Some time ago, I stopped following the ins and outs of Windows development. I keep wondering if I will ever return, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I still see echos of the work the DirectShow team did in the 1990’s (I’m aware they were building on the work of others), and today I stumbled on this update from Geraint Davies, one of the original architects.
It was nice to learn what happened next – thanks Geraint!
I finally got caught up with wiring in several recent additions to our main TV. I needed to replace a 5 way ethernet switch with an 8 way, in order to keep them connected. At some point in the last few years, everything entertainment has grown an ethernet socket. Buying the 5 way felt outrageously advanced, only a few years ago!
The technical among you may have noticed I use the ‘WordPress‘ package to host this blog. As I noted a long time ago, this was largely because the folk behind it seemed to be respectful of the fact that URLs are part of the human interface to the web.
I’ve been a happy user of WordPress for a few years now, and I enjoy the new features they’ve added in that time.
However their basic position is that the only way to get security patches is to stay on their latest release. This is problematic. I’ve invested considerable effort in integrating this blog into the rest of mcaleely.com, by creating a custom theme. Sadly, the WordPress team don’t appear to claim to maintain the APIs that themes talk to in a stable fashion. Every time I upgrade, I’m expected to review (At least – at worst, I must re-do) the technical work of creating a theme. This is non trivial effort, but apparently this time of mine is not important enough to the WordPress team. If it were, I think they’d nominate stable API releases, and provide security patches for them. Otherwise I find the claim that I can upgrade with a ‘known amount of work‘ niave and mildly insulting.
I’m finding the fact that I’m required to do this work for a time critical security patch on a Sunday evening just plain annoying.
Unless this attitude changes, I’ll have to shop for a new blog provider. Any suggestions?