The struggle for optimal site performance is a battle all web designers & site owners face from time to time. You see a lot of sites on the web that load slowly or perform poorly. While some sites have hosting issues, most are simply built without performance in mind. Joomla!,...
Author Archives: Ric
50 Top Joomla! Extensions
With more than 4,000 Extensions in the Joomla! Extensions Directory, one of the most daunting aspects of selecting a Joomla! Extension is finding the right tool for the job. With thousands of Extensions to choose from, you are sometimes faced with multiple options that appear to achieve your goals. While there...
Content Management, of the Fierce variety
Fierce Content Management published today an interview I did a week or two ago with editor Ron Miller. The article is the latest in their series of one-on-one chats with industry insiders. In the words of the publisher, the series provides “in-depth interviews and conversations with the leading ECM minds...
Announcing: The Drupal Bible
It’s official, the ink has dried on the contract and the table of contents has been approved: My next book project is the Drupal Bible! This will be my fourth title for U.S. publisher Wiley & Sons and my second book in the popular Bible series. For those of you...
Ubuntu Visual Blueprint Released
Today is the official release date of my newest title — the Ubuntu Linux Desktop Visual Blueprint. Though April 9 is the “official” date of release, I just got back from Singapore where I saw copies of the book already on display in the bookstores! The Ubuntu Linux Visual Blueprint...
IBM set to shine?
Rumours of a pending IBM / Sun deal raise some interesting questions. What if IBM became the steward of Java, StarOffice and MySQL? The potential for a lot of good things, I would say. IBM has a well-established history of supporting open source (and they also do a pretty good...
Smaller budgets, not smaller deployments
My fave tech industry insider, The Reg, today reports on an IDC study that indicates the recession is speeding adoption of Linux. The conclusion mirrors what we’ve been seeing at water&stone as well, that is, while the downturn has lead to a few people deferring projects, many have not, choosing instead to consider...
Open Source CMS Social Resources
I received a request the other day from someone interested in finding social networking-type resources focused on open source content management systems. A good question, and one that I thought might make a useful list of resources. I did a bit of looking around at the larger networks and found...
Packt Announces the Release of Drupal 6 Themes Title
Today is the official release of my newest book – Drupal 6 Themes. Here is the press release from my publisher, Packt Publishing: Packt is pleased to announce a new book that teaches users to create and modify themes for Drupal websites. Written by prominent Open Source and Content Management expert...
Google Pet Peeve Number 1
~ even Google has usability issues ~ Google, a favorite poster child for simple and easy to use site design, is not without its own issues. My biggest pet peeve with Google is the way the system handles erroneous logins. I’m not talking about not talking about simple username/password mismatch,...