Critical Updates

1. Standard upgrades to CMS software.

Code, Theme and Feature Updates

1. UPDATE: RSS feeds no longer hosted by FeedBurner (more information).


2. REMOVE: Linkage sidebar. Linkage now on Twitter (more information).

New and Outstanding Issues

1. There are no known issues at this time.

I have always preferred to run everything on this site locally, without relying on third-party services. On a few occasions in 2009, I lightened up on this policy and expanded a few things outside my control.

Most notably, I migrated the photograph gallery to Flickr, started using Google Reader to publish shared links of interest ("Linkage") and began providing RSS feeds through FeedBurner. Overall, I have been pleased enough with these arrangements.

Flickr
While I continue to worry about the future of Flickr under Yahoo!, my experience there has been excellent. Although my primary motive was to reduce the overhead in managing the gallery and costs of hosting, the unanticipated result has been the far-wider audience my pictures have received worldwide.

I am no fan of the JavaScript or Flash only options for displaying recent uploads. Making mass edits is still far more cumbersome now; previously I could download the database, make batch updates and upload. I was also so frustrated by Flickr's outdated built-in Creative Commons license that I now just link to the license here. But so long as the service remains essentially the same, I will continue to pay for a Pro subscription and keep my images on Flickr.

Google Reader
Since I was already using Google Reader as my RSS aggregator, using its sharing feature to publish Linkage was a logical progression. I enjoyed the fact that this content could be viewed as a list in the sidebar, on a stand-alone page with images and via RSS.

Yesterday I learned of Google's plans to "clean things up" as they said, referring to the discontinuation of sharing, following and friending inside Reader. Instead, new Google+ integration is designed to take over. By forcing this change, the usefulness of this product for me has just gone to zero.

Mozilla Thunderbird, my first choice as an alternative RSS reader, has so far proven to meet my needs. I did not find any add-ons to share feeds from Thunderbird, so I will now be posting Linkage on Twitter. This works immediately, the only issue being that my script does not yet interpret the newish Twitter shortlinks (e.g. http://t.co/AkgyGG0v). With that fixed, I think this will work out fine. UPDATE: this issue has been resolved.

FeedBurner
Finally, I have decided that the cons outweigh the pros with regard to using FeedBurner. I had originally sought the compatibility features and web front-end, but I find that my site's feeds are often delayed for no reason. RSS is ubiquitous and while Chrome still mysteriously has no internal means of displaying feeds, the other four major browsers now do.

I hate that it may be a hassle for those two or three subscribers to update their feed software, but think it is better to cut this cord before I have an even more compelling reason to do so.

Critical Updates

1. Standard upgrades to CMS software.

Code, Theme and Feature Updates

1. EDIT: Sidebar windows order changed.


2. EDIT: Minor code and formatting updates.

New and Outstanding Issues

1. There are no known issues at this time.

Critical Updates

1. Database updated and optimized.

Code, Theme and Feature Updates

1. ADD: IMG support for comments.


2. EDIT: All site RSS feeds (Main, Comments, Linkage, Flickr and Twitter) now appear as subscription options in supported browsers.


3. EDIT: Header photographs for Article Archive, Contact and Exit Piazza.


4. EDIT: Comment footer formatting.


5. EDIT: Minor code and formatting updates.


6. DELETE: Extraneous links section at end of each changelog.

New and Outstanding Issues

1. There are no known issues at this time.