Computer Stuff
Stuff on the computer, yo.
To which he muses tech crap
May 7th
In the end, the Cornstalker forums are completely done. The upgrade itself was relatively short in comparisoin to the preparation and cleanup of the forums. I attempted to prepare myself for this upgrade, but in the end, as well prepared I was, the problems I encounctered were server specific. My original plan was to access the Cornstlker server via ssh- only to find that there was no SSH support to begin with. FTP proved to be worthless- constant timeouts had me banging my head against the table. In the end, a slow http download that took hours was my only choice. I could have skipped the backup, but experience has strengthened m belief in the addage, “Better be safe than sorry”. The cleanup was simple- moving the old foruls to another folder and moving the new forums, creating a search index, so on and so forth were things I prepared for.
What’s next? Well, there are new smilies installed on the forums as requested by the administrators. The PHPBBlog on the frontpage is now broken. If I have the time, I may go back and re-write some of the code so I can get working with the PHPBB3 forums. I doubt it, thought. I’ve been working on CS pro bono so far, as a favor. Aside from the last bits of finishing the forums and the removal of PHPBBlog, I do think my work with the Cornstalkers is done for now- any other work will require compensation of some sort. I’m trying to start a side buisness of website design- at some point, i have to stop taking pro bono work. I won’t rule out working with CS per se, but my responsibilites with CS ended when I was removed from my assistant editor position. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy and worship these guys and gals for their incredible work (and i still read all of their comics), but I have plans of my own at this point.
Projeccts of my own are coming along now. I’ve been looking into grants for one of the projects, but this idea is so grandiose, I would rather get other projects off the ground before I focus on this one. All I have to say for this project would be a TV pilot for a documentary-esque show. I wish I could say more, but alas, my lips are sealed.
I’m also taking a look at the Facebook API. While the whole thing is over-hyped (I am of the opinion that the Facebook value is in a bubble, and will pop in due time) , I find great possibilities for the API in terms of creating mashups. I’m doing all of this while learning PHP as well as some MySQL. Applications and coding may be one of the new parts of the Team Mayhem conduit.
As for Team Mayhem, there are plans. ohoho yes, there are plans.
Cornstalker Forums Upgrade
May 4th
As requested by the wonderful , I am indeed working on upgrading the cornstalker forums, upgrading them to PHPBB3. They have been down since 9 am today. Here’s the rundown (will be updated as time goes on!):
9ish: Forums shut down, full backup request sent
9:30 am: Full backup clocking in at 1.9 gigs. Downloads of that update failed.
10:15 am: ssh not accepted by CS server. AUGH
11:30 am: Backup Attempt #2 failed.
11:45 am: MySQL tables back up successful.
12:15 pm: Backup attempt #3 underway
1:00 pm: Backup attempt #3 failed- FTP server countinues to time out.
2:00 pm: Backup attempt #4 underway via cPanelX backup
2:47 pm: Backup attempt #4 at 820.7 megs and counting.
3:30 pm: Backup attempt #4 at 1973 megs and counting.
4:21 pm: Backup attempt #4 download complete- expanding to make sure file is complete and not corrupted.
4:46 pm: Backup attempt #4 successful. Starting upload of PHPBB3 and creation of MySQL tables
5:20 pm: Upload complete. Having troubles with MySQL connections.
6:26 pm: CORRUPTED TABLES CAPTAIN! MySQL is all fucked up. Reading some of the reactions so far hasn’t helped, either.
6:43 pm: Fixed tables, fixed connections (thanks Levi) now moving on to conversion. step 16 out of 23.
7:12 pm: Conversion complete, moved phpbb3 to the /forums folder, just doing some cleanup. Open for business at 7:30 pm. sharp
7:19 pm: Scratch that. I can’t tell when the forums are finished indexing the search stuff. It will be up tonight, hopefully.
8:50 It’s DONE.
http://www.cornstalker.com/forums/
I’m going to get dinner now.
my lame spring break plans (neeerdy)
Apr 16th
Friday officially started my spring break plans. Which is basically wayy too much.
For one, is to actually get some work done coding. I’ve had a bunch of projects lying around that need to be coded, and i plan to have some work done on them before the week is done. A couple of them is actually going to appear in some form as a facebook app (although i don’t know if i want to publish them or not- i think i might have to wait a bit or have someone else take a look at the codebase before i do anything with it.). I’m also working on learning template protocols for different CMS and blog engines. I already know Joomla 1.0x like there was no tomorrow (I have a couple of skins under my belt for that, none of which i’ve published), but I want to learn more in focus, WordPress, Joomla 1.5, and Drupal.
