bertboerland's blog

More newspapers moving towards Drupal

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:13:33 +0200

Publishers (especially newspapers) are going to some very rough times. Most of the journalist and publishers are still in denial about how the web changed the creation and gathering of news and are up in their ivory tower thinking they publish for dead-trees and web is just an over hyped toy medium. While smarter publishers understand that the web is a disruptive technology and if they do not change, they will become a dinosaur.

Some of those publishers that do get it, think that they only way to be online is via the same tool that the competition is using. Their is no branch in the world that is so inside-thinking as the publishing market. Newspapers still do not understand that they are not competing with other newspapers anymore, but with every single site on the Internet. And this is why "braindead" tools like escenic still have a huge market; newspaper A chooses a proprietary tool, so newspaper B has to have the same tool.

In that respect it is good to see that more and more newspapers are not using what another newspaper is using, but what other quality sites are using as a tool to publish. And today, a newspapers therefor switched to Drupal.

The news on jornalsim.co.uk

The world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, London-based The Jewish Chronicle, has re-launched its news site using free open source software Drupal.
The Jewish Chronicle, popularly known as The JC, has become the latest news site to choose open source software Drupal as its content management system (CMS).
"I would like to think we are the first national news site in the UK to run on Drupal, but I do not know for certain that we are. At the moment we are in beta mode, so we are not shouting about it," Richard Burton, managing editor of The JC, told Journalism.co.uk.
For the former editor of Telegraph.co.uk, who joined the title in February 2007, the contrast between the expensive, large-scale online development at his former newspaper and the low-cost, lightweight use of Drupal could not be starker.

I like that, cheaper then the big projects that are twice as expensive, taking 3 times as long to implement and deliverg half the functionality. Read also this article that is related to this.

I do think that Drupal will grow in every market, but public and media are the two markets that will adapt the power of Drupal really fast.

"You must first connect to iTunes with an Internet connection to enable Youtube" solved

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:09:58 +0200

Somehwo I always manage to screw stuff up. The other day I connected my iPhone to my Mac and it fired up -as it should- iTunes. However, iTunes told me that I should "activate my iPhone or that the SIM was damaged". I have a jailbroken iPhone and a fine SIM card, rebooting the iPhone "solved" the problem. However, it triggered something else that I only found out days later; the Youtube application still was not activated and tol me when I started it

You must first connect to iTunes with an Internet connection to enable Youtube

And then the application stopped. It seems that this is "normal" behaviour when you unlock your phone with ziPhone. However, I jailbroke my iPhone with iNdependence and it has been working fine for month.

The solution for ZiPhone users worked for me as well however. Some say that installing a "YouTube fix" program via the installer application will work, it did not for me. But all you have to do is copy three files to your iPhone, even if you do not know anything about UNIX an easy task.

Just download these threefiles. Start a SFTP client on your machine, copy the files in /var/root/Library/Lockdown to your desktop for backup reasons and copy the three files you downloaded to the same location. The userid to do this with is "root", the password "alpine".

Worked for me, I can use the Youtube application again, thanks to macriot!

No more blurry screenshots on a Mac

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:06:50 +0200

If you have taken screenshots on your Mac with CMD SHIFT 4 (or 5), you will have seen that most of the screenshots do not have much detail and are in fact a bit blurry. This is caused by Mac OSX, making by defaults the screenshots in JPEG format. JPEG -unlike for example PNG- is a loosy compressed image format that is great for photo's but not too good for screenshots.

To change this, open a terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png
killall SystemUIServer

From now and, screenshots will be in the PNG format, better for making screenshots.

A very good tip found on creativebits

On the value of meta data (or how Flickr become a porn site)

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:36:47 +0200

A small test on metadata. Spot the difference.

One difference, the first I added the tag downblouse, the second is free of tags.

What a difference metadata makes and what a shame that Flickr has become a site to look for porn. Sad, I always thought of Flickr as the last bastion of true artistic value but it seems that it has is being used like the rest of the internet is.

Has been...

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:21:55 +0200

You know you are a has been if you launch a new site using a kick ass CMS and the projectlead of the CMS is not even blogging it.

Sleep tight Metallica.

