Remember Jane? No? Okay, check out her lil’ blog hosted at WordPress.com. You’ll notice something very familiar about her blog: it uses the old Cutline theme– the granddaddy, if you will– seen in some of Javamancy’s first few iterations. Great minds, etc. etc… or at least, silly minds, blah blah blah. You can even read her short WordPress 2.6/2.7 personal usage blurb.

Anyway, while you’re visiting her blog, drop her a quick line. She’s looking for tips on restaurants in Kansas for some reason… Just don’t tell her that I sent you. We wouldn’t want the public to know that I’m the ghost in the machine.

Well, sort of…

Ryan remarks on his blog that, while WordPress 2.7 has actually been somewhat operating at WordPress.com already, the admin console will not be available until tomorrow (which is what Jane had said yesterday). Even worse, Ryan says that the FCS release for everybody won’t be available until “sometime next week”:

The final release of 2.7 won’t be here until next week. There is still a lot of coordination and management type stuff to do before we’re ready to release.

So the waiting goes on…

As promised, here is the advance notice that WordPress 2.7 is coming to WordPress.com, and will go live on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 8pm Eastern Time. That’s 5pm Thursday in California, 1am Friday in London (UTC), 8am Friday in Jakarta, noon on Friday in Sydney…find your time here. Some people like to learn how to use new things by jumping right in and exploring, while others like to read the manual first to get the lay of the land. This post is a written version of the 2.7 interface tour/feature review I have been doing at WordCamps, and will tell you what’s new in the administration interface of WordPress 2.7. There are a lot of new features, so fair warning: this post is pretty long. If you’re more of the jump-in-and-play kind of person, you can skip this post for now, but you might want to remember it’s here just in case you get confused when 2.7 arrives at WordPress.com in two days.

The rest of Jane’s post focuses on describing the changes in the admin console. If you downloaded and tested WordPress 2.7 RC1, then you’re familiar with what she’s written about. If not, I think her post is a nice synopsis of things to look at/for.

Finalizing the Release Date

This is good news, given that we’ve been tracking the rise and fall patterning of the release information about WordPress 2.7 for some time now. Presumably, dropping the 2.7 FCS code onto WordPress.com also means that the regular version of the software will be released to developers and the public at approximately the same moment.

Like you, we’re certainly waiting for the FCS release. To be more precise, the CM automata are just chomping at the bit here, ready and eager to start grinding and chewing up the software once it arrives.

N.B.

On a separate but related note: have you noticed the Akismet plugin upgraded to 2.2.3?

Hmm…

If you’ve been keeping up with the funny online short sitcom series known as The Guild, you’re probably in with the rest of the crowd clamoring for more. At this point, a couple of episodes for the new second season have shown up on The Guild site.

Felicia Day and producer Kim showed up at PAX this year to promote their product, as well as do some Q&A. But there wasn’t much info on the upcoming stuff. Until now.

Xbox LIVE gamers are notorious for staying sharply focused on their consoles (and games, ‘natch). But sometimes it’s hard to stay caught up on the other en vogue things floating around. But Microsoft [MSFT], in its push to make the Xbox 360 the new household media center (hey, remember Windows Media Center?), continues to attract and/or adapt video content for the Xbox LIVE service. That now includes episodes of The Guild.

You can fetch HD and SD versions of various The Guild episodes straight to your Xbox 360 and watch the shorts to your heart’s content.

Enjoy!

Management Perspective

Oh yeah, did I mention that the content for The Guild episodes, at least this second season, is being managed and hosted by MSN servers? Even The Guild site links into their streams. This points to the simple convergence pattern that Microsoft has deployed for the short media, which is a good win for Microsoft.

Remember, directors and managers: for there to be improved success in your projects and initiatives, you have to enforce as many converging points as you can in order to maximize the impact of each activity. And encouraging reuse of the same content significantly improves your cost of production, which in turn addresses your bottom line (if you are responsible for GL or budget segments).

But WordPress 2.7 RC1 may now be downloaded, for intrepid WordPressers to try… to help test it before its official release as a finalized product.

This is encouraging news, especially given the recent coverage (like here and here) about its tardiness.

