PHP 4 and MySQL 4 End of Life Announcement

WordPress has always been to make it run on common server configurations. WordPress has want users to have flexibility when choosing a host for their precious content. Because of this strategy, WordPress runs pretty much anywhere. Web hosting platforms, however, change over time, and occasionally are able to reevaluate some of the requirements for running WordPress. Now is one of those times. You probably guessed it from the title — we’re finally ready to announce the end of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4!

First up, the announcement that developers really care about. WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4.

For WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, we will be raising the minimum required PHP version to 5.2. Why 5.2? Because that’s what the vast majority of WordPress users are using, and it offers substantial improvements over earlier PHP 5 releases. It is also the minimum PHP version that the Drupal and Joomla projects will be supporting in their next versions, both due out this year.

The numbers are now, finally, strongly in favor of this move. Only around 11 percent of WordPress installs are running on a PHP version below 5.2. Many of them are on hosts who support PHP 5.2 — users merely need to change a setting in their hosting control panel to activate it. We believe that percentage will only go down over the rest of the year as hosting providers realize that to support the newest versions of WordPress (or Drupal, or Joomla), they’re going to have to pull the trigger.

In less exciting news, we are also going to be dropping support for MySQL 4 after WordPress 3.1. Fewer than 6 percent of WordPress users are running MySQL 4. The new required MySQL version for WordPress 3.2 will be 5.0.15.

WordPress users will not be able to upgrade to WordPress 3.2 if their hosting environment does not meet these requirements (the built-in updater will prevent it). In order to determine which versions your host provides, wordpress created the Health Check plugin. Right now, Health Check will only tell you if you’re ready for WordPress 3.2. In a future release it will provide all sorts of useful information about your server and your WordPress install, so hang on to it!

In summary: WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4 and MySQL 4. WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, will require PHP 5.2 or higher, and MySQL 5.0.15 or higher.

WordPress 3.0.1

After nearly 11 million downloads of WordPress 3.0 in just 42 days, releasing WordPress 3.0.1. The requisite haiku:

Three dot oh dot one
Bug fixes to make you smile
Update your WordPress

This maintenance release addresses about 50 minor issues. The testing many of you contributed prior to the release of 3.0 helped make it one of the best and most stable releases.

Download 3.0.1 or update automatically from the Dashboard > Updates menu in your site’s admin area.

Google ‘researches’ social networks

Google has been researching social networking patterns, in what is believed to be preparation for the launch of its new social network, ‘Google Me’, according to reports.

Last month Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, started a rumour that Google was to launch a new social network, tweeting: “Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch Facebook competitor very soon “Google Me,” very credible source” on June 28.

Ever since technology pundits have been speculating as to how a new Google social network might work.

According to technology sites,Mashable and TechCrunch the search giant has been commissioning research into social networking habits, as preparation for the new launch.

TechCrunch’s tip-off leaked that the study is to take place at Google’s Dublin office and will take 60 minutes with pollsters receiving 60 Euros per survey. The questions are believed to centre around how social networking affects people’s lives both off and online.

A Google spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Paul Adams, Google’s lead user-experience researcher, recently posted a presentation of his onto the web which seems to reflect similar patterns of interest around social networks. In one section he looked at: ‘How interactions on the web are changing’.

He said: “The next stage of the web won’t have destinations, it will be a distributed network of content and people that will get reassembled depending on context and relationships. The increase in people interactions on the web will mean that building and managing communities will be important for responding to customer suggestions, queries, and complaints. Communities will need to be embedded in consumer experiences and not built at a new destination.”

TechCrunch’s Leena Rao said: “While the survey doesn’t confirm the existence of ‘Google Me’, it certainly is another piece of evidence pointing in that direction.”

Last week both Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, and Matt Brittin, Google’s UK chief, failed to deny that the company was creating a new social network.

Epic: first web browser for India launched

Hidden Reflex, a Bangalore based software startup, has launched a browser targeted at Indian audiences: Epic.

The browser has been created by a team of Indian engineers on the open-source Mozilla platform, it said in a statement.

Any internet user can now download the browser for free by logging onto the website http://www.epicbrowser.com “Epic provides a uniquely Indian browsing experience. Epic’s India sidebar supports Indian content by providing users access to the latest national and regional news from popular publications, live television channels, videos, stock quotes, live cricket scores, top music albums, and local events”, it said.

Users can choose from 1500+ customized Indian themes and wallpapers ranging from freedom fighters to famous Bollywood and regional film stars. Writing in Indian languages is supported throughout Epic. Users can instantly write in Indian languages on any webpage or in Write, Epic’s free built-in word processor. Twelve Indian languages are currently supported, the statement said.

