Last week, I mentioned that the the Drupal SMFforum Integration module was no longer being supported by the module's project leader, "vb". Apparently, Simple Machines had not granted permission to the module developer to distribute code found in the SMF application as required by the Simple Machines License.
It looks as if Laura Scott, pingVision, had some free time on her hands. There are reasons free servcies on the Internet are free. Laura wants you to start asking yourself, "why?".
Is the future really free?
It seems we've entered an age where there's a land-grab happening for personal data and attention time. Look at all the web start-ups backed by venture capital. They aren't investing out of philanthropy. There's value there. YouTube is "free" but Google paid over a billion dollars for it. Why?
Here's a hint: It's not about the Tube. [Read more at Laura Scott's Blog]
Seeing four inches of snow on the ground in April does not make those that love summer happy.
We had four inches of snow here, but other parts of South Dakota received more than a foot of snow. In other words, I can't complain too much, but I still hold the right to complain a little! The good news is that most of the snow has melted with only a few snow drifts still left in the yard.
There is a new version of TYPO3 available, version 4.2. There are lots of usability and performance improvements in this latest package.
Drupal and WordPress, were the only CMS applications that made it to the winner list in CNET's hosted Webware 100.
Development of the SMFforum Integration module for Drupal is no longer. Amy Stephen over at OpenSourceCommunity.org pointed out on her blog that the module's project leader, "vb", pulled the module due to licensing disagreements with SMF LLC. Amy references vb's original post at the Drupal forum, but she has a lot more to say. Amy's an active participant in the Joomla! community, a community which had their own issues with a bridge between Joomla! and SMF.
According to vb's post, an email sent by Michael "Oldiesmann" Eshom, Project Manager, Simple Machines LLC stated that:
The problem isn't with the smfforum.module file or the packages distributed on drupal.org. The problem is with the "smf_api_subs.php" file that you're distributing as part of the smf api package - it contains modified versions of several SMF functions, and you did not ask for permission to use this code or distribute it.
It appears that Simple Machines LLC doesn't have so much of a problem with bridging SMF and Drupal as much as they have issues with their own code being used without proper permission. The Simple Machines License clearly states that "Any Distribution of a Modified Package or derivative requires express written consent from Simple Machines LLC." No word on whether Simple Machines LLC would endorse the use of their code if permission is asked.
Radiant 0.6.6 was released over the weekend, shortly after the release of Radiant 0.6.5. Obviously, 0.6.6 of this built with Ruby on Rails CMS was released to fix some bugs in 0.6.5. So instead of focusing on the bugs, let's focus on what is new in 0.6.5/6 since Radiant 0.6.4 was released in November 2006.
Since Radiant 0.6.4, the latest versions of the software introduced two major changes:
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 is now available. The update is a security and stability release and this explains why Firefox users might have been seeing more crashes than usual.
Fixes for security problems in the JavaScript engine described in MFSA 2008-15 (CVE-2008-1237) introduced a stability problem, where some users experienced crashes during JavaScript garbage collection. This is being fixed primarily to address stability concerns.
I knew something wasn't right with my favorite Web browser. You can download the latest Firefox (and Thunderbird) at Mozilla.
eWeek has an interesting article regarding women working in IT, or rather, women not working in IT. The article is, Where Did All the Girl Geeks Go?
A professor says he has only one girl in a computer science major class in 2008, down from 40 percent in 2000. What happened? eWEEK gets field experts to weigh in.
While women hold 51 percent of professional jobs in the United States, they make up only 26 percent of the IT work force, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Furthermore, fewer women worked in IT in 2008 than in 2000.
The article later discusses about the need to put more effort into convincing women that working with technology can be cool. This argument and others the article makes for how to get more women involved in IT and computer science is a problem. I don't know a single geek, whether male or female, that had to be convinced that technology is cool.
I have to admit that when someone submits a story and I trust them...I sometimes don't read the whole article before I publish it. So until I read Dean Barker's Gadgetopia, I didn't realize his company, Blend Interactive, was featured in eZ's SHARE! magazine. The irony is that if I had read an article posted at my own site by one of eZ System's own people...Dean's post wouldn't have been new news to me. Sigh, I have been just too busy...