The first item on the block is Halo 3’s Legendary Map Pack. Now, given the popularity of Halo 3, a lot of people who would be interested in it have already purchased it. But for more casual gamers who have Halo 3 but have hesitated on buying any of the game add-ons, or just are waiting until the add-ons are given away for free, this may be a good way to pick up things much earlier. 

This program is intended to run until the end of December, so stay tuned!

Looking Back

Remember when I said that October was a tumultuous month?

Well, that was certainly true.

But, O what a span of a single month can do to the world! November was definitely much more exciting and troublesome, at the same time, than October.

The US and global economies fell even further, staggering on the precipice of complete and utter collapse.

The US presidential election finally came– and went. And along with it were the hopes and expectations and promises made to the American people. Now, reality is setting in, and people have begun to ask the real questions about the new President-Elect. How well he comports himself and gets himself out of all of the entanglements that he’s currently in will definitely test his mettle and his deal-making skills. And where’s all of the “change” that we all can believe in? What happened to getting started with all of the wonderful improvements to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness immediately after Election Day? Hmm…

And speaking of change: Back here at Javamancy, we’ve had more than our fair share of “change”. For starters, a bunch of significant third party software upgrades, including some scary security bugs that were fortunately identified and addressed. And the UI changed (hopefully much more to your taste)! Lots of fun with new graphics and styles; but not to be outdone, our posts have kept on comin’ in. After all, there’s plenty of news that’s been comin’ down the road to Javamancy…

… Now about that ‘road: A couple more bumps in the road for mobile phone competitors, and RIM [RIMM] is finally getting back at Apple [AAPL] and Google [GOOG] for beating it at its own game… with yet another BlackBerry. But is it any good? We reviewed the current state of affairs, with a brief nod to the last sanity check we had a few months prior.

Last, but definitely not least, the New Xbox Experience tops the list of the large-scale network rollouts this month, and while the results have not rocked the worlds of every Xbox gamer, it definitely kept the Xbox 360 console and the LIVE service in the minds of gamers, young and old, wicked and noob alike.

Looking Forward

So, there was plenty of excitement in November.

But what about this month?

There are a lot of things we are, or should be, looking forward to– in December.

The long-awaited (and announced) release of WordPress 2.7 didn’t happen in mid-November. It didn’t happen at the end of the month, either. While there has been progress made in the pre-release versions of the software, it seems that it has gotten delayed. We’re all waiting for this to arrive, and the current expectations are now before the end of the year. That means that, once WP 2.7 is released, we’re gonna be very busy working on the enterprise upgrade.

I wonder if they need the services of someone such as myself to monitor and manage their release and change management cycles? Or just configuration management, hmm? If they asked nicely, I’d certainly give it plenty of serious consideration.

There are still plenty of new improvements and modifications on tap for Javamancy. More on these as they pop up (or even a bit more they’re released into the wild).

Even scarier is the notion that more than just Javamancy will be getting further renovations here. Say, a new commerce deal blog/site? Or a dev tech info site?

You’ll just have to wait and see.

Yesterday, I was minding my own business, wrapping up work with the last few patients of the day, when a few hunger pangs struck. I didn’t think too much about it, but eventually once I left the office, I drove back toward home. About halfway on the trip, hunger set it again, so I stopped by a McDonald’s on the route.

I’m a big fan of the Dollar Menu, since it is economical, contains easy-to-understand products, and can be quickly produced from the line to the counter compared to a lot of other McDonald’s offerings. 

When I walked to the counter and placed my order, I asked for two Double Cheeseburgers, a small drink, and a small side salad. Easy enough order, right?

What Kind of Burger is It?

Now, keep in mind that I actually have two of the Double Cheeseburgers, and they actually both look alike. So, I’m unwrapping one of them (see above)…

At this point, I already notice something peculiar about it… notice the sesame seeds on the top bun.

Okay, there’s definitely something odd about this Double Cheeseburger! The top bun doesn’t seem to belong to a Double Cheeseburger! In fact, it closely resembles the top bun of a Big Mac.

