PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to plgContentEmailCloak() expected to be a reference, value given in /libraries/joomla/event/dispatcher.php on line 136
PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to plgContentLoadModule() expected to be a reference, value given in /libraries/joomla/event/dispatcher.php on line 136
PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to plgContentPagebreak() expected to be a reference, value given in /libraries/joomla/event/dispatcher.php on line 136

PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to plgContentJA_highslide::onPrepareContent() expected to be a reference, value given in /libraries/joomla/event/event.php on line 67
PHP Warning: Parameter 2 to plgContentJA_tabs::onPrepareContent() expected to be a reference, value given in /libraries/joomla/event/event.php on line 67

Fortunately, this is a pretty simple thing to fix; look for line 136 in dispatcher.php and line 67 in event.php and add this one single line;

$args[1]   = & $args[1];

So your final code (for dispatcher.php) will look like this:

if (function_exists($observer['handler']))
{
   $args[1]   = & $args[1];
   $result[] = call_user_func_array($observer['handler'], $args);
}

and for event.php:

if (method_exists($this, $event)) {
  $args[1] = & $args[1];
  return call_user_func_array ( array($this, $event), $args );
} else {

Alternatively, you can download the fix here. This is tested working on Joomla 1.5.23+. Hope this helps!

In WordPress, in your Admin dashboard, you may see several error messages under Incoming Links and WordPress Blog – not critical errors, just warnings. It was annoying, and instead of trying to workaround it by turning off error reporting, I wanted to actually fix the issue and find a working solution.

When doing some research on this, I’ve come to realize that ”$var =& new …” and “$var = new …” are NOT equivalent, as suggested in several places.  Removing the ampersand in some cases actually broke the code, and in fact it seems that the statment with the ampersand is the one that does not create a reference.

In WordPress, there’s a class called SimplePie – it contains code that is PHP4 compliant, but hasn’t yet been switched over to PHP5. The file is called class-simplepie.php. Open it in your favourite text editor (I use Notepad++).

For example, you will see something like this:

$this->sanitize =& new SimplePie_Sanitize;

in PHP 5.3+, it needs to look like this:
$obj = new SimplePie_Sanitize;
$this->sanitize =& $obj;

But wait! This doesn’t solve your issue you say? In some instances I had to replace the =& with = as well, and I found I actually had to go and click on “Configure” next to Incoming Links, then hit submit before it would show the changes I made. Since WordPress has no built-in caching system, I find this behavior strange, but at least we know it works.

Or, if you prefer, I’ve done the work for you. Here’s a link to download the actual file itself, zipped: Download Here

Hope this helps!