Happy Monday, folks! First off, for any of you that are trying, or thinking about trying, Motion — the social networking app built on Movable Type — a new beta was released today. I have not tried it myself, nor have I found release notes for it. If you have tried it, let us know what’s new in the comments.

This week, Chad Everett released version 4.2.0 of MT-Notifier. This version includes some bug fixes and the ability to specify a base URL for a script. read more

It seems that every week a new product or service is announced that promises to protect your work in some way or another. Whether it is helping you “register” your copyright, detect plagiarism or even outright prevent infringement, there are tons of companies that want to take your money to protect your work.

However most of these products turn out not to live up to their hype. At best they are a waste of time, at worst they are an outright scam.

So who is out to scam you and who is here to help? Well, here are some of the more common types of copyright protection services and what you should look out for before you sign on the dotted line. read more

There’s no doubt that media is in a time of change. Magazines and newspapers are hard pressed to save money, journalists are let go, there’s restructoring, and so on. All of this isn’t because of the financial crisis, but it sure speeds things up. So where do we turn for information about these things? To the blogosphere, of course, because that’s where we can read about the people that were let go, without having to filter out everything the hidden agenda of the so called old media. They are partial, you know. Of course, so is a disgruntled journo just sacked from his newspaper, but at least we expect him to be pissed.

Enter a group of anonymous people that tweet about who’s fired, who’s in trouble, and who stays. The Media is Dying Twitter account is a phenomenom, an excellent source for anxious and curious journalists and media enthusiasts altogether. And there’s plenty of them, the account’s got over 9,000 followers. The mysterious media professionals were kind enough to participate in an interview. read more

The front page of CERT/CC, the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute and cyber security experts, looks back at 2008 as the 20th anniversary of the Morris worm, sometimes called the “Great Worm,” which crippled the Internet in 1988. Created by Robert Morris, now an associate professor at MIT, it was one of the first computer worms to infect the brand new Internet, exploiting known vulnerabilities and causing millions in damages. It also was the first conviction in the United States as part of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Years ago, a friend of mine worked for Boeing IT and taught many company workshops and training programs that began with an amusing lecture on “Safe Computer Sex.” She taught fellow employees to take care when flipping floppies to avoid transferring computer program infections across the network. How far we have come from those days.

As our dependence upon the web increased with email communication, spammers, hackers and attackers spread evil through your email inbox. Now, they are attacking our websites, social media tools, and web browsers.

Microsoft announced recently security issues with the Internet Explorer web browser and the dangers of visiting websites that could exploit that security vulnerability. Many warned to not use Internet Explorer until it was patched and updated.

Google created the Browser Security Handbook to help people and developers understand the security issues facing web browsers and the steps to take to protect individuals and web applications.

As mentioned in the last article in this series on web and blog security and hacking, Security and Hacking: The State of WordPress Blogs, WordPress, Movable Type, and other popular web services are not immune from security hacks or vulnerabilities. read more

Remember 9rules round 8? The “winners” are finally announced, and it is a mere 26 sites. I wonder if this means that there wasn’t as many submissions as usual, or if the ones that came in just wasn’t good enough? Tyme White says they won’t be releasing any statistics this time around, so we’ll never know.

Matt Mullenweg’s New Year’s Resolutions set a plan for WordPress in 2009. BuddyPress nearing release from beta. WordCamp Las Vegas was a resounding success. This weekend is WordCamp Jakarta. Next weekend is skiing and WordPress at WordCamp Whistler. BlogSecurity makes predictions for security issues facing WordPress in 2009. WordPress shines at the People’s Choice Awards. Are you a Plugin author? Got information you have to know about the future of developing WordPress Plugins. WordPress.com now offers Subscribe to Comments WordPress Plugin on every WordPress.com blog. Google offers method for converting between blog platforms, including WordPress. Want to have your say in where Ed Morita puts a permanent WordPress tattoo on his body? And more WordPress news.