I do have plans for Cornstalker this week- I’m planning to upgrade the forums from the now antiquidated PHPBB2 to the newest version, PHPBB3. The whole transisition is something that i’m stressed to no end on doing, because the whole move can go wrong in so many ways that I REALLY don’t want to screw it up. That in combination with no ssh access as well as some inexperience on my end has me creating dummy PHPBB2 forums on my own domains and upgrading them in order to get the process down pat. Hopefully, I’ll have the real CG transfer done by the weekend- but that’s just tentative.
But I do have some fun on the side- I have my PS3 back for a bit, so I’m playing Rock Band in anticipation of tomorrow and getting Still Alive on it, as well as playing some rental games and pre-ordering what i know will be my latest addiction- Grand Theft Auto 4. I beat GTA3, GTA:VC, and GTA:SA to almost &90+ completion. I love those games to death, and I think i may go into an almost rabid like state playing the latest installment.
Recommended Mac Apps
Apr 12th
Okay, I’ve been promising a list of my favorite apps on the mac for a week or so now, and with midterms finally over, I’ve finally finished the list of my favorite apps for Macs, both freeware and paid software. All the programs are available for OS X 10.4 or later, and are Universal programs (Universal meaning it will run fine in both PowerPC and Intel macs).
(updated 5-29 to add new applications)
CHAT
Adium – This program is the offshoot of Pidgin on the PC, and its a far different program, for the better. With great support for all the major clients (and some unknown ones as well) the strength of this program lies in its multitude of options for addons and themes. Abilities that would have to cost money on other platforms (Trillian, I’m looking at you, you douchebag.) are completely free and rather well executed on Adium, with a separate website that can auto-install plugins without a second care in the world.
INTERNET
iJournal – For those using a livejournal (which is a lot of you judging by the fact you’re READING mine) this is a program that can handle multiple journals in a well made WYSIWYG interface. With auto-detect music from iTunes, saving drafts, and adding tags, this program is a plus for those who love their LJ writing wayyy too much for their own good.
OFFICE
Bean – I’ve mentioned this app before, and I haven’t really explained why its so good. It’s strength lies in the simplicity- it’s a straightforward, simple to use word processor. With built in Microsoft Word support, its quick to open, quick to save, and is relatively good if you want something that’s… well quick.
Neo Office – Based on the popular freeware application Open Office, Neo Office is basically the free and easy to use version for OS X. It can open up basically anything that the Open Office version can, and in reality, that’s basically near damn everything you can imagine in text formats. It’s basically a native version of Open Office for OS X, and in that reguard, it does its job quite wonderfully. Updated quite regularly, features that were once found troublesome can be resolved within a quick update (and more often than not, the problems found within this freeware program are rather miniscule in proportion to the features it has). This is the only program that is NOT Universal – there are versions for PPC and Intel macs.
INTERNET
Photobook – Photoviewer for Facebook. It sounds redundant, but with its slick interface and the ability to import entire albums of friends photos to iPhoto, it makes browsing pictures on Facebook rather fun. I personally like to browse random images on the program, and if i wish to comment upon them, i simply hit “open in browser” to pop the page up on my default browser in order to make my comment.
Transmission – For those times that you need to need to… well, download one of those special free things on bitttorrent, Transmission is a lightweight bittorrent client that’s not filled with uneeded features.
ART
Skitch – The best little concepts of the mac OS comes to life in this small drawing program that makes it easy for you to quickly sketch out an idea, draw on a screenshot or webcam shot and share it on Skitch’s own picture sharing site, FTP, or Flickr.
MUSIC
Mojo – Mojo is a music sharing program for iTunes. Set up your friends list, and be able to download music off of their iTunes directly into yours without the need for a p2p program or anything else like that. It’s a simple way for you to share music you want with only a select number of friends (mojo limits any files to only your friends, if you wish) and a coming PC version gives those saps with a PC something to be looking foward to. Ability to stream songs is also included, and in my own tests, is easy to use and rather quick, but that can change with connection and bandwidth. (if you want to share music with me, i’m more than willing. Message me later and we can set it up, mmmkay?)
