Brian's writings in the category Joomla
If you are studying computer science, software engineering, web development or anything else involving computers, I have a suggestion for you: take a few days away from university.
No, I haven't suddenly decided that education is a waste of time. Quite the opposite. I'm suggesting that you spend a few days doing something that will complement what you are learning in lectures, seminars and textbooks in a way that university simply cannot.
Read more: University May Teach You Theory. A Conference Teaches You How to Use It
Your website has been hacked. What do you tell your users?
Please don't tell them the site is “down for maintenance” when you know perfectly well that it has been compromised. Being hacked is bad enough; misleading the people who trusted you with their data is considerably worse.
As the Joomla World Conference gets closer, someone always asks me the same question.
"Is it really worth it?"
It's a fair question. A conference ticket isn't free, and once you add travel and accommodation, it can seem like a lot of money. We all know that times are tough, and it's tempting to decide that you'll just watch the recordings afterwards.
Most website owners like to think about security in terms of preventing attacks. We install updates, choose strong passwords, enable extra protection and hope that nothing ever goes wrong. But the reality is that if your website is online, there is always a possibility, some would say probability, that something unexpected will happen.
Your website may be hacked. A server may fail. An update may break something important. The question is not whether these things can happen, but whether you are prepared when they do.
"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to.'"
Whether Lao Tzu actually said those words is almost beside the point. The quote survives because it forces us to confront something we'd rather avoid.
"I don't have time."
Laragon makes local development on Windows incredibly simple, automatically creating local domains like myproject.test with HTTPS already configured. But sometimes you need your local site to pretend that it is a real production domain.
This article explains how to make Laragon locally respond to a real domain name, including creating a trusted SSL certificate, without making any changes to the live website.
Write Joomla content wherever inspiration strikes. Grafida is a free desktop app that lets you create and edit articles offline, work with multiple Joomla sites, manage images with ease, and publish everything with just a few clicks when you're ready.
For the last five or six years I have spent a week every summer in Athens with Nicholas Dionysopoulos. It isn't a conference, there is no agenda, and if anyone were watching us from a nearby balcony they would probably conclude that we were doing very little at all.
We spend hours talking about Joomla, eating far too much excellent food and, every now and then, sharing a beer or two. It has become something of a tradition, and one that I look forward to more and more each year.
I have a confession to make.
For as long as I can remember, I've been hiding things on websites. Not malware. Not tracking pixels. Not cryptocurrency miners. Little surprises.
Some people call them Easter eggs, but if you've ever sat through one of my presentations over the last fifteen years, you'll know I've always preferred hidden secrets. It just sounds more intriguing.
Congratulations, you discovered a hidden secret!