Blogs

I recently got an Apple Ipad. After I found myself using my Iphone for so much stuff, like watching videos, reading, maintaining web servers, checking traffic and network stats, the list goes on and on and on. Doing this stuff on an Ipad is so much less fiddly than using the small screen on your phone.

Don't get me wrong, the new retina display on the Iphone 4 is so crisp and sharp it displays them great, but inputting text, or navigating sites on a tiny screen requires more precision than my big fists of meet can provide.

This is where the Ipad fits in great, it's small enough that it isn't obtrusive or cumbersome, like a laptop. Yet it's powerful enough to do all the simple day to day tasks I need to run my websites. Without having me chained to my desk 24/7.

Over the next few weeks, time permitting, I'll be posting up the apps and websites I find most useful for developing and maintaining websites.

If you have any to suggest, please leave a comment.

The new iphone was launched today and like any gadget mad person I ran out to buy one... all looks amazing at the moment - will update with a short report soon.

I thought it would be useful for many Magento developers if I wrote some concise documentation for the Unirgy Gift Certificate Module. (Version 0.9.14)

There are literally hundreds of Content Management Systems available. All of which simplify running and maintaining a website, but picking which one is right for you is far from a simple process.

For the purposes of this article, I will limit the selections to the three most widely used open source systems. Namely, Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal.
Open source means they are freely available to download and modify under a general public license.

Each has it strengths and weaknesses, which I will go on to highlight, and each is suited to people of differing levels of technical experience. The best advice is to try each one, and see which one you get on with. Each one is a progressive stepping stone to the next level of complexity, so cut your teeth with one you understand, and before you know it, you'll have the competence to use a more complex system.

The biggest, and costliest mistake people make when getting a new website, is trusting their eyes. If it looks swish, and fancy, it must be expensive and good. Right?
Sadly how a website looks is only half the story. It is the code 'behind' the pretty images and fancy effects that matters most. This code matters so much, because it's what search engines like Google and Yahoo look at to catalogue your site. And so far, the computer programmes they use aren't clever enough to know the difference between a pretty site and an ugly one, but how your underlying code is written, really impacts how they perceive your website. Your website is the doughnut, your code is the jam filling. And search engines rank you on taste alone!

So what's is code? And what makes it deliciously tasty?