Joomla Team Launches Joomla Resources Directory

Calling all Joomla (news, site) fans! Back in January of this year, a seed was planted. That is, Joomla core team member Sam Moffat posted a blog entry that spawned comments around the desire for a better way to connect the Joomla community—specifically, users and developers.

A handful of similar posts followed on the Joomla blog, and the response from the community went from seemingly mild to “overwhelming,” as their website states. The result? The brand spankin’ new Joomla Resource Directory (JRD), which was pre-launched in May and finally went live earlier this month.

Bringing their new offering to the table along with much enthusiasm, the team claims that there’s no easier way to find developers, service providers, and other valuable resources.

“We think this will be a great way to connect end-users and service providers in the Joomla Community,” said Wendy Robinson of the JRD Team.”Most small businesses can’t afford to advertise on the Joomla.org sites and this will provide them wide exposure. With close to a million visitors and 14 million page views a month, the JED has proven that there is wide interest in products related to Joomla.”

So far it looks like the majority of Joomla fans are pleased with the new directory, if only, perhaps, because they now have something to tide them over until the much anticipated release of Joomla 1.6.

Interested? Head on over to www.resources.joomla.org.

10 Things They Don’t Teach You In Design School

I had a great time in design school, I was constantly learning and surrounded by lots of like minded people. However, after five years of freelancing as a graphic designer, I’ve learned many new things. The following list is the top ten things that I had to learn the hard way.

1. Your diploma doesn’t help you to find a job

But your portfolio does! Of course it’s a good thing to get a design education and a proof of it, but when it comes to get money out of their wallet clients want to see what you are capable of, not a diploma. When looking for work, I never had to show my diploma, not even once.

Picture by ajschwegler

2. Good design takes time, don’t set too tight deadlines

When you are in design school, the teacher sets the deadlines for you and tries to give you enough time. Your boss or your client will not be like your design teacher, they will try to push you to be more productive and give you too little time to get work done. All my worst designs have been created when I agreed to work with unrealistic deadlines.

Picture by Swami Stream

3. You clients don’t think that you are an artist

They just think you should help them to sell more. This doesn’t mean you should give up on good design, it just means that you’ll have to be convincing when you want to bring a more artistic touch to a job. I’ve been very frustrated with this when I first got out of school, but I learned to deal with it by educating my clients.

Picture by Neil T

4. You must be able to handle irrelevant criticism

When you are in school, you learn a lot from getting criticized by your teachers and classmates. Obviously these people all have some design skills, sometimes more than yourself. It is much harder to handle critics about your work when they come from people with no design education. You can be sure that you’ll hear some insane things and have to deal with it.

Picture by liber

5. You should backup your data on a regular basis

Most people learn this the hard way, the day their computer crashes. Usually it happens at the worst time, before a client meeting or something similar. If you think that this isn’t design-related, you are totally wrong.

Picture by miss karen

6. Start networking, now!

Be sociable, even if you are the best designer out there, nobody will know it if people don’t get a chance to meet you. You don’t even need to attend work-related events, just join a sport team, drama group or whatever suits you, the most important thing is that you meet some like-minded people. When with people, don’t oversell and talk about your work all the time, but be sure never to miss an opportunity when you think that someone could need your skills.

Picture by chuck p

7. Make sure your client signs a contract

This is sometimes annoying, especially when you think that you can trust the client, but it can save you a lot of trouble. You should make it a habit to have you clients signing a simple and comprehensive contract before starting to work. If you have no clue of how to write a contract, take a look at this article by Andy Clark.

Picture by robertgaal

8. Learning design is an ongoing process

Getting your diploma doesn’t mean that your design education is over, far from it. As a designer you have to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, software updates and industry news, or you’ll quickly lose touch.

Picture by nickobec

9. Being a good designer is not only about talent

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”. This quote by Thomas Jefferson says it all about the importance of hard work in creative fields. As a designer, you need to read, work and experiment constantly, it is the only way to let your natural talent explode.

