I have disliked Flash for a long time, primarily due to its problems with assistive technologies; it often does not play well with screen readers, especially if it has not been developed correctly. In my mind, many Flash developers are graphic artists, illustrators or animators, and don’t really understand web design.

Add to this the fact that more people are now accessing web content via a non-traditional user agent (i.e., not a traditional browser) and you see why I agree with Bradley that Flash may be past its prime.

It’s ironic that Adobe developed Acrobat to find a way to share documents at a time just prior to the “invention” of HTML. Flash, build on the same business principles, was developed for the same reason. And once again, a new standard (HTML 5) may usurp their position. And, I should point out that the new standard will be accessible to screen readers.

But just as those who predicted the demise of Adobe Acrobat 15 years ago were wrong, I suspect it is not quite time for Adobe to throw in the towel and hire the undertaker. Look for Flash to be around for some time to come. But at least for some of us, there will be other options.

This will be interesting to watch.

Some of the more interested AT devices for Seniors noted in the article were: “Lean and Zoom, computer software that magnifies what’s on the screen when a user naturally leans in to see it. It works with the computer’s video camera to determine the user’s position; the closer a person leans, the more it zooms.”

The article describes how some of the technology originally designed for fighter jets and missiles can now be used in consumer devices to help people with stability and mobility issues.

Good read…anyone going to CES  Las Vegas and can give us reports?

Web sites come in many shapes and sizes and, given the magic of current technologies, can do many wondrous things. But to many, the inner workings of a website can be confusing. Having the responsibility of developing, or updating the web presence for your organization can be a major challenge. This article is designed to help.

Two Flavors

To begin this discussion, you should know that web sites still come in two major “flavors” – static and dynamic. To the knowledgeable purists reading this, I understand that there are no truly static websites, but please allow me some poetic license here.

The terms static and dynamic have little to do with the actual look of the website and refer more to the “backend” or inner workings of the site and to some extent the functionality of some or all of the features on the site. Either can be right solution for your organization, but how do you choose the right one for your organization? Let’s begin with some information about the flavors.

Static web sites are built using individual web page files written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), along with some support files for styling (e.g., Cascading Style Sheets – CSS), images (e.g., JPGs, GIFs, etc.) and media elements (e.g., audio, video and Flash objects). Files are usually prepared off-line on a local computer using specialized web-authoring software like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression, and then “published” to a web server connected to the World Wide Web (WWW). Note, there are other programs that purport to be able to create web pages (like MS-Word or MS- Publisher), but be careful. Good web design requires the right tools and techniques. Using the wrong ones can make your site misbehave or worse, not work at all.

The web files are typically “published” to a web server using a piece of software called a File Transfer Protocol or FTP client. The FTP client may be built into your web-authoring program, or it may be a separate program. The “web server” is a special application that runs on a specialized computer (also called a server) that is connected to the Internet. This web server does just what its name implies; it “servers up” your web files when “called for” by someone on the Internet.

Most organizations do not own their own web server and will use a “host” like Maine Hosting Solutions to serve up their website. The cost of this hosting service ranges from a few dollars per month to many thousands of dollars depending on the size of the website and the amount of traffic is receives. There are many options and a web design firm like jebswebs can assist you in this decision.

In a Static web site, when you want to change the content, someone has to change the local file and re-publish it to the web server, thus overwriting the original file. If it is something like a link on a menu bar, this may require that every web file on your site be changed and re-published also. So, this quickly can become time consuming.

With the exception of some simple executable files, most of the content in static websites is fairly flat, meaning it allows little or no interaction with visitors/users. In other words, people viewing the site will typically only be able to read or view the content and not able to write or submit content to the site.

When the World Wide Web was first developed in the early 1990s, designers had very limited choices of things they could do. Designs in those days were almost exclusively static in nature and developers were constantly challenged to make the user experience more interactive and exciting.

