While upgrading a client's web site to XOOPS 2.0.14 I ran into some issues with the XOOPS 2.0.14 package file (a tar.gz file). Stuffit Expander would only extract a few folders, then report an error and quit. After a few attempts, and all failures, I had to chose to turn to the command line and bingo, no problems! So, if you ever have any issues with Stuffit Expander and need to uncompress a .tar.gz file, the following commands will come in handy:

To uncompress a gz file: gunzip file.gz
To uncompress a tar file:
tar [tar options (usually xvf)] file.tar
To uncompress a .tar.gz file: tar xzvf file.tar.gz

Questions? Check out the man pages for tar and gunzip.
[tags]XOOPS, gunzip, tar[/tags]

I have been using open source solutions for over seven years now. (my first open source experience was with mailman and then ht://dig and squirrelmail soon after - all of which I still use today) I made it a priority to get involved with at least one open source project this year, and to start out I have chosen to get involved with WordPress. I signed up to help with browser testing and to look at ways WordPress can offer more CMS features. I have extensive browser testing experience and have plenty of CMS and WordPress as a CMS experience that I look forward helping with the WordPress project and giving something back to a great community. If you would also like to help, check out the WordPress Development page.
[tags]mailman, ht://dig, squirrelmail, CMS, WordPress, open source[/tags]

Well after over six months using WordPress to drive jappler.com, I thought I would report for anyone out there that might be interested, what plugins and modifications I have put in place to create jappler.com what it is today.
User Interface

Admin User Interface Enhancemnt: Tiger Style Administration Plugin. If you know me, you know I am very particular with user interfaces, and this one passes the test.
Page Navigation: WP-PageNavi Plugin. This creates page number links at the bottom of my blog.
Search Term Highlighter: Search Hilite Plugin (this is now built-in). When someone searches for information on your WordPress site/blog, the search term will be higlighted in the found posts/pages

Utilites

Anti-Spam: Spam Karma Plugin. Help ward off comment spam by using this awesome spam stopping plugin.
Email This Post: WP-EMail Plugin. This plugin allows visitors to email a post to themselves or anyone who might find something interesting.
Click Counter: Click Couter Plugin. This plugin tracks how many times all the links on jappler.com have been clicked.
Search: Search Pages Plugin. Since I use WordPress for more than a blog, I needed to have a way to search through ... [more]

I finally had a few minutes to download the latest Release Candidate of WordPress 2.0 yesterday and install it. Like usual, I created a full backup of my current site files and database, then installed the new version of WordPress and ran the super easy "upgrade" script. I was extrememly surprised when I did not encounter any real issues...especially since I hacked together so much with WordPress 1.5. My plugins worked and this I am able to post! I have not had a lot of time to play around with all the new features (most which are behind the scenes), but I look forward to checking them out soon.

I am including a screenshot of the admin area to show anyone who has not used a CMS or a blog just how easy it is to post content on a web site. If you can type and click a mouse button, you can have your own web site If you have never played with AJAX, there are lot of little AJAX goodies in this latest release!  Good job WordPress developers on the new release!
... [more]

I have been tasked with implementing a heavy duty content management system within the next year. I have played around with many CMSes over the past year (Drupal, TikiWiki, and Plone) as well as implemented a few web sites using XOOPS and my own homebrew of WordPress. While I would not hesitate to continue using XOOPS, Plone, or try Joomla!, I have to also be considerate of some other factors that are out of my control. I have to figure out some system that will play nicely with java applications. (access control, template system, etc)

So, my task...to find, research, and play around with some Java CMSes. If anyone has any experience with this, please email me or leave a comment. Any help/pointers would be appreciated.
[tags]CMSes[/tags]

Finally. I have completed my jappler.com optimization. A big thanks to Ken for putting up with my "is it loading faster?" questions.
[tags]jappler.com[/tags]

The last few days I became obsessed with optimizing jappler.com. It was loading slower and slower with what seemed to be every passing day. Since I had originally designed my web site for an earlier version of WordPress, I figured it was about time for a tune up. I went to the ever-so-helpful codex, to help me figure out what was going on. I went through a number of different steps to troubleshoot the problem and I thought the steps I took might be helpful to others.

Is it my host or my site? At first I thought it was a slow host. I had friends from around the country access my web site, and confirm the problem existed for everyone. From all the feedback, I confirmed something was going on. Now it was time to take it to the next step. Was my host slow or was my web site slow? To check this, I grabbed a recent backup and restored it to my desktop to check it out. Once I had everything in place, I hit my web site and it still seemed slow, so ... [more]