Picture by Marcin Wichary

10. Your printer will stop working when you need it the most

Need to print your design to go meet your client? Chances are that your printer will chose that moment to die. Make sure you have some friends or working partners willing to help in these cases.

Picture by sheffnermarc

Source

CodeIgniter – Open source PHP web application framework

Codeigniter

CodeIgniter is a powerful PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. If you’re a developer who lives in the real world of shared hosting accounts and clients with deadlines, and if you’re tired of ponderously large and thoroughly undocumented frameworks

CodeIgniter is right for you if…

• You want a framework with a small footprint.
• You need exceptional performance.
• You need broad compatibility with standard hosting accounts that run a variety of PHP versions and configurations.
• You want a framework that requires nearly zero configuration.
• You want a framework that does not require you to use the command line.
• You want a framework that does not require you to adhere to restrictive coding rules.

• You are not interested in large-scale monolithic libraries like PEAR.
• You do not want to be forced to learn a templating language (although a template parser is optionally available if you desire one).
• You eschew complexity, favoring simple solutions.
• You need clear, thorough documentation.

DrupalCon is coming to Paris in September 2009

Great news! On Thursday evening, the Drupal Association board chose Paris to host the next European Drupalcon.

First of all we want to congratulate the teams from the other two candidate cities, Maastricht and Cologne. We know they worked hard, spent a lot of energy and did a great job. We’re looking forward to working with you all — your help and experience will be more than welcome…

Paris is a good city for open source software, a great city for Drupal and, frankly, a fantastic place to visit. The community here has become increasingly active over the past two years and is excited to host enthusiastic Drupalers from around the world.

We want the conference to be attractive to as many Drupalers as possible. This is why the conference will feature tracks for coders, designers, site builders and students as well as companies and entrepreneurs thinking about using Drupal.

Read from source

What is HTML 5

HTML was developed by the W3C until 2004, when members of the HTML working group grew disturbed with the direction the W3C was going with HTML. They felt that the W3C was not paying enough attention to the real-world development needs of the language and focusing too much on XML and XHTML. So they formed a new group called WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) devoted to evolving the Web. They started by working on a new specification of HTML – HTML 5.

HTML 5 is a new version of HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 focusing on the needs of Web application developers as well as evolving HTML and addressing issues found in the current specifications.

You Can Use HTML 5 Right Now

While the HTML 5 specification (also on the W3C as a Working Draft) is not finalized yet, you can use it with any browser that supports it or any part of it. For example, many Web browsers currently support the [a href='http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-canvas-element.html]canvas[/link] element. This element is used to draw graphics with scripting. It is currently supported by Safari, Firefox, Opera, and IE 8.

Why Should You Learn HTML 5

HTML 5 is the newest specification for HTML, and many browsers are going to start supporting it in the future. One nice thing about HTML 5 is that it attempts to stay backwards compatible. So if you don’t want to learn it just yet, you don’t need to.

If you build Web applications you will eventually want to learn HTML 5. There are a lot of new attributes and tags built just for Web applications. For instance, there are a number of new event handlers for drag and drop:

• ondrag
• ondragstart
• ondragend
• ondrop

And many more.

At this point in time, there is not a lot of support for HTML 5, but that support is growing all the time. By staying abreast of the changes you’ll be prepared when they become widely available for use.

Ten Characteristics of a Good Client

Do you know the key characteristics of a good client? Can you distinguish the good clients from the bad before you start working for them?

Or, when the tables are turned, do you have what it takes to become a good client when your business expands and you’re ready to hire other freelancers?

Here are ten characteristics of a good client:

1. Communicates expectations clearly. The number one characteristic of a good client is that they are able to express what they want and need. This ability is vital for a freelancer to deliver the right product or service. A freelancer can’t deliver what wasn’t asked for.

SenCSs: Sensible Standards CSS Framework

SenCSs is a Sensible Standards CSS Framework (Pronounce it as “sense”). The current version is 0.5 and supplies sensible styling for all repetitive parts of your CSS.

