Dear readers and customers,
on August 11 WordPress 5.5 was released, code named Eckstine, after US Jazz musician Billy Eckstine. Being only the second major release in 2020, it brought new features such as lazy loading for graphics as well as automatic update features for plugins and themes.
As the upgrade process itself was a success and went through everywhere without much hassle as we were used to WordPress updates in the near past, using and maintaining the web projects afterwards wasn’t.
In fact, several plugins just broke and we couldn’t use the software as we were used to: hovering the main menu on the left didn’t work anymore. Our editor was missing the buttons for all tags. All in all it was a messy user experience and it just felt wrong. Plus, we didn’t know exactly what and where things broke after the update.
There are only two things you can do at the moment:
1) downgrade(!) to 5.4.x
2) install a plugin which is called Enable jQuery Migrate Helper. [via]
What the latter does is check your site for outdated jQuery functions. After activation, your website/web project should function like normal. Only addition is a red coloured box which specifies outdated jQuery functions in use on your site. In our case it was constantly this one: jQuery.fn.live() is deprecated.
What we are doing now is editing the code for those plugins and themes where this error is shown. All updated code will then be found available in our WordPress plugin repository. We created this back when we migrated to PHP 7.x. It will now be updated for jQuery converted plugins as well. We are realisitic here: being in WordPress development since 2005 (15 years is a veryyy long time in WWW terms), we don’t expect some of our older plugins in use to be updated ever to run updated jQuery stuff. This is, in all its fame and glory, the “power” of OpenSource after all.
We apologise for the inconvenience if there should be any. So far on the frontend side, what you see as users, you should see no negative consequences.
Stay sharp and good luck updating to 5.5,
the aethyx staff
Dear readers and customers,
IT security for our consumers and clients always is one of the top priorities at AETHYX MEDIAE, your friendly and independent European online publishing house.
That’s why we started implementing and activating SSL on all our products and projects in spring 2017 already.
Since this month, for one and a half week or so, we also activated the last lock for securing our domains and the communication over the aether: HSTS.
As of 2020, the measurements to be safe and secure is now at the absolute maximum, technologically it looks like the following:
* SSL activated since 2017
* SSL enforced since 2017
* HSTS activated (and set to 16,070,400 seconds) since 2020
At the moment, this has to suffice as we can’t do more for domain security from our side.
Let’s hope it stays this way but who knows what the future of the web will bring.
We leave a lot of old and maybe beloved browsers (and browser versions) behind with these measures. But in the end we’ll all benefit from it: the developers as well as the users and consumers.
We’re not sure if people will remember why we had to do this stuff. But the open web is dead anyway, there is nothing we can change about it, at least since May 2013. Seven years ago, that is, a very long time now.
Stay safe out there! With or without us!
Greetings,
the aethyx staff
Dear readers and customers,
we constantly and passionately try hard to expand our indie universe to all those Android devices out there.
As such, we want to finally introduce you to our first new indie game IP: “Zombie Resistor: Apocalypse”!
The current Play Store entry for our first video game, “Zombie Resistor: Apocalypse”
It’s as real as it gets and the title suggests: a 3rd person shooter letting you conquer Zombie realms within different levels and offering a bunch of nice weapons on your lonesome run(s) to choose from.
Running on the popular Unity engine as our premise was to release a game 100% in 3D for mobile devices. You may (or may not, to some reviewers, ehemm) also cheer our optimised touch screen controls which was a helluva work to realise.
Enjoy and shoot your way free in a world devastated by a deadly plague*! And best: downloading and playing is 100% free!
It’s incredible how long we’ve been on Droid territory, by the way: we released our first apps in May 2013, when there weren’t even 1,000,000 apps available. In the meantime the number pretty much tripled to almost 3,000,000! A double-edged sword: good for us as developers as the platform itself is a true success. But hard to conquer if you release new stuff or want to stay on devices.
No matter how we regard it, the advantages of developing for the platform still outperforms the disadvantages. It’s a lot of fun to code for those devices, too! So be aware that we might post more apps in the future, albeit we certainly won’t do any more Zombie games. 😉
Thanks for reading and happy gaming,
the aethyx staff
*As our initial release for the game was 31st of January 2020 already, similarities to current or future world events are pure coincidence, of course. One thing we never lacked: vision.
Dear readers and customers,
without a doubt, we live in difficult and complicated times. At least temporarily, for two months in a row now, the daily life we knew and celebrated is no more.
But wait, there’s hope!
With more time than ever available since we are adults, let’s use the situation to change the world for the better!
And no, we don’t do this in watching a brand new TV series or buying some new toys for our kitchens or living rooms.
We want to be active. We want to be creative. We want to develop ourselves. And create a brighter future.
What better than starting your own blog now, for example? Become an expert in a special field or maybe you even are already one and want to share your ideas? We are here to help!
Who knows, maybe you’re sitting on a Word document you just want to publish for ages now. Your first real book and need help in converting it into an eBook and publish it via multiple stores? Yes, that’s what we’re also here for!
You always wanted to hit thousands of smartphones and tablets with your unique app idea? Hey, let us be your guide!
And there’s so much more:
Set up your own cloud? Be independent from Twitter? Need your own social network? Need IT consultancy (starting from 49€/h)? Or just want to have a quick chat? Reach out to us anytime, we’re happy to hear from you: info@aethyx.eu.
You have to know we’re around in here for 20 years now, albeit not permanently under the same name and brand. In fact even we would be surprised to find a field in web and IT we can’t be of help. Use our experience and profit from us! Accelerate your future with us!
Stay healthy and best wishes,
the aethyx staff
Dear readers and customers,
more than a year ago in March 2019, we started an experiment to get rid of all advertisements from the websites and projects we created and maintain. We strongly believed that we would be better off using donation buttons instead of selling off website space for adverts and head safely into the future like this.
Today, we have to announce that our vision went not according to our plans and we get back at using them. For all of our commercial projects, at least.
Partly also due to the recent global COVID-19 crisis which puts us under heavy pressure from all sides. But partly also because we’re better off earning something instead of absolutely nothing. In some instances, e.g. the Play Store from Google, donation buttons weren’t even allowed so in the end we had no other choice.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re still thinking this method of earning for websites lacks vision and needs to be revamped for our current times and complicated website models too. But this is not our job as we are an independent publishing house and no advertising agency.
Being young and agile was an advantage to proclaim being advert free. The same will be advantageous in bringing back the adverts again. So we expect being ready with the implementation by the end of the current week already.
We’re sorry to tell you all that but we thought it would be best to be totally honest with you here.
Please let us know via info@aethyx.eu if you want to buy advertisement space/links/etc. for one or several of our projects. Find the overview here: Where?
We would be so happy to hear from you to support our independent online publishing house!
So long and stay healthy,
the aethyx staff