VIDEO
VLC – If you haven’t heard of VLC, you suck, and you should go see what your hand feels like in a blender. But on a kinder note (and perhaps a trip to the hospital), VLC is a cross platform (its for windows and linux too) video player that can play pretty much everything under the sun. It can be rather complex to use (expecially the more advanced features like video conversion) but once you figure out what you need it for, VLC will be practically everything you need for video playback.
Perian and WMV Flip 4 Mac – Now VLC isn’t for everyone- what if you do plenty of video editing with Final Cut Pro, or are a really big fan of QuickTime Pro? These two applications are grouped together just to give QuickTime a little boost. Now if you don’t do video editing, this program also helps for sites that stream only WMV, allowing QuickTime to open the programs with relative ease. I’ve found that Flip 4 Mac can be a little slow at opening some files, but its a rather small inconvienence in the overal scheme of things, i suppose.
UTILITIES
Caffeine – hate it when your computer goes to sleep when you’re watching a movie or doing something else? Caffine adds a small coffee mug to the task bar at the top of the screen. Click it and the computer will not go to sleep. Click it once more and the mug will empty, allowing the computer to go to sleep next time it wants to. It’s not a program you want to keep there all the time (ie have it boot when the computer starts), but hell, its worthwhile anyways for those moments you’re too lazy too move the mouse or the computer is rendering something.
Grand Perspective – There will come a time when your hard drive will become cluttered with data, and to figure out where all that junk clogging up your computer exactly is a chore and a half. Grand Perspective will scan your hard drive (or certain folders) and show an image that can help you locate where the trouble spots exactly are and delete them with relative ease of use.
AppCleaner – My biggest complaint when switching from the world of PCs was the lack of a Add/Remove-esque program for OS X. My woes were quickly solved when stumbling upon the AppCleaner program, which does a damn good job of uninstalling applications, widgets, and unwanted system files. Sometimes, a folder with some unknown files may be left behind, but having the more hidden parts of the application deleted is a welcome part of this application.
Quicksilver – This is the ULTIMATE Mac application. It’s a rapid launcher that can have a multitude of uses, including composing emails quickly, launching any program of your choice, or an auto upload to your site via FTP (with an additiona program). Any power user on the mac has had experience with this program, and i must say, this is my favorite out of all of these.
Adobe Air - This Adobe platform is designed to make programs for multiple operating systems based on programming languages by Adobe. Now this may not be a lot by itself, its the multitude of programs available makes it worthwhile. I myself use the Twhirl client for my Twitter addiction. What they’ve done so far with the platform can only be a signal of what can be done in the future for this interesting little install.
OS X 10.5 ONLY
Yes, there are certain programs I’ve been able to play with Leopard-only programs, and some of these are rather sweet.
Fluid – Using Safari’s WebKit engine, this program creates programs that can only open up that certain website. Now this can be helpful for those websites that you visit quite frequently- for example, I visit Facebook on almost an hourly basis now, so having a separate window that can be able to check up on Facebook is rather useful.
PAY
These are rather small, but there are good applications that are awesome for the mac. I picked them out weighing the difference between cost and usefulness.
OFFICE
iWork - The spiritual successor to AppleWorks (and if you don’t know what that is, you aren’t a mac fan) it does everything NeoOffice does and… well better. With tight intergration to the rest of the Apple program line (iPhoto and iTunes) this suite of programs makes it simple to create a slideshow presentation, drop in photos from iPhoto, and export it easily to a Microsoft Office friendly format. If you want to take the next step above a decent office suite into a well organized package, the cost of iWork should be relatively low to what you’ll be expecting from its Microsoft counterpart.
UTILITIES
Delicious Library – This program can be best described as a portible library- it keeps track of all the movies, music, books and games you have in hard copy in a slick interface. With UPC scanning via a webcam and auto info import from Amazon.com, this program is a must for those that have large collections of stuff that you would like to have a better way to keep track of. It comes with the ability to have “lenders”, so you can actually keep track of the person who’s been borrowing your copy of Gnarls Barkley (it was your cousin, by the way) . A new 2.0 version has a 10.5 only interface with a new interface that can export HTML pages with your Library list.