What features that you can get from SenCSs? Here comes the list:

* Vertical rhythm for all elements
* Common typographic standard across browsers
* Browsers based styling
* Specified fonts for windows, mac and linux
* No “double resets”, to make the CSS as efficient as possible
* Basic styling for forms and common classes
* Typographic niceties styling

However, SenCSs doesn’t seems to force a lay-out system on you or sneak in unsemantic classes

If you are related into this area, you should be ready for the upcoming features of SenCSs, as they are working on better form styling and cross-browser support.

Why Freelancing is Awesome

Freedom to choose freelancing

If you know a lot about freelancing, then you know that there are a lot of things that can make freelancing really hard. But that isn’t the whole story — freelancing is one of the best things on earth, despite any of the difficulties there may be.

Why is freelancing so awesome?

• Control over your own destiny
• Freedom to choose when and how to work
• You can’t be fired or laid off by anyone
• Work on the things you love to do
• Nearly unlimited opportunity

As a freelancer, it’s so easy to get caught up in the daily worries that you can forget why you wanted to freelance to start with. When you’re in the midst of this daily stress, it can be a great help to remember the good side of freelancing. This list will help.

For those of you who are considering freelancing, or are freelancing part-time, this article will show you the massive benefits you can have as a freelancer. Read on for more.

Control over your own destiny

As a freelancer you have the ability to completely control your own destiny. Your effort and your abilities determine your success, and you have control over both.

Freelancers who are willing to work hard and put in the effort can reap massive benefits. Your income doesn’t depend on the decision or whim of a boss, it depends on you — freelancing is the ultimate in merit-based compensation. For people who are independent and self-reliant, freelancing can be a dream come true.

Freedom to choose when and how to work

One of the biggest benefits of freelancing is the freedom to do things the way you want. You still need to follow some basic guidelines, and your success will depend on your efforts, but when it comes to how or when you want to do something, it’s entirely up to you.

Prefer working late at night? Go for it. Want to work at a coffee shop, or in your pajamas? Either will work. With freelancing, all of these decisions are entirely in your hands.

You can’t be fired or laid off by anyone

With the global economy being what it is, and layoffs being extremely common, many freelancers are in the enviable position of not needing to worry about their jobs. There are certainly economic ramifications that make running a business more difficult, and many freelancers will have to work harder in order to maintain their current income, but there is no one person that controls your fate. Most freelancers don’t have to worry about loosing 100% of their income in two weeks.

This benefit is so great that many people actually start freelancing after loosing another job. With freelancing they can earn a living based on their own merits, and not the whim of a corporation.

Work on the things you love to do

There is perhaps nothing more important in life than your personal happiness, and becoming a freelancer is one of the best ways to increase that happiness. Working in a job you don’t like can be miserable, stressful, and worse. As a freelancer, you have the ability to decide what you want to focus on, decide what you want to do for a living, and essentially decide what kind of job you have.

I don’t know that I can fully explain the wonder that comes from doing something you love all day and getting paid for it. Freelancing can give you that opportunity.

Nearly unlimited opportunity

Although you will have to work hard for it, freelancing offers a nearly unlimited amount of opportunity. I know dozens of freelancers who make much more now than they could have at their old jobs, and I know some who have gone on to create big and incredibly successful businesses. When it comes to your limits as a freelancer, the only person that can stop you is yourself.

Dealing with real world difficulties

Sadly, freelancing isn’t only these wonderful things, and it doesn’t always work out perfectly. Along with these benefits comes a number of real world difficulties that we all have to face in order to become successful freelancers. Facing these challenges can be made a lot easier by working with mentors, visiting freelance blogs, and reading books like The Unlimited Freelancer. Learning from these resources will help you avoid some of the common difficulties and realize these amazing benefits much faster.

7 Useful Apps For OSX Web Designers

Design

Because of various requests I received lately and the irrefutable fact, that there are plenty of useful yet sometimes rather unknown applications available for OSX, I’d like to share some of my most vital pieces of software with you ordered by function below.

