Eideard

Microsoft said today that it is scrapping its aging Windows Live Spaces blogging technology and will instead make WordPress the default blogging option for Windows Live. It’s the latest move by Microsoft to use Windows Live to connect to other leading Web services, rather than rely on its own, less popular options.

For example, Microsoft has shuttered its not-so-widely-used Soapbox video-sharing site and now gives users of Windows Live Movie Maker the option of posting to Facebook or YouTube. Within Windows Live Photo Gallery, people can post to Windows Live, but can also share photos directly to Facebook and Flickr.

“There are 30 million people who are actively using Windows Live Spaces and have been eagerly awaiting the next set of new blogging features,” Microsoft’s Dharmesh Mehta said in a blog post. “For these customers, Windows Live and WordPress.com have worked together to build a simple way to move your blog posts, comments, and integrated photos right over to WordPress.com and start taking advantage of all their new features…”

Microsoft said that users can start migrating their Windows Live Spaces blog to WordPress today and that WordPress will be the default option when its updated Windows Live Writer blogging tool comes out later this fall. Windows Live users will also be able to send an update to their friends when they have a new blog post, Microsoft said.

I continue to be astounded at Microsoft business incompetence. This begs the question of what is it they actually do with all their employees. I realize their pay sucks compared to many other high tech firms; but, still – they continue to flounder with semi-established packages – then, relent and let them die.

Though I am pleased to see their clients arrive as an addition to the WordPress community.

WordPress blogs, one of the most prevalent among custom install blogs (and used by organisations including Downing Street and the Daily Telegraph) are vulnerable – and being hit – by a worm that affects any old (ie before 2.8.4) version.

As Matt Mullenweg, who has played a key part in the development and commercialisation of WordPress, points out, it’s not much fun if you get hit:

“Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts…”

And, as a widely used open source application relying on PHP, it is vulnerable to attack. The latest one uses SQL injection via the “registered user” element, and so on.

Its vulnerabilities have been noted: it’s got them.

The attacks are getting more frequent (as are the updates to close holes). At least upgrading is easier using the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin – it’s a lifesaver which backs up and updates your WordPress blog in place.

Once the updates have been made and blogs secured or cleaned up (which may be harder in some cases than others) then the questions will begin.

The questions generally asked – including those in this article from the Guardian – scare the hell out of beginners and the ignorant. But, whatever software you use for whatever purpose – you do your updates, automatically or otherwise. Especially those dealing with security.

I’m OK with that.

A Turkish court has banned internet users from viewing the official Richard Dawkins website after a Muslim creationist claimed its contents were defamatory and blasphemous.

Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen name of Harun Yahya, complained that Dawkins, a fierce critic of creationism and intelligent design, had insulted him in comments made on forums and blogs.

In 2006 his publishers sent out 10,000 copies of the Atlas of Creation, a lavish 800-page rejection of evolution. Dawkins, one of the recipients, described the book as “preposterous”. On his website the British biologist and popular science writer said he was at “a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the ‘breathtaking inanity’ of the content.”

In August 2007 Oktar persuaded a court to block access to WordPress.com. His lawyers argued that blogs on WordPress.com contained libelous material that the company was unwilling to remove.

Last April, he made a libel complaint about Google Groups, which was subsequently blocked.

Ain’t theocracies wonderful?

Of course, Turkey is supposed to be a secular state and a democracy. Has anyone notified their courts?