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WordPress 2.8.5 – a hardening security release

The brilliant minds behind WordPress have released version 2.8.5 last night, dealing mostly with security issues.

The main fixes of WordPress 2.8.5 are:

  • Trackback Denial-of-Service attack fix
  • Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated
  • Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins
  • Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins

It is strongly recommended to upgrade as soon as you can, either via your WP admin panel or download WordPress 2.8.5 directly from here.

Adobe releases Coldfusion 9 betas

ColdFusion 9 beta released - WhatwasithinkingA couple of weeks ago, the brilliant minds behing Adobe released beta versions of ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder to its Adobe Labs members. This latest version of ColdFusion features a greater integration with the popular Flash platform, including AIR, Flex (and Flex Builder) and Flash Media Server, making it easier for developers to create rich user interfaces for (web) applications. Not only that, ColdFusion 9 accelerates the development cycle by reducing complex code and the ability to access data from existing infrastructures based on enterprise solutions such as MS Office, Sharepoint and other standards.

Since the integration of the Flash and PDF ( since ColdFusion 8 ) platforms, more and more developers are flocking towards ColdFusion again, and it is seen as a great alternative to meet business needs quickly and effectively, and more and more businesses are hiring ColdFusion developers because of that.

Read more about ColdFusion 9’s key features and download links… Keep Reading

FireFox 3.6 Alpha – visual tab previews and faster start-up times

firefox 3.6 alpha released - whatwasithinking.co.ukMozilla Labs has just released the first alpha of Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka, built on top of Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 layout engine. With it, Mozilla promises JavaScript improvements, startup time speed-ups, visual tab previews and behavior tweaks, capability for additional CSS3 properties, among the most notable changes.

The startup time and JS speed improvements are noticeable and welcome, and the visual tab previews are finally here and worth the wait.

By default, the new visual tabs are currently hidden in the FF3.6 alpha build, you can easily access them via an about:config tweak. Read on to learn how to add these… Keep Reading

WordPress 2.8.4 – another security release

The great minds behind WordPress discovered another vulnerability yesterday: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. That would mean that the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. While this doesn’t mean the attacker could access your account it is still an annoying thing to happen.

As such, please update your WordPress installation as soon as you can and download WordPress 2.8.4 from here.

WordPress 2.8.3 – a security release

WordPress has just released an update to their popular blogging-software: WordPress 2.8.3.

This is a security update and it is therefore highly recommended to update the WordPress installation immediately (you should be seeing the “Please update now” ribbon on top of the screen when you log into your wordpress blog.

Download WordPress 2.8.3 from here.

FireFox surpasses 1 billion downloads!

The team of 1 billion downloads of firefox - whatwasithinking.co.ukMozilla Labs have done it – the download counter shows more than 1 billion downloads of Firefox! What started as a rewrite of the old Netscape browser has now become the second most used browser world-wide, with an almost 23% market share (according to stat counter’s figures).

The recent release of FireFox 3.5 boosted those numbers (with about 5 million downloads in the first week!) to over 1 billion. Why not celebrate with Mozilla Labs by reading about the history of FireFox or treating yourself to some cool extensions? 😉

The trouble with IE6 – why you still may have to support it (and debunking some myths)

the trouble with supporting IE6 - whatwasithinking.co.ukOver the last week or so, the discussion “should we continue to support IE6” has been gaining more and more momentum. Digg, Mashable, Techcrunch and other websites ran features about why IE6 should be given the boot, websites like facebook and youtube are starting to phase out the browser, hinting users to upgrade their browser.

This sparked a long and heated debate in a number of web design agencies and clients I am working with (or have worked with / for), whether it would be worth just dropping the support for Internet Explorer 6 and ask users to upgrade their browsers so that they can enjoy the website to the fullest.

Coming from a usability, accessibility, SEO and web dev background, I thought it might be a good idea writing why I would recommend supporting (or not supporting) IE6 in the industry I am working for. Keep Reading

WordPress 2.8.2 – XSS vulnerability fixed

WordPress 2.8.2 has been released, a quick update which fixes an XSS vulnerability: comment author URLs were not fully sanitized when displayed in the admin backend, which could be exploited to redirect you away from the admin dashboard to another site.

Download 2.8.2 from here.