But I didn’t order a Big Mac… Hmm, the whole burger is definitely sloppily assembled, as if somebody wasn’t paying attention, but literally going through the motions of assembly as if nothing really matters.

You can see how the cheese looks like it is eccentrically positioned. From this angle, it gives the perception that perhaps the cheese slices are too large. But no, if you look at the previous photo, you’ll see that all of the ingredients are not stacked properly.

From the bottom view of the burger, you can clearly see the size discrepancy between the top and bottom buns. Also, what you cannot tell from the photo is that, despite the stray sesame seeds on that bottom bun, it appears to be the same consistency that you would expect to find on a McDonald’s hamburger, cheeseburger, or Double Cheeseburger.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What happened to the top bun?

At first, I thought it was a singular fluke, until I inspected the other one: I had not one, but two, ersatz Double Cheeseburgers!

Management Perspective

Clearly, there is something wrong with the Double Cheeseburger assembly procedure. Whether it is an issue of missing supplies, or improper training, or (in the worst case) poor employee discipline, this is something that must be addressed.

This is highly relevant for most directors and managers of service organizations: quality assurance (QA) testing at various stages during service rendering is highly critical. Customer satisfaction is directly tied to your bottom line. If your customers are dissatisfied, they are less likely to return to your establishment or company for subsequent business dealings, which in turn adversely affects your revenue stream. Even worse for service industries is the simple fact that negative news concerning quality will ripple through to even your better customers who find out about the poor or inconsistent service. The key to success is to maintain a consistent quality to the services rendered.

This is also highly relevant for most directors and managers of production organizations: quality assurance (QA) testing at various stages during daily or routine production runs is extremely important. Inconsistent or low quality products issued to the consumer base leads to a high rate of returns, which penalizes you in terms of shipping costs and replacement duties. It is much easier and more cost efficient to ensure that the products are generated correctly the first time, rather than constantly going back and do it again and again and again. If the inefficiencies continue to pile up, the production waste may become so noticeable that watchdog groups and the government may make decisions for you… and that is not a good thing.

Not-So-Good News

So, I brought the snafus to the attention of the manager, who shrugged and said that it was not a big deal, and that I was getting a bargain due to the mistakes, so I should be happy with the results.

I simply stated to him that while I most likely would not perish from eating the two fake Double Cheeseburgers, that assumption does not hide the fact that the burgers were not assembled to specification. The manager had a different opinion, unfortunately: he felt that as long as it “kind of” looks like a Double Cheeseburger, what does it matter if the buns are wrong? So I asked him if he would still think the same way if a customer complained about getting old hamburger buns (non-sesame) on his Big Mac, or if the Big Mac lacked the middle bun layer or one of the beef patties. He shrugged once again and said that he doesn’t dwell on those things.

I was a bit tired at this point, so I left the argument at that. I left the McDonald’s, got home, and filed a comment to the McDonald’s site– after all, it’s still a management issue, and who better to handle it than management?

And, as for me, I won’t be returning to that McDonald’s store anytime soon… or ever. Lesson learned.

I’d missed the initial report from Larry about the sale, but I noticed it when logged into Xbox LIVE earlier today.

On the whole, not a lot to excite and entice…

However, there were a couple of games that I eventually tried and am impressed with. You may recognize these, since their concepts are deeply rooted in traditional and older computer games:

• Arkadian Warriors
• Catan

If you’re wandering around Xbox LIVE yourself, and you see my GamerTag whiz by, drop a note, or a line, and we can scramble on either of these two games (or any other ones, for that matter).

Javamancy has completed the upgrade to WordPress 2.6.5.

Thanks for being patient with us. A lot of you fellow bloggers have been upgrading your WordPress blogs as well, so hopefully it’s been relatively uneventful for you. There was a lot of cruft excised as well (hopefully you won’t see any of it!), so it certainly is remarkable how many changes have occurred since Javamancy’s launch. This was an appropriate time, considering the proximity, time-wise, of the previous system upgrade.

Given the security bug fix introduced in the 2.6.5 version, this was another important upgrade, so it was worth it.

We’ll be returning to our regularly scheduled content programming shortly.

N.B.

If you notice any oddities, style related or otherwise, please let us know.