Super Duper - While sounding like a rather special education superhero, Super Duper acts like the better version of Time Machine on 10.5. You can create a mirror image of your hard drive on a portable drive in order to boot from it if something wrong happens to the main drive, or separate backup, this little program does it with great gusto.
Adium+GLaDOS
Mar 26th
I’ve been compiling a list of great OS X programs for a couple of my friends, and thought this is a perfect little tidbit to bring up.
My chat program of choice is none other than Adium, a great, free little program. I love it to death, due to its amazing customization it brings. So when trying to find a perfect replacement for the sound effects, I came across this:
http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=xtras&xtra_id=4996
The villain from Portal, GLaDOS. She spouts off little things like “Who are yoou?” when someone IMs me, or “Are you coming back?” when someone disconnects. I find it all too hilarious. My family, unfortunately, finds it too annoying. One day, when I left I accidentally left my Adium open. Coming home, i found my speakers on the floor, and the cables frayed. I freaked out, thinking someone broke into my room. As it turned out, I left the volume up high, so my mother kept hearing “ARE YOU COMING BACK?” and “WHO ARE YOOU?” over and over again and went crazy and trashed my speakers trying to get rid of the sounds.
The speakers are fine. I kept the sound set so i can drive her crazy some more. I did get to change the adium icon set to Mia Fey from Phoenix Wright….
I am everything nerds love to hate.
Mar 18th
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‘s recent return to Macs (receiving a shiny new MacBook Pro), I came to a realization- I am everything nerds love to hate. It’s an odd conclusion to come to, yes, but it’s kind of… well, true. I am a big Mac fan and a Playstation 3 fan to boot, both of which aren’t very popular to represent in some online communities I frequent.
I’ve been a Mac fan… well since I started using computers, which was back in the second or third grade, if i recall correctly. My elementary school was populated with Macs, and I used both the regular LC 520 and the Performa 5300 in the computer labs. I distinctly remember preferring the Performa 5300 due to the better sound that would come out of the games i would secretly install on them (Command and Conquer, anyone?). But at home, I would use a PC, so growing up, I had been accustomed to both computer types. But the impressions Macs left me were undeniable- I even requested a colored case, “Just like a Mac” on my Pentium III machine.
Today, I still use my PC from time to time, but I am a huge Mac fan, as i have discovered the ways of QuickSilver and its productivity brethren that have risen out of the Mac application community. I await eagerly for the “next big thing” from Apple, downloaded the iPhone SDK, and wear black turtlenecks. I don’t go on angry tirades to support Apple, I don’t defend them even when the situation is hopeless (I still don’t really use the iTunes store unless the tracks i want are in DRM free format), I do think the Macs are utterly hopeless at playing video games (that’s what my video game consoles are for!) – But to have a creative and powerful machine for high end applications for sound, image, web, and video editing- my Mac does it all wonderfully, and I’ve been happy with it so far.
I’ve been a Playstation fan since… well, the PS1 days. My friend Primo used to own the original back in elementary school, and I loved to play Armored Core games (god, that’s one series that have gone downhill). I owned a PS2 for three years before it stopped working (dead laser). So I just played games for a while on my brand new PC at the time (now, the system barely qualifies for minimum system requirements, if not, at all). At the time, i was looking forward at the “next-gen” consoles, and I started leaning towards the Xbox 360, for the games (Halo 3 caught my eye early). But as reports of console failures started leaking out, I was getting worried about having another dead console on my hands. Plus, I realized that I didn’t like the Halo series at all, finding the story to be rather cheap, in my opinion. With the coming of Metal Gear Solid 4, I used the high paying job I had at the time to buy the 60 gig PS3 with full backwards capability.
EDIT:
IF i may indulge my Mac loving for just a little while longer, this is an excellent blog post on the advantages of the Mac platform, as done by a former windows programmer:
http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/02/14/50-reasons-to-switch-from-microsoft-windows-to-apples-mac-os-x/
CMSSSSSSssss
Mar 16th
With the weekend has come a whole messload of things to do. For one, I did get a lot of the code i had intended to get through- the Cornstalker’s new forums theme has been mastered into its own original copy, and I’ve been starting the import from the old CSS files from the front page to the forums. With the negative response I’ve recieved from the new-ish design, I may go with a new layout, but the same color scheme I like. The code for the PHPBB Blog that i retooled for the layout throws up errors when trying to get the information from the PHPBB3 version of the forums, instead of the PHPBB2 version. I hoope that only a small amount of retooling has to be done instead of scrapping all that code I worked on and creating the cod myself. Again, it’s probably better for me to experiment a bit more before I come to any conclusions when it comes down to it. This is part of my plans to learn the PHPBB3 template base so that i can be able to create the templates for two or three forums i visit rather infrequently.
