Joomla! forum switches to phpbb3

Joomla! has moved their official forums off SMF and onto phpbb3. I wonder why they would do that.

I’ve never liked phpbb very much, but perhaps for a large site like theirs, phpbb3 may be more efficient than SMF. I would like to think, however, that SMF 2 would be a big improvement, as phpbb3 was, and Drupal 6, and Joomla! 1.5.

Is it time to follow suit?

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When to use JavaScript, when to use PHP

As the number of Web 2.0 sites and networks increases significantly the latter part of this decade, we are seeing increased use of technologies like AJAX, JSON, and XML-based data interchanges. This necessitates certain programming to handle data and user interaction, but it’s often debated whether client-side scripting like JavaScript should be used so extensively.

This article will discuss the simpler aspects of using JavaScript, the simpler aspects of using PHP, and will discuss when to use one or the other.

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WebEx PCNow - Remote PC Control

Do you want a reliable way to access your home computer from anywhere on the Internet? WebEx, a trusted leader in remote PC control and web conferencing, offers the PCNow solution — this great service involves just a small program installed on your home computer and nothing on the computer on which you are controlling your home PC.

PCNow offers 128-bit encryption for all communications between the client workstation and your home computer, ensuring that your work is protected from network packet sniffers and snooping management.

There’s also the capability for file transfer, so you can take any document that you were working on at home and transfer it to your laptop, workstation at your office, or any other computer from which you are controlling your home computer.

Sometimes you might need to access your computer at work. You might have taken a day off, and you need to access your work computer to finish something important. WebEx PCNow lets you do exactly that. If you’re running programs like customer databases on your work computer that you don’t have at home, you can print from your work computer to your home computer through PCNow.

Other features of PCNow not available in other applications include: compatibility with PC AND Mac OS X computers, view-only screen-sharing with invited guests, remote webcam access to check on things, remote screen blanking and lock-out to ensure your privacy when accessing the remote desktop, and also phone authentication that automatically calls you for an access code before letting you in.

WebEx PCNow is the leading commercial remote desktop solution, offering features not found in VNC. Check out WebEx PCNow and get a free 1 month trial!

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Cheap VoIP services from Vbuzzer

Everybody’s talking about Skype and on Skype. But there are things about Skype that we don’t necessary like: connection fees for outgoing landline calls, inflexible Skype Credit amounts ($14 CAD and $35 CAD), and the fact that often, other people’s calls are being routed through your computer.

Don’t get me wrong… I do like Skype.

However, I prefer and use Vbuzzer for truly inexpensive long-distance phone calls, definitely cheap BuzzMe Toronto phone numbers, and the flexibility to integrate with a PBX system like Asterisk or 3CX.

Vbuzzer’s PC-to-PSTN calls are only 1 cent per minute to China, 1.5 cents per minute to Canada and the US, and 1.7 cents per minute to Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

Vbuzzer also offers $2.26 USD / month landline phone numbers that can be forwarded to any other phone, ring multiple locations simultaneously, or simply for use with their downloadable software client (Windows only).

Currently, there is a $25 per year special offer to existing landline subscribers, for unlimited incoming AND outgoing phone calls to the Toronto area.

Vbuzzer is a Canadian company, so maybe there’s something nice about that. It’s run by a small business called Softroute Corporation. The $0.26 in the $2.26 / month plans comes from the 13% PST+GST applicable in Ontario.

They also offer other VoIP-based services including cell phone callback, calling cards, and easy-to-use PC faxing.

Take a look at Vbuzzer.

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Subscribe to our RSS/ATOM feed

Free! Of course it is. Subscribing to the RSS/ATOM feed of Geekie.org will always be free.

If you are viewing this message in your RSS/ATOM reader, you can disregard this message completely. If you’re a user of our site who does NOT use an RSS client to subscribe to our feed, read on!

RSS/ATOM are standards for creating portable XML files which contain — essentially — links to pages on sites. Extended to the context of blogs like Geekie.org, RSS/ATOM are easy ways of providing posts (or excerpts of posts) in plain text, to be read in a format comfortable to the user.

