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Blogs » Archive for November, 2005
Wiki Comparison
Quick link: if you’re looking for a Wiki but having trouble choosing on of many Wiki engines, have a look at WikiMatrix.
It seems to have spun out of this Dokuwiki page and provides (primarily) functional comparison of different wiki engines (which is interesting in itself that Wiki software has become so well defined).
Opinion: although it’s a better place to start comparing wiki’s than anything else I’ve seen, to me what’s missing is things like “ease of maintenance”, “performance”, “scales to X pages / hits (link to real site)”, “actively developed / maintained”, “mean time to fix bugs / security issues” etc. But still a good start.
Things to Do With Firefox 1.5
Firefox 1.5 is here, and available for all to download and use.
Many of you no doubt have tried out the Beta and Release Candidate builds. Here’s a list of things to do and see with Firefox 1.5.
- Use the back and forward buttons to see the dramatic increase in rendering speed resulting from Firefox’s new “fastback” cache.
- If you installed one of the Beta or Release Candidate versions, you could wait until Firefox updates itself using its new incremental update system.
- When tabbed browsing, grab the tabs with your mouse and drag them to the order you want.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete to bring up the “Clear Private Data” window to clear private data such as history, cache and cookies.
- Go to websitedoesnt-exist.com to check out the new, non-obtrusive error messages.
- Check out “Help > Report Broken Website” to see how easy it is to report a Website that doesn’t work in Firefox.
- Install Firefox on your Mac and see how easy it is to migrate your profile information from Safari.
If you’re still itching to get involved with Firefox, you could consider the following:
- Get your Webcam ready and head on down to SpreadFirefox to take part in some sort of celebration.
- Catch up with Firefox related …
How NOT to do a sales call
I got a call today on my cell phone from a salesperson from what he described as a publicly traded search engine and optimization firm. I took it, because I need material for this blog. He obliged.
As usual, he started the call without his name, just saying, “How are you?”
So I said, “Fine, who is this?” Already I know this is an annoying sales call with somebody without a clue. Again, I need content for my blog. He continues to oblige.
He tells me what his firm does and begins reading a lengthy paragraph about his services. He tells me he got my name from my website, which happens to now be off line. Again, I let him continue, for content.
I interrupt him. “Look,” I say. “Feel free to email me about your services.”
He says, “If you just let me tell you a little more…”
I interrup and say I don’t have time and am not really interested.
He says, “Well, don’t you want more traffic to your website?”
I say, because I am annoyed, “No, not right now.”
He responds, ‘Then why are you online?”
I call him a stupid —– idiot and hang up. So he missed the chance to email me information, too.
I …
eZ components: New competition for Zend PHP Framework
Just about a month ago Zend Technologies announced Zend PHP Framework in line with the Zend PHP Collaboration Project with the stated goal to offer a “de facto standard PHP Web application development and deployment environment”. Not much information has been made public by Zend, which caused a lot of discussion. Just here and there, involved persons piped up and delivered more or less useful information tidbits. Currently, Zend is working on a first version while working out the collaboration infrastructure and engagement guidelines.
While Zend is enjoying the attention in the PHP world, eZ systems determinedly worked on a very similar project called eZ components. Let’s have a closer look at what it has to offer and how it compares to Zend’s PHP Framework.
Design
Both projects seem to come as independent, loosely coupled components to reduce dependency, of which each user can choose for himself which ones to use. While eZ components shows no signs of designated application design, the Zcontroller and ZpageController components in Zend PHP Framework could foreshadow some sort of MVC framework.
Components
A list of eZ components can be found right here. Unfortunately it’s hard to compare it to Zend’s PHP …
Catalyst Decisions
Following on from various text streams on Catalyst ([1], [2], [3], [4]) the next issue is selecting Cataylst plugins.
Personally know Perl from doing glue layer stuff on the command line, so the various web related APIs are all pretty much unknown territory. What’s more had been blissfully passing SQL through DBI (perhaps the nearest thing to DBI in PHP is PDO although PEAR DB was inspired by it I believe) but Catalyst confront’s you with more choice than just DBI.