Image Editing – Photoshop CS3 / CS4
Even though there are some really promising approaches to create a real alternative to it, Photoshop was and still is one of those irreplaceable applications any professional web designer can’t get around yet. However, I’d like to put the spotlight on my personal runner-up which is Pixelmator, a project I kept an eye on from the very first release already. It’s not quite where it needs to be in order to seriously compete with Photoshop, but it’s beautifully executed, includes some sophisticated functions and already is really useful for some smaller tasks such as photo retouching for example.

Visit the Adobe website

Coding & FTP – Coda
Working on various kinds of source code are daily tasks for any web designer and so it’s definitely a plus to work with an application you feel comfortable with. This application is called Coda for me and is so much more than just a basic text editor – it literally includes anything you need to “grow beautiful code” according to their website. One of the features which is really time-saving and in my opinion truly outstanding is the integrated FTP client based upon their very own Transmit 3 engine – it’s just like editing code on a local system when you actually work directly on your web space.

Visit the Coda website

Task Management – Things
Time is probably one of the most valuable resources for anybody, so it absolutely makes sense to work as efficient and organized as possible. Even though there are plenty of free and commercial apps and even web services which can help you here, I absolutely valuate Things, it’s clean, uncluttered interface and the fact that I probably wouldn’t know what to do without it anymore because it remembers almost anything for me from the birthday of my girlfriend to the next steps of the project I’m currently working on. In addition, there’s even an iPhone application which usually reminds me of the huge amount of work I still have to do once I’m back in office. Seriously, it’s a great app and well worth the money.

Visit the Things website

Invoicing – Invoy
The range of solid invoicing applications is not that broad to be honest, but one I made pretty well experiences with is called Invoy. It’s definitely not a solution if you need to create hundreds of invoices and estimates a day, but it usually does a good job and should be sufficient for almost every freelance designer.

Visit the Invoy website

Feeds & Twitter – EventBox
One of the most useful applications I came across ever is called EventBox and has been released just a couple of weeks ago for the first time. Before, I had to visit many different websites each and every day to read the RSS feeds I’m subscribed to and to see what happened on flickr or facebook, not to mention the need of an additional application for twitter. Now, EventBox combines it all and it does that exceptionally well, so if you got a Mac, are tired of those repetitive tasks and currently read this blog I strongly recommend giving it a try – you’ll love it.

Visit the EventBox website

Backup – Backblaze
Another essential aspect of every business is a solid backup system which continuously secures your business data. I have to admit that I used an external drive and time machine first to prevent data loss, but it’s not that long ago when I realized that a local solution probably might not be the best idea when a good friend had a serious damage by water because of a bursted pipe. It usually happens when you expect it least and so he lost many personal things but also important, irretrievable business information when he came back home and noticed that every room of his apartment was flooded. Unfortunately this could happen to any of us at any time and so it’s better to use a reasonably priced, secure and well done solution like Backblaze instead.

Visit the Backblaze website

Image Sharing – GrabUp
Who doesn’t know the repetitive and sometimes really annoying task of creating and submitting a screenshot to someone. Now there’s a small but incredible useful app which does that automatically for you after the initial setup. Just create a screen-shot and GrabUp immediately puts in on your web space, adds a custom watermark image to protect it and even copies the URL to the image into the clipboard so it’s just a matter of seconds until you can paste the link to it into a messenger window or eMail message.

Visit the GrabUp website

In the end, some of the applications mentioned above are probably very well known already, but especially the smaller, well thought-out and often useful apps absolutely deserve it to be mentioned from time to time and the sheer amount of these make the difference between a Mac and a PC in my opinion and not the operating system itself. I’m sure you know some of them too so please don’t hesitate to share them with us.

Happy Birthday Drupal, you are eight

Drupal

Eight years ago today Drupal 1.0.0 was released. It’s been a big year for Drupal, another big release with Drupal 6, a lot of awards, and a lot of recognition. The project has had some notable departures, promotions, and the addition of many great contributors and users. Happy Birthday to the Drupal project and its amazing community.

Source: drupal.org