Dynamic web site development came out of that need for interaction. These sites often provide the user with the ability to interact with the content and provide some kind of feedback. But the real reason for calling these sites dynamic has to do with how the sites are constructed and maintained. In the dynamic web site, all of the content, styling files and related web documents are contained within one or more databases located somewhere on the Web and “controlled” or administered by an application called a Content Management System (CMS). The content is “hung” on the website using various templates written in a dynamic markup language such as PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion or Java. These templates are similar to HTML, but are more complex and can do a lot more things. Think of your website was a Christmas tree. The template is the tree itself with trunk and branches. It has some color and texture. The content is like decorations and lights that are hung on the tree. Each of your “pages” (also called nodes) uses the same tree, but the decorations and lights vary from page to page, node to node. Some of the “decorations” are built-in to the tree and will appear on every page/node. For example, the heading/logo area, the main menus and the footer of the page. You can also add blocks of content that will appear on every page/node. The choice is up to you.

There are many CMS applications out there  and each works a little differently. The three big ones, Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, have become the standard in the field. These are all “open source software” meaning that they are developed by volunteer code writers who are always trying to improve the code. They are also free and freely available to be modified and changed to meet your needs.

I should point out that there are commercial CMSs as well and they can cost many thousands of dollars to purchase and license each year.

The CMS is used to create and edit content and runs on the web server itself, requiring almost no additional software. Many of the CMSs have  built in image editors which can do some basic edits like resizing the image, however serious edits are usually done off-line with a local editing application. There are many modules, plug-ins and “widgets” that can be freely added to the dynamic site making the experience for the user very rich.

All CMSs allow for multiple users and the administrator can control how much access each user has to the website.

How to Choose

Generally the first consideration when trying to decide between a static vs. dynamic website is the basic size of the site. This can sometimes be decided by looking at the size of the organization. If the site is for a single person or small organization, you can probably get by just fine with a static site. If there are a large number of people going to be involved with this website, it’s probably best to go for a dynamic design. If you are looking at some kind of an e-commerce website – in other words you are looking to sell things on the Web – you are probably going to need a dynamic web site.

Next in your consideration is how often the content needs to be updated. Static sites by their very definition tend to have information with a relatively long shelf life. That is, if the information that you are putting on a website is relatively stable and will not be changing for months or years, you can get by just fine with a static site. If your content is changing more frequently than once per month, you should consider a dynamic website.

“Who will manage your content?” is your next question. If you have on your staff personnel that know how to design and update web pages, you are all set and can have either a static or dynamic site based upon your organization’s particular needs. However, if you have a small staff, or perhaps are a small nonprofit organization staffed with a handful of volunteers, you are going to need to either hire someone or find a volunteer with extra talents and time.

Finding staff or volunteers that know how to design and maintain a website is not as difficult as it once was, but sometimes keeping that staff is difficult. These people are usually in high demand and may get a better offer from one of your competitors.

Choosing a dynamic web site will be an advantage here in that adding, deleting and editing content is very easy. If you have ever ordered anything on line, written or commented to a blog, or added a comment to an online discussion group, you can easily learn how to work with a dynamic web site.

The last question you need to consider in selecting what type of web site you want is -how interactive do you want your site to be?

One of the big advantages of choosing a dynamic web site design is that they are designed for interaction. In some ways, that’s the goal of the dynamic design; it encourages lots of people to contribute and collaborate. However, you will be comforted in knowing that with a dynamic web design, you still have complete control of who can add, delete or edit content. You can also assign sections of your website to different parts of your organization so that only these groups can see and work with the content in that section. Or, you can open your site up to the whole world for input and discussion like many people do with blog sites. This is all entirely up to you.

Dynamic websites can also import content from multiple sources including automated ones so your website will be constantly updating and changing as these sources update content. And, as noted earlier, dynamic websites can be use to conduct commerce on the Web.

We can help

Whether you are considering your first website or updating one you’ve had for years, it can be very helpful to discuss your needs with a web design firm like jebswebs. We are here to help you with each stage of the design and development experience from concept development to implementation to staff training. Please feel free to contact jebswebs today to request a free initial consultation.

Before Congress adjourned, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the “21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009″ (H.R. 3101). This comprehensive measure would modernize disability accessibility mandates in the Communications Act, bringing existing requirements up to date as TV and phone services connect via the Internet and use new digital and broadband technologies. COAT leaders say the following:

“The time is now to safeguard an accessible communications future,” say Jenifer Simpson of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). “We commend Rep. Markey for his leadership and look now to the U.S. Senate for a similar leader!”

Karen Peltz Strauss of Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) says, “H.R. 3101 puts people with disabilities squarely into 21st century broadband communications so we can take full advantage of Internet advancements enjoyed by everyone else.”

