Soft Serve Direct Home

Review: Using Concrete5 CMS

Roger Davies

Technically: Concrete5 is a Web Content Management System (WCM, WCMS or Web CMS) implemented as a web application, for creating and managing websites with dynamic web material (HTML, images, media, applets). Concrete5 facilitates content creation, control, editing, and maintenance functions, providing tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of programming or markup languages to create and manage web content with relative ease. It uses a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) based database to store and access content needed by the website, based on a set of templates. It is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical administrators, allowing changes to the website with little training, after initial system set up and configuration.

Practically: Concrete5 is a magic foundation that frees your content from the drudgery of design presentation. see my sample C5 website at http://rogerdavies.net/news

Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS Change is Coming

Roger Davies

E-mail | Print | PDF

Looking forward to testing out the new Apr 2010 version of Ubuntu Linux (10.04 LTS). ETA 29 Apr 2010!

LDS.org tests new ooyala.com video player

Roger Davies

E-mail | Print | PDF

It has been a pet peeve of mine for a while now. I like to view video provided by BYU.tv and from LDS.org but they have been using a proprietary video player from movenetworks.com that links to Windows Media Player (not installed in Linux) resulting in the message below:

"We're sorry, but only the following operating systems are supported at this time:

They Googled my Van in Magrath, AB

Roger Davies

E-mail | Print | PDF

I be googled! My daughter informed me today that her friend saw our van in front of my mother-in-laws house on Google Maps. Apparently last spring the Google cam-van was here and I never knew. No one tells me anything.

To see what YOUR house looked like last year, you can go to Google Maps and drag the little person icon to your street. Street view lets you navigate the same paths the cam-van took and you can look around and up at each point. Click the while arrow heads on the white path line to move along the streets. Click the blue arrow heads on the compass icon to rotate left/right or look up/down. Click the +/- below the compass to zoom in/out. Also, in the mini map at lower right you can move to other streets by dragging the person icon around. Neato.

So go to maps.google.com and search for Magrath, Canada. That should get you to the current map of Magrath or just click here to view our town on Google Maps

Joomla Upgrade Weekend 1.0.15 to 1.5.15

Roger Davies

E-mail | Print | PDF

Ok it was about time. My websites get updated with new content, somewhat sporadically .. as time permits, but the Joomla code and templates have puttered along without any attention for the past few years. Of course, version 1.6 is in beta and will be coming out soon, but .. using version 1.5.15 (stable) should be better and safer than my dated 1.0.x versions.

What is Joomla (someone named Ashley wants to know)? It is a collection of programmable webpages that I use to create and maintain my company websites. See their website for more info at www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html

I was not looking forward to the upgrade, but it went fairly smoothly.