Free antivirus scanning and healing is built into Epic, while another security measure warns users when they’re about to visit potentially dangerous websites.

Add Rich Text Signature in Gmail

Now add images, and change the font colors to make your own custom signature

If you’ve been using Gmail exhaustively then you’d surely love to add your contact details or a custom image at the end of each email you send. Google has introduced rich text editor for Gmail’s signatures using which you can set your own custom signatures including pictures and glitterati till you’re satisfied. 

Till date, a lot of people have tried their own workarounds like Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox, browser plugins and other ways. So far, one couldn’t change the signature text color but now Google’s software engineers have made it possible. Now users get to see a custom rich text editor just like in Gmail’s compose mode. Just in case you don’t know where signatures are, hit the Settings link in Gmail and scroll down till you see Signature option.

Not only that, Gmail also brings support email specific custom signatures. If you’ve associated one or more email address to a particular Gmail account then you can assign different signatures for each email address.

We don’t know how many of us would really be happy to see glittering and flashing red text as signatures. However, we do hope to see users making the best of it. Go ahead and impress your friends and clients with some cool text and images based custom signatures.

Isro launches PSLV-C-15 with 5 satellites

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C-15 carrying remote sensing Cartosat-2B along with four satellites blasted off from the spaceport near here on Monday morning.

The four-stage 44.4 metre tall PSLV-C-15 lifted off at the end of a 51-hour countdown from the Satish Dhawan space centre at 9.22 AM.

The rocket soared into skies in clear weather leaving behind plumes of smoke.

It will place four satellites into orbit, including Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland, and a pico (very small) satellite Studsat built by seven engineering students of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The countdown started on Saturday morning for the launch of the 44-metre tall, 230-tonne PSLV.

ISRO has been carrying out multiple launches for several years. In 2008, it set a world record by launching 10 satellites at one go.

Built to last for five years, the Rs.200-crore Cartosat-2B is India’s 17th remote sensing satellite and is meant to augment ISRO’s remote sensing data services along with two other satellites, Cartosat-2 and 2A launched earlier.

The satellites imagery can be used for preparing detailed forest type maps, tree volume estimation, village/cadastral level crop inventory, town/village settlement mapping and planning for development, rural connectivity, canal alignment, coastal land form, mining monitoring and others.

“With the launch of Cartosat-2B, ISRO will have 10 remote sensing satellites in orbit – IRS 1D, Resourcesat 1, TES, Cartosat 1, 2 and 2A, IMS 1, RISAT-2, Oceansat 1 and 2,” Satish, the director for publications and public relations, said.

India is a world leader in the remote sensing data market, earning a sizeable amount.

“The other remote sensing satellites that are slated for launch are RISAT (end of 2010 or early 2011), Resourcesat and Megha-Tropiques,” Satish added.

Opera Mini 5.1 Arrives

Opera has announced the availability of an updated version of its most popular mobile web browser – the Opera Mini. Opera Mini, which happens to be the most widely used mobile browser in the world, currently has over 61 million users worldwide, and according to Opera, it is functional in over 3,000 phone models across the globe.

The latest version of the browser comes a few months after Opera Mobile 5 was released. The new version is claimed to further improve the browsing experience on phones with limited memory. The update includes a new optimized browser skin which allows more pages to be open at the same time, more rapid scrolling through pages, and an overall improved browsing performance. Opera recommends this version of the browser for Nokia S40 based feature phones with limited memory, such as the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 6300 and Nokia 2700 handsets. This version is also optimized for screens with a small screen size, such as the Sony Ericsson K550i and Sony Ericsson W810i.

This version also improves the browsing experience on phones that frequently throw “out-of-memory” messages whilst browsing. Users of high-end devices and smartphones may not update to this version. “The goal with Opera Mini is to make the Web available to anyone, anywhere, regardless of where they come from or the handset they have,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

You can download the new version from your native phone browser by heading to http://m.opera.com.Opera will automatically select the optimized version for your phone.

Only Harbhajan can match my Test record: Murali

Retiring Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan on Wednesday said among the current crop of slow bowlers, only Harbhajan Singh can match his record of scalping nearly 800 Test wickets.

Muralitharan, who will quit the longer version after the first Test against India beginning on July 18 at Galle, said the Indian off-spinner stood the best chance of emulating his feat.

“I think only Harbhajan can do this. I don’t know how old is he and how long he will continue. But he is the only one who can achieve this feat in Test Cricket,” Muralitharan told from Colombo.

