Lately, the urge for me to write something, anything, has been virtually non-existent. There are tons of topics that I can write about, but none of them seem interesting enough for me. New gadgets? Why bother? There's Gizmodo and Engadget, to start with. Weird news? Fark and Boing Boing comes to mind. Silicon Valley news ain't so great either. And TechCrunch and GigaOm has it covered. Basically, I'm on "read-only" mode, obsessing on scans of comic books I wasn't able to read before because I can't afford to collect them, except for those that I consider most awesome. Graphic novels are mostly the extent of my comic book collection. Also, this might be caused by Heroes' third season that began recently. And I'm sure a number of blogs are covering it. The fact of the matter is, I think I'm having some sort of writer's block, if one can consider me a writer. Although I have been writing my reviews and personal opinions about WordPress 2.7-hemorrhage, I can't help but feel some sort of inadequacy. It's been a long time since I wrote something substantial but not technology-related, if there ever was a time. A spirit walk is most likely appropriate at the moment, but I'm admittedly lazy. Nothing quite piques my interest right now. Unless, maybe, if, or when, I get a new gadget, I might have the urge to write about it. Wendy, my MSI Wind U100 netbook comes to mind.

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The latest feature that is finally working in WordPress 2.7's development version is the automatic upgrade feature of the core files. Finally, I don't have to download, extract, and FTP the files to upgrade my WordPress install. Another thing I'm loving so far about this new version is the automated installation of the plugins found in the official WordPress Plugin Repository. So far, I haven't run into any issues with it in the admin UI. Uploading a plugin from the admin UI is still in the works, though. I think they'll be fashioning it after the media uploader. The only issue I have was with this one plugin that is no longer supported by its author: Download Counter. I have resolved to replacing it with another Download Manager and cleaned up my downloads, and got rid of files I no longer support, transferred to the Plugin/Theme repository, or stopped development. I haven't upgraded this blog to the latest nightly, but I'm trying to make it as compatible to 2.7 as much as possible. Automated theme installation from the repository is not yet implemented, nor have I seen any indicators about it being integrated, although if they were able to make the automated plugin installation work, it would only be a matter of time before it gets implemented. My previous post also showed a new admin UI with the menu vertically oriented on the left side. It's still on the same, but they revised it again. I'll let the screenshots speak for itself. [gallery] Did I mention that comment threading functionality will be integrated to core? If I haven't, then I just did. BUT the feature is theme-dependent. It's up to the theme author to put in the support for this new feature. One of the reasons I won't be releasing any more themes. For now. There's a write-up for theme developers on how to make their themes compatible with the new comment feature. It's quite a good read for theme developers. Beware of the amazon ad, though. It almost crashed Firefox. Make sure to read the comments as it gives insightful tips and tricks, too. Utilities are gone, together with the Inbox. I still don't know what it was for, and I'm kinda glad it's gone. It'll only add to the learning curve that is currently becoming steeper and steeper. All in all, the new UI and the new and improved features being added to WordPress 2.7 will hopefully make the blogging experience more enjoyable as it lets you focus more on the blogging part and not the theme development part. WordPress may not be considered a CMS, but it sure is one heck of a blogging platform.

Out of sheer boredom, I decided to install and try out WordPress 2.7-hemorrhage, and so far, I like the changes made to the admin UI. The animated dropdown menus are quite smooth, but it takes some getting used to, with it being on the left side and is vertically oriented. By default, the Content tree is expanded. This section is not quite new since it is just a renamed Manage page, but with more focus on content-related stuff. From here, you can manage Posts, Comments, Links, Pages, etc. The Media Library can also be found here. What I like about this section is that you don't need a plugin anymore to quickly reply to a comment. I believe Ozh's Absolute Comments plugin made it to core. This makes replying to comments A LOT easier. Also, the Quick Edit feature of the Posts page in this section lets you change the title, slug, date published, category, tags, and status without needing to edit the whole post. You can also make it a sticky post, but I believe this is dependent on the theme to be able to use this feature properly. Writing a new post has been improved, as the page is beefed up with settings that lets you display or not certain post properties. The tags and categories section is also moved to the right side of the post entry box. Finally. Of course, the Dashboard is still there. It was revamped to show a posting area where you don't have to go to the Write Post page. This makes for quick posting, hence the term "QuickPress." There's also an Inbox, which I don't have an idea what it does except show comments from some post I have no idea what about. I'm guessing this is simply a placeholder for something the developers will be rolling out as a surprise. And I don't think it has anything to do with email, but I'm suspecting it would be in line with showing comments from WordPress.com posts. It may be another use for the WordPress.com API. The Design tab is replaced by the Themes section, which allows you to do the same things as before: browse the installed themes, manage widgets, and edit template files. It basically has the same features as 2.6, with the theme preview before activating the theme. However, the developers are planning to automate the addition or installation of new themes from the Directory page of the Themes section. It's not yet implemented with the current nightly, and maybe added past 2.7, but it will surely make it there. Managing categories, tags, users and user profiles, the Import and Export feature, and link categories are now in the Utilities section, with the addition of the Inbox. With my installation of this nightly, the Inbox is still not manageable. Nothing new here except the layout. The developers simply organized what can be managed into more sensible sections - Content for content-related stuff, and Utilities for content meta(?)-related stuff. [gallery] One other thing that really caught my eye and made me want to deploy it immediately to my photoblog is the new image management features added. With the current stable version of WordPress, you can manage your thumbnail- and medium-size maximum dimensions from the Miscellaneous page of the Settings section. With the upcoming release, still in the same page, you can also control the large-size maximum dimensions and set the default posting settings for the image size, image alignment, and image link. What I'm wishing the developers add to this is the ability to resize the existing images without having to re-upload them whenever you change one of the image size settings. Although far from being a photoblogging platform, these features, together with a photoblog-focused theme, would make a great alternative to other photoblogging or photo gallery platforms. Although it's all spiffy and such, 2.7-hemorrhage still has a lot of kinks to be worked out. The automated installation of plugins for one, and the Inbox, obviously. The automated installation of plugins does not quite work for me, although I was able to upgrade my plugins with a pre-2.7 install with no issues. I wonder if this will be addressed when the stable version is released come November. So far, this is the only issue I am having with 2.7-hemorrhage. Hopefully, the latest release will have all the features listed here fully functioning. And about the Inbox, it would be really helpful if there was more information about this new feature. Another thing to look forward to is the automated upgrade of the WordPress install itself, though there are a lot of things that could go wrong here. It may be included in 2.7, but your mileage may vary. Nothing to do but to keep those fingers crossed. I finally had a small taste of 2.7, and I am wanting more. I can't wait to have this installed on my blog. When's November coming?