mark bakker

Check out this rad link for free maps!

Check out this page from fellow web-geek Devin Leggett. Posts about what he learned that day. Maybe I’ll start that too!

I’ve been doing some more drupal developing at work, and I have to say; it sucks. There isn’t nearly enough support, and their help files are awful. What brings me over the top is the lack of community there is as well. People may argue against that, but compare it to wordpress. I’ve done my fair share of wordpress development, and there is a ton of help, examples, and in-depth video tutorials uploaded by independent users online. Drupal? Not so much.

It wasn’t my choice to develop in Drupal, and I really did try my darndest to like it. But as soon as you start, you don’t know where to begin.

The first problem is after downloading drupal and tinkering around for two hours, you find out that you need to download a cornucopia of modules. People may argue that this is a strength, not a weakness, but I’d like to argue for the worse.

Sure it’s ambiguity makes it usable in almost any application, but it has to be custom tuned to work in that facet. Take a blog for example. It is actually a built in module for drupal. So it enables you to write posts, and then displays them on the front page. Want to change where they show up? Or how they show up? BAM. You have to download a module called views, and get into in depth PHP coding using drupal’s API calls. This is not something for the faint of heart – especially with the lack of support.

(It’s not that I don’t like coding – in fact I love it! – it’s just that there is no place online to learn how to do it properly!)

On the other hand wordpress was built with a purpose, and with a target market. Like all successful products, it requires planning and direction. Drupal, it seems missed this point. Wordpress was built as a blogging software, which expanded because of it’s success.

If you compare the amount of help online between the two, there is no contest. Wordpress wins hands down. I’ve given drupal a few chances, but I’m dropping the hammer – drupal is a bad CMS, and I will not use it in the future.

Then there is the actual management(M) part of the CMS. Drupal has content management, site building, site configuration etc. Wordpress has Posts, Media, Links, Pages Comments, etc. Which is far more friendly. Want to edit content? Once you’ve found it in drupal you can’t click on the title – you have to click on edit.

I could go on, but I will stop here. If you are looking to talk to me more about this subject – please contact me. I’m not being a bigot I have many more valid reasons for my opinion.

One last thing. I love the web. I’m passionate about it. The reason I got into webdev is because I want everyone who uses the internet to have a pleasant experience, and find the information they want as easily as possible. Drupal is not usable. It’s not user friendly or intuitive.

I just finnished a new site for the company that I just started working for! Two months ago I accepted a position at Vision Critical / Angus Reid Group. I pretty stoked to work here, as everyone here is happy and collaborative. It’s been a great experience over the last two months, and I am happy to announce that I just finnished the first project I was given. Please go visit:

AngusReidStrategies.com

Thanks!

I came across a really good post on why you should have a portfolio site, and what you should have on it. Really good content.

Your Ticket to a Killer Portfolio Site.

Want to make your form look the same across all browsers / os’s? Designers toolbox is here for you!

http://www.designerstoolbox.com/designresources/elements/ 

I was just doing a little reading today on ars technica. There is an excellent article on Windows vs. mac. I still think Paul should make the switch. he just doesn’t know what he’s missing. (And not a full switch, just use Final Cut. Have you seen Final Cut server?)

Just sitting here at my new job doing some research etc. They use jQuery here, so I’m going to be learning it slowly over the next little while. I found this wicked easy tutorial on getting started!

http://jquery.bassistance.de/jquery-getting-started.html 

You have to play this…..

http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/mario/mario_large_music.htm

This is a great article that everyone with a website should already be doing! But as always, you can learn something new everyday. I know I  found out something new about web stuff from this post. Excellent read!

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site