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Critical SA-CORE-2018-002 Update for Drupal 6 Sites

If you're one of the people who still has a Drupal 6 site hanging on for dear life, you'll need to apply the security patches released today by the Drupal Security Team to your Drupal 6 site. They didn't release a D6 patch, but it's an easy enough patch to convert from Drupal 7 backwards to Drupal 6. 

If you have a standard Drupal 6 install, you can just download the attached zip archive and drop the files into the /includes folder. 

I also made a patch available if you prefer that instead.

It's Getting Harder to Build a Good Website, not Easier

Every so often I get asked if I’m worried that it’s getting too easy to build a website. The number of built-it-yourself type of website services out there are already too many to keep track of. I also recently had another Web developer tell me that it’s just too hard to compete with free.

Skeuminimalism vs the Flat iOS7 Look, Some Impressions

IOS 7 LogoI just downloaded iOS7 today and after my initial shock from the vastly changed appearance wore off, it's starting to grow on me. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of talk about how the new UI is some sort of ridiculous expression of design extremism and snobbery. I certainly was thinking this when I booted into iOS7 for the first time. 

"What the hell! This is worse than Windows 8!" 

Do Small Businesses Need Facebook Fans?

Everyone wants a social media audience and usually that means a Facebook audience first and foremost, but nobody really knows just how much that Facebook audience is worth to their business. It's not surprising that most small businesses fall into this category, but if the results from the 2013 Social Media Marketing Report from Social Media Examiner is any indication, even people working for large corporations aren't sure how much their Facebook marketing efforts are affecting their company's bottom line. Astonishingly, over half of those surveyed in this report said they didn't know or were doubtful that their use of Facebook was productive for their business.

Daily Deal Sites Were an Unlikely Success Story to Begin With.

As you may have heard, the CEO of troubled daily deals site, Andrew Mason, was fired recently. This is a good time for me to put forward my belated thoughts about the difficulties of the daily deal business. If you're bored of such analyses rehashing the same obvious points, don't worry.

IBM: Success in the Cloud: Why Workload Matters

IBM just released a new whitepaper summarizing their experiences with transitioning their internal business environment to the cloud. One of their takeaway points is something that I've had to present to clients and friends on numerous occasions recently. It's that the "cloud" is not just like getting a better and faster computer. It has its own set of risks and rewards and may not be worth the hassle if your upside for "going cloud" is limited. 

Let's Not Declare Desktops Dead Just Yet

The release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system is a good time to have a discussion about the overhyped death of the desktop environment. If you're not yet familiar with the qualities of Windows 8, it's the first operating system designed from the core to be both a touchscreen operating system and also a traditional GUI driven operating system.

How to Select a Great Domain Name for Your Website

People used to pick domain names based on how they appeared to search engines because there was a belief that having the right words in your domain name would give you killer search engine rankings. That may have been true at some point, but if you're choosing domain names for SEO points, you're wasting your money. 

You are not choosing a domain name to bump your search engine rankings. You are choosing a domain name so that people can remember where to find you so they can tell other people about your business or organization.

Phishing Emails from "Tech Support" for Your Website

We've recently seen a rash of phishing emails that seem to be getting confused as potentially legitimate emails from us. The emails typically look something like this:

Read All Snail Mail Domain Registration Reminders Carefully!

This is old news, but it bears posting because people continue to fall vicitm to it. There's a few companies well known for sending people bogus domain name registration reminder notices through the mail. The best known one is the Domain Name Registry of America, but by the time you read this, their name may have changed or a copycat sham business may be doing the same dirty deeds.

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