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Matt Mullenweg posts

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

SXSWi Day Three


Oh day three, where the point values are doubled and the hangover is permanent. If you decided to skip SXSWi this year, joining the hip kids who claimed it was "too commercial" and "too over-hyped", shame on you. The only thing too commercial were the panels and, frankly, no one goes to those anyway.

So far today we've caught up with the guys from Bloxes, which although not a tech product is remarkably cool in its simplicity. They're also the same guys behind the uber-cool Songza, which embodies the exact same dead-simple "Why didn't I think of that?" logic. Interlocking cardboard forms may not be terribly sexy from a software perspective but, who can argue with the ability to build 3d forms out of recycled content. Bloxes are the things you use to build cheap structures in the ultra-hip loft office space where you create the future of the web.

During the day we also had a great interview with Mindbites, which we'll have encoded and uploaded for your vicarious viewing pleasure, soon. Christina talked with Chris Saad, the founder of Dataportability.org, who is also working on a new version of his other great idea, Particls. I caught up with Saul Colt from Freshbooks, the web app that finally brought the sexyback to invoicing all your freelance clients.

We'd also like to take a minute to address a pressing social issue, Public Relations consultants. These hardworking mavens of the tech universe are largely underpaid, over worked, and almost never get glamorous perks like party invites, expensive bottles of wine and the adoration of beautiful women. You've probably asked yourself, as you lay awake at night, unable to sleep for worry over their living conditions and the status of their multi-million dollar contracts, "What can I do to help?" Fear not, there is a solution. For only hundreds of dollars a day, you can fill the tanks of their luxury cars with precious gasoline, and make the difference between the regular coffee Seattle's Best and a latte at Starbuck's.

The numbers
:
  • Tweets about the Zuckerberg disaster: immeasurable given available tools
  • Sandwiches consumed in Bloghaus: 134
  • Times the guy in the press room breaks your concentration to ask, "Can I get you anything?": 17
  • Shirts we've acquired to give to our readers: 2
  • Approximate number of man-minutes Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Lacy wasted with a useless interview: 112,500
  • Newly coined words overheard : 1 ("Radool", Gary Vaynerchuk)
  • Parties we skipped to bring you this content: 3 (well, 2.. we couldn't resist making an appearance at Gawker)
  • Times we've left messages for Mullenweg about an interview: 3
  • Times Mullenweg has left return messages with no schedule detail: 1

(Matt, we love you and we're only concerned that you're ok. Please, we're worried sick. We've called all the hospitals, homeless shelters and even the morgue. Where are you?)

Filed under: Features, Open Source, DLS Interviews

Interview: BarCamp Portland organizer Dawn Foster

BarCamp PortlandLast month in Portland, Oregon, approximately 250 people convened on Cubespace, a co-working space, for BarCamp Portland 1. BarCamp, if you aren't familiar, is an unconference - an Open and free event whose content and direction is decided by its participants. It's a great way for people to come together in the spirit of community to share knowledge, talk about technology (generally related to Web apps and Open Source), and generally geek out. Started two years ago in Palo Alto by Andy Smith, Chris Messina, Eris Stassi, Matt Mullenweg, Ryan King and Tantek Çelik (among others), it has grown quickly to an international scale. To date there have been BarCamps in Amsterdam, Austin, Shanghai, Milwaukee, Paris, San Francisco, Chennai, London, and many, many more places.

Dawn FosterOne of BarCamp Portland's organizers, and artisan of all things community, Dawn Foster, took a moment to answer some questions relating to BarCamp Portland and the BarCamp phenom in general. Read on!

DLS: What inspired you to take up organizing BarCamp Portland?

Dawn Foster: Last year, I was lucky enough to be invited to FooCamp, which is a yearly invite-only O'Reilly event that was the model for BarCamp. Spending the weekend having discussions with some very smart people from across the technology industry was an amazing experience, and I wanted to replicate that experience here in Portland. We have a great tech scene in Portland with so many users group meetings, but very little cross pollination between groups. I wanted to create a monthly meeting that brought a diverse group of techies together for networking and discussions about a variety of technologies. As I was talking to people about this idea, I learned that Raven Zachary was starting to plan BarCamp Portland. The two ideas were so similar that Raven and I decided to merge them into a monthly BarCamp Meetup that we would use to plan the BarCamp Portland event.

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Filed under: Blogging, Web services, Commercial

WordPress.com announces VIP Hosting

WordPress.com VIP HostingWordPress.com, the free blog hosting service from the creators of open source blogging software WordPress, has announced a new hosting package for high-profile, high-traffic bloggers. WordPress.com VIP Hosting "allows these folks to piggyback on our WordPress.com infrastructure, getting the benefits of what we've built without the limitations of a free WordPress.com account around theme editing and javascript." It provides load-balancing across WordPress.com's many servers, SSL administration, Subversion access for template editing, the ability to use WordPress plugins that don't require database table modifications, and no limitations on JavaScript or advertising. The service allows users to have their own domain names (rather than example.wordpress.com), but requires a "Powered by WordPress.com" logo. Currently WordPress.com is only courting "existing high-profile publishers or startups" that it has "a good deal of confidence in," and the price reflects that: $250 per month with a one-time $500 setup fee.

[Via Matt Mullenweg]

Filed under: Blogging, Open Source

WordCamp: A conference for WordPressers

WordCampMatt Mullenweg, founding developer of open source blogging platform WordPress, has announced WordCamp, a one-day conference for WordPress users and developers. It's being held for the first time on August 5 in San Fancisco and is following the example of BarCamp, including "free BBQ for lunch, WordPress t-shirts, and a full day of both user and developer discussion." According to Mullenweg, fellow Wordpress developers Donncha and Podz will be on hand from Ireland and England, respectively. Having recently installed the latest version of WordPress on my personal blog and being impressed all over again, I'd love to go to WordCamp, but it probably isn't in the cards.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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