“Digital technologies make it possible for TVs and other video devices — of virtually any size — to receive, transmit and display TV programs and video clips with captioning,” says Rosaline Crawford of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). “Captioning is needed for video material shown on the Internet for the same reason captioning is needed on TV.”

Mark Richert, of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) stated,” We are fed up with playing catch up whenever new technologies are released. People with vision loss will finally have access to everything from text messaging, watching TV and receiving emergency infromation, if this bill is enacted.”

Adds Eric Bridges of the American Council of the Blind: “Video description and accessible user interfaces on TV devices are essential for us. We’ve waited a long time for this.”

Long before the commercial world even had e-mail, college and university websites were out there breaking new ground. It was in these settings that the whole distance learning world began and colleges were the first place where e-mail became ubiquitous.

Things have clearly changed in the past 15 years and institutions of higher ed (IHE) now use their websites to deliver a lot of services to a lot of different people. And the idea of a single webmaster, responsible for all of the content, is long gone.

In the early years, most of the information I had on our site was directed towards potential students and perhaps other “university-types” who were looking for info about our faculty. Now, IHE sites offer ongoing service to alumni, current students, future students, parents, researchers, the media and even the general public. In many instances, the college’s website is a potential student’s or employee’s first interaction with the institution. All the more reason to make it a good one.

At the time I was the webmaster at the University of New England in Maine, I was just beginning to learn about web accessibility. Little did I know it would become my future full time job.

In those days we really only had to worry about “ALT tags” because rich media objects hadn’t been invented yet. Most of the information was simple text and even the number of images were fairly limited. But here too, things have changed dramatically and many IHE sites host a plethora of rich media components,  much of which is not accessible.

So, I was pleased to read about a new initiative by the National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) and WebAIM to develop a process to help IHE’s increase the accessibility of their websites.

The GOALS project (Gaining Online Accessible Learning through Self-Study) centers on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of materials and processes in web accessibility that institutions of education and accrediting bodies can use in their efforts to ensure that online content is accessible to all users.

While the GOALS project is not directed exclusively at IHE (all educational institutions can benefit), my thinking is that these are critical partners in this work. IHE usually have a much larger, more diverse constituency, and often can serve as role models for other educational institutions. And, BTW, “the GOALS project is made possible by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education.”

The project is also smart in that it is focusing its attention on both the educational institutions AND the accrediting agencies as these folks clearly have some “pull” with college administrators. And the focus with the institutions themselves is also directed at those administrators.

So now the work is getting the word out, and that’s what this blog is all about. The GOALS project is looking for individuals and institutions to field-test the materials and processes they are developing. Interested parties should contact Heather Mariger, Project Coordinator.

~jeb

Perhaps what has impressed me most is the “touch screen” that is the main user interface. Like the move from the keyboard to the mouse – which Apple also perfected more than 25 years ago – the touch screen, I believe, is the way we will interact with computers in the future. I probably should expand that to include the fantastical 3D user interface that Tom Cruise’s character used in The Minority Report even though in that futuristic fantasy the interaction is between hands and holograms as opposed to actually touching a screen. But the concepts are the same – a more direct connection between human physical movement and the actions of a computer.

I think what I like best about the touch screen is how, almost intuitively (and I hate to even admit this), I was able to navigate the device. Being the typical red-blooded-American-male, I didn’t bother to read the directions until after I had given the device a good spin. I found it easy to navigate and move between apps and generally work the browser. The less intuitive stuff related to moving the badges around on the home screen or how to remove them from the device (I still don’t know how to do that on the Mac OS), I had to study to learn. But even these make sense if you think of it (unlike ejecting a CD by dragging it to the trash can – huh?).

The movement of dragging documents around on the screen to view them, squeezing and stretching them to zoom in and out and even the “flick of the finger” action of moving between pages is very close to the “feel” of hands and paper.

Well, it seems everyone has gotten into the “touch screen act” these days and yes things are getting ratcheted up dramatically with the recent release of the new Palm Pre – another touch screen dependent smart phone - in addition to the pending release of the Apple iPhone 3G S. Add to this is Microsoft’s announcement that touch screen capacity has been added into Window 7 (additional hardware required), and it is pretty clear that within a couple of years we will see more and more people engaging their technology “by touch” rather than using a clunky piece of hardware like a mouse or keyboard. Or will we?

