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Its been a great year! Thank you to all of our clients and friends.
Some highlights:
- We've produced over 230 online training videos for OSTraining.com
- We've been in the UK, Washington DC, Chicago, Austin, Indianapolis, Boston and more... teaching Joomla and Drupal to people from Pfizer to MIT
- We've launched a number of sites in 2011
- Rod is blogging again! (http://www.rodmartin.net)
May you have a blessed 2012!
We've Released Three New Joomla 1.6 Videos - Including ACL
It's January 10, 2011. Joomla 1.6 Stable should be released sometime before 11:59pm Hawaiian time today!
In preparation for that, we've put together 3 videos that will provide a great overview of what you'll need to know about administering a Joomla 1.6 site.
- Part 1 - The Site, Users and Menu Management Menus (9:52)
- Part 2 - The Articles, Components, Extensions and Help Menus (15:29)
- Joomla 1.6 Access Control Lists (26:31)
How the web is built - Static html vs the CMS
The folks over at W3Techs.com have released an interesting study on the distribution of web development styles.
A whopping 76% of websites are still not using a popular CMS. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are static sites... many could be dynamic - using PHP or another tool... but only 24% are using a recognizable content management system like Joomla or WordPress.
OSTraining Offers FREE Classes to Schools
This is a pretty cool!
Here's part of their announcement:
That landmark coincided with the holiday season so we celebrated by giving back: we held a free class for 16 non-profit organizations in Atlanta.
Fast forward almost a year and last week we hit another milestone: 200 live classes! Those Joomla and Drupal classes were held all across North America and England, from Los Angeles to London and from Vancouver to Miami.
This year's landmark also coincided with the holiday season and so we've decided to give back again, only bigger and better:
We're Featured!
One of the things we're passionate about is training. Yes, we're an internet marketing/web design company... but Rod loves to teach. He's just finished his 115th online training video for OSTraining.com. The topic of this video was JCalPro - a calendar component for Joomla (view the tutorials).
Our Contact Information
(if you use a QR Reader)
The Web and the iPad
Stephen Vescio over at Six Revisions posted a great article on designing for the Apple's iPad (read the article here). I admit it... I LOVE my iPad. It is a fantastically rich experience in a small form factor.
Creating a web application for the iPad isn't rocket science - and depending on your needs - it could have you saying "I have an app for that!"
Do you have a need for a mobile application to process user input? The last time I showed up at the Apple store, the guy taking Genius Bar reservations was using an iPad to do it... point, click... go. Pretty cool.
iPads are making their way into all kinds of places... hospitals, offices, classrooms (galore)... so let me make a suggestion...
If you're looking for some kind of application on a mobile platform - a web-app on the iPad could be just the thing... AND - a web-based application will be far less expensive than a full-blown application that must go through Apple's stringent approval process for the Apple Store.
From Stephen's article - here is a good summary of the differences between a native app and a web app...
Native iPad Apps
- Native Apps are faster: uses more of the iPad’s resources and capabilities.
- No need to search the web: one-stop shopping on the App Store.
- Users feel more comfortable: They know the app was made specifically for their device, not adapted using HTML5/CSS3.
- Easier to turn on and off: Apps are made to turn on/off without interruption or loss of data.
- More difficult to develop: requires knowledge of Objective-C and use of Apple SDK.
- Closed Platform: difficult to adapt for other devices like the Android platform.
iPad Web Apps
- Emerging coding standards: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript are bringing incredible client-side functionality to the web; especially with local/offline storage.
- Tailor the site for any browser: switch between style sheets or redirect pages depending on which device or browser your user is operating. It is possible to make your app universal.
- Easy to develop: Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create iPad web apps instead of learning new languages. These are skills you already have.
- Steve Jobs can’t censor your web app: The web is an open platform — meaning that you are in control. No waiting to get approved by the App Store.
- Small market, not enough support: web apps need strength in numbers which means not only attracting users but developers as well.
Stephen's article and proof of concept is really great. We're doing a lot with mobile platforms and web apps these days. If you think this might be helpful in your business - talk to us! We're good at this stuff :)
