Now, I’m not bringing it up to bash the software. Sure, it’s got its issues. I’m bringing it up because, after this many years of seeing this error, it’s hardly “unexpected” anymore. I expect it. Every time.

I remember when automated phone systems took over companies’ answering. It was simple. Press 1 for the menu, press 2 for sales, press 3 for a loud beep, etc. But, I don’t know, at least 10 years ago, they started adding in this voice recognition into their systems.

Thanks for calling COMPANY. What can I help you with?

I’d rather just hear a menu and press a button or two. How am I supposed to know the available commands?

You may say “Yes” or “No”, or you may say “Reconfigure my Service.”

Ok, I’ll “Reconfigure my Service.”

I’m sorry, I didn’t get that. You may say “Yes” or “No”, or you may say “Reconfigure my Service.”

Ok, fine. “SERVICE”.

I’m sorry, I didn’t get that.

Alright, enough already. It was much more usable when you guys simply provided me with a menu. I’ll just press zero until I hear the sound of a transfer.

The bottom line is that voice-recognition automated phone systems actually take me longer to navigate, and I’m in I.T. And it seems they don’t do the greatest job of filtering, because I’m gonna press zero a hundred times until I get anybody, in any department.

Think twice before setting up automated voice-recognition phone systems.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

This bundle gives you some great tab-triggers to write jQuery much more quickly in TextMate!

A nice selection of tab-triggers

Here’s a comparison of the two, showing that echo is significantly faster.

Most Drupal themes use print, but I see no argument in favor of using print over echo.

CSS Text Wrapper has a nice little interface that allows you to shape your alignment:

CSS Text Wrap

In actually creates a bunch of floating <div>s, each with a width. These <div>s essentially push the text around, making the text appear to wrap around unconventionally shaped objects. Cool idea.

Each of us got a paycheck, and we had to manage our own checkbooks. We could write checks to other businesses for goods or services. It was a blast, actually!

I was a sharp kid at 10 or 11 years old. I was aware that we were working with fake funds, fake money, fake jobs. But the goods I could purchase with my fake money were totally real.

So, since I’m such a generous guy, I wrote bad checks so that I could bring home some goodies for my brother and a friend or two. I’m sorry, Enterprise Village, but I knew better. I intentionally wrote checks my BS checking account couldn’t cash, but I brought home more stuff than the other kids. I remember the other kids asking how much I got paid as a manager, thoroughly confused!

Take a look at this video from Development Seed (More Beer, Less Effort), which shows two users simultaneously installing a bunch of drupal modules:

Drush: More Beer, Less Effort from Development Seed on Vimeo.

So, then, why do some people insist on using multiple question marks at the end of question sentences???????????????????…? Is this really necessary?

Please. One question mark is sufficient.

There’s no lesson to be learned, and that’s frustrating. Oh well, that’s life, huh?

I guess catching colds is good to maintain good immunity. No lesson, but still a benefit. Still sucks being sick, though.

Check out the table of contents on Packt’s website.

It starts out with a bit of general info regarding what a CMS is and why they’re important. I liked how the author didn’t dwell on this area; instead, he goes through some of the key points, then moves right along into getting some hands dirty with the system.

He does go into a bit of detail on installation into different platforms, so expect the typical *nix/Windows installation breakdowns.

The book is pretty well written, not too technical but not too casual, either. The subject matter moves in a logical order, and if it’s your first time building a site with MODx, then this book will guide you through the whole process, from start to finish, in a good order.

You could probably run through this book and build a site in a day or two, maybe just devote a whole weekend to it. Even though it was written on 0.9.x, the same applies to 1.0, so don’t worry about any minor inconsistencies.

The author spends a good bit of time dealing with some of the more complex things in MODx, including PHx, Ditto, and Snippets in general. And of course, he spends a good chunk of time on templating, which is one the greatest aspects of MODx.

This book is thorough enough to get you going in MODx right away. You’ll find that rolling out sites in MODx is faster than using any other popular system, but I do recommend you build a full HTML/CSS prototype of your site before integrating into MODx; things go even quicker that way.

All in all, MODx Web Development is a great resource and a good read. It’s sure to get you into shape working with MODx in just a few days’ time.

A typical modx project goes something like this:

1. Figure up a site map
2. Design the site visually
3. Prototype the site into HTML/CSS/Javasript
4. Convert the entire prototype to templates, simply by adding in template variables
5. Build the rest
6. Train your editors

This pretty much sums up the entire development process with modx.

Often, when developing any site with a CMS, you’ll encounter some very common obstacles. For example, have you ever tried to get an intuitive breadcrumb working in Drupal? It’s doable, but it takes some work.

In modx, you’d simply call a snippet called [[Breadcrumbs]]. And guess what? The snippet actually works right out of the box, just as you’d expect. Awesome!

In the backed, modx provides a very intuitive interface. Sure, the admin uses three separate frames, and could appear a bit clunky at first. But when it’s time to populate your site, the speediness of frames actually increases the developer’s productivity. Dramatically.

The admin area contains a site tree, similar to SilverStripe and a few others. This is great for your site editors, as time and time again, I’ve found that editors have a hard time grasping the concept that ‘every item is a node’ or that ‘every item is an article in a category in a section.’ With a site tree, my editors are easily able to find the page they’re looking for, and the interface is intuitive enough for even the most CMS-illiterate editors to figure out pretty quickly.

In addition to a pretty nice admin interface, modx also provides a quick editor, which exists on the live front-end, if an editor-user is logged in. This makes it even easier for my editors to make changes. Lots of my editors say that they never even enter the admin area; they simply use the quick editor from the front-end.

A few complaints

There are only a few caveats and complaints that I encounter. Modx is the perfect fit for many sites, but certainly not for all sites.

For example, one minor complaint I have is that modx stores nearly everything in the database! This includes all your html templates. I’ve grown accustomed to editing templates as a collection of files, but modx stores them directly in the db. Of course, this improves speed performance, so it’s a fair trade.

Also note that with modx, you could store the entire theme layer in the database, by using documents/resources as css or javascript files. Just make sure to set the appropriate content-type in the headers.

Another caveat is that modx isn’t the most robust for a site with hundreds of users. Nor is it great when the number of pages on your site exceeds a few thousand.

But in general, modx is a great choice for many simple websites, and you’ll be amazed at the increase in your productivity level during development.