Of course all of this creates many new challenges for people with disabilities. How does this new technology work with people who cannot see?

I am sensing that solutions to some of these issues may already be on the drawing board – well at the very least, on Apple’s drawing board. We’ll have to wait and see if the solutions become widespread.

Apple’s solution is the inclusion of the native VoiceOver screenreader into the new iPhone O/S. By the way, I was a little miffed by Apple’s insistence that the iPhone O/S is actually a version of Mac O/S X – bit of stretch if you ask me, Cupertino.

In addition to VoiceOver – which at this point apparently only works with the iPhone’s Safari browser and “native” apps – the new iPhone has Voice Control which will make dialing calls, choosing music and even announcing music titles accessible to people with visual impairments. As demonstrated, Voice Control is a universally designed feature which give heads-up control to all users and allows those who cannot see the device better ability to engage it.

But the clincher may come with the issue of the touch keyboard. If people who are blind or have visual impairments want to use the iPhone 3G S to send text messages or otherwise input text into the device, they are going to have to learn how to “touch type” in a whole new way. And the success of that remains to be seen – sorry no pun intended.

Of course, the next iteration of the iPhone (4G?) might have voice-to-text built in, but since we haven’t mastered that on desktop computers, it might not be that soon. But those Apple people are crafty.

It’s only been 48 hours since Apple made their big announcements at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference – WWDC (which I affectionately have referred to as the “Apple-Love-In”). It is clearly too early to gauge how this new iPhone will work with folks with disabilities. So, I am waiting patiently for the final verdict from my screenreading colleagues who just can’t wait to get their hands on the new toys when they are release to the public next week. I am assuming that Apple live tested these new accessibility features extensively before now – at least I hope they have – but I want to hear from my friends about what they really think about these tools when the phone is released and in the hands of real users.

So to answer my own question, it is pretty apparent that touch screens are the next big thing in personal technology, but maybe just a temporary thing.

Your thoughts?

~j

“I am involved with an organization (business, governmental or nonprofit) and we have been publishing a printed newsletter for many years. But now because of ….and we want to save money….How do we go about publishing this on-line and saving money…?”

I’ve been down this road numerous times with different organizations. Each time the reasons for the conversion are different but usually, somewhere in the discussion, there comes the part about saving money.

After a number of these conversations, I’ve ended up with this thinking: If you are going to jettison the “paper” newsletter, you need to ask yourself several important questions, look at the various options available to you, and do the math.

Question 1: What is the best way to get your news content into the hands of your constituents in a way that will increase the likelihood that they will read it?

You have two major publication choices to consider: print/paper and digital/on-line.

On the paper side, you can stay with the current format or modify the current format to accomplish your goal. If cost is an issue, you can reduce your volume or the size or frequency of the issues. You could experiment with different paper/media and perhaps go from color to monochrome. All of this saves some money, but you will likely find some costs cannot be avoided.

In considering these two major options, you need to have a clear understanding about your readership. Personally – and I suspect that you will find this surprising – I have found that many people (especially people in my part of the world: Maine) are still “paper trained” and like to get local and special news in paper form. While many large urban newspapers around the country are going bankrupt, there seems to be no shortage of small local newspapers and free publications that are sent by mail or are available in various locations. And judging by the girth of some of these publications, I suspect that finding advertisers has not been that big an issue.

In my work I have generally advised clients to stay with the paper-printed news if they can afford it. By using the suggestions stated above (reducing size, volume or quality of paper, etc.) organizations may be able reduce costs sufficiently to keep their newsletters going, but results will vary. Organizations may also want to consider a relationship with the local newspaper (or one of these free newspaper vendors) to see if they can get their content out to the public free.

If you and your organization decide to go digital, expect that there will not be the incredible savings you anticipate. The printing and mailing cost may actually turn out be the least expensive part of the operation. As always, do the math.

Question 2: If we choose to go digital, how is this best accomplished?

Once again, you have several options: simple e-mail; e-mail with an attachment; and, web posting. There are other options, but for this article we’ll stick to these choices.

Simple e-mail is the process of sending out news content and topical information (in plain text or stylized Rich Text Format – RTF or HyperText Markup Language – HTML format) within the body of an e-mail sent to your constituents. These mailings may be simple plain text or also include images and styling (if using RTF or HTML).

