Open Source

Drupal 4.7 is finally out after a year in development and this is the best version yet. The php template is now the default template engine and there are a lot of new features, such as free tagging, Ajax and a new contact form just to name a few. It also now comes with an installer but I have yet to test it out.

As you may have guessed this site has been upgraded and I still have others to do.

In other news I was ripped off by a dishonest ex-ModenBill reseller and it seems no one can find him, as for the software I'm no longer using it even though it was not ModernGigabyte's fault, I've had it with "proprietary complexity".

On the project front I've started to learn Python which has sparked renewed interest in Bazaar-NG. It's still early days for bazaar but I like the idea of a Python based VCS, I haven't decided yet but I could very well switch to Bazaar and the fact its backed by Canonical doesn't hurt either.

Registrations for LinuxWorld are now open so start registering. Be warned though when I tried to register it would only work in IE, apparently some last minute changes broke Firefox support so it should be working again soon for us non-IE users.

I think I'm just about ready for this years event, just need to make sure my name is down for the LPI examinations run by the Geek Freedom League.

And if you haven't guessed already I'm quite excited about this years event.

It seems everyone is using mambo these days and the number is growing, it hasn't got all those awards for nothing. However the templating system is not very flexible as far as content goes, while there are many ways to arrange content with the system itself styling it remains a challenge, ironically its was the template system that was one of the first things that drew me to mambo.

There is no denying that content management systems help in many ways but I can't help think that people aren't picking the best system for the job but rather by popularity and the result can be some particularly bad looking websites or worse generic looking ones where they just change the header and colours. (I'm not listing names)

So my point?

One: Don't settle for the first CMS that comes to mind. Do some research it will save you time down the road.
Two: If you are a business or organization don't be afraid to spend a little money on your site. In this day and age you can't afford not to.

I like messing around with software especially Open Source Software. So I've decided to list some my favourite projects.

First up is Jabber I've actually like four (two servers and two clients) programs but for good reason as you will see. First on my list is Wildfire (server)and Spark (client), Wildfire (aka Jive Messenger when I first started using it) in the fist server I ever tried using, its a great piece of software and the feature
score (97%) on jabber.org is well deserved. Through Spark and Spark
Manager into the mix and you have a very well rounded enterprise jabber network ready to go.

Well I moved the site over to Drupal this week (If you have a Drupal ID you can use it on this site, if not... register and get one here). Not that there is anything wrong with WordPress its a great program, if you just want to blog with the odd extra here and there as far as content management goes.

In other news DataPoint is almost officially a CC not too long to go now, then I can then really get down to business. Moving on Google Talk can now interact with other jabber servers now and the Psi team are adding Jingle (Google Talk's VoIP library) to Psi. Early reports look promising.

Finally the South African search directory Jonga has disappeared off Google the search giant has yet to respond as to why it was taken off their search engine.

Update: Jonga is listed on Google again