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Blog archives for September 2007

Update from the Pukkaverse

I said in my last post that I was behind and it shows in the number of things that I have to talk about regarding Pukka!

First up, my patch to the open source Vienna newsreader has made it into the stable version, which you can read about here. This helps with getting highlighted text out of Vienna and easily into your Pukka post.

Next, Seth Dillingham has reported on this blog that he has exceeded his fundraising goal for the Pan-Mass Challenge. I was able to donate some copies of Pukka to his effort and I'm glad to see that he reached (and exceeded) his goal!

Third, a few notes about social bookmarking in general and del.icio.us in particular. I have been testing out the preview of the next version of del.icio.us and will be keeping up on any changes that come about as a result of that. I also noticed a great video, which then ended up on the del.icio.us blog, about how to explain social bookmarking to people who are unfamiliar with it -- so check it out if you just don't get why you'd use Pukka.

Next, thanks to a post by Workshop friend Red Sweater Software, I was alerted to an app that recently added integration with Pukka. As of version 1.2.1, EagleFiler can capture post information from Pukka for better archival if you so choose. Neat!

I've also been keeping tabs on Apple's Leopard OS and to my knowledge, Pukka is doing fine on the latest build -- but please report if you find differently! I'm very excited for the Big Cat to arrive and very much looking forward to using some of its features full time next month!

And lastly, on a general business note, I wanted to report that I've been investigating how to better make Code Sorcery Workshop more green and sustainable and a better environmental citizen. I ran across a post by friend-of-the-Workshop Daniel Morrison about his efforts. Like his business, I too have minimal office needs. I also am able to take advantage of working remotely as well as DC's excellent public transportation in order to round out nearly a year now of essentially no driving for work. However, I do fly to conferences (though not many!), so that can always be reduced. I was also happy to learn last month that my webhost of eight years, pair Networks, has gone carbon neutral and is making other efforts to remain sustainable. This is a good trend! You can read more about pair's efforts here.

Whew! I think that's all for now. As I said, vacation is over and I'm back to working hard after playing hard. On a personal note, if you'd like to check out pictures from my 3,500 mile trip across the American Southwest, you can find them here. Enjoy!

DrupalCon Barcelona

Nothing like a vacation followed immediately by a European software conference to get things off track! I'm a little behind, but I'm starting to catch up and I wanted to post about a number of things, the first of which is Drupal.

I was fortunate enough to travel to Barcelona last week for DrupalCon, pretty much the ground zero for all things Drupal (more on my work with Drupal here). With over 400 people in attendance, the growth in the community has been tremendous and after three years working with the software myself, it's really inspiring to see both others picking it up as well as the future directions in which things are headed.

I attended a number of excellent panels (which I hope to blog about soon) including topics such as multilingual websites, advanced JavaScript, asset management, publishing workflows, database abstraction, new things in PHP 5, feed aggregation, and the scaling of the Drupal website, itself running Drupal (of course).

I had the pleasure of traveling and working with the team behind the project featured in this panel -- essentially, open source software in support of humanitarian and stabilization operations around the world -- as well as seeing Workshop friends and fellow DC residents Development Seed as they proceeded to tear up the conference with a multitude of outstanding sessions highlighting their amazing work. Read more about Development Seed's work on their blog and you might even see a cameo by yours truly!

Lastly, I was inspired to participate in Friday's Lightning Talks with a quick presentation of the Boost module, which I now co-maintain and have talked about previously. Will White from Development Seed was kind enough to capture a couple photos of me presenting the Environmental Working Group site. You can check out more of Will's DrupalCon pics here.

I'm looking forward to next year -- and if you're interested in Drupal, leave a comment and I may be able to point you in the right direction, be you a coder, site maintainer, or just a curious tinkerer!