E-mail with attachment involves putting the content into a separate formatted document (usually an Adobe Acrobat-PDF file), attaching it to an e-mail and sending it out to your constituents.

Web-posting involves actually publishing the content to a web page (usually using a form of HTML) and/or posting a link to a formatted  document (again usually a PDF) that is stored on a web server. In the linked form, the reader will have to download the formatted file from the web server. Often, web-posted news is associated with an e-mail alert (or through other means like Twitter) which “announces” the news and “drives” people to go and look/download.

E-mail solutions

Using any of the e-mail-based solutions assumes you have e-mail addresses for all of your constituents. In my experience, this is usually not the case. You will usually end up with the considerable task of getting the e-mail addresses and more importantly, maintaining them. If your newsletter goes to everyone within one organization (e.g. a company newsletter) and all of the domain names are the same, this might be an easy problem. But if your news is going to a diverse population, you will soon discover this is a monumental task because peoples’ e-mail addresses change very frequently.

Sending out large volumes of e-mail also requires special software and provisions to avoid spam blockers and filters so that your mail reaches your readership. In addition, unless you have your own mail server, you may discover that your ISP limits the amount of e-mails it will let you send in any one day (this is to try to prevent and discourage SPAM). There are server-based applications that you can use to work around this, and for an additional cost, you can hire a mailing service that will manage and maintain your list as well as send out the content. These companies are often paid by how much mail is delivered and have all kinds of clever ways of working around SPAM blockers and filters. All it takes is money…but wait a minute, wasn’t this something you were trying to save?

Web-posted solutions

For web-posted solutions you can either use a print-formatted document (e.g., Word file or PDF) posting on the web server or create an HTML-formatted version of the content. The amount of time to do either is about the same, so it may come down to the resources, skills and training of the people who you have on staff to create the newsletter. My experience has been that most staff talented enough to do layout and design in print form,  often have the expertise to do webpage design.

Portable Document Format – PDF

Adobe Acrobat PDF can be a great solution if you want your newsletter to look just like it did before and if you want to be able to print it out. This assumes that the original newsletter was formatted to fit on conventional size pieces of paper. If the newsletter was printed on larger paper, your constituents will still be able to view the content on their computer screen but will likely not be able to print it out in a way that will make it easy to read.

It needs to be noted that historically PDF files have caused many problems for people with disabilities. In the early evolution of Acrobat, PDF files were simply “images” of the printed version and if you relied on an assistive technology device called a screen reader (a device that translates text into speech), you simply could not access the content of the file. Modern PDF files can certainly be made accessible, but frequently problems are encountered when the content is formatted into columns and spread across multiple pages. Knowing how to correctly “tag” PDF file content to make it accessible requires some additional skills and training. The evidence shows that many PDF documents that are distributed around the web are not correctly formatted and remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Read about how to make Accessible PDFs and other documents on the Maine CITE website.

HyperText Markup Language – HTML

For the same amount of time and effort (and often a lot less), a trained staff person can usually put your newsletter content into HTML and publish it on a web server. With advancements in web design and software, much of the complex design elements have been eliminated making the job of posting content on the web easier and more efficient.

There are many advantages in using HTML to publish news content. If you use a content management system (CMS), the news content can be scripted to allow for comments, creating opportunities for dialog with readers (either through a simple comments section or via a blogging or wiki protocols). HTML content also allows for the use of linkage or “feed” services and “sharing” applications and protocols which promote and encourage readers to share the content with a wider audience through various social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Once your content is in correctly coded HTML format (see Accessible Web Design resources on Maine CITE), it is usually accessible by all devices including assistive technology devices and handheld devices such as PDAs and “smart” cell phones. Furthermore, you can embed links, objects and rich media into your content making it more dynamic.

Final Things to Consider

Audience: When considering the move from paper to digital newsletters, it is most important to know you audience. Plan ahead, do your research, find out what your constituents would prefer. You may even want to take a poll to determine preferences.

You will need to know if your readers have access to the internet and will they be able to access the content as an attachment? If you choose to use an attachment to an e-mail, do your constituents have sufficient throughput and capacity to handle large attached files. Knowing something about the preferences and experience of your readership is crucial.

