Yesterday, a friend of mine, who is also a programmer, sent me the following text. I don’t know the original source but it is very good so I thought I would re-post it. If I am able to find the original source I will post a credit and link.

Open source is:

• A means to encourage software innovation among diverse groups of programmers
• A policy of open inspection and analysis of source code, both to
  educate and provide a means for constructive criticism
• A means by which programmers can “scratch their itch” for mental
  stimulation while at the same time solving computing problems that are
  frequently applicable even to non-technical users
• Free, both intellectually and in terms of cost

Open source is not:

• A way to get commercial-quality support at no charge
• A free-for-all forum to ask for pie-in-the-sky software features and
  expect them to be implemented as requested and with no delay
• An invitation to harass and otherwise frustrate a small and dedicated
  development staff because they didn’t do what you wanted

I am also continuing to work on the next version of SkyBlueCanvas. I am taking my time on the next release to make sure it is the best it can be.

One of my favorite forms of art is graffiti. I am aware that graffiti is legally considered vandalism, but I still consider the higher quality graffiti to be legitimate art. I have no legal defense of graffiti but it is beautiful. I would even argue that the best graffiti being created today is far better than much of what passes as main stream fine art.

I am certainly not alone in this belief. Book publishers and metropolitan art galleries and buyers alike celebrate the work of well-known artists such as Ryan McGuinnes and Shepard Fairey, who both blend Warhol-like pop art and graffiti.

I stumbled across these great examples of graffiti this morning: 80 Beautiful Street Crimes Done By Banksy

Download it now

See below for a full list of changes:

• Integrated Snippets extension into the core system
• Added /includes/hooks.php

  This file has some very useful functions that simplify common programming tasks. I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the hooks.

• Added /includes/JSON.php
• Fixed a bug in Core::GetVar() where the $default value was required but should have been optional
• Added Snippet button to WYMeditor to insert snippets into page text
• Removed the Collections Publishing features from Page Manager and Collections
• Added [[page.metadata]] and [[skin.path]] variables to SiteVars
• Removed pre-1.1 skin hooks
• Modified plugin.parser.php to remove P tags that WYMeditor adds around in-line tokens.
• Made the SESSION timeout editable by the admin user. (See Admin > Settings)
• Added an option to the Page manager, SiteMapper plugin and SiteVars to allow admin to omit pages from the site map.
• Modified Configuration editor to update the SiteMap when saved.
• Updated SiteMapper class to match new Google SiteMap XML

This template includes all the Fragments and Managers required to function and includes Articles, News, Twitter Feed and Galley. The template costs just $14 and your purchase will help support the SkyBlueCanvas project.

In the coming weeks I will be working to convert several more of Qiming’s themes to work natively with SkyBlueCanvas.

I have, however, been hard at work on the new version. Originally the next release was going to be an incremental release (v1.2) but I decided that it would be better to delay a little longer and get this next release right the first time. The code is essentially at alpha stage, meaning that all of the functionality that is intended to be in the software is there. It is not yet fully tested (that comes next) but it is there. Version 2.0 constitutes a complete re-write of the code without a complete departure from the concepts that have made SkyBlueCanvas such a success. Above all else, I have not only maintained the ease-of-use, but I have actually greatly improved it.

I am very pleased with the new version. It is not quite a lightweight as the original but that doesn’t really concern me at all. Disk space was never my concern to begin with so I am happy to take up a little more room if and when it makes sense to do so. The new version still uses XML for data storage by default, but will also now support the use of any storage mechanism you like. It will take a while to build a collection of the necessary wrapper classes (technically DAOs) but the capability is there. I am already working on an Oracle DB-compatible wrapper and intend to get a MySQL wrapper out just as soon as possible.

The Road Ahead

There are two main tasks to be completed at the moment. The first is the most daunting: I need to transfer my knowledge of the system into a collection of documentation. I truly believe that when I get all of this out onto (virtual) paper, developers will be very pleased with the design.

The second task may or may not be so daunting. The finishing touch on the software will be the Admin UI (user interface).  I have decided to purchase a stock admin theme from ThemeForest.net. You have seen me pimping their themes on all of the SkyBlueCanvas sites. I do it to make a few extra bucks but also because I really do like their templates. I have personally bought about as many as I’ve sold (thus canceling out any commissions). There are two themes I have selected as the final candidates:

Administasia

Developer License: $500.00

Flexy Admin

Developer License: $600.00

You can click the image of each theme to view more screen shots and a live demo of each. As you can see, these templates are not cheap. I need to purchase a developer’s license in order to be able to redistribute the theme with the software. The prices are very good prices but a little too much for me to pay for out-of-pocket. You can help purchase one of these templates by using any of the Chip-In donation widgets throughout all of the SkyBlueCanvas family of sites.

That is where things stand at the moment. I am working as hard as I can to get version 2.0 out to the public and especially to my loyal users. As we move further into 2010, I will be releasing more and more content on this site covering SkyBlueCanvas and general web-related topics. Than you for your support and thank you for reading.

Recently, while poking around to find a more affordable alternative to Photoshop for Mac, I happened upon one of my greatest software finds to date: Pixelmator (Mac only). I really cannot say enough nice things about this software. PixelMator is not going to dethrone the king of photo manipulation any time soon, but this is no sophomorish, el-cheapo alternative. PixelMator is serious photo manipulation that has many of the features we all love about Photoshop and has on kick-ass user interface. Pixelmator also costs about one-tenth the price of Photoshop at just $59.00 US.

Pixelmator was founded in 2007 by London, UK brothers Saulius and Aidas Dailide. Judging from the photos on their web site, the brothers are fairly young and so have a long and bright career ahead of them developing software. For more information or to purchase Pixelmator, visit their web site at www.pixelmator.com.

To accommodate the fact that no version of Internet Explorer currently supports the Canvas element, the developers have implemented a library maintained by Google that translates canvas scripting into VML . The IE-compatibility fix can be implemented by adding a conditional comment to the web page containing the table data.

To read the full article and download the plugin, visit www.filamentgroup.com