Is there food?

Yes, it’s that time again. Apple have lifted their skirt, shown off their latest wares, and the whole world goes bonkers for a bit. Everyone blogs about whether they like the new stuff or not, and eventually everybody gets over it an moves on.

I didn’t monitor the various live and meta blogging that went on last night, but I did check up on the results when I got home. Ashleigh wasn’t impressed, but here’s my take:

iPod Touch - too expensive, but looks very nice. I quite like the idea of an iPod that I can surf the web on, but being limited to wireless hotspots and my home doesn’t really appeal. I also don’t think 16gb is anywhere near enough for “hardcore” iPod users. That said, if the price dropped, I’d probably get one instead of a Nano. Which brings me to…

Fatboy Nano - There’s something strangely ugly and yet appealing about the new Nanos. I’m totally uninterested, but I suspect they’ll do as well as they ever have and sell by the bucket load.

iPod Classic - I need a 160gb Classic in my life. I’m flat out sold on this one, no convincing needs to be done. Regardless, Apple went an sweetened the deal by throwing in an all metal case and a new interface. Not to mention a forty hour battery life. Niiiice.

I’m currently sporting the original iPod with Video - 60gb - and that’s not really enough. My collection is now around 90gb, and I’m at the point where I can’t carry everything with me. Which I don’t like. I thought about getting the 80gb version when that launched, but it would’ve be full as soon as it arrived. 160gb should last me…well…years.

So, now I need to raise £200 to get myself 160 gigabytes of steel encased mp3 goodness. Ebay beckons…

Wordpress version 2.3 is due any time now, and I’ll be upgrading this and all the other blogs I host to the lastest version.

Things have changed quite a bit with this release, so it’s entirely possible that themes and plugins might break. So, if you visit Is There Food at some point over the next couple of days and things are a little odd, chances are I’m playing with the 2.3.

Once I’ve got 2.3 installed, and I’ve updated my theme and plugins to support it, I’m determined to ramp up my blogging. I’ve got to post my thoughts on Mr Brooks, Zombie Diaries, Wrong Turn 2, Evil Aliens, and more.

See you on the other side.

Prepare for much potential strangeness, because I’m going to turn off all my plugins - like a good little boy - and then do the upgrade. So this place might look a little unusual for a while.

Is There Food is now running on the latest and greatest version of Wordpress: 2.3 aka Dexter (officially named after Gordon, but I prefer to think of it as Morgan).

Everything’s gone quite well, and I’m pleased to see that my existing theme is still working. K2’s latest release is calling to me, particularly as it now supports 3 columns in a slightly more elegant manner than the version you see here. However, it’s got lots of javascript and additional trimmings that the minimalist in me doesn’t really care for. I might do some tweaking soon though.

Tag migration went very well - I went from the Simple Tagging plugin to Wordpress’s shiny new built in tags with no pain at all. And Christine has kindly provided new tools for Dexter’s tagability.

Things appear to be slightly quicker, the built in plugin update notification is a really nice touch, and overall I’m impressed. Given that I feared for the future of Wordpress when they announced their tag intention (way to alienate all your existing users) the way the migration tools for the major tagging plugins have been included, and the way they seem to work pretty damn well, has left me with warm and cuddly feelings.

Great job Team Wordpress.

I upgraded all the sites I host too. So Nicola, Ian, Dad, Andy, and Gary - you’re all running the shiny new Dexter flavoured version of Wordpress. Let me know if you get any problems. They all look fine, with the notable exception of Gary’s - Menori is a little poorly at the moment, but I’m working on it. Drop me an email if you read this :)

Edit: Menori is happier now. If you don’t disable the UTW plugin before upgrading, things go a bit pear shaped. Gary: Everything appears to be fine, but UTW is turned off. You’ll need to migrate your tags across and [edit your theme](http://richgilchrest.com/how-to-add-wordpress-23-tags-to-your-current- theme/) before they’ll show up.

In an attempt to do more blogging - and I may have said this before - I’ve installed Live Writer. The new Live Installer that comes with Beta 3 - and tries to install every Live product under the sun -  is a massive pain in the arse, thanks to the fact that unless you’ve got a clean view of the Internet (ie no “nasty” firewalls blocking ports) it seems to refuse to install.

Luckily, after much fruitless messing about with proxy settings, and ISA Server, I discovered that some kind soul has uploaded the individual files (Writer, Messenger, Mail, Toolbar, Photo Gallery) to their [Sky Drive](http ://cid-9e63a4688135fd45.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/LiveSuiteEN). You might need [this](http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/09/06/64-bit- systems-and-the-new-live-installer-a-solution.aspx) to work out which is which.

Download and enjoy.

It seemed like such a great idea; IBM - a name that’s surely familiar to everyone - releasing their own tweaked version of Open Office. With a name like that behind it there’s more chance of it being taken seriously (not that I personally have anything against Open Office, quite the contrary).

But they seem to have broken it. The first xls I threw at Symphony refused to print; it crashed the application every time I tried. I downloaded the latest release of Open Office (something I’ve been meaning to do for a while) and the same spreadsheet printed with no problems.

I’m all for IBM releasing something like this, but if it’s not ready they’re only going to do themselves more harm than good. I realise it’s still a beta, but in its present form I can’t trust it, and will continue to recommend Open Office to anyone who’s looking for a free, desktop office suite.