Why might you use our feed instead of our site? (We don’t mind if you use either one, but we encourage both.)

• You might not like our site design, or you might find it difficult to load our site on a slower Internet connection.
• You want to be able to access new posts or be notified of new posts without receiving our newsletters
  • Tip: webmail clients like Gmail, Geekie.org Apps Webmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Mail, and AOL Mail are all capable RSS clients
• You want to read the highlighted posts of various blogs in one place
• You are using a mobile device

Typically, “subscribing” to an RSS/ATOM feed is a free process that usually requires a browser, a service on the Internet OR a software client.

1. Find the URL of the feed you want to subscribe to.
   • For Geekie.org, this feed URL is http://www.geekie.org/feed (the easy way) or http://feeds.feedburner.com/geekie
2. Go to the URL of the feed in your browser -OR- enter it into your software client
   • If you’re using our site, just click on the top orange feed icon (illustrated below) or use the button below our site search
     
3. Use the links or menus available on the feed page to subscribe.
   • For our feed, simply choose from the variety of buttons offered. (NOTE: the HTML page does not always show.)
     

This process isn’t very specific. However, hopefully you’ll show how much you appreciate Geekie.org by subscribing to our feed!

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Disadvantages of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

The title may seem a bit biased, given that I’m not going to even list the benefits of computing on a 64-bit or amd64 PC. However, I’d like to talk about how using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition sucks.

I’ve used this operating system in the past, but ultimately decided to switch over to 32-bit Windows because of numerous incompatibilities. It is the same incompatibilities which are causing me grief now, after I switched back to it following a virus infection. Though Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (I’ll just refer to it as x64 Windows from now on) comes with 32-bit editions of the same DLL’s in order to support most 32-bit programs written for “normal” Windows, many programs simply do not run on x64 Windows.

Highly complex applications like Google Earth and iTunes come with bundled DLL’s that are necessary for the application to load. These libraries can include audio codecs, compression libraries, and even DLL’s for interacting with the graphics card. Unfortunately, these are also (usually) 32-bit libraries which CANNOT be loaded by a 64-bit program.

That, of course, is an over-simplification of the various troubles, but to put it bluntly: quite a lot of good programs don’t work on x64 Windows. It’s why I can’t use Google Earth on x64 Windows, and why I can’t install iTunes on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition — though iTunes is available for x64 Vista.

A further incompatibility is Macromedia / Adobe Flash. There is no Flash ActiveX control available for the native 64-bit edition of Internet Explorer on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Though one can download the ActiveX control for the 32-bit edition of IE, this loses a great deal of the security offered by x64. (But I’m not going to get into that, given what I’ve said about not listing benefits.) I don’t know if Sun offers a native 64-bit edition of the Java Virtual Machine.

The same incompatibilities have slowed the adoption of 64-bit computing, and due to that unwillingness to switch to this vastly-superior structure, companies are simply NOT making drivers and programs for native 64-bit execution.

A great example of this is Microsoft’s webcams; webcams are one of the many gadgets that do not come with 64-bit drivers, but it stands out in particular: companies rarely release 64-bit drivers. Microsoft’s webcams do not come with drivers that can work on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

That means that I can’t use my current webcam or the software for my wireless mouse.

If you are considering using x64 Windows — for whatever reason — make sure your devices come with drivers for or support x64 Windows. Also try to ensure that the companies that produce your favourite or most valued software also make native 64-bit editions that do not need to be run in an emulated mode (known as Windows on Windows in XP Pro x64). Fortunately, Microsoft Office 2007, Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional (8.1), and major peripheral manufacturers like Epson and Brother do come with 64-bit libraries that install perfectly on x64 Windows.

In any case, you will run into a lot of incompatibilities if and when you try x64 Windows.

Update: I am back on 64-bit Windows and compatibility has improved drastically. 64-bit is becoming mainstream.

(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)

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