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Took my little Flexifoil Buzz (Petrol) out for a fly today. Pretty cool kite actually. It was a little smaller than I had imagined it, but it's very responsive even under light winds, and very nippy once the wind picks up.

No idea what this means, but I thought I'd post it in case anyone else was having the same problem - don't you just love spurious error codes?

I was trying for a while to sign on to MSN messenger but I kept getting error code 80048834 (ohhhh...that one....). After some help from Google I came across a forum post where a couple of people were having the same issue. Anyway, for people skimming this post I'll jump straight to the solution...

Drupal 6 was released today! After having a play with the beta and release candidates...well, I don't have to say; this really is a phenomenal release! Here are some of my favourite new features which I'm looking forward to using:

• Extended logging - You can set Drupal for OS level logging
• Batch API - A progress bar can track tasks running in the background through multiple HTTP requests
• Scripting from the command line - This is really cool! You can now run Drupal code through the command line
• Forum improvements - Granular permissions can allow more control over forum moderation
• Sticky table headers - Does what it says on the tin
• Drag and drop features - Again, the tin...
• CSS only theming - Define regions etc. in .info files without writing any php code, then set styles in CSS

Well done to everyone who has been clearly working hard on this!

It's incredible how rapid the development of Drupal has become. Drupal 6 is only just around the corner and we're already talking about what improvements and features we'd like to see in Drupal 7! Drupal 5 has been absolutely fantastic. I've found it not only a great content management system, but also an excellent framework for building applications.

Anyone who wishes to officially request a new feature for Drupal 7 may do so on the Drupal website by submitting a new issue. Some things I'd like to see would be:

• Some kind of media management system - not just for images, video and audio but maybe also PDFs and other attachable or embedded content
• More core forum features
• Built in WYSIWYG editor as I almost always use TinyMCE, which is great, but it would be nice not to have to install and upgrade it separately from the core
• Improved node access control system
• Automatic upgrade of core system and modules
• Site backup for both files and database

I noticed recently that if you're using POP with leave mail on server (LMOS) enabled, authenticating and downloading new messages can become progressively slower. So much so that the email client can even time out, leaving the mailbox locked so you can't even log in again for a while.

As of Drupal 5.6 you will no longer be able to install the CMS onto a server with register_globals enabled. The notice on the Drupal website says:

"We no longer support servers with the PHP directive register_globals set to on. Attempts to install Drupal 5.6 when register_globals is enabled will fail. Current installations will continue to function, but will display an error on administration pages and the status report."

This check was introduced as a fix for the Cross site scripting vulnerability (DRUPAL-SA-2008-007) which occurs when register_globals is enabled. I was upgrading my Drupal installation from 5.5 when I found out so I only suffered the error on the status report, but people running a fresh install will find they can’t go any further until they disable register_globals.

A few days ago one of my Nintendo Wii remotes started doing some crazy things. It seemed like there was a problem with the remote's gyro, as you couldn't get any response from swinging the remote in the bowling game (instead, you just took everyone's legs out with the ball!). Anyway, I found a strange fix which involves wacking the remote, button side down, against your palm several times. You want to wack the remote hard enough to "fix" it, but not too hard as to break it. I guess it must have dislodged the remote's gyro because it started working again like normal.

WPA2 is the latest standard in Wi-Fi security, and it's considered fully secure (for today at least). It's a good idea to run the highest level of security you can, even on a home network. I won't go into the benefits, but as far as I can see there are no reasons not to move to WPA2 - you won't even notice any difference, but your connection will be more secure.

If you're using a CMS or blog app, like Drupal or Wordpress (even if you're not) chances are you'll probably want to enable clean URLs (sometimes called search engine friendly URLs). This cool little feature uses an Apache module called mod_rewrite, and if you're developing your site using XAMPP this is disabled by default (possibly for security reasons).

I've been taking a few Firefox add-ons for granted, so here's a little nod to some excellent add-ons which have made my life easier. I'm not going to list 50, simply because I've found either some do the same thing, or I don't end up using them as much as I thought. So here they are:

• Firebug
• Web Developer Toolbar
• Dummy Lipsum
• IE Tab