Due to its popularity as a blogging platform, WordPress has become a prime target for hackers looking to take over blogs for search-engine optimization (SEO) of other sites they control, traffic-redirection and other purposes. Recently there have been a spate of automated attacks which take advantage of recently discovered security vulnerabilities in WordPress.

To date, WordPress has been keeping up with the security holes by releasing updates within a few days of new exploits being found, but in the past few days new exploits have appeared that nobody seems to have answers for.

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If you are currently not running the latest version of WordPress then there is a very high chance that your site has already been compromised.

So I quickly updated wordpress and thought that you would like to know about this.

Also, it means that my awe inspiring plug in has now been tested on two versions of wordpress!

I’ll release it properly on the WordPress site when I get a chance – but I thought you lot would like the scoop first.

In the mean time you can download it from here.

It’s a plug-in that let’s people know who you’re donating to at the moment. I try to donate about $50 a month to different organisations. I think the world would be a better place if more people did the same thing. So, with my plug in you can see who I’m donating to and why.

Installation instructions:

1. Download the plug-in from here
2. Put ‘< ?php donations(); ?>‘ in the code of your side bar where you want to see the text displayed
3. Activate the plug-in in the plug-in menu
4. Go to the ‘Donations’ menu on the options page and enter in the details of the latest organisations you donated to

If you have any problems or suggestions please let me know by emailing hammy [at] goonanism [dot] com.

Please note: This should be considered a beta release (probably even an alpha release). I’ve only tested it with WordPress 2.2.

Then I thought that I’d like to encourage others to do the same. I’m also teaching myself php.

These things combined have lead me to my first wordpress plugin. You can see it in my side bar, the “organisations I donate to” bit is a plug in.

It’s still probably not even an alpha release and I’ve got to figure out how to do the back end for it but as soon as I do, I’ll make it available for all of you to use. Hopefully this will encourage you to give a little more and promote the great work of the groups you are giving to.

Also, please be patient with me, this site has had a range of weird errors lately as I experiment.

However I’m going all the way back through the xkcd archives at the moment and love it.

The other thing I’m loving at the moment is the FAIL Blog. It’s probably my favourite blog at the moment. Get on board before they become main stream and sell out.

Check out Radicalcrossstitch.com

Now, I do regularly read Bloggreen so was surprised to have missed the post but there you go. The problem is it was about a month ago. But perhaps this is a good opportunity to point out a few blogs that I particularly enjoy – and ones that seem less known (although how I judge that is anyone’s guess).

So I give you:

1. What’s this on my hand – possibly the second funniest blog around
2. A Live Toad Every Morning – a former colleague of mine. It’s inconsistent, often not updated for weeks, usually obscure, at times quite personal but always very sharp
3. Buggery – again, always really sharp and usually pretty good fun, and if memory serves me correctly a fellow Keatingite.
4. Suki – What can I say, John Howard could learn a lot from this woman.
5. Finally Lawrence Lessig because intellectual property is something that really fascinates me and he is undeniably a world leader on the topic. Plus where else do I turn in the absence of Kim Wheatherall?

So there you go.

Vitriolics Anonymous* is now hosted on Goonanism and makes for some fine reading. Add it to your bookmarks and daily reads people – you will be rewarded.

Is it just me or is Kool Thing about the greatest song ever written?

* Please note I take no responsibility for the quality of posting, nor do the opinions expressed at VA necessarily reflect those of the management and stakeholders at Goonanism – they do swear a little from time to time, sorry about that.

Don’t forget that large contingents of people will be converging on Melbourne to protest the G20 meeting next weekend (18th and 19th Nov). There’s lots going on, not least of which is the Alternative G20 hosted by the Melbourne Social Forum on the Saturday.

That said I’ve no idea what it is like but it is the blog of someone I met here in Dublin the other day. We went on a day trip to Kilkenny together.

So I give you: Steal this Moment, live from Philadelphia.

I’m sure my blog role needs considerable updating but I’ve hardly had a chance to check them while I’ve been away. One of the things I’ll have the pleasure of doing once I get home. Hopefully my favourite blogs haven’t disappeared though.

You can read an article about it in The Age here.

[Founder Ben Barren] estimates that there are about 750,000 Australian blogs scattered among a range of hosts, but when it comes to active bloggers – the segment Gnoos plans to focus on – the numbers are much smaller at about 5000.

By the looks of things, Goonanism is one of those 5000 so I’ll take that as a complement.