Also playing around with Joomla 1.5 and running it through a variety of stress tests to see how it responds. So far, I’m really happy on its much easier to use backend as well as a variety of plugins that can help me deploy a concept i have of a multimedia site. However, the lack of current native plugin support has me a bit on edge to actually fully deploy a site with one of these plugins only to have it later abandoned for a newer release. Well, I think I may wait an extra month or two to let these kinks resolve out on their own before i move on to full scale testing and deployment of the multimedia site.
I’m also playing around with WordPress. I’ve heard so many great things about it, I had to try it for my own. So far, the CMS looks to be pretty damn good, with a good plugin support. I’ve been thinking about using WP for my portfolio site so I can easily update it and add other widgets to the site with ease of use. By the looks of it, the WordPress engine is perfect for me to use for something like my porfolio site, which needs to be updated less than a regular full scale site. So add a gallery, a couple pages, and pull the blog like features out so it flows more like a porfolio site than a… well, a blog (even though there will be a blog on the site).
My latest little toy is one called eyeOS, right now in version 1.5. It’s basically a webOS that can be easily deployed to a private server in order to run lightweight office programs and serve as image repositiory as i’m on the go. IT’s so far been able to work in a couple of different areas without heavy difficulty, bandwitdth aside- no background proccesses to speak of, exempt out of the small times it has to load a program up, like its lightweight word processor. It serves as a great repository for images and documents that I need to use on the go. My only gripe is the lack of a mass uploader on it. Other than that, everything is (as my sister says it) peachy keen.
Mac-ization
Mar 13th
It’s now been over six moths since I’ve made the switch to the mac platform (more like eight months ago, checking my calendar and everything), much to . Back when i was using the PC, I had no sense of order when it came to my work. I’d be working on a project hand have half of the code on my desktop, and the other half buried somewhere in My Documents folder. So when I made the move to Mac, I promissed myself that I would start organizing myself on OS X. Looking at the state of affairs now with the mac, i can safely say that i do indeed have better organization.
On the PC, I would use the built in photo downloader program to organize my pictures. it was a sloppy affair, as it would miss certain formats and sometimes pile images in the wrong folder if I didn’t pay attention when bashing my mouse in clicking the “Next” button. I had heard about iPhoto from other friends, and when playing with some of the older versions of the program, I immediately started to have a hatred for the program. But once iLife ’08 came to my computer, i fell in love with the new iPhoto, specifically, the Events feature. being able to keep photos in folders similar to my old PC system, but with a much slicker and easier interface? Exif data on the go? Oh yes!
iTunes was easy, because I had already used it a lot on the PC as it is. The harder change for me was well, getting rid of Microsoft products. I had read a tech book (I forgot which one) which in the back of the book, advertised keeping a Microsoft free enviroment in the back. I had become intrigued with the concept- after all, i had been using MSN messanger, Windows XP, Microsoft FrontPage, and the rest of the Office suite constantly on the PC, but being frustrated with many of the progams mentioned (expecially office and windows) I wanted to try and make my own workspace being free. And I’m proud to say that my mac doesn’t have a single microsoft program on it. The programs i use regularly are:
Word Proccessing: Bean (as mentioned before), NeoOffice, Pages (depends on the severity of the work )
Web Development: CSSEdit, TextEdit, Dreamweaver
FTP: Transmit, Dreamweaver
Audio editing: Audacity, Garage Band
Photo management/editing: Photoshop & iPhoto
Mail: Thunderbird (currently moving to Apple’s Mail.app)
Chat: Adium
Many of the programs are mac specific, but a couple of cross platform favorites (Audacity, Photoshop) made the list. So far, I’ve been pretty happy not having a cross compatible, simple to maintain system is goddam great.
My happiest intergration that i’ve found on the mac so far is the use of the Address book. On my PC, there was my regular address book that came with windows XP, my Thunderbird Address book, and the one on my palm pilot. Now, the Palm Pilot syncs perfectly with iSync, making my address book available to my email program, to my chat program, and to almost anything else. Having this type of intergration makes it so much easier- no more having to look at three different goddamn databases to find someone’s email. It also makes nice with iCal, another simple, but powerful.
