WordPress Virus requires all blogs to upgrade for security

If you haven’t heard already, the WordPress community is abuzz about a new “clever” worm that is making the rounds and wreaking havoc on many WordPress installations. The nasty bug may automatically attack any WP-powered blog version prior to 2.8.3 — and I know many, many people are running 2.7 or lower. WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg, posted on WordPress.org the importance of keeping your WP installation secure.

Startup Review: TheRentables.com

I recently had the opportunity to interact on Twitter with Andrew MacDonald, one of the founders of The Rentables, after he participated in my Su.pr Beta blog experiment. Andrew let me know about this innovative startup and the possibility of reviewing the website and its many features. Here’s the review!

Exclusive Beta: SU.PR – Stumble Upon’s Traffic Booster

There’s a lot of hype surrounding Stumble Upon’s new URL shortening service, aptly named SU.PR (pronounced SUPER), and this is one new powerhouse service that I think will measure up. Follow the directions at the end of this post and I will pass on a few Beta invites, so you can be one of the lucky few who don’t have to wait a few weeks for the full launch.

Inspirational Book: Where the Hell is Matt?

There are a few videos on YouTube that almost every Internet citizen has viewed, at least a few times, and a handful of those are from Matt Harding — aka the Bad Dancer — who travels the world and “does his little dance.” After picking up sponsorship from Stride Gum, Matt has been able to go on more trips around the world and film his dance with his online fans. And then release a book about everything behind the scenes.

Here’s the latest video of Matt in HD, featuring his bad dancing, along with the semi-bad dancing of many fans, in many inspirational locations throughout the globe. Over 20 million views can’t be wrong.

Back in 2003, when I built my first self-hosted blog at bubbo.com, I included a unique travel (or, Where the Hell is Mike?) section that could dynamically track my current position around the globe. You can still see it at http://michael.bubbo.com/upcoming but here’s a quick screenshot:

I’m thinking about adding a plugin to MichaelBubbo.com to achieve the same idea, due in part of the creativity and pure genius of Matt’s inspirational goal. I won’t be doing any bad dancing, but I would like to keep a visual journal of where I’ve been and where I am going. It would be neat to connect it with the built-in iPhone GPS feature, as soon as I jump onto the iPhone bandwagon.

I recommend you order a copy of Matt’s book, Where the Hell is Matt?: Dancing Badly Around the World, as you can still get the Hardcover Edition here for about $10 — well worth it for a reminder of true inspiration and passion for something that looks meaningless at inception, but turns into a world-wide phenom.

You can keep up with Matt’s travels at his website: wherethehellismatt.com

You can also download the great music from the video: for $1 from amazon.com

Best Wordpress Permalink Structure

If you are looking for the best WP permalink structure, I have an option for you, or at least some good info to get you on the right path.

After doing some searching on Google for the best SEO practices and SERP related issues for Wordpress permalinks, I found there are literally hundreds of solutions or suggestions. Here’s how I found the best solution for your custom permalink structure.