function Parse ($rss_url) {
// Open and load RSS file
// now uses cURL instead of fopen() -- Kyle Brady [http://www.kyle-brady.com]

$ch = curl_init();

if ($ch !== false) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $rss_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$rss_content = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

If there’s a security issue floating around, you’d imagine that those behind the problem would be extremely interested in fixing it as soon as possible… right?  Well, apparently not.

If you’re one of the people that goes insane and hyper-joyous over things like Twitter Lists, you need to seek medical help – these “features”, used in the loosest sense of the software term, are not something to get overly excited about.

TIME, along with it’s weekly brethren, typically has historically had more journalistic integrity per paragraph than any newspaper does per page – this is common knowledge, and it was assumed by many that they would weather the perfect storm of media collapse better than most.  This, apparently, was an incorrect assumption.

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic, and Wordpress, I salute you.  You’ve done an admirable job and the world generally loves you – but it’s time to step up to what you’ve created, and do things right.

You don’t want to become the Microsoft of content management systems, do you?

News has been slowly leaking out regarding Barnes & Noble’s “Nook” e-reader device, and the more that surfaces, the more it sounds like a surprising and wonderful device that could prove to be the harbinger of the e-reader’s/e-book’s watershed moment.  It’s based on the Android platform, has a substantially better feature set than any of its predecessors, holds comparatively extreme battery life, and implements what appears to be a slick user interface.

And it’s being produced and sold by a book retailer chain.

Recently, it seems that Warner Brothers Studio has contacted you regarding James Potter – regarding what?

I received a rather lengthy email detailing some new requests for how I should present and promote the James Potter stories.  Specifically, the lawyer requested that I change the James Potter logo, since they feel it is too similar to the Harry Potter film logo (although I did work to make it merely similar, and not a direct copy).  Also, the lawyer requested that I remove references to my own original books from the James Potter-related website.  Finally, they asked for more and larger disclaimers.

Go check it out.

Could you give a quick intro on what the James Potter series is (ideas, themes, inspiration, etc.)?  Most people consider it high-quality fan-fiction, but what do you label it as?

When I first discovered fan-fiction (and this was AFTER finishing my first James Potter book) I was bored with how so much of it was just a rehash of the original characters and stories.  Being satisfied with Harry’s tale, I wanted to explore the wider magical world.

Whether the James Potter series is completely finished or not, it is safe to say that George Norman Lippert has distinctly enriched the lives of countless Harry Potter fans and the Potterverse itself.  His works have shown that not only can a fan with talent significantly enrich the source material without being pale imitations, but that it’s still possible to rise from obscurity to fame within the literary world – all without an agent, a marketing campaign, or SPAM’ing forums.