Jared W. Smith

…and the verdict on Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress is largely positive! See reviews at Adminspotting.net, Free Software Magazine, and a great review from the founder of Drupal. We also got a bit of a nastygram on Amazon, as well, but that’ll happen.

If you’ve read and used the book, please share with me and the Internet at large by writing a review on Amazon or other pertinent Web development sites! I’m constantly looking for sites that have reviewed our effort, and I’d most definitely like to keep tabs.

Via Robert Douglass.

I’d like to announce the availability of MelWashington.com, the official website for my friend Mel and his Christian rock band. I’ve known Mel since 2nd grade; “bruthas from another mutha,” so to say, so it’s pretty awesome to do a website for him and hope it takes off. This project has been more than a few months in the making. It’s a simple WordPress 1.5.2 installation retooled a tad to be a bit more CMS’y. I’m holding off for a little while on migrating him to WordPress 2.0. What we’ve got right now is working pretty well, so that may wait for a little while.

Please stop over to his site and feel free to say hello!

Patrick O’Keefe interviewed me for today’s episode of The Community Admin Show, his bi-weekly podcast concerning all things online communities. Inside he asks me about the book, securing your phpBB, and more. Check it out if you get a sec!

I hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas or first day of Hannukah (take your pick)!

The book I co-authored, Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress should be available today, December 26, according to Amazon. So, while you’re doing your returns tomorrow, or perhaps looking for that outstanding after-Christmas sale, please feel free to drop in your local bookstore and look for it. It’ll be shelved in the Web design/Web development section of your local bookstore. If you see it, please tell me where you saw it!

Thanks!

Jared

Look out for my posts concerning phpBB and the world of forum communities in general from time to time on Ablog, the official blog of Apress, the publisher responsible for Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress.

I’ve seen the book! I got seven advance copies via UPS today. It came out wonderfully well, and I think I’ll find it a fantastic resource for my recent forays into Drupal and WordPress. My co-authors, Robert Douglass and Mike Little, have done excellent work in their respective sections. Preorder it now so you can save bookoo bucks on it. It’s out on December 26, so when you’re doing all your holiday returns, please stop in a bookstore and think of us.

Side note: I’ve been very busy the last week or two, hence the minimal blogging. Additionally, nightwind went down this weekend (bad power supply) and I need to get that running soon so my Windows logon doesn’t expire. (This is why most sane individuals have redundant domain controllers.) I can’t say when it will ease up but I’ll hope to resume a more regular schedule soon.

The intent of jaredwsmith.com was never to rest on its laurels as merely a WordPress blog. No, my ambitions for this site far transcend anything I have ever attempted. The goal is to leave it all on the table, and for people to take it for what it’s worth. In short, this could be very cool.
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We’re entering the production stages of the book now. It’s getting quite exciting! You can now look for a release around December 19, 2005.

There’s a good possibility jwsdotcom may go down, as the MySQL server is being HAMMERED right now, and has been for the last few hours, and I can’t quite tell why.

Currently, the Relationship Forums are completely inaccessible, and I’m starting to have serious problems moving around in phpMyAdmin. It’s not looking good folks.

It’s been a busy week for sure. I’m encountering some domain difficulties with Mel’s new official website. Hopefully GoDaddy’s backordering system can come through for us. I’m hoping to have an official site up for him soon, though I may delay that some more because of just how badly he beat me in bowling tonight.

The book is really ramping up production. Technical review appears to be complete, and I’m getting deep into copy edit now and we’re starting to enter the production phase…this is definitely screaming “home stretch!” Look for a release just after the first of the year now, as we were pushed back a bit.

Friday night was interesting. It started at Sportz and ended up at Willies after a stop at Players Place. I affirmed that I suck horribly at pool and air hockey.

Here’s some outstanding news to close this post up - my aunt’s been able to go home! She has improved markedly in the last week or so, regaining some energy and her lucidity. It’s a big step in the right direction. She still needs a donor, but at least she’s more comfortable, and things are looking less dire at this point. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers - they helped!

Anyway folks, I hope you all have a great week ahead. Go Padres! The NL Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals starts at 1 PM, Peavy v. Carpenter. While the Cardinals are most certainly a formidable opponent, the Padres seem to ramp it up a bit when the big dogs come to town…who knows? Better to be optimistic than to write them off, as a majority of the baseball world is doing.