Year: 2014

Why is software engineering exciting?

Quora runs the question.  There are some really inspiring and insightful replies.  Have a look.  Here are some bits to get you started.  Robert Love said:

Software is the most malleable of media. With just bits—which are nothing, really—a software engineer can build castles out of thin air. Entire businesses, industries even, are created with nothing physical at all. Software’s substrate is the stuff of pure thought.

Other engineering disciplines are constrained by the surly bonds of the physical world. To design a new plane, the aerospace engineer may spend years designing a model. A model! A software engineer can go from idea to reality in a day. As an intellectual pursuit, software is enormously rewarding.

Martin Sarsale:

It’s like playing with Lego but the blocks are product of your mind.

Noam Lerner:

Creation. It’s my way to express my creativity. Some people create music, movies, paintings or pottery. I create software.

Briggitte Jellinek:

It’s exaclty like magic:   with my spells (that are completely incomprehensible to muggles) I can make stuff happen!

And there’s more, of course.

WordPress plugin : Google XML Sitemaps 4.0 significant changes

One of the most popular WordPress plugins – Google XML Sitemap – has recently been upgrade to version 4.0, with some significant changes.  Here is the quote from the changelog:

New in Version 4.0 (2014-03-30):

  • No static files anymore, sitemap is created on the fly!
  • Sitemap is split-up into sub-sitemaps by month, allowing up to 50.000 posts per month!
  • Support for custom post types and custom taxonomis!
  • 100% Multisite compatible, including by-blog and network activation.
  • Reduced server resource usage due to less content per request.
  • New API allows other plugins to add their own, separate sitemaps.
  • Note: PHP 5.1 and WordPress 3.3 is required! The plugin will not work with lower versions!
  • Note: This version will try to rename your old sitemap files to *-old.xml. If that doesn’t work, please delete them manually since no static files are needed anymore!