Brian Teeman

Do we need vowels in order to read effectively?

Neither arabic or hebrew use vowels in common use so are they really necessary?

Does our brain automaticaly fill in the missing information for us?

As the year ends rather than look backwards at what has happened in the past it's time to look forward to what will happen in the coming year.

Here are my Top 10 Predictions for 2009 (in no particular order). I'd be interested to hear yours.

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with Richard M Stallman but today I do.

Free Software and Open Source Software are not the same.

At first glance they might appear to be but on closer inspection there are some subtle and important differences. Before you start debating the merits of a software licence etc it's important to use the correct terminology.

Today the Joomla project made an announcement that sets itself apart from both it's users and the GNU GPL Licence that it stands behind.

Joomla is released under version 2 (not version 2.1 as the announcement says) of the GNU GPL Licence but it includes numerous pieces of code released under other licences. However the "joomla community" has apparently decided that extension developers do not have the same freedom.

Ask a lawyer an opinion and they will give you one but is it the correct one.

Every lawyer has their own speciality area, and the good ones will even tell you in advance that your question is not within their area of expertise, but they all give you a legal "opinion" based on what you want to hear.

Sadly lawyers are like prostitutes, the oldest profession in the world, if you pay them enough money, or are a big enough client, they will find a way to achieve your goal.

Seasons Greetings to you all and your families!

At this time of year it is customary to reflect on those less fortunate than ourselves and perhaps even to do some good deed.

This year as in previous years I will be supporting the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders)

In recent months there has been alot of talk in the Joomla world about the use of the word "joomla" in a domain name. I'm not going to rehash the argument here regarding the trademark of the word joomla and the usage of that trademark in a domain name, I'm fairly clear on my views on this.

But today I read the report of a World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) arbitration panel regarding the use of a third parties trademark in a domain name that I thought would be of interest.

Check back tomorrow for the answer.

Today Brad Baker announced that if I want to search www.joomla.org or community.joomla.org then I have to do the search at forum.joomla.org.

"Searching for 'stuff' on the Joomla.org suite of sites

What is one thing that Google knows how to do? Search. Therefore, we've setup an excellent tool, using Google to help you locate resources from almost all the Joomla sites in one place. To use it, you will need to start here: http://forum.joomla.org"