Anyway – first step is to see what’s available which is probably easiest to do here – many of the packages listed there off unique add-on functionality but others offer competing alternatives. In practically all cases these are wrappers for other libraries in CPAN, packing them in a form that’s easy to use with Catalyst. The two key choices, at least to get started, are for the “Model” and the “View” so it’s a matter of investigating the various Catalyst::Model::* and Catalyst::View::*.
Starting with the latter first, what to use for the View, we’re talking template engines. The Catalyst documentation seems to suggest that Template Toolkit (TT) is the primary choice …
PHP 5.1 Released
The new release fixes over 400 bugs, including the exploitable $GLOBALS overwrite, several open_basedir issues and the phpinfo() XSS vulnerability. As usual, the PHP team strongly advices all users to upgrade to 5.1 as soon as possible.
Furthermore, PHP 5.1 comes with array type hinting, the PDO extension enabled by default, PCRE 6.2, PEAR 1.4.5 and performance improvements in the Zend Engine II.
The relief of selling products instead of services
I’ve got a couple of businesses that sell products, tangible products (see, for instance, my collaboration with my wife at www.momsonedge.com). I have to say that marketing products is so much easier than marketing services.
For instance, my wife sent out some samples of our products to some local stores. One out of 5 stores placed an order. That’s a 20% response rate!!!! I’ve never gotten a 20% response rate marketing services. I have an IT services firm as a client who did get 20% — but only when she followed up a series of mailings (not just one) with phone calls and in person visits.
Products are tangible. Prospects can see and touch them and try them out at little or no risk.
The same is not at all true for services — even if you have a great portfolio.
So what does one conclude from this?
First, wherever possible, try to create products! Don’t rely only on a service-based model. For instance, my latest site (not yet live, but you can check it out in early form at www.boxingfitnessinstitute.com) offers some real products, including a certification program with a real certificate, boxing equipment etc.
Second, you have to be more persistent …
Google Offers Click-To-Call Service
Google, always innovative, is now testing a “Click-to-Call” service as part of their AdWords offering.
Under certain keywords, some people will now see a phone icon alongside AdWords listings (for screenshots, see Greg’s Blog Posts).
The Click-To-Call FAQ explains how this new service works:
When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party. Then, chat away on our dime.
We won’t share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser. When you’re connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can’t see it. In addition, we’ll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time.
Some of you may remember FindWhat’s (now Miva’s) Pay-Per-Call program, which worked by charging advertisers based on in-bound calls to a 1-800 number. While Google removes some of the friction, by having advertisers call the users, but their system is susceptible to prank-call abuse.
It’ll be interesting to see what Google’s pricing is like (FindWhat used to charge a minimum of $2/call), as well as …
PHP6 Planning
This is all over Planet PHP but in case you missed it,
Derick has published minutes from a core developer meet up in Paris regarding the future of PHP 6.
Jeff has posted some very positive feelings. Likewise think there’s some great stuff coming.
Dont have time for a detailed review right now (Maarten?) so some shorts. The Unicode / i18n support that’s being planned is a big one – if you’re wondering what ICU is, have a look here – it’s not a toy project. Register globals is dead, long live input filters. PHP6 is going to mean more BC breaks but for the right reasons. Namespaces are back in play but with a a lingering ‘?’ hanging around (so don’t raise hopes).
Of course, like everyone who’s not contributing to the core, I’ve got an “opinion” about rejected changes that I need to rant about: delegates – was incited by this comment “We did not see any real-world code example”. Allow me to provide…
Covered delegates a long time ago here (calling them Decorators) with reference to real world projects using them, like this one. The way they have to be …
How to Choose a Product for eCommerce
Often the choice of what product to sell is made for you. For instance if you were following the advice I posted here you’d have to choose a product related to your existing site. Also sometimes you have a hookup with a wholesaler or manufacturer that’s just too good to ignore. However, assuming neither of those things are true, and you have all the options in the world available to you, just what should you try and sell online?
Go Local
I often recommend people to first try to find out what is made in their area. If you can work with a local manufacturer you’ll have a tremendous advantage. You will be able to save on freight costs, thus making it easier to compete on a price basis. You will also be able to keep less inventory on hand, because the manufacturer will be so accessible to you. Finally you might be able to cull a special relationship with the manufacturer to get further discounts and or first notice of new products.
It is definitely worthwhile to check your local area first.
If you cannot find anything local, or even if you can I guess, there is a …
