Digital Meanderings

The following article will show you one of the many ways that you can create a multilingual or country-specific site in ExpressionEngine to deliver content specific to each language/country.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, I’m going to assume that you all know what Expression Engine ExpressionEngine is and does – Originally built as a ‘blogging’ tool, it has quickly become a market leader in Content Management Systems and I not only use Expression Engine ExpressionEngine for all my freelance projects, but I’m also spearheading the adoption of it amongst my day-job, building enterprise level high traffic sites in the Framework.

I’ve decided finally that I should really get down in writing some of the techniques that I employ for the building of my Expression Engine ExpresionEngine websites. My last post raved about the recent ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter (EECI2009) conference that I attended in Leiden, Holland – if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you do! However, in the meantime here are my tips on minimising your development time and maximising your output. Read the rest of this entry »

Just got back from an amazing few days in Leiden, Holland at the (hopefully) annual EECI Conference ‘EECI2009‘.

Thought I’d give my thoughts and feedback on the whole event in general with any comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Can you always guarantee that WiFi will work at events?

Sadly not. And the last 2 events I have attended have been testament to that.

Planning Wireless Internet access for a technology conference is probably one of the hardest things that anyone will have to do. Anywhere between 200 and 600 tech-savvy people all looking to use the web and its your name/face they associate with it.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, now back on the Island after a very productive and enjoyable 2-day Future of Web Apps Conference in London.

Whilst I sit here in my front room sipping a glass of coke waiting for my Indian takeaway and thanking my stars that (as yet) I haven’t gone down with the FOWA Flu – I grabbed a copy of the Public Timeline courtesy of Elliott Kember (@elliottkember) and ran some keyword density applications against it to get a feel for the event and the emotions:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always getting bombarded with people asking about Spam Filtering and what ’settings’ have been changed due to the fact that their many ‘homegrown’ mailouts are going into peoples spam filters, so I’m trying this post to demystify and explain how the system all works and how you can do your bit to make sure your emails go into peoples inboxes, not spam/junk folder.

First, you need to understand that most spam filters work using an extremely complex mathematical formula called Bayesian Filtering.

Read the rest of this entry »

In this industry (or any industry) is it ever acceptable to tell a client “no”?

Surely as professionals in our field, we should be given the credibility to advise/steer the client toward the correct path, but when gentle persuasion and nudging doesn’t work – should you give them an almighty shove in the right direction or is it time to cut your losses?

Read the rest of this entry »

I am currently in the process of writing a blog about how clients change their mind during a project development and as a result the end website looks nothing like the original design and I need YOUR help.

If you can send me (via email or Skype) a sample JPG of a website you designed along with the URL of the finished website (or a screenshot if it’s no longer live) along with your comments/notes etc… I’ll include it into my blog post with suitable accreditation.

Received a new spam message in my mail this morning. Now, thanks to Google Enterprise and G-Apps, I very rarely actually see spam messages in my inbox, but this one got though and made me chuckle, so I thought I’d post it here (after finally getting my blog ressurected again!)

Read the rest of this entry »