With 792 Test wickets under his belt from 132 matches, Muralitharan needs eight scalps in his final Test match to reach the 800-mark.

In comparison, 30-year-old Harbhajan has 355 scalps from the 83 Test matches he has played so far.

With Twenty20 cricket taking precedence over other formats of the game, Muralitharan feared slow bowlers might struggle to survive and get where he has reached.

“In current scenario Test Cricket is dying. One day Cricket does not have bright future. Only Twenty20 is going to survive. So it will be difficult for any slow bowler to survive so long,” he said.

The wily off-spinner is just eight wickets away from the 800-mark but Muralitharan, who scalped 515 wickets from 337 ODIs, insisted he was not chasing any record.

“I don’t run after records. I have the world record in my name. Although if I could get eight more wickets, it will be a good way to end. I am sure I will be able to do that in one match. If not, no worries,” said the ace spinner.

Looking back at his illustrious career, Muralitharan identified batting greats Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara as his toughest opponents.

“If we talk about the consistency, then no other batman can match Sachin and Lara. They are the best against whom I have bowled.

“I had to do extra effort against them. I am happy that I will be able to bowl Sachin in my last Test,” he said.

Besides being the most successful bowler in the history of international cricket, Muralitharan has been part of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winning team but the off-spinner does have some regrets.

“I have achieved everything that an international cricketer can dream about. I have only one regret that I could not win (series) in India, South Africa and Australia. But one can not get everything in life,” he said.

Meanwhile, the immensely popular Sri Lankan cricketer is yet to make up his mind about the ODI World Cup to be held in subcontinent next year.

“I have not given it a thought yet. I can not say that it is off my radar but I will think about this. After that I will be able to say something about participating in the tournament,” he said.

In contrast, he remains very clear that he plans to play in the Indian Premier League, where he represents Chennai Super Kings, as long as possible.

“I want to continue playing in the IPL till franchise needs me. It is quite exciting and I wish to be a part of that excitement,” he said.

Another thing he has made up his mind about is not joining politics, like former colleagues Arjun Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya.

“Neither politics nor coaching. I am not going to do either of this. I will travel around the world and enjoy life. I have been playing since two decades and could not spend time with family. Now I will compensate that,” he said.

Even though his decision to quit came as a surprise, Muralitharan said he thought a lot before deciding to quit.

“I was thinking about it for a long period. I just thought that it is the right time to do so, nothing else,” he added.

He also took the opportunity to congratulate his Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who got married this week.

“I knew he just got engaged but didn’t know he got married as well. Anyway, I congratulate him and wish him a happy married life,” signed off the star spinner.

Seagate launches 3 Terabyte(TB) external desktop drive

Seagate has once again proved its efficiency in producing external hard drives. Seagate has launched 3 Terabyte FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive.

Seagate says that it has released this huge hard drive to enable the users meet both the home and office requirements. This vast hard drive can store upto 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, large amount of photos, videos, music etc.

The best part about this 3TB capacity hard drive is its compatibility with both Windows and Mac OS X. This comes with USB 2.0 adapter and users can buy eSATA or FireWire 800 separately. This huge device can be purchased for $249.99.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4.0 Beta

Mozilla has released the first beta of its Firefox 4.0 web browser based on the Gecko 2.0 Web platform layout engine. Obviously, all the add-ons you’ve been using with the Firefox 3.7 version won’t work on with the new Firefox 4.0 beta. This new 4.0 beta version of the web browser mainly revamps the looks and brings a sizeable number of features that include WebM video format and HTML5 support.

The first noticeable feature of this new Firefox 4.0 beta is that all tabs would be visible on the tab. However, this is visible for Windows based OS users only. We believe that the visual delight would slowly appear for the Linux and Mac OS X versions of the web browser when the final build of Firefox 4.0 releases. The new significant features included in the Firefox 4.0 beta are:

• Add-ons Manager: More space to efficiently manage your favorite add-ons, plugins and themes.
• HD Video: The future WebM format is supported and promises HD-quality hardware accelerated HTML5 video on the web.
• HTML5 Support: Better HTML parsing, support for HTML5 form controls and also runs the latest web apps based on HTML5 such as Google’s Gmail and Yahoo’s Mail interface for the mobile phones.
• Full WebGL support for in-browser 3D rendering.

Apart from these features, the new Firefox 4.0 beta also promises performance improvement and the necessary security improvements to protect browser history.

Download the Firefox 4.0 beta for Windows, Linux or Mac OS X from here.