Category Archives: Tech

Migrated to StaceyApp

July 24th, 2011

It has been a long and sometimes confusing process to decide what CMS to use for my company website. I have installed and tried countless amounts and always got excited only to realize I spent more time hacking it up then actually maintaining it.

There was always one feature missing or basic things became nightmares to implement or install. And so I just settled on Drupal for a while.

Then I got to thinking what exactly was the purpose of the website. And for me and my company it was basically a sales tool and a showcase of what I have done. All the blogging and day to day stuff I figured could be covered here permanently, since I have been doing it here until my company website got up and running.

And then just by accident the other day I found StaceyApp, a simple 600 odd line CMS.

It looked easy to implement (no database), came with a simple template and allowed mixing plain text, HTML, and php code with little to no fuss.

You can even sync it up to DropBox and get it to update as you update your DropBox.

The best bit for me is the way it handles media and documents. You just all through it into a folder and it takes care of the rest.

Too easy!

However there are some downsides, especially from an architecture point of view. It doesn’t really seem to be designed for large websites, and not ideal for blogging. So if your website plans on being over 100 odd pages, definitely look at implementing a larger system like Drupal.

And I have had some issues with redirects and other server side stuff in moving across all my old URLs. But when I figure out a good solution, I will post it and probably create a fork on Github with some of my work arounds.

For me though this whole experience over the last couple of days made me realize how important it is to determine what is the reason for having a website and determining it’s purpose. And once you have that clear in mind, there is an appropriate CMS for you – don’t just automatically go to WordPress.

So after I play around some more, expect a fork coming soon. I’m seriously thinking about calling it Stacey’s Mum

Posted in Tech

Apple Watch Out For Windows 8

June 3rd, 2011

I have to say that I am extremely impressed with what Microsoft must have been up to over the last 2-3years. Whilst Vista put them on the back foot, iOS completely went in to dominate the mobile operating system market (only to be beat by Android just recently) and the success of Windows 7 – I think everyone was fairly impressed over the last couple of days to see an early demo of what Windows 8 will be.

I switched to my Windows Phone at the end of last year, and still by my circle seem to be the only one running the operating system everyday, thoroughly enjoy using the device everyday. Whilst there are a few bugs (will be covered around the Mango release so I can see what they have improved), the UI and UX I think they nailed. What they really proved is how old and dated the iOS interface actually is. Sure it completely blew the mind of everyone when the iPhone came out (around 5 years ago is a rough estimate), but yet has not really gone through any major improvements or revisions. Sure grouping apps was a nice touch and the multitasking bar, but surely this was always part of the original spec and was just waiting for the hardware to catch up and developers to refine their code.

And most of the feedback on the Internet has been a mixture of shock and dissappointment that the whole Windows platform and key applications have not been migrated over to this incredibly practical, sexy and intuitive interface. So all I wanted to say to everyone is this: Calm down, everything will eventually get into the “Metro” look. Do you really think they will want people to go back and remember the clunkiness of previous generations?

I am excited for the following reasons:

• It was Microsoft to take the biggest leap in desktop computing interfaces out of everyone that is in the current market.
• It shows that Microsoft might still have that fire inside them (their internal battles might need to get sorted but I think everyone knows there that this was a necessary move, whether they liked it or not).
• Finally we will have an interactive desktop rather than have it filled with files and rubbish that will be fun to use
• Touch and peripherals are completely integrated (I am dying to play with a Windows 8 tablet).

And how I know the general population is really? Well I took a quick straw poll of all my non-tech friends, and they all thought it was pretty damn cool.

So Microsoft, give yourselves a pat on the back. It looks like you might just have won me back!

Posted in Tech

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