WordPress News

Matt Mullenweg’s New Year’s Resolutions and Birthday Celebration: Matt Mullenweg offered “Open Sourcing Resolutions,” asking people to tell him what his resolutions should be for the new year. In Twenty-Five, he celebrates his birthday and lists his goals for the next year, which include goals associated with WordPress.

WordPress Tattoo: Ed Morita wants a permanent tattoo. His WordPress blog has changed his life and he wants to honor the expertise with a WordPress tattoo. In “Where Should I Put My WordPress Tattoo?” he asks for input on where to put his new WordPress logo tattoo on his body. The deadline is January 30, and he will get the tattoo on his birthday, February 10th.

BuddyPress Prepares for Launch: Second Beta & 1.0 Final Dates for BuddyPress are set. The second beta release of this social media Theme for WordPressMU (and potentially for full versions of WordPress) is scheduled for January 26. The final release is set for February 9. Andy Peatling of BuddyPress will be speaking at WordCamp Whistler 2009 in Whistler, BC, Canada, on January 24, 2009, if you want an upclose and personal view of this new social media WordPress Theme. read more

Last year, there was a lot of noise about WordPress being especially vulnerable to attacks and hacks. Not all of those reported hacks and wild fire assuptions about WordPress security were true.

In “SecurityFocus SQL Injection Bogus,” Matt Mullenweg talked about one false report:

Online, apparently, it’s fine for someone to run into a crowded theatre and yell “fire” and the less basis there is in fact the more people link to them. It’s not uncommon to see crying-wolf reports like the above several times in a week, and a big part of what the WP security team is sifting through things to see what’s valid or not.

…All that said, there is a wave of attacks going around targeting old WordPress blogs, particularly those on the 2.1 or 2.2 branch. They’re exploiting problems that have been fixed for a year or more. This typically manifests itself through hidden spam being put on your site, either in the post or in a directory, and people notice when they get dropped from Google. (Google will drop your site if it contains links they consider spammy, you’ll remember this is one of the main reasons I came out against sponsored themes.)

“Sponsored” WordPress Themes were banned from the official WordPress Theme Directory due to inclusion of ads, spam, and malicious links in Themes offered for free, with a hidden price. WordPress Theme scams continue and WordPress users are warned repeatedly to be cautious about downloading and using WordPress Themes without careful inspection and testing.

In the last issue of this series on “Cyber Attacks on the Rise in 2009,” I covered the current spread of the Downadup Worm Infection that uses websites to spread its evil, impacting more than 3.5 million sites worldwide. Such attacks are becoming more rare, but hackers targeting blogs are growing in numbers and resourcefulness. We must be on our guard to protect our blogs more this year than ever before. read more

You probably recall the news that Gina Trapani steps down from popular Gawker Media blog Lifehacker, with Adam Pash picking up the reins. Well, today’s the day, and she’s got a nostalgic post up, looking back at launching Lifehacker, what happened next, and so. It’s an interesting read, so check it out.

ReadWriteWeb reckons that Twitter’s business model just got unearthed. When signing up to Twitter, you’re asked if you don’t want to start following a bunch of people. Or brands, really. Here’s a screenshot taken from my registering a new Twitter account (for people who like computer and videogames, incidentally):

So what does that mean, and how can Twitter make money? read more

Pingdom took a look at the Technorati Top 100 blogs to see what blogging platform was the most widely used one. I can’t say I’m the least surprised to see that WordPress finished at the top. Looking at the self-hosted blogs, 27 (ie 27%) run WordPress, 12 rolls on Movable Type, 8 are custom made, and 4 use Drupal. Looking at hosted blog platform, TypePad finishes at the top with 16 blogs, Blogsmith rolls 14, WordPress.com only has 5, and 3 use Blogger. Worth noting is that Gawker Media blogs has their own platform, and it isn’t listed, whereas AOL Weblogs Inc, use Blogsmith.

For even more number crunching and graphs, check out the excellent run-through at the Royal Pingdom blog, including a full list.