009 08:59
No Comments

Remember when you were a kid, and your parents used to yell at you, "Don't sit too close to the TV"? Well, that was back when TVs weighed as much as a person and had curved, fish-bowl fronts and consumed enough electricity to power the Griswold family Christmas tree.

Now, we're going all digital. We've ditched picture tubes for flat screen plasmas and LCDs. OLEDs are just around the corner. And now, we find out we need to move closer to the TV.

HDTV is broadcast in one of two resolutions: 720i/p or 1080i/p. Standard TV produced a paltry 535×240 pixels on the screen at once — pixels being those little glowing specs that form the picture you see (that's 128,400 dots forming your picture). That's more than a LightBrite, but still, not that impressive. HDTV, broadcast in brilliant 1080p cranks out over 3,000,000 pixels. Yes, THREE MILLION pixels. Comparing 1080p to SD (Standard Definition) is kind of like comparing your old analog TV set to a LightBrite.

And, any good home theater fan knows that the distance you sit from your TV should be very precise. To keep the field of view just right, you have to adjust your distance based on the size of your set. Say you have a 46″ TV, then you should be sitting  5.75 to 9.5 feet away, so you have the optimal field of view (you don't want to have to turn your head back and forth to watch your movie).

But now, there's a new twist to viewing distances and resolutions: The Lechner Distance. Apparently, this guy, Bernard Lechner, figured out that when you're sitting nine feet from your TV, it's hard to make out all that wonderful 1080p detail.  Apparently, if you are watching 1080p at nine feet, you need a 69″ TV to get the full effect. If your TV is only 720p, your eye can distinguish the wonderful detail at nine feet on a 46″ screen.

Hmmm… So, seeing as how the national average for viewing distance is nine feet, do you want to buy a 1080p 69″ set, costing you over $1300 for a DLP, or a nice, crisp, clean 46″ LCD set for about $900?

Already bought your HDTV? Is it a cost-effective 37″? Well, forget what Mom said, man, you better sit closer to the set to get your money's worth.