BuddyPress Camp!
Posted by Beth Still on October, 29th 2009Hey, all you WordPress/BuddyPress lovers: There is a camp just for you next month in New York, and word on the street says the camp t-shirts are nothing short of awesome. Not a Wordpress–ario? Never heard of BuddyPress? Then this article will answer some of your burning question–about BuddyPress, specifically.
Wordpress (WP) is an open source application that web developers use to publish blogs and basic content management. BuddyPress (BP) is an open source package built on top of WordPress that converts WP into a social network (think Facebook). Both are written in PHP scripting language.
BuddyPress does not enjoy the status, widespread use, or intricacies that Facebook and MySpace do; rather, it operates on a much smaller scale, and only in combination with WP. It inherits and extends upon the
OOiZiT – The Social Network For New Music
Posted by Dave Wiltshire on October, 28th 2009After 6 months of hard work we have launched OOiZiT, a social network for New Music that is set to rival myspace and Reverbnation for new music artists and new music fans. With creative web design throughout flash music players and awesome material posted by bands and musicians this social network has already drawn a lot of media attention.
There is a featureset yet to be released on OOiZiT that is set change the music industry…. but for now it is TOP SECRET, all will be revealed in a few weeks.If you are a Music Maker or a Music lover join up and check it out… you need OOiZiT in your life!
This represents the best and most powerful site we have built so far, and right now we are very proud to have played our
Google Android 2.0 Debuts
Posted by Beth Still on October, 28th 2009Today Google rolled out its new operating system called “Android” (aka “Éclair”) to the web design community, and first reviews are very enthusiastic.
Some of the upgrades included in Android 2.0 are:
• an overhauled browser with a better user interface and HTML5 support
• the ability to search all saved SMS and MMS messages and automatically delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached
• support for multiple email accounts
• more comprehensive camera controls that support built-in flash, digital zoom, and scene mode
• improved keyboard layout makes it easier to hit the correct characters and increases typing speed
• “smarter” dictionary “learns” from and expands with word usage
• Bluetooth 2.1 support
• an upgraded version of Google Maps with layer support
And there’s more. Android’s voice control has its own dedicated dashboard and is embedded throughout the whole
Facebook Redesign: the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
Posted by Beth Still on October, 25th 2009Facebook rolled out their latest web design on October 23 and already a group called “CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL” has rallied. But then, no one expected the change to be welcomed by 100 percent of FB users even though FB claims that they based their decision to make it on user feedback. And, hey, there are just some people who hate change of any kind.
Facebook has introduced the ability to toggle between News Feed (self-explanatory) and Live Feed, which is the same real-time feed from your friends to which you’ve become accustomed. Facebook uses a new algorithm that bases the News Feed sources and stories they display on your past history on the site and how much attention the stories have received from your friends. Kind of like Amazon’s “if you like
DotNetNuke CMS
Posted by Beth Still on October, 21st 2009DotNetNuke has chosen Europe’s winners of the OpenForce Community Choice Awards just in time for the OpenForce Europe Conference that was held October 19-20. The awards honor the best web design created using the DotNetNuke platform. Interdigital won the award this year for best Overall Site and Best Informational site. Structure Sonores (www.structuresonore.eu) won for the Most Creative/Original Site, and Le Bazar de Wally (www.lebazardewally.com) for the Best eCommerce Site. Both websites are quite impressive.
The conference is a two-day, multiple track professional developers’ conference held in conjunction with the Software Developer Network Conference and includes speeches and demonstrations by expert software developers from the DotNetNuke community all over Europe, Asia, and Africa as well as representatives from DotNetNuke Corporation. Users attend the conference in order to expand their knowledge base, network and
2009 PHP Barcelona Conference
Posted by Beth Still on October, 20th 2009Hey, all you PHP Developers: it’s not too late to get your tickets to the 2009 PHP Barcelona Conference—it will be happening October 30-31 in, of course, Barcelona. It is a two-day event with three simultaneous sessions all day each day. The conference motto is “Interesting sessions for smart people, with a touch of practicality”. This is the third year for the event, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever, PLUS it is being held in one of the more beautiful cities in Europe.
Rasmus Lerdorf, a Danish developer, created PHP in 1995 in part to track how many people were visiting his website(s). He considered it to be the “fastest and simplest tool” for creating dynamic web pages for your web design. It has evolved
Worms in the New Apple OS
Posted by Beth Still on October, 16th 2009Wow, Apple patrons are NOT happy with the OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard, and who can blame them? Problem #1: apparently it has a bug that causes it to EAT YOUR DATA. Not all the time, just if you log in as a guest after upgrading from Apple’s previous OS (Leopard-10.5). And not ALL of your data, just whatever is stored in your home directory, like documents, music, etc. And to make matters worse, it seems to be totally random and hard to reproduce, which make it practically impossible to debug. Oh, and another thing: the previous version (Leopard 10.5.1) exhibited the same problem. So that means that Apple was aware of this problem before they trotted out Snow Leopard and not only did they NOT fix it in Leopard, they let
Macmillan Global – Full Site Design
Posted by Dave Wiltshire on October, 15th 2009A few weeks ago we launched the Macmillan Global teaser web design. The site has achieved a lot, and through a combination of web and email marketing has seen over 1000 subscriptions already which is really amazing. Teaser sites are stripped down preview sites with limited content and as such can be designed in a different way. We have just finalised homepage design for the new website including a slightly different interface to accomodate more content.
The site has great content, video and downloads and is to be heavily integrated with, and marketed through social networking tools. This really is a god foundation for success and we hope the web design and powerful Wordpress blogging platform will help too.
Macmillan Global: New web design
Wordpress Web Design and Fresh Content
Posted by Beth Still on October, 14th 2009If you have a business but have not yet dipped your toes in the blogging pool, it is definitely something worth considering. Incorporating a blog into your web design can be very beneficial to your business because you will consistently be providing fresh content for prospective customers to find in web searches. Blogging allows your customers to get to know you as a person and gives you the chance to express your passion for what it is that you are selling. It can give you a real competitive edge if you can show readers that you are an expert in your field. Blogging is a good way to incorporate personal customer service into your website by talking about issues and questions about your product or field. Your customers can leave tips, comments,
Spotting a Phisher
Posted by Beth Still on October, 13th 2009The October 7 FBI arrest of 33 people for phishing, (the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication, per Wikipedia) has caused web design companies and users to become more conscientious about the possibility of their email accounts and websites being hacked (accessed without authorization). Once your email is hacked, there can be a domino effect that will impact other areas of your online “life”.
The fact is, many people use the same password or variations on a password for all or most of their online accounts like social networks, banks, IMs, etc. This makes a phisher’s work a whole lot easier; it’s like giving him/her the master key to your front door and all of