It was just announced yesterday that WordPress 2.8.5 has been released, which is considered a “security hardening” release. Here are some of the updates and fixes:

• A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.
• Removal of areas within the code where PHP code in variables was evaluated.
• Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including admins.
• Retiring of the two importers of tag data from old plugins.

If you’re wondering what the difference between a “hardening release” and a “security release” is, I don’t think there is any. The only difference to me seems that people don’t seem to complain as much about hardening releases as they do security releases.

Anyway, I’m sure you know the drill by now. Make sure you take a backup beforehand (which you should be doing regularly anyway, and use the automatic upgrader or upgrade manually if necessary.

I just upgraded to 2.8.5 yesterday with the automatic upgrader and everything seems to be running smoothly.

Slidefolio is a free gallery WordPress theme, with posts displayed in a slideshow format. The theme was developed by Nick Berlette.

Read on to find out how to use this theme, along with my thoughts…

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Today we have an awesome news theme, originally designed by DemusDesign, which I then ported to WordPress. This theme requires at least WordPress 2.8 to function properly, and includes some standard features such as threaded comments and comment pagination. There are also over 10 widget-ready areas, including a widgetized footer, plus a custom widget for ad management.

Live Demo | Download

And now onto the features in more detail…

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