Archive for September, 2010
For a client, I’ve been using Umbraco as a CMS for them and I wanted to chronicle some of the things I learned about it that were not obvious when I first started using it.
1. Umbraco cannot be run in a virtual directory.
This definitely becomes obvious after trying to install it, but was certainly the first hiccup I had with Umbraco. Certainly not a deal-breaker, and when combining that with Helicon Tech’s ISAPI_Rewrite, ended up not being a problem in the slightest.
2. Umbraco’s document/database structure is non-obvious.
I definitely think the engineers over there are bright and did it the right way – it was just a more complex and abstract system than I was initially expecting. I don’t think it’s something they need to work on changing, but it was another hiccup I went through when I first started using Umbraco.
3. Umbraco creates a cache of pages when they are published.
When a page is called in Umbraco, most of the result is served directly from a cached XML file. Certainly was a great call performance-wise and makes sense, but it was not something I realized when I first set out with Umbraco.
4. Umbraco is simply incredibly powerful.
While all of the above might seem like I have reservations about Umbraco. In fact, quite the opposite. Sure, there were bumps in the road as I went along, but in the end, I came out liking Umbraco more and more as I got to know it better and use it more. It’s incredibly powerful and useful, from the template creation to embedding macros. Making changes and updates is far easier than I would have imagined and I cannot thank the Umbraco team enough.
September 13, 2010
Geolocation services is something that marketers should be paying a lot of really close attention to. Some certainly have, like every Ben and Jerry’s I’ve seen on Foursquare having an extra scoop promotion. Here’s just an example of the Ben and Jerry’s in the East Village, very close to where I live.
The number of times I’ve seen this pop up all over the place has nearly enticed me to go many times. They’re doubtlessly barely cutting into their profit margin by doing this, but instantly, they come up on Foursquare’s places near me and I know that they’re going to have that same deal. And who doesn’t want a deal?
Most of these times I had absolutely no idea I was near a Ben and Jerry’s, yet there it’s automatically advertised to me, reinforcing its brand and enticing me to come. And doubtlessly, one day they’ll be successful.
That is the future of marketing. Sure, no one can claim to know how it’s going to play out. I had previously mentioned that Facebook made the right choice by getting into geolocation services, but I believe there’s a larger opportunity there for them than any of their previous features.
Not only is it a potential cornucopia for businesses because now people will know that a business is nearby when they otherwise wouldn’t have known, but location-based advertising will become very real and very, very effective.
September 9, 2010
I recently happened upon a challenge to recreate a button created in Flash in HTML5 via reddit (and actually via popurls). I was actually really excited because I wanted to practice some work using HTML5′s canvas element.
However, and someone beat me to the punch with their button.
Though I’m tempted to revisit the button creation (and I might in some downtime this weekend), I think the important part here is to realize that HTML5 is really the answer to a lot of problems. Adobe has a good reason to be worried in regards to Flash. Not only is it battling Apple, many developers are leaving it to pursue solutions that are standards; solutions that will work in many environments and on many devices.
Video, the biggest reason to use Flash, is being phased out where it can be by the largest video site out there, YouTube, in favor of HTML5. Granted, it is still in beta, but it is a sign of things to come.
Adobe, as a company, is by no means on fragile ground – they clearly have plenty of other products that corner their respective markets. However, it seems that Flash has had its day, and more and more, can be replaced with a combinations of HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. Now we just need to work for Microsoft to catch up with IE9…
September 8, 2010
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