Lastly, you should consider if your audience will want to, and know how to, interact with the content and share it? Within certain segments, social networking still involves chit-chat at the church social and not via the internet. But you might be surprised if you ask your readers about this.

Staff: You also have to consider whether your staff have the resources and skills to converted content into accessible digital formats. If traditionally you have been preparing your content in a simply word processor and sending it off to the printer for design and layout, you may need to hire someone else (or provide additional staff training) to be able to do this kind of work.

Lastly, if considering an e-mail solution, you need to determine if your organization has the resources to create and maintain an up-to-date e-mail database, as well as the bandwidth and resources needed to send the digital content?

Summary

In summary, there is no easy or simple answer to the question posted at the beginning of this article. Thoughtful consideration and planning is needed in determining the path you take. As noted earlier, the conversion from paper to digital newsletters may not produce the savings you initially imagined.

For the uninitiated, the beauty of TweetDeck (hence called TD) is its ability to create various groups and to sort your “follows” into various groups or lists. The main default list is called “All Friends” and consists of all of the people you currently follow on Twitter. As you add more twits to this list, they automatically appear in the All Friends list.

The best feature of TD is the ability to create new lists based upon a subset of the All Friends list. Within these groups you can also filter the list using either the tweet content, name, or time. The groups are created as vertical lists that are arranged in columns that can also be moved around as needed.

I will not pretend to be an expert on TD – let alone Twitter – but I have developed a “system” for sorting the over 1,300 “twits” I am currently following. I like my system, but I am open to hearing from others as to how you handle yours. So feel free to comment on this blog or just tweet your ideas (presuming you can do so in 140 characters).

So my system (which has evolved over time) essentially comes down to four major groups. First, in the far left column is the All Follows. Next, for pure organizational purposes, I have the TwitScoop feed. I must admit this is a bit addicting. Then I have two columns that I might call my “A” List and my “B” List. The A List is technically called Education/Maine because it originally consisted of people who were educators in Maine that I knew and wanted to follow. But it has expanded to include any number of folks, mostly from New England, but a combo of educators and others whose tweets I find most interesting. In this group I keep my closest friends and colleagues so that when I have “conversations” all of the content is easy to follow. BTW, I have added my own Twitter name here so it posts my tweets too.

The B List is for folks a little farther (further?) away and from other more diverse backgrounds. There are a large number of other web designers here, writers, and other just plain interesting folks.

In the next column I have what I call my News feeds. These are twits that are either actual news organizations (CNN, BreakingNews, NYT, etc.) and some individuals whose tweets often take on a “newsy quality.” I also have some feeds from twits that post jobs and other cyclical news (earthquake announcements, weather alerts etc.). BTW, Mr. TD, if you are reading this, a cool feature to add would be the ability to have certain twitter accounts sound a tone or alarm when a new tweet is posted. This would be great for foul weather alerts and hot breaking news.

The next two columns are Replies (or as some call them “Mentions”) and Direct Messages. I call these my utility groups as I usually leave these scrolled off on the right side and only occasionally read them (1-2 times per day).

Rounding out my lists, I have included a column containing my 12seconds.tv feeds.

So how does it all work…?

Well by default, I have all new follows post in the All Friends column only. The exception is when, while reading tweets in TD, I notice someone in another tweet who looks or sounds interesting. After checking out their profile, I decide to follow. I usually then assign this new person to the A List or B List. But generally, in most cases, new twits start in the All Friends and I only move them up into A or B after I’ve had a chance to sample their tweets for a few weeks.

Over the past 6-8 months I have unfollowed a very low number, but I have moved some folks from B to A, A to B and from B back to All Friends. I sort of feel like the sports team manager; as the performance improves, they get into the starting lineup. As their performance drops, well you get the idea.

I can’t say that this is the best way for organizing my follows, but it works. If you have a system, please feel free to share.

~j

Most recently when I tried to update Nucleus, my old blog program, I managed to “nuke” the whole thing. Had to install a whole new blog app (which was actually a blessing in disguise).

Anyway, I just updated my Joomla app (on the main jebswebs site) to version 1.5.10. I was using 1.5.0. That gives you some idea on how long it has been since the last update.

It went perfectly.

So confidence is back, blood pressure is back to normal, ready to take on the next challange!

~j

Image from Olaf – Creative Commons