hello! yoshi

Ok, so thanks to Colin, I was able to get a preview of Wordpress 2.5 (username:admin password:demo).

First impressions: Looks cool, I can see how they made the menu a bit easier, and make more sense. You now have “Write - Manage - Design - Comments”. Off to the right, you have “Settings - Plugins - Users”. So already, the important stuff is glaring out at you on the left side, and the semi-important things are in smaller text to the right.

Not much has changed functional wise that I can tell, and I’m pretty sure that’s been stressed before, except for the looks in the dashboard. I certainly hope the plugin developers get a preview version of 2.5 so they can plan accordingly. Although I believe wordpress has it covered in the Migrating Plugins and Themes page. It’s really different!

On the write page, I’m not particularly keen on having the categories go underneath the entry. I do like how they have made it easier to tell the status and time of the post, however, I liked the categories just where they were. I’m also betting because it’s still Alpha that the “sections” will still be movable just like it is now. i.e. you can click and drag the order of the boxes on the right. I really like that option. Then I can move what’s important to me where I want it.

I do, however love the layout for the new widgets. And they do compensate for multiple sidebars very well. I’m using 4 sidebars on this site, so it gets kinda wacky because of the page position and such. Sometimes I have to drag things to one bar to get to another. The new system is much better. I like that.

All in all, I’m highly anticipating it. I just hope the plugin developers will be able to keep up. I’ve got enough plugins to where I won’t be able to upgrade very easily.

With the elevation of iTunes as the #2 music retailer of the United States, how long will it be before music CD’s fall under the status “classic” and joins the shelves of vintage vinyl? Many of us might remember going to Sam Goodys, Musicland, or Tower Records and looking for CD’s and tapes. Some of us might even remember being able to go to the store and find nothing but vinyl records and tapes. Those were the days. We would hit the malls and look for music all the time.

Nowadays, kids don’t have to go anywhere to buy music. They just jump onto iTunes and download music via their iTunes gift card. And they have the option to only download songs they want to. No need to download the entire album, just get the songs you want.

It seems wrong for someone like me who had to buy the entire tape, album or CD, and had to live with the bad songs, and end up making a mix tape with all the songs I like. I guess the kids nowadays are spoiled in that regard. They don’t have to make a mix tape anymore. They just download all the songs they like to their mp3 player.

So how long until the music CD format dies out? Next year? Five years? What do you think?