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The 2.3.2 release of Wordpress was released on the 29th of December. This release patches a security hole and fixes a few other bugs.

Additionally, this release allows one to create a custom database error page. If Wordpress encounters a problem connecting to the database, it will show the template located at wp-content/db-error.php rather than the default error message. If you would like to customize your DB error, just create a template file, name it “db-error.php” and upload it to your site’s wp-content directory.

By the way, if you are not using subversion to manage your Wordpress installations, you should start. It makes life much, much easier at upgrade time.

Sunday’s nasty weather did not deter curious grazers and locavores from descending on the old Fulton Fish Market for Wintermarket, an event to promote the New Amsterdam Public market. The people at the New Amsterdam propose turning the two, now vacant, Fulton Market buildings into indoor public markets. The goods on offer would be regional and go beyond what is currently available in most of the city’s green markets.

There were several purveyors on hand Sunday and many tasty items to sample. The chilled-out pig in the photo was Mario Batali’s offering for the day; it made for some excellent porchetta sandwiches. Also of note were the Ricotta and the Honey Nougat ice creams from The Bent Spoon of Princeton. I imagine that the Bent Spoon’s other flavors are as superb as these–a trip to Princeton may be in order to find out.

Judging from the turnout Sunday morning, there is more than enough local interest to sustain a downtown market. The buildings at the end of Fulton Street have a rich history as markets and it would be wonderful if they could continue to serve the city in that capacity. You can learn more about the proposed market, and what you can do to help at New Amsterdam Public’s site.

There were plenty of people in the crowd Sunday taking notes and pictures. Here are a few links:

• Adam Hirsch (multimedia)
• Grub Street
• Ed Levine’s New York Eats
• Thoughts On the Table
• AfterTaste (by Sherry)

After what seems like an extended, semi-private beta, Dopplr launched earlier this week. Since they have such a well-crafted statement on their about page, I’ll let them speak for themselves:

Dopplr is an online service for frequent business travellers.

Dopplr lets you share your travel plans privately with a group of friends and colleagues whom you have chosen. It then tells you when people you know will be in the same cities. It also reminds you of people who live in the places you’re planning to visit.

Dopplr has a lot of potential if it can attract a critical mass of users. This shouldn’t be a problem since those who have been using Dopplr seem to really enjoy it. Integration with other applications will also help, and they look to be well on their way in this area. Currently, it works with Flickr and Facebook. Dopplr also uses OpenID and sports an API, which open up all sorts of possibilities.

In addition to all this great tech stuff, Dopplr is quite easy to use. The interface is uncluttered and beautiful in its simplicity. The team has done a wonderful job on this application and I really look forward to using it.

The more miserable the weather, the more extreme the current-weather graphics seem to get on Apple’s weather widget. It’s sleeting here now. Check out the graphic below, it’s so much more exciting than the partly-cloudy image.

Update: Here’s a nice weather widget hack that adds the last time the weather information was updated to the widget.

You might not remember the USB powered desk-to-desk missile launcher that was posted here a couple years ago. That’s alright, I won’t hold it against you. Now there is a wireless desktop missile launcher to add to your office’s cache of WMDs. They ship on the 20th, maybe, just maybe, you can have one in time to slip under the tree.

via engadget

Hey iPhone/Touch peoples: If your thumbs are tired from punching in repeated lines of text, you can make a bookmarklet to paste the text for you. This iPastelet maker takes it one step further allowing you to make bookmarklets without mucking around with the javascript. Well done!

via The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Notify NYC is a program to rapidly distribute notifications about emergency and non-emergency events around the city. Depending on which areas you choose to receive alerts for, you’ll get the choice of SMS, email, or phone notifications. There are four areas of the city involved in this pilot: Lower Manhattan, The Rockaways and parts of the Bronx and Staten Island. For more information, check out the Notify NYC FAQ.

via City Room

A taxi passenger recently found out how open NYC’s new taxi computers are to casual exploration. A wayward error message and some ingenuity lead to an open Internet browser and access to the computer’s file system. It’s disheartening to learn that these computers, provided by TaxiTech, are open to the probing of casual users. It is even more alarming when considering that these systems are used to process credit card payments as well. Are customers’ credit card numbers stored on these computers? If so, are they secure? Let’s hope that TaxiTech and its partners have designed a system that does not put customer information at risk when errors occur.

I also wonder how all these Windows machines riding through the streets of New York are patched and upgraded. Is there an automated updating scheme, or are they wide open to attacks from the Internet until someone gets around to patching the machines?

Until these questions are answered, paying with cash might be the best option.

via City Room

BUG is an open-source, hackable hardware platform from Bug Labs. It is not only cool, but it also may be the holiday gift for the geek/hacker in your life. Keep an eye on their store as they promise to be open this year.

Robert Scoble recently spent some time at Bug Labs HQ in New York and has three videos to share (below). I was more excited about the BUG after watching the first five minutes of video than I have been reading the Bug Blogger for several months. No disrespect to the Bug Bloger here, I just think that the videos show how close these things are to getting into people’s hands. Very exciting.

1. Introduction
2. The final product
3. Open hardware

via Webreakstuff