There is one little thing I would like to suggest.

Say I get an email from a client A in New York to schedule a meeting at 9am followed by another client B in New Zealand for a meeting at 1pm. They are both scheduling a meeting at the same time because I’m sitting in Lisbon so I’ll have to reschedule at least one of them. It would be very practical if Yoomit could make the time conversion and eventually warn of overlapping meetings. Is it too much to ask? Maybe it is but anyway here is the suggestion. Anyone else feels this pain? :)

p.s. I’ve also sent a message to the guys at MuchBeta. Let’s see if they say something.

It’s very simple to activate, just add to your wp-config.php file the following:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

But don’t do it in your site, otherwise you won’t be the only one looking at the warnings :|

http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php

I’ve seen this question being asked around (e.g. here) and couldn’t find a helpful reply anywhere.

I had this same problem and since I couldn’t find a clean way of doing it I had to comment a line in one of the core files. In the file wp-includes/pluggable.php, function wp_new_user_notification(), you can comment the last line that reads:

wp_mail($user_email, sprintf(__('[%s] Your username and password'), $blogname), $message);


I would love a cleaner way of doing this, if you know one please let me know!

Note that with upgrades you will lose this change. Unfortunately there seems to be no way around this until WordPress supports a filter or some other mechanism to do it in a cleaner way.

Also note that this is different from disabling new user notifications that are sent to the admin email, for that there is an option in the admin panel.

This was done against WordPress Mu 2.9.2. Your mileage may vary of course! :)

Thanks Scott!

1) Keep the Simplicity – My greatest fear with WordPress is that people won’t stop adding more things to it. I like its smallness. The merging of WordPress MU in the upcoming 3.0 version is just one example of the unnecessary growing complexity of the WordPress code base.

2) Be more Open – Automattic keeps control of the only official plugin repository and WordPress only works with it. Reminds me of the Apple App Store and I for sure don’t want anything like that for WordPress.

“3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.’”

This is most of all a stab in back of Adobe, who was planning to launch on the 12th April their new Flash CS5 that included a Flash-to-native compiler that now becomes… not so useful.

True evil stuff no?

http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/iphone_agreement_bans_flash_compiler

http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331

Update: I was told that the particular bit I mentioned has been in for a while but has been extended to the following:

3.3.1–Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”

They are restricting people to use a particular technology that is as valid as any other. And in that sense it is evil I think.

On the other hand, Apple had already made it clear they would not support Flash on the iPhone/iPad so I guess it is only natural that they oppose any attempt by Adobe to circumvent that.

Although I haven’t bought yet the latest kid on the block, Modern Warfare 2, I think the numbers and technology involved is worthy of reflection:

• You can play on-line against other gamers
• It is available for PC, PS3 or XBox360
• At whatever time of day you find half a million other gamers
• It took the makers 2 years to develop
• Cost the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster
• Had sales worth 550 million dollars in the first 5 days.

LX Factory, Alcântara,  starting at 144€ per month

http://liberdade229.com/

Av. da Liberdade, starting at 204€ per month

http://www.coworkpicoas.com/

Picoas, starting at 181€ per month

Note that coworking is not about the price, it’s an opportunity to socialize and work with other entrepreneurs and like-minded people.

Being a sun shinning day outside I wasn’t quite sure if he was talking about the weather :) but of course he was talking in terms of the conditions and general atmosphere in Portugal to start and run a business. Here’s a brief overview of what I told him and what I think after having put some thought into it.

1. Talent

It’s hard to find and recruit good talented and ethical workers. It’s even harder to get them to stay with you in the long term. This “individualistic attitude” and aversion to risk was indeed pointed out in a report by the European Commission in 2006. Maybe the solution here is to recruit more foreigners that would like to live here?

2. Entrepreneur Support

The initiatives to support entrepreneurs pretty much boil down to strategic propaganda by the government and are extremely bureaucratic. They have to treat everyone the same way, it doesn’t matter if you’re starting a tech company or a hotdog booth.

3. Net 60/90

We have Net 60 or Net 90, payment 60 or 90 days after invoice date – the government and big corporations all seem to use this. That’s really bad for entrepreneurs because after a sale there’s still 2 to 3 months before getting any money into your account.

4. Not a big market for mergers and acquisitions

The likelihood of your business getting bought by “bigger fish” is very low. Can you list tech companies that were acquired or merged? There are no examples of successes so there is little incentive to try something like starting a startup to sell in the first years.

5. Universities are not entrepreneur oriented

The creation of startup companies is not adopted by the Universities as a priority and as a result most students finish their degree without never ever thinking about the possibility of starting their own company. It is something so remote that it is not even worth thinking about.

6. Anti-entrepreneur culture

Most of the older generations does not recognize any value in someone that takes the risk of starting a company or going self-employed. It’s simply not appreciated. A friend that runs a startup told me his mother didn’t believe he was working until she saw his name on the newspaper.

On the positive side,

1. Climate

the weather is very good. According to an article by BBC, “Its southerly latitude gives it a Mediterranean type of climate, similar to that of the state of California, but one where the summer heat is tempered by the Atlantic influence.”

2. Food

and the food is great (we were having Sushi so I don’t think this point applied very well at the time). Portuguese food varies but fresh fish and shellfish are found commonly on every menu, and the country is full of specialty seafood restaurants.

3. Taxes

Our taxes are still lower than most countries in Europe. The tax burden is at 36.2% for singles with no kids (I would say the typical entrepreneur) in Portugal, compared to e.g. 51.8% in Germany. (OECD, 2005 data)

4. Green Receipt Book

Although a plague for employees (because companies misuse them) , the green receipt book (Caderneta de Recibos Verdes) is actually a helpful measure for entrepreneurs because they allow to hire people with less costs on the first year of company operations.

5. Tourism

The climate, beaches, lifestyle and leisure activities that attract companies, researchers and students to Portugal are also the mainstay of the country’s tourism industry, which accounts for more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product.

6. Community

The amount of Hackers, Makers and Geeks in Portugal is growing and so is the number of group meetings that you can find. Many are held monthly or at least regularly.

Please note,

this is of course far from being complete, accurate or even meaningful. I was careful enough to include a few positive points to counterpart for the negative ones. I didn’t want to be accused of pessimism, a point many would have listed here as well.

For the 2011 Portuguese Presidential elections I will be supporting Fernando Nobre. Not that anyone cares but I thought I should mention it. For that reason I’ve added to my blog a small support banner linking to the campaign site.

I’ve also been thinking how I can contribute and help with the campaign, and how to enable people that are interested in helping out to do so effectively, besides the obvious sign-up for voluntary help at the campaign site.

If you have a WordPress blog, I’ve made public a widget you can use on the sidebar of your blog to display a small image banner just like the one I’m using. It’s an easy way of showing our support and it’s very easy to install:

1. Inside the WordPress admin, go to Plugins -> Add New and search for ‘Fernando Nobre’.
2. Click ‘Install’.
3. Inside the WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Widgets, and add the ‘Apoio Fernando Nobre’ widget where you want, then save the changes.
4. That’s it!

And here’s the link to the plugin page:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/support-fernando-nobre/