I trust readers here are suitably cynical about software. It is not created by noble Star Trek intellects seeking to improve the world one line of code at a time, but by entirely human guys, often under ferocious deadlines, working for money and ego, and vulnerable to cutting a corner to get something out the door. Me too.

This WordPress bug is most likely something stupid.

Perhaps you remember the Heartbleed bug from three years ago in which OpenSSL — a key internet security package no less — was leaking passwords to any hacker who understood how to exploit the weakness.

Heartbleed was the work of a Computer Science Ph.D who specialized in internet security. Which is to say, he wasn’t a run-of-the-mill coder who happened to screw up. He was an authority who really should have known better. His work was reviewed by a cryptography consultant with a Ph.D in math — not the right guy to check for coding errors.

Every programmer makes mistakes. That goes without saying. But Heartbleed wasn’t a mistake so much as a failure in programming discipline — like a surgeon failing to wash his hands before operating.

It’s part of the same glitch.

Right now, I’m showing up as me, all nice and normal. Earlier this evening my autofill spaces were blank.

Agreed on the cause. But WordPress is difficult to impossible to reach, and the host is unable to go back to a previous version.

Also, there’s no “Preview Comment” button.

My theory is the new version of WordPress software introduced this bug. If so, the only ways to fix it are:
1) WordPress fixes the bug and sends a patch, or
2) Your host un-installs this and re-installs the older version of WordPress.

I’m with Decius
zxxxxx@xxx.com
http://www.thursdayfast.blogspot.com