Linked List: April 7, 2008

Monday, 7 April 2008

Technorati to Stop Indexing Vulnerable WordPress Weblogs ★

Versions of WordPress older than version 2.3.3 are vulnerable to exploits that spammers have used to insert hidden ads.

How to Disable Firefox 3’s ‘Single-Click Selects All’ Location Field Behavior ★

Joachim Bengtsson has the scoop on the hidden “about:config” preference that turns this feature off. This is one of the UI niggles I complained about in my Firefox/Safari comparison.

The HIG Is Still Good ★

Duncan Wilcox:

The HIG is still good. In fact the first fifth of it is pure gold, still 100% current and relevant.

Where by Cutting, They Mean ‘Increasing’ ★

From an entry titled “Apple Cuts Expected Flash Memory Spending by $200M”, CNet’s Tom Krazit reports:

In February, iSuppli reported that Apple was slashing its orders of flash memory amid a weakening economy, but iSuppli wasn’t sure exactly how far the cuts would go. After crunching the numbers, iSuppli now expects Apple to spend $1.4 billion on flash this year for iPods and iPhones, up 12 percent from $1.2 billion last year. But the analyst firm, and the flash memory industry, had been expecting much more purchasing out of Apple, at least $1.6 billion.

And:

Plunging flash memory prices are expected to dent Intel’s first quarter, among other companies likely to be affected.

So, component prices for flash memory are “plunging” and Apple is still spending 12 percent more on flash memory than last year, and yet this somehow constitutes a “cut” because the increase is less than the number iSuppli — whose track record regarding Apple component analysis wavers between “wrong” and “really wrong” — simply made up out of thin air a few weeks ago. iSuppli’s original report in February claimed Apple was outright cutting flash memory orders — not just spending — year over year.

Krazit and CNet should know better than this. When has iSuppli ever reported something interesting about Apple that turned out to be true?

Apple Says Web Designers Can Post ‘Any Font’ for Use With Safari ★

Typophile thread regarding Apple’s claim on the Safari web page that, with WebKit’s new support for embedded fonts, “designers can go beyond web-safe fonts and use any font they want to create stunning new websites”. The problem with this language is that while technically it’s possible, legally designers are only permitted to embed fonts which allow such use — and most commercial fonts are not licensed for such use.

TidBITS: Apple Does Not Support Time Machine via AirPort Extreme Drives ★

Glenn Fleishman:

Apple confirmed for me last week that a feature for using hard drives attached via USB to an AirPort Extreme Base Station is an unsupported feature. The company declined to provide further information.

You Look Nice Today: A Journal of Emotional Hygiene ★

Funny new podcast by Adam Lisagor, “Merlin” Mann, and Scott Simpson. Reminds me of “Three’s Company”, but without any chicks or the nosy landlord.