For a while already I've been following VT's Tech Blog. Vinu Thomas writes in an excellent way about technology there, talking about all kinds of topics, ranging from PHP, security to setting up a linux wireless access point. Welcome Vinu to the network!
posted on July 29, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: technologyHmm... It looks like I am in some kind of identity crisis. Either that, or someone else is in mine 
Take this guy. He is claiming that I am one of the original phpBB developers, and that I've moved on to join the phpBB2 Plus team. I am also the author of some kind of software called the Cracker Tracker.
I have never done any official phpBB development. I am not even part of the phpBB2 Plus team. And I don't even know what the Cracker Tracker is! Now that is fun. Am I in some kind of identity crisis?
Compared by many to the Da Vinci Code, expectations for this book were quite high for me, as I really enjoyed reading the Da Vinci Code. But if you start out that way, you may be disappointed. It's not that this book is bad, not at all, it's just quite different from the Da Vinci Code.
I do understand the link between both books. Both handle with historical happenings, with mystery, with the main characters puzzling their way toward some ultimate solution. However, where the Da Vinci Code is much more about action, about fast-paced happenings, The Rule of Four takes a different direction. The Rule of Four is more of a brainteaser, with all kinds of puzzles and less action but more psychological impact.
The fact that this book is mainly about the obsession of the main characters with an ancient book will definitely be a reason why this book more than the Da Vinci Code was positively welcomed by fanatic book readers. It definitely worked for me
So, to wrap it up: I have mixed feelings about this book. Most feelings are positive, the book is well-written, the story is good, the characters are great. The negative feelings are mainly because of the expectations I had beforehand. So basically, it's my fault to be influenced by what other people say 
I've been following this weblog for quite a while after another member of the network recommended the weblog to me. Yes, I know, it's yet another mac user but I feel Andre knows what he's talking about and I think his weblog will add something to the network.
So please join me in welcoming Osxy[dot]nl to the Ufdi Network.
It has been a while since I last read something by Elaine Cunningham. It must have been before I encountered BookCrossing. After that, I started reading more than just fantasy and sci-fi
Elaine Cunningham is definitely one of my favorite fantasy authors, together with Tolkien and R.A. Salvatore. Her books in the Forgotten Realms series are easy to read, have good stories and great characters.
In The Dream Spheres we encounter some characters we've seen before. Danilo Thann has featured in a few books already, and so have some of the other characters. Again, this book has an exciting plot, and I seriously until just a few chapters before the end didn't know exactly what was going on. Definitely not as predictable as some books!
Yes, it was nice to finally read some fantasy again from the Forgotten Realms series. I should do that more often.
Well, it seems I'm an A/R/T-ist now. After the earlier call for writers, I sent the nice people at PHP|Architect an e-mail telling them I was interested in writing an occasional article for them. Today, my first article in what is meant to be a monthly series of articles covering a variety of topics related to PHP has been published. The topic of the article, supporting open source projects, is something I've been wanting to write about for quite a while. I never really got around to really take the time to put down my ideas for this article. I felt A/R/T is a good platform for this article, and so took the time and attention to actually write the article. I am quite happy with it myself. Now... what will my second A/R/Ticle be about?
posted on July 14, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: metaI am of course a bit biased. After all, I have the “valued contributor” rank over there after being the Support Team Leader for years. However, after stepping back from the Support Team some months ago already, I had lost touch a bit with phpBB.
For a site I am currently working on, I had plans to base it on phpBB. Now, I could choose to integrate phpBB 2.x, but since that is an old version and phpBB 3.0 (Olympus) is coming in not too long anyway, I decided it would be wiser to use that version to be integrated with this new website. I downloaded the first beta, expecting mostly that which I had already seen back in the days when I still was part of the team. Mainly, of course, it was, but...
DAMN!
phpBB has done it again. I seem to feel similar to phpBB as a lot of critics felt towards TomTom when the new Go range was released. Both products, though in very different categories, are very similar in the fact that with every new release they do, they innovate, they bring in new products that you simply know will be cloned by the competitors. phpBB has done a great job on their Olympus release. I definitely made a good choice in picking the 3.0 to start working with.
Of course, this release also sees the introduction of some features that were available in competing software for quite a while. Especially the nested forum/category system is a long-awaited feature. However, I also see new features that are great and very useful. Think for instance of custom profile fields, Jabber integration, file attachments (another long-awaited feature in phpBB), a seperate configuration panel to turn off certain features to reduce the server load, and one very important thing: A very intuitive Administration Panel. This is maybe the best enhancement from the administrators point of view. The Administration Panel is so much better than the previous panel. Very intuitive, the several tabs, each with their own submenu's, are a much better way to manage your forum than the previous system with a big menu in a seperate frame.
For regular users also, the improvements against the previous version are massive. You now have the ability to save drafts of posts for later usage, keep a friends and ignore list, and a much improved user control panel. The moderator control panel for those privileged users is also top! A seperate warning list will keep track of warnings users have received, the moderation queue is easily viewed from the moderation control panel, and reported posts can easily be accessed and managed from this central interface.
And yes, I know, quite a few of the above listed features are available in other forum packages. But I have never encountered any packages as user friendly and intuitive with such a wide user base and helpful community as phpBB. I am sure this is partially bias and personal preference, but the huge user base does not lie: phpBB is popular, and is good enough to be equipped by thousands upon thousands ^ of website administrators out there, with millions of users worldwide. And they're doing it again. Olympus will be a smashing success once it hits the first stable release!
^ no research done on the actual amount of users. It might be tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. But I am sure there are at least thousands upon thousands of users
I can not seem to find out if the movie Outbreak was or was not based on this book. There are too many similarities to say it's coincidence, but there are too many differences to truely be the movie of the book. So maybe they just got inspired. I had little expectations before starting this book. I had heard some positive things about Cook in general, and this book was sent to me as a gift (a RABCK) and recently, I felt like picking it up to read it. A good choice it was. Where it usually takes me 2-4 weeks to finish a book, this book only took me about a week. It is a very exciting book, full of tension. It is written very well and very easy to read. I definitely can recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers.
posted on July 1, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: books
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