It seems to be a universal truth that good, or even great, web hosts go bad.
Are you prepared for that? Do you have a disaster plan in place so that you can easily move to a new host? What happens if they stop replying to emails or tickets or worse still disappear from the net.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
For me open source is not just about the software it's about community and community is not just about people working together it's about sharing. And it's not just about sharing code, it should also be about sharing experiences, successes and failures.
The more open and transparent we are when we share the better for everyone. For me life isn't a competition it's an event and what better way to have a successful event than to learn and share from and with each other.
A little over 2 years ago I wrote a blog post about using a pen instead of the keyboard.
Today I am writing this blog post not with a pen, not with a keyboard, and almost without the use of a mouse.
A few weeks ago the nice people at Nuance sent me an evaluation copy of Dragon Dictate the Mac.
(This entire blog post, without manual corrections, is coming to you via Dragon Dictate.)
Today I left my home on the first leg of my trip to Cambodia. Just a quick train journey from Leeds to Manchester. I had my bags all packed and had made the decision to take my lightweight canvas desert boots instead of my heavy duty leather hiking boots, and that's where it all started to go wrong.
It was raining a little in Leeds as I left and as I walked across the City Centre with my bag on my back I felt a little damp in my left foot. Oh shucks maybe there is a hole in the sole of my shoe. Never mind I thought it's going to be hot and dry in Cambodia, I hope, so it wont be a problem.
When a friend asks you if you know someone who can do a very skilled task do you:-
- recommend the guy you met in the pub last night
- recommend your best mate
- recommend somebody you have heard of from twitter or Facebook
- recommend somebody who you have personally used to do that very skilled task.
It seems that almost everyday there is a new social media opportunity appearing online which is immediately followed by an inevitable land grab phase. But before jumping on the bandwagon of the latest and greatest thing to hit the net take a moment to think.
Are you getting the maximum benefits you could from your current social media streams? Are there some that just didn't work for you? Are you missing opportunities because you just don't get it or did you not put in the time and effort and create a consistent social media presence.
I give a lot of presentations throughout the year and last night I represented Joomla at the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in a panel debate on Open Source knowledge/skills gaps across HM Government.
I'm an avid reader of newspapers, not just the sport but everything, and despite it's slightly right leaning politics The Times is my preference. I devour every page, even the obituary column which provides a wealth of information not just on the rich and famous but also those more "ordinary" people who have led "extra-ordinary" lives.
Having travelled across large parts of the World this may seem strange to some of you as I've found that the newspaper in many countries has been degraded to covering just local news, sport and adverts.
If you have seen any of my presentations, online or in person, you will know that I am not a fan of slides with hundreds of words. Usually I just have a picture and a few words or phrase.
These words are there for you, the audience, to remember the key fact and as a reminder to me about what I am supposed to talk about. Sometimes they're not enough and I have a few extra notes just for me. (At JoomlaDay Chile all my slides were in Spanish so the notes were very important to me as I don't speak any Spanish).
