2007 April | Smuggle Me

Joomla Templates for Web Design

I think I’m finally convinced that I need to start working on Joomla. I’ve seen too many Web 2.0 websites that have been very successful using Joomla. Plus, an open source content management system is the future of creating cool websites where the content needs to be easily updated. I have one website that I’ve created called Spoil My Spouse which was coded by hand. That’s great and all, but I really think that was a mistake. I’m really considering taking Spoil My Spouse and converting it to Joomla so that it is much easier to expand. The key will be taking the current design and creating Joomla Templates to match the look and feel. Luckily there are lots of nice resources online like the 5 Easy Steps to Make a Joomla Template or the 100k registered users in the Joomla Forum.

The next problem after Joomla templates is trying to figure out which Joomla extensions are useful. There are way too many and I don’t know how you start to figure out which ones are good and which ones you need. Regardless, as a web designer it’s so much nicer to be able to let someone else code something nicely and then I just need to integrate it. That’s perfect for the hack of a web designer that I am.

Oh yea, and Joomla can integrate WordPress. Always a good thing if it involves WordPress.

This post Sponsored by Club TVK.

Man Survives 2 Weeks Underwater

Technology will never cease to amaze me. Can you imagine someone living underwater for 2 weeks. Ok, so the title is a bit deceiving. He was in a sub for 2 weeks. Which for anyone that knows about subs, knows that 2 weeks in a sub is something pretty incredible.

Godson used a system of solar panels and a pedal-powered generator to create electricity and recharge his laptop, and kept an algae garden to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen for breathing.

“It’s nice to feel the sunshine on the face and the breeze here,” Godson told reporters after emerging from the 10-foot-long sub, which was submerged in a lake in the eastern Australian town of Albury. “You start to get a bit of cabin fever, but … I thought it was going to drive me a bit more nuts than it did.”

Godson had to recycle his own urine and waste, but a team of divers delivered food and drinking water to the sub, including fruit, nuts and a homemade lasagna. An “Easter shark” swam by with a supply of chocolate eggs, according to local media reports.

For entertainment, Godson watched videos on his laptop and used a wireless Internet connection to communicate with schoolchildren from around the world.

I’m not sure about this guys motive, but he definitely taught me something about what is possible.

Free Web 2.0 Austrailian Real Estