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WordPress Gears

Some may have noticed the “Turbo” link in the upper right corner of the admin area. (Remember when computers used to have a Turbo button?) Behind it is a new feature of WordPress.com, support for Gears.

Gears? It is a browser extension like Flash or QuickTime/Media Player. However Gears works with the browser to enhance web based applications. It can create local database and file storage, and run JavaScript in the background to update them without slowing down the browser.

Gears has been in the making for over a year and is well known among the web developers. Currently it supports Firefox versions 2 & 3 and Internet Explorer versions 6 & 7. Safari 3 support is coming soon.

On WordPress.com it is used to store all images and other web page components from the admin area to the user’s PC, speeding up access and reducing unnecessary web traffic.

The speed increase is most noticeable when Internet is slow or on high latency and makes everybody’s blogging experience more enjoyable.

To enable this new feature, click on the “Turbo” link and follow it to Gears’ site to install it in your browser (if not already installed). Then the browser will have to be restarted and after logging back in WordPress, click the “Turbo” link again to give permission to Gears to work on WordPress.com.

After that Gears will download around 200 files and store them on your PC. It will also update them when needed automatically in the background, no other actions are required.

The downloaded files will be used everywhere in the admin interface, speeding up every page load, enabling you to blog at faster than the speed of light.*

* Your mileage may vary.

Guest post by Andrew Ozz.

More info in the FAQ: Boost your dashboard – Turbo style.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Google Gears now supports Firefox 3
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Clearly convention fever is beginning to hit the DNC (the Democratic National Committee) and the DNCC (the Democratic National Convention Committee), and not in a fun way. Delegates across the country are working to figure out how to enter a candidate’s name into nomination via a petition from the floor at the Convention. They report the dissemination of information from the DNC that they regard as an effort to interfere with their efforts to produce a proper petition that Senator Clinton could, if she chose, sign and thereby have her name placed into formal nomination as a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The delegates – and not only Clinton delegates, but ones pledged to Senator Obama as well – appear to be frustrated because they cannot get anybody at the DNC to clarify.

by Matt

WordCamp San Francisco 2008

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time for our annual WordCamp San Francisco conference.

This year’s speaker lineup is, how to put it? Kickass. Not to mention swiftly growing. Automatticians and other awesome WordPress users will tell you all about:

• The future of WordPress
• How to be a better blogger
• Increasing traffic
• Fun with APIs

And tons more.

Be the first to catch a brand-new rap about WordPress by Chuck Lewis, aka The SEO Rapper. Got questions? Bring them to our version of the Genius Bar. The geniuses are itching to be stumped. Try it. I dare you.

This year’s conference is a one-day event, August 16 at the Mission Bay Conference Center. Signups will be closing soon, so head over to the WordCamp site to register.

There’s also a special event the day after WordCamp: the WordPress Charity Scavenger Hunt.

The team that racks up the most points completing missions and finding weird stuff around SF wins sweet WordPress schwag. All proceeds will go to 826 Valencia, a local non-profit dedicated to helping students advance their writing skills. Register via Eventbrite to participate.