Wordpress 2.8 Released

Wordpress 2.8 is now out, and the changes are fairly minor. There have been changes to the XML-RPC code, which could affect you or application you use to remotely post to Wordpress.
From Blog Herlad

Matt Mullenweg has announced the release of WordPress 2.8, available for download from wordpress.org as always, but also in your up to date WordPress install by automatic update. If you haven’t followed the beta talk, you’ll note that it is visually the same as the previous version, but a lot faster thanks to code improvement. It also featured a new widget interface that greatly improves the usage, as well as giving themes the same update and install treatment as plugins. Speaking of themes, if you’re one of those mad people who edit them right in the browser, you’ll like the code syntax added to these things. There is also new screen options on a per page basis, and a ton of bugs are ironed out.

Why Google Wave Is Going To Change What You Do On The Web

Google Wave, which was just in the last week introduced to the world at the Google I/o 2009 Conference, is basically a new email/IM client. So why is Google Wave going to change the way you use your computer every single day? At work, at home, on your mobile device.
Remember how GMail changed email by making the email threads look like a conversation? Well Wave, just for starters, is going to turn everything into a conversation. Want to email? Want to IM, want to share photos? You can do it, in the browser, in real time,with Google Wave. That may not sound that groundbreaking - but seriously, watch the first 10 minutes or so of this video from the Google Wave presentation at the Google I/O Convention. Google Wave was created by the brother who created Google maps, and the best part of Google Wave is the API promises to be much like the Google Maps API, which is a developer favorite due to its low learning curve and ease of use. That’s just the first set of features from Google Wave, which is in closed Beta right now. To sign up for Google Wave Beta, go to the Google Wave signup page.

My Newest Web Venture - Learn Investing For Beginners @ LateInvestor.com

I am launching a new blog on a subject that I have been dying to get into for some time. That is, investing for complete beginners. It’s a very challenging subject for me, as I am not exactly a whiz with money. Circumstances came up that made it the perfect time for me to launch LateInvestor.com, an idea I’ve had for some time. The idea is to learn about investing for beginners, but from the perspective of a total beginner, not a jaded expert. Easy enough, since I am a total beginner! But, I thought, being a total beginner gives me a somewhat unique perspective on investing, and investing strategy for beginners. If I’m going to learn something, many times it helps me a lot to explain it to someone else while I’m learning it. So if I want to learn how to invest as a beginner, then I’ve got to do the research, and then post about what I’m learning as I learn it. It also serves other purposes, such as keeping me on task with learning how to invest, making me some money for the future, keeping track of what I learn and my mistakes, and last but not least, making some money for the future and for my family’s futures while I’m at it!

So check out my new investor blog at http://lateinvestor.com!. You can follow the LateInvestor Twitter stream here. I will of course be posting her at Blerz as well. I am working on a new social application that combines Twitter with a couple other applications and other social streams, and it could be a killer!

Wolfram Alpha Is Genius

Wolfram Alpha, the new search engine/comparison engine/scientific calculator/etc etc, is pure brilliance. I am loving the
simplicty - just plug in the data, and wolfram alpha will spit out stuff you didn’t even knwo you wanted - but it turns out you did. Isn’t that one of the definitions of a killer app?
For example:
Everyone’s favorite news topic, the H1N1 Virus, or Swine Flu

However, as brilliant as it is, it is alpha, so something like this:

Drake Equation from Google: 113k results
Drake Equation from Wolfram Alpha produces no results: Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.

That’s a query I would expect wolfram alpha to beat google at in the future, but even now should have something, even though Wolfram Alpha doesn’t cover user-generated data. Still, WA is going to be huge in the computing community - the real question is, where is the API, and what kind of apps can be made with this amazing tool to benefit the rest of the web?