BlogEMC23's Web Development Blog
First-hand experience and theory put to (digital?) paper
Musings on Joomla web development and Open Source software and culture, as well as commentary on being digital entrepreneurs in Ireland, now.
Coder Dojo Galway
Written by Rob | 01.17.12
We have just returned from an inspiring first meeting of the CoderDojoGalway mentors comprising of local educators, parents, programmers, academics and community workers. We convened in the Computer Museum in the DERI building hosted by the curator Brendan Smith.
It was the perfect place to begin a journey for us that could claim a direct heritage to the days when Digital first came to Galway way back when. We were shown schematics of the original network between all the schools in Galway, linked via terminals and modems. Also on display was an Apple II, like those given to schools in Ireland back in 1982. It was on an AppleII in '82 that I first learned BASIC.
We discussed an outline that we intend to follow on our first dojo Feb 4th which will be largely a fact finding mission.
Armed with Scratch and Joomla, we have two systems that will allow students of different levels and needs, a common entry point. From here, it will be up to the student the direction they take and how far they want to take it. We have at least 4 scratch experts including Brendan, Steve and Michael and Sharon.
HTML and GIMP skills leading on to the PHP/advanced Joomla development using our own JiGS Games system will be available to the more advanced students as is appropriate. I will teach some of the mentors PHP and Joomla so even our non-techie mentors can have a go. We will also be looking at Minecraft and OpenSim, especially since James Corbert and the team at MissionV and our own team have been investigating a JiGS, Joomla, OpenSim, Kinect collaboration.
Lisa and I will also be travelling to the other Coder Dojos in Cork and Limerick (and elsewhere if invited) to make JiGS and Joomla available there too. Thanks to Adrian for organising the meeting, and of course James and Bill for starting the movement.
Dog & Bone Night in Aid of Local Dog Rescue Friday Dec 23rd
Written by Lisa | 12.14.11
Coincidence?
I think not.
EMC23 Before MADRA
We at EMC23, are unabashed dog lovers (click the images to see how unabashed!) We have come across a fair few stray dogs during our travels. The more dogs we took on, the more dogs we picked up, literally, along the way. We discovered MADRA mid way through this journey, and we are happy to proclaim, they enlighten and inspire us, and for that, we are devoted :)
Read more: Dog & Bone Night in Aid of Local Dog Rescue Friday Dec 23rd
The Tools we use
Written by Rob | 12.13.11
Although we work with Joomla everyday and this blog and our work at the Irish Joomla User Group stand testament to that, Joomla is not the only tool that we have spent years studying and working with. When we organised ourselves into an entity back in 1996, our main tools were the Netscape browser for viewing AND editing html pages, and the Adobe products - Photoshop and Premier for graphic and live video editing.
Rob had worked for Corel Graphics so was pretty adept at Corel Draw, Bryce and Poser (which were made by Kai). Once he left Corel, he quickly moved over to the Adobe products, recognising clients' expectations and a superior product.
Joomla and Open Data in Ireland
Written by Rob | 12.07.11
Over the past few months here at EMC23, we've been investigating how Joomla can be used to import, consume, manipulate and display open data. We've also been looking at ways to integrate open data into our Joomla Interactive Game System JiGS. This culminated with a hackathon organised by Distillr.com where I presented my ideas to a group of about 12-20 developers. There were 4 heads from Joomla User Group Ireland present at the hackathon which I think was exceptional.
Where Technology, Activism and Art Meet...
Written by Rob | 12.02.11
Education has been an integral part of EMC23's mission statement since its inception in the early 90's. Some of my friends out there in Facebook land will remember the rows of computers in our living room connected to the internet, and an open door policy that welcomed activists and artists of all types to access the internet, printers, write up C.Vs anything we could do to help people use technology to empower themselves.
Even when we are dealing with our commercial clients, we try to educate them into the best ways to present them and their products or services without any BS. We have always promoted good, honest content over superfluous SEO black hat techniques. We want the Net and the World to be a better place.
Variations on Joomla 1.5 Flexi Template v2.3
Written by Lisa | 09.10.11
Lately, I have been using a boilerplate version of the Flexi template. This is the most bare-bones Flexi template, with no styles, only layout.
I've also encountered a significant conflict when using VirtueMart and K2 with the Flexi template and have remedied the potential for further conflicts by adding emc- prefix to all layout elements.
Download BLANK Flexi Template v2.3
Download BLANK Flexi Template v2.3 with TAGS
Joomla versus Drupal - A Developer's Perspective
Written by Rob | 06.03.11
The difference between Joomla! and Drupal.
It's always interesting to watch two or more similar products compete. Often, you will find over a few years, the competition will rob ideas from each other until the differences between them are largely cosmetic and the better, being largely a personal choice, as opposed to any serious added functionality.
Why I hate SEO Part II
Written by Rob | 05.23.11
I don't use Dreamweaver anymore. Sometimes I use Eclipse, but mostly I use a text editor. It's very Zen.
So where was I? Ah yes...SEO. So all of a sudden I'm not cutting-edge any more. Black hat SEO, white hat SEO - it all looks the same colour to me. I made bad websites in the past and I make no apologies for that. But it was always about content. I like semantics. I like the idea that the scientists have re-asserted themselves. I like the idea that the flowery graphic designer and the anal coder can now live in harmony.
Why I hate SEO Part I
Written by Rob | 05.09.11
Well, I suppose I don't actually hate it, I just don't understand it, and you always fear that which you don't understand. I'm going to give this whole blogging lark another go and either I have something unique to say based on my own opinions and experiences or I join the multitude of homogenized, safe, and basically crap pages that the interwebs have proved so adept at collating.
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