My only complaint so far with my mac is the one button configuration. I know it sounds trivial, but a couple of days with just a single mouse button had me switching to a standard… Microsoft 2 button mouse.
guess i have at least one microsoft product now. damn.
In need of…
Feb 28th
a laptop. yeah, i know it seems rather selfish and all to need a laptop, but i find myself thinking, “this would be a lot easier if i had a laptop”. i’ve found myself in use of the school computer labs often to send off an email or to… post on my LJ (har har! guess where i’m doing this!). But the school computer policy has a strict policy against running programs from flash drives, or else, i’d be running GIMP on these computers to do some layouts.
I’ve been looking at a variety of laptops, wondering the loadouts and the programs i’d carry on them. my first instinct was to go mac, as i am primarily a mac guy. having the mac with a .mac account to sync my website design and documents across computers with be an amazing plus for me- edit a CSS file at a coffee shop, send it to .mac, and find it on my desktop when i go home. of course, macs are a bit much for me, and i don’t want to go through a payment plan on that- i’d rather do a payment plan on something different, like a video camera. The macbook Air would be nice, although underpowered for my purposes. then again, my best friend primo still uses the flat screen iMac for RAW editing- he just has a lot of patience. a regular macbook would probably be the best idea, and just carry around one of those portable hard drives powered by usb to get it running.
next logical step is to think cheap- so i did. i took a look at the EeePC Asus provides. its simple, small, would do all the web based stuff i’d want it to do, and of course, AFFORDABLE. of course, this would be my first computer that i’d be running linux as its main operating system (i’ve used computers, Macs and PCs alike that would have a backup copy of linux running as a secondary OS) so it might have to be a learning experience for me. I barely use terminal in OS X right now, and to use something similar in linux would definitely be interesting. Or i could just wipe the hard drive and put a fresh copy of windows 2k/xp on it and run an OS i’m used to. but who knows, its
I guess i’m just going to have to play around with my finances and see what i can come up with. more on this later.
oh, and new LJ layout. i went to the ad-based version and cleaned up the sidebar a bit. i like the new layout.
organizing.
Feb 21st
I’m sitting in the computer lab of my college, eager (ha) to start my first week of classes. Most of my friends have all but returned to their respective colleges, and i was probably one of the last to start. I’ve been in a flurry, just continuing the classes i need for my general education courses needed to transfer to other schools. I’ve also started to organize myself a bit better now. I’ve realized that my current system of organziation is woefully lax, and as such, have begun to use my palm pilot a bit more now, as before, i used it as a method to play old school SNES and Genesis games on it (wonderful little emulator called LittleJohn, i think), but with the coming of my mac, i’ve started to sync it more often and keep at least a reasonable schedule on it. I’ve also found myself rather happy with the way i’ve been managing my time and my efforts in the variety of projects i have strewn about. iSync does a wonderful job of connecting itself with the Palm HotSync manager on the Mac, and i can be able to keep my address book now on my mac, my palm pilot, and my cell phone, to boot. Simplicity at its best.
Two sites that i’ve found that have helped me along the way is Lifehacker, an amazing blog with little tricks to help manage your time and your basic way of life, and Plaxo, a retarded sounding networking site. Both have their ups and downs that are remarkable to me and have helped me try to get stuff organized for now. I’ll be using Plaxo to sync my calendar with google calendars so i can have that running about as i’m on the go. I’ve been considering getting my own personal site with its own domain name just in case i need to get some… hub site of sorts together.
‘s own hub site is an excellent example of one for comics, but i want one that would combine my personal and professional work in one simple site. I was thinking about making it as a WordPress site, but i don’t want to abandon LJ. I guess I’ll have to weigh the pros and cons of everything I have so far and see if having my own separate blog would be a good idea. I was thinking of creating a unified RSS feed for everything i have so far, using Yahoo’s excellent Yahoo Pipes, which was used to create the unified Cornstalker Collective feed back in the day. What’s coming out of this, you ask? i have no idea. First off is to learn the new template systems for Joomla 1.5 and for the PHPBB3 forums. From what small glimpses i’ve had so far, it looks like the stuff is relatively easy to use and whatnot, so we’ll have to wait and see on how everything goes.