Moving forward with Joomla

I ended up choosing Joomla for the North Star project I am doing with Greg. We got a server set up and I've installed the basic framework for the site. I've also uploaded some graphics and content provided by Greg. I had to make some minimal modifications to the PHP and CSS code to change some colors and modify the layout a bit. I still need to install some modules for user blogs (Mamblog), forums (Joomlaboard), comments (AkoComment), etc. So far I think it's going pretty well. I'll probably install a better WYSIWYG editor as well, most likely JoomlaFCK. I'm still experimenting with other modules on my local Kubuntu system.

Ashish let me borrow his Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. It's a USB stick with a tuner built in. Unfortunately, my laptop is too slow to play back the HDTV channels. We've been talking about putting together an HD MythTV box, but haven't really put any effort into it yet. He does have all the pieces for his carputer now, so I'll be helping him install that one of these days. Some day I'll try to get a Linux version running, probably based on the MythTV UI building on the work from Mazda3 CarPC.

Drupal vs. Joomla

I managed to install Drupal on my test system. I installed the 5.0 version, which is newer than the one I had seen as a demo. The administration panel is a little better, and Drupal comes with a few more packages by default, including blogs and forums. On the other hand, Joomla has more structure set up by default. Of course either CMS can be extended, so the features are more or less a wash. So now I'll have to decide between the two. I'm still leaning towards Joomla, but I'll play around with both a little longer. Maybe I'll end up flipping a coin to choose between the two...

I still haven't made any moves on the Linux front. However, I may get started by proxy. My friend Ashish is working on setting up a MythTV box for HDTV. I'll probably give him a hand with that. He's also working on a carputer, but it seems like he'll be going with Windows until I can put together a good solution under Linux.

Webpage Development

Well, I haven't started working on any of the Linux projects I blogged about last time. Right now I'm trying to help my friend Greg set up a web site for the science museum he works for. I haven't really designed a full web site before, so it's a bit of a learning experience. The main requirements are:

• Easy to maintain
• Provide a discussion forum
• Allow registered users to blog

I've looked into a few different Content Management Systems. I found a few really helpful sites for this process:

• CMS Matrix - which provides comparisons of various CMS solution in (you guessed it) a matrix
• Blog Software Breakdown - another comparison matrix, but more blog software oriented
• Wikipedia - what can't you find here?
• Open Source CMS - these guys let you demo all sorts of CMS software

At the moment I'm leaning towards Joomla. It's PHP based and runs on top of MySQL and Apache. I have installed it under Kubuntu on my laptop. It has a lot of plugin modules for blogs, forums and such. Maybe I'll install it to manage my main bluevalhalla.com webpage. I know it has a bridge to Gallery2, my photo gallery (which is also PHP based), but I'm not sure what I'll do about blogging since I use Blogger at the moment.

I tried to install Drupal, but for some reason the automated installation through Kubuntu failed. I didn't bother tracking down the problem, I like the Joomla administration interface better. I guess we'll see how it goes...

Happy New Year

I'm back from my holiday vacation. I used my laptop a bit while I was traveling, but I'm sorry to say I was using Windows. Today was the first time I used my Kubuntu installation in a while. I installed Skype under Kubuntu, so that's one more step towards a complete solution. I think the Treo sync is my biggest issue now. What I really need is a comparable Linux based cell phone. Maybe I'll get a Trolltech Greenphone or the new FIC Neo1973. They both have opne Linux environments, though the Greenphone is quite pricey since it's more of a development platform.

I signed up for a Jabber account today. I guess if I want to move towards open source, that means moving away from all the proprietary IM systems as well. I'm already using an open client (Kopete) under Kubuntu, but I still connect to Yahoo, MSN, and AIM servers. I don't know too many people with Jabber accounts, but maybe I can convert a few, starting with gtalk users since it uses the Jabber protocol.

Once I get a little more comfortable with my Linux based laptop (and a desktop running Ubuntu), I would like to work towards the following (in no particular order):

• Home Media Server and PVR (MythTV perhaps)
• Carputer (good GPS navigation is my biggest concern)
• Smart Phone (would like GSM and Wifi plus other goodies like AGPS)

Who knows, maybe I'll turn one of these into my next business venture...