Mac OS X Leopard is Now Available! My question is, does anybody care?
I'm very happy with Ubuntu Gutsy. It is free, stable, can be customized with beautiful themes, has tons of quality easy-to-install applications, and most importantly -- I'm more productive than when I was using Windows XP. Since it is free, I decided to create a free advertisement to promote Ubuntu Gutsy. I guess you could call it an open source ad :)
Not too long ago, Themebot received an acquisition inquiry from an online advertising firm. This came as a surprise since Themebot is somewhat beta and still in active development phase. A friend suggested I hire a lawyer to handle this. After mulling it over, I decided it would be better to get a feel for the situation before dropping coin on a lawyer.
I recently finished installing Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 on my new Latitude D830. I purchased this Laptop refurbished (like new) and used a Coupon Code that saved me over $730 compared to the exact same system configured new. It is simply amazing how compatible this Linux distro is with the D830 hardware. I installed PCLinuxOS 2007 and was dual booting with Windows Vista when the notebook first arrived. Driver support was not so good in PCLinuxOS so I decided to wait until Ubuntu Gutsy was released rather than messing around trying to get things working. Plus, I was dealing with web hosting hell at the time.
After more than three weeks of utterly mind-numbing, "what could possibly go wrong next!?" web hosting hell, Themebot is finally back online!
Okay, here is a rundown of what Themebot has been up to over the past few weeks, in case you were wondering what was going on. An honest account of my experience with four different hosting providers is given. Warning, this is not for the web master who is faint of heart. What ensues is a chronological account, written after emerging from the dark recesses of the web hosting twilight zone.
PACKT Publishing is at it again with their 2007 Open Source CMS Award.
This time around there are several different categories as well as a winner for best overall open source CMS. The total prize fund has been bumped up to $20,000. Also, when you submit a nomination you are entered in a drawing to win an iPod Nano. Three 4gb Apple iPod Nanos will be given away.
This is a great opportunity to show support for your favorite open source CMS. Also, Themebot takes the results into consideration when deciding which new platforms to focus on and add to the gallery. There are so many CMS packages out there to choose from, it makes sense to feature free web layouts from the most popular content management systems first. For more details about the contest, visit: PACKT Publishing - 2007 Open Source CMS award
Writing a movie review for Transformers is almost completely off-topic, except for the robot connection. After wasting 10 bucks to see this, I thought the least I could do is warn anyone else considering watching this movie before they go and waste their money too.
All Adsense advertising has been removed from the Live Demos. Members who upload their layouts on Themebot will not have their web design templates cluttered up with generic advertising in the demos.
There are quite a few new features in the works designed to benefit members. This the beginning of a transition that will provide more valuable services for freelance web developers and visitors, while enhancing the presence of dedicated sponsors by eliminating the generic advertising. Integrity in business philosophy and supporting the open source community is the Themebot way.
The Kontera interstitial ads have been removed as well. Even though they were racking up a decent amount of clicks, they did not pay well, were somewhat annoying, were rarely relevant and caused the pages to load more slowly. So, Kontera had to go.
Furthermore, additional links are never added to member's layouts and no alterations are made to the files submitted for download. Many other web template sites add their own links and advertising to the designs that their members upload.
2007/08/29 Update: Member albums implemented
Albums by Web Designer is now integrated in the web layout gallery. There is a tag cloud in the gallery sidebar with a list of the top twenty members who have contributed the most web design templates on Themebot. Also, there is a link to each member's album below the themes.
Themebot is getting ready for a new round of upgrades. I thought I'd create a poll to find out which improvements are most important to visitors and theme designers. The poll is in the left column under the Main Menu if you'd like to cast a vote. Also, if you have any suggestions that are not listed, feel free to leave a comment in the forums.
There have been several changes and improvements made recently on Themebot.
IRCMaxell's Page Cache component for Joomla was installed. This greatly decreases page loading time for visitors once a page has been cached.
The gallery has a link for the most recent layouts in each section.
There are now previews of the two most recently submitted layouts from each category on the homepage.
You no longer have to be logged in to download a layout.
The download links in the gallery are now being created in a way that they immediately start the template download. All of the existing gallery entries will eventually be changed to match.
Last but not least, the forums were migrated to Fireboard. The message boards are integrated with the rest of the site much better now and each article / new web layout has an automatic link for discussion in the forums.
News Flash: Yesterday, there was a multi-visitor pile-up on lane one of Themebot.com resulting in a 403 error. Service has since been restored and traffic is flowing smoothly again.
It is exciting and also dismaying when that email arrives from the hosting provider with a warning that your website has been disabled due to "Severe Resource Abuse." On one hand, it signifies that you have built a popular website with a lot of people coming to visit, which is what every webmaster wants. On the other hand, it means that it may be time to upgrade to a more expensive hosting option. Not only does this require spending more money, it also entails transferring the site to the new server, dealing with configuration headaches, downtime for visitors and then a lot of testing to make sure everything is working properly again.
I completely understand why theme designers have sponsors for their themes. It is a lot of hard work to create a good web design template, especially if you have the added complexity of a content management system to account for. There needs to be some incentive for providing a free product. Not many people have all of their needs taken care of and are good-hearted enough to spend their free time making software that is available for anyone to use at no cost.
Not too long ago, Themebot received an acquisition inquiry from an online advertising firm. This came as a surprise since Themebot is somewhat beta and still in active development phase. A friend suggested I hire a lawyer to handle this. After mulling it over, I decided it would be better to get a feel for the situation before dropping coin on a lawyer.