OpenSource and clouds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:47:26 +0200

There are two big trends in ICT; Service a a Service (SaaS) and Open Source Software (OSS). And I do think those two go hand in hand and are reflecting changes that are coming towards the ICT landscape. When I say "hand in hand", I do mean that they are complementary (like people are in a relationship) but also that the are in contrast of each other (like in many relationships). It is my opinion that you either outsource
(parts of your) IT activities, or build the solution yourself. You will either use a cloud to deliver your needs, or make your own cloud. It will either be service from the Microsoft's or you will have to build and manage the solution by yourself. You either well use a cheap commodity service with limited customisation to have the complete freedom to fit the software to your business objectives. Let me try to make clear why this is my opinion and how this influences your role as a user or provider of ICT services.

Recent trends have shown that release cycles of software have become shorter and shorter; to keep ahead of our competitors you have to be able to release early and often.

Release early and release often as a way to be able to quickly add new features for the future, fix problems for the current software and to prevent that software becomes obsolete ("end of life"). The perpetual beta as the new adagium. Where flickr was able to deploy during it's booming period a new codebase every 15 minutes, Microsoft was able to make a new operating 7 years. One is using the "service" (cloud) way of offering it's software, the other is using the "fat client" approach. So on one hand proprietary fat client software s facing competition from cloud based services. Sure Google Docs is not as feature rich or reliable as the Office suite of Microsoft but most agree that this is just a question of time and network reliability; in due time Google Apps will be good enough for the masses. Mind you, most if not all cloud services are proprietary and are doing well; salesforce as the most prominent example.

On the other hand, proprietary software faces problems from the Open Source alternatives. OpenOffice.org is a real competitor for MS-Office, the Ubuntu distribution beats Microsoft in many areas and MySQL is giving the absurd licence fees of Oracle a hard time. If proprietary closed source software wants to stay in business, they have to move. Not to a "long tail" niche but in the other direction, to the left side of the tail where you can offer a highly standardised yet customisable version of their product. That way they are able to release early and often and go for a low margin per product sold but sell a lot. So I do think that closed source software has to move towards a service model, away from the client into the data centre.

This means that the other trend (Open Source Software) -that has written "release early and often" written all over it- will dominate the Do It Yourself area. OSS will be used by people and companies that have time and resources to fulfill their needs via highly customisable software. You will see this first with applications that are by nature webbased; the can move to the cloud with less legacy baggage. Software with much interaction with local legacy products will follow later, much later in some case So Office Automation for existing companies will take some serious time to migrate to the cloud since hybrid solutions (some data local, some in the cloud) will be rather expensive and complex to many from security, identity and manageability point of view.

One of the webbased applications that will dominte the "DIY" will be Drupal. It i already the best Content Mangement System ("looking outside") on the market and it is moving more in the direction of the core of business processes ("looking inside"). Drupal will more and more be used as both a frontend system and a backend system; a system where you can aggregate and enrich data for internal use that can be pushed towards for example an external Drupal site.

If you follow this logic (proprietary moving towards commodity cloud service, Open Source solutions towards customisable client service) you might conclude with me that Open Surce CMS-es have nothing to fear from closed source CMS-es like sharepoint. Sharepoint will be the shell around your office data if you want to use that from a cloud perspective, Drupal will be used by enthusiast and enterprises that need more power and have more resources to kickstart and operate that power.

So some people will use an iPhone and the cloud service "Mobile me", others will build Android. Some will use digital TV solutons from their cable providers, others will build MythTV. Some will run an OpenID service themselves, others will use it from a Google/Yahoo! And some will use voicemail (the most used cloud service in the world) and others prefer a local answering machine. I, I use all kind of differtent services, cloud and local, like most people will do.

PS: This posting as very late for last years' Drupal prediction posting or very early for next year, whatever makes more sense to you

PPS: Sure, you can have Open Source "SaaS" solutions as well, for example hosted and managed Drupal instalations but it will be a niche crossover, if that makes sense to you. Also, when I say "build", it can also mean "let other build", aka buy.

PPPS: I do think that SaaS is a complete wrong term; it is a technological acronym. First, people do not want "Software" as a service, but they want a service (as a service). As long as the ICT things about acronyms like SaaS, true adoption of using a "Service as A Service" will only stall. It is time to stop the technology lingo where it should stop; at the door of the customer and think of services instead of software. Second, Software as a Service is a very limited view on what truly can be accomplished with services; it might be disk capacity from the cloud (like S3, Storage as a Service), it might be CPU capacity (like EC2, CPU as a Service), it might be housing (Rackspace as a Service), hosting (Linux box as a Service) or to give an everyday example we are used to, voicemail (Answeringmachines as a Service). Therefor I plea to stop using the term SaaS and use XaaS ("Anything as a Service") or use SaaS for the acronym "Service as a Service", whatever makes more sense to you.

DrupalSong, call for video with your kids

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:13:07 +0200

The infamous Drupalsong; good, bad and young. And the young people seem to like it a lot better then some of the parents; it attracts children like a magnet and they can hear it a 100 times it seems. My kids sing it along and like it a lot.

Based upon a discussion on elvisblogs I thought about making a remix of all the young Drupalaars singing, spinning and dancing along the Drupalsong.

So if you have a camera and a Drupalsong crazy kid and are willing to release the video under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license, dump it on your (video)site and I';; grab a copy and remix all the Drupal Kids in to one happy family. Be sure to do a "for:bertboerland" on delicious so I can pick it up and or tag it DrupalSongByKids on Youtube.

(Technically the CC license and the GPL song are incompatible, bit I'll try to sort this out with Lullabot))

Forrester brings Drupal in the boardroom

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:27:23 +0200

Selling Drupal. Not a contradiction but not as easy as selling a license of a proprietary CMS. Selling something that is "free" (gratis) seems like an odd idea to many. So how do we get our beloved Drupal CMS spread in a broader range that home blogs, new media sites and the like?

Well, some prospects have functional requirements for their CMS like "It has to start with a D and end with Drupal". Usually there is a passionate user somewhere in the ICT department that convinced some people to go for Drupal. And while this technocratic approach does have its drawbacks, it is a good way to gain more ground and bring Drupal on a higher level.

But most of the time the prospect "just wants a CMS". And since there are zillions of Open Source CMS-es it is hard to choose. Most OSS CMS-es do not have a local "sales" so the company will end up with a proprietary CMS that is years lagging, only have a dozen developers and a couple of hundreds users but with a sales person that is a member of the same club as the CEO.

However, now most bigger companies are moving towards their third CMS implementation, people know what they want from a CMS and people are actually looking for an Open Source CMS and hence an Open Source implementer like my employer is in the Netherlands. And those bigger enterprises all read Gartner, Forrester, MetaGroup and other IT research and advisory companies. I have a very strong opinion about those companies (just echoing yesterdays news for companies that will be in today by tomorrow) but that is a different story. In the boardroom magic quadrants, hype cycles and two by two tables are the goal for any powerpoint wisdom, so if you want to be in the boardroom you have to play chess on the management chessboard; a 2 x 2 matrix.

CNet (writing many rtiles about Drupal in a positive way!) has a piece called Forrester calls out Alfresco and Drupal as the top-two open-source WCM systems. This is really /great/ news, instant boardroom Fähigkeit for Drupal. Forrester says so so we need Drupal!

You can read the excerpt of the report over at Forrester:

This document answers frequently asked questions about the role that open source plays in the WCM market.

You have to pay for the real article but even without reading 20 pages about community, functionality etc, I think it is fine to say that Drupal will be a word you can say in the boardroom from now on. "Could you please fill my cup with some coffee Drupal's" for example.

Thanks to Kieran and others who gave input for the report

Ik haal Brecht van school

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:29:25 +0200

Ik haal Brecht van school. Ze ziet me eerst niet en loopt met haar vriendje (Brecht heeft geen vriendinnetjes!) handje in handje uit school. Dan ziet ze me, laat haar nieuwe vlam los, en vliegt me in de armen.

Liefde!

Retro Art

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:54:14 +0200

I really like the new retro art like the above radio transitor as well as the rest of the retro arts

Usual suspects... with a new kid on the block

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:29:21 +0200

Read this entry at freesoftwaremagazine (a drupal site)

Every field has its own key individuals who donated much of their time to the ideas they believed in. Each one of them is a reminder that it’s up to individuals to make a difference — and to make history. Their work affects large chunks of the world’s population, and bring amazing changes to the way we see and experience the world.

And then it lists the usual suspects.. like Richard Stallman, Pamela Jones, Linus Torvards, Mark Shuttleworth, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bob Young and Matthew Szulik, Jimmy Wales, Lawrence Lessig, Tim Berners-Lee, Blake Ross, Keith Packard, Dries Buytaert, Bram Cohen...

Wait a minute, Linus, Richard and.. Dries?

I am not a fan of anyone or anything apart my own two loves. But I think it is cool that Dries (and more important Drupal) is now listed amongst the mainstream OSS projects! A big step from a small village (dorp), to a big town to conquering the world!

BTW: I like the work of RMS but his style, ego and narrow vision is not something I appreciate. For the rest of the group, Dries can be proud to be one of them, standing on the shoulders of the community.

Now you talk with you wallet in your mouth!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:06:43 +0200

After some feedback I got from different people regarding the wallet in your mouth picture (and posting), I decided that it is your turn.

Here is what you have to do:

Make a picture of yourself with your wallet semi open in your mouth
post it on your blog, twitter, facebook, flickr etc
tag it with "talk-with-your-wallet"
add text to it with a request to potential sponsers for the Drupalcon and add links with to szeged2008.drupalcon.org/ and the how to sponsor page.
make sure enough eyeballs see it and more important...
make sure the right eyeballs see it; try to get attention from potential sponsors, explain why sponsoring the DrupalCon is the best thing they can do

Now I don not think that money will float in if you help spreading the word but 1) its funny to see people swallowing their wallet 2) It doesnt hurt 3) you can be part of this uber-cool-mini-micro-nano-viral-photo-shootout.

RTL nieuws heeft een leuke iPhone aware site

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:13:46 +0200

Ondanks de mini safari op de iPhone de beste mobile browser is die ik ken -100% bruikbaar op elke non flash site- kan het handig zijn om voor mobile gebruikers (zoals iPhone beztters) andere content en layout aan te bieden.

Zo is ene mobiele gebruiker waarschijnlijk minder in to achtergronden van het nieuws maar wil wel easy digestable (nu.nl alike ) nieuws zien, het weer en de file meldingen. En omdat de 2G(eneratie) iPhone met 3G(generatie) UMTS nog niet in Nederland beschikbaar is, doet een site er goed aan de useragent van een browser op te vragen en andere content in een andere layout aan te bieden. Niet door een "m".example.com te doen maar door de gebruiker contekst aware content en layout te geven; als op een iPhone op lage snelheid dan een kleine eenvoudige pagina, als op een JS enabled browser een rijke AJAX applicatie.

En dat is precies wat RTL nieuws doet, ga op je iPhone naar de site en je krijgt de eenvoudige pagina in vorm en functie. Goed gedaan!

DrupalCon sponsors, talk with your wallet

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:05:39 +0200

I used to think that to align with an Open Source project like Drupal you had to talk with your mouth (spreading the word) or with your keyboard (contributing code / documentation). And I still think that that is the best way to contribute to an Open Source project.

However, I have grown up but more import Open Source has grown up and specific the Drupal Community has grown. Grown with more people using it and more companies rely on Drupal; making money using Drupal.

For those who either can not or will not contribute with their mouth or their keyboard, it is still a very good option to talk with your wallet, sponsor the Drupal Association or an event like the upcomming Drupalcon.

So if you ever made money with Drupal and want to say thank you, if you want to get the word out that you are a Drupalshop (hirig talent or getting prospects in your funnel), want to make sure that Drupal will keep contining improving itself, please consider dontaing with your wallet and sponsor DrupalCon! Contact the organisers to make sure you get the best spot and help us all.. as well as yourself.

100 Amiga games in a video

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:40:07 +0200

My first computer was a C=64 (around 1983), my second a Commodore Amiga 500, bought around 1987 I think. I still have my Amiga, all the disk and some additional gear. I used to write for a Dutch magazine, "Amiga Magazine" from publisher Divo and was really passionate about my Amiga. I did my first raytracing (with PoVray, still around) and played lots and lots of games but also experimented a lot with DPaint and different Soundtrackers, from Karsten Obarski mostly.

But most of all, I must have bought a dozen of Arcade joysticks for all the games I played with my friends. All the games I played.. all of them are in this 100-games-movie I found on Youtube.

A tribute to the best machine I owned. Even though I didn't recall that the graphs were so bad. Speedball II, Monkey Island, Interceptor, Lemmings I played them all. Did you? And can you name all the games you saw? (I cant remember the name of the World War 1 flying game, can you help?