Category Archives: Automattic

Hold your breath

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Life here in Colorado at 9,600ft is much the same as at sea level except for one major difference. The air is noticeably thinner at this altitude and takes some getting used to.

Thankfully we’re not here to train for the Olympics or do anything strenuous like that. Lying in bed is difficult enough! I tried reading last night and became breathless just because I was looking down at my book. Rolling on my side helped, but it’s scary when you can’t catch your breath. It feels like someone holding a bag over my head.

There’s an oxygen bar in a local town, and cans of oxygen can be purchased at the local store. Hopefully no more frights.

No previews of what we’re working on right now, but you’ll see the fruits of our labour soon enough!

IMG_3682

For photos see the Automattic Group on Flickr and/or my Colorado Set.

PS. Check out the WordPress MU plugin contest winners. Well done to everyone involved. :)

Gravatar enabled WordCamp Badges

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Andy has the very exciting news that Gravatar icons will be printed on attendee’s WordCamp San Francisco badges this year!

gravatar badge

On supporting websites, Gravatars have become a de-facto identity for comment threads and discussions so to carry through the identity to the conference floor is just a logical conclusion.

There is one caveat. Gravatars can now be up to 512×512 pixels. The bigger they are, the better they’ll print. If your Gravatar is a measly 32×32 pixels it’s going to look like a dirty smudge next to the shiny badges of the big boys. Andy has created a handy form for checking if your image is the right size. If not, please upload a new Gravatar before August 14th!

I won’t be at WordCamp this year but after seeing the line up of speakers I’m looking forward to seeing the blog coverage afterwards.

PS. Andy has a new post showing how to create those badges with the help of a PDF library.

WordPress Stickers and Badges

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WordPress Stickers and Badges

This was a nice surprise. While enjoying a lovely meal in the Castle Hotel in Blarney a courier rang me with a package. I wasn’t expecting anything but luckily he was close by and I met him in front of the local Garda station. Brimming with excitement I ripped open the package sending stickers and badges flying everywhere. Some landed in my burger, a few badges in my wife’s quiche and the baby grabbed a sticker or two before they fell on the ground.

No, I’m joking, but I did get a jiffy bag with a nice portrait of (most of) Automattic in Arizona and quite a few badges and stickers.

Before you ask, I’m not sending anyone any. I’ve already promised stickers to one person who’s been waiting a few months, and John probably thinks he’ll get his badges and stickers this year but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was him. Sorry!
On the other hand, if I meet you on the street, I may have a supply of badges and stickers in my camera bag so don’t be afraid to ask. I will of course have badges and stickers to give out at the Doneraile photowalk next month. If you’re around the area, feel free to join us exploring and photographing Doneraile Park!

Will Prologue bring the Twitters back?

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I bumped into Tom Raftery in Cork Airport on my way to Arizona. As luck would have it, we were both on the same flight to London, although he was going to Munich for a conference.
Unfortunately we weren’t sitting near each other on the plane but in the airport he said he spends more time in Twitter than reading blogs. That came as a surprise to me, but I’m sure it’s happening to many other busy people too.

That’s one reason I’m excited about Prologue, the new Twitter-like theme for WordPress. Automattic is already using it internally as a private discussion tool and for a group of disparate people spread all over the globe it’s a really useful tool to find out at a glance what each of us is up to.

Tom lives and breathes social media all day long. I’ll have to ping him on Twitter to read this and get some feedback from him!

I’m already thinking it might be an easy way to introduce blogging, social media and networking and Twitter to some of my non-blogging friends who slave away in offices all day long. Set up a private blog on WordPress.com, activate the Prologue Theme and invite them all on as contributors. They probably use RSS aware browsers too so keeping up to date on what’s happening should be a simple task.

Prologue is a perfect fit for WordPress MU too. You’ve already got many users who probably chat on your support forums. Let’s get our thinking caps on and create some sort of group blogs so people can converse right within the blogging environment!

Interested? Download the theme and play with it. It’s GPLed. Also, keep an eye on Joseph and Matt who will be updating the theme.

Finally, Matt describes Prologue really well:

Prologue was designed for something different—easily setting up and sharing a dialogue within a fixed group. It puts aside the standard “behind the scenes” method of blogging and makes the act of posting part of the experience. It creates a kind of archived and searchable conversation, like an IM window that’s archived, taggable, and accessible from any web browser.

I'll have a second helping, please!

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One important element of a successful tech gathering is food. If you don’t feed the troops then your army isn’t marching. We’ve been very lucky this week with breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’ve been completely spoiled by David, the cook at the Ranch (and Diane too!)

dinner

I didn’t have a second helping today, there was a gorgeous cheese cake for dessert. Too tempting!

Biosphere 2

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Can you imagine staying inside a sealed building for two years without physical contact with the outside world? That’s what happened at Biosphere 2 in 1991. It makes an interesting story and the Wikipedia page has a lot more on that mission and a second one that followed.

We visited there today, here are a few photos!

Biosphere 2
Matt wants us to go live in Biosphere 2, away from the Nintendo Wii distractions to help get WordPress 2.5 out on time.
Biosphere 2Biosphere 2Biosphere 2Biosphere 2Biosphere 2Biosphere 2
A room with a view
I asked for a room with a view and they gave me this. WiFi reception is spotty but the view is stunning!

Blogging in Arizona

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Most of the Automattic team are in the wilds of Arizona this week. Looking out the window I see an environment as alien to the green Irish landscape I’m familiar with as I’ll probably ever see. Cactus grows everywhere, dark green bushes cover the hills and the dirt on the ground is bone dry. The sun beats down out of a clear blue sky. It’s warm outside, but so cold in the shade. It’s still winter after all, even if it doesn’t feel like it to me.

Cactus

It’s WordPress this, WordPress that. Despite the broadband going down yesterday there’s plenty going on here. Stay tuned for new developments!

PS. Act Two, Automattic Fundraising. Great news for Automattic and WordPress!

Idiot spammers

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Someone in London loves my luggage

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On my way out to San Francisco my luggage was delayed in London and in similar fashion, when I got into Cork Airport it was again delayed in London. For all I knew my luggage was lost! I wouldn’t mind except:

  • Once per trip is enough, please British Airways, keep track. It’s simply not fair.
  • My flight from San Francisco arrived at 1pm, flight to Cork was scheduled for 2:15pm. It’s cutting it a bit tight but I’ve been in this situation before and my luggage came through. How close before? Let’s just say we had to sprint from one terminal to another in Heathrow to catch the next flight!
  • My flight to Cork was delayed for over an hour. First the flight captain fell ill in Cork and had to be replaced, thus bumping the boarding time to 3:15pm, then we actually started boarding at 3:25pm, before waiting on the tarmac for at least 40 minutes because repairs and tests had to be made to the plane. I finally arrived in Cork at 5:20pm.

Don’t you think British Airways could have moved my luggage from one plane to another in 2 hours? Not a chance. Thankfully it was delivered this afternoon, almost 20 hours later by Aer Lingus staff.

I guess someone in British Airways has a fetish for luggage with pink and blue ribbons. Yes, I bet it was the ribbons.