Hi,
The latest technical newsletter is now available at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2016/11>gt;.
Below is the English version.
You can help write the next newsletter: whenever you see information about
Wikimedia technology that you think should be distributed more broadly, you
can add it to the next newsletter at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/Next>gt;.
More information on how to contribute is available at <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News#contribute>gt;. You can also contact
me directly.
As always, feedback (on- or off-list) is appreciated and encouraged.
—————————————————————————————
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Latest *tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News>* from the
Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes.
Not all changes will affect you. Translations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News/2016/11> are
available.
*Recent changes*
- The mobile web interface no longer suggests HiDPI thumbnails
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/HiDPI_display_support>. This is to take
up less bandwidth on slow or expensive connections. [1]
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T119797>
- The search engine on
wikipedia.org <http://www.wikipedia.org/> has
been updated. [2]
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia.org_Portal_Improvements>
*Changes this week*
- Wikimedia has a new backup data center in Dallas. Because of planned
work on this, *you will be able to read but not edit the wikis* for a
short period of time on both 22 March and 24 March. This could be postponed
to April 18. You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.
Because of a test, there will also be a couple of minutes where you can't
edit the wikis on 15 March starting 07:00 UTC. You can read more about
the server work <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/Server_switch_2016>.
There will be more notifications and updates about this.
- Administrators and other users with advanced permissions will need to
have an 8-byte long passwords. This change takes place on 15 March. Users
with too short passwords will be asked to change password the next time
they log in. This was decided in a discussion on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Password_policy_for_users_with_certain_advanced_permissions>
and
is because they can use tools that can hurt the wikis. [3]
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2016-March/001374.html>
- [image: Octicons-sync.svg] The new version
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.27/wmf.17> of MediaWiki will
be on test wikis and
MediaWiki.org from 15 March. It will be on
non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 March. It will be on all
wikis from 17 March (calendar
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.27/Roadmap>).
- The buttons in interfaces will be simplified. Instead of white, red,
green and blue buttons, in future there will only be white, red and blue
ones. [4] <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T110555>
*Meetings*
- [image: Octicons-sync.svg] You can join the next meeting with the
VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs
you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 15 March at
19:00 (UTC)
<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=19&min=00&sec=0&day=15&month=03&year=2016>.
See how to join
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Weekly_triage_meetings>.
- [image: Octicons-tools.svg] You can join the next meeting with the
Architecture committee. The topics this week are backlog
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T78639> and thumb API
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T66214>. The meeting will be on 16
March at 21:00 (UTC)
<http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=21&min=00&sec=0&day=16&month=03&year=2016>.
See how to join <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Architecture_meetings>.
*Tech news
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News> prepared
by tech ambassadors
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/Ambassadors> and
posted by bot
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery>
• Contribute
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Tech/News#contribute>
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help <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech> • Give feedback
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tech/News> • Subscribe or unsubscribe
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/Tech_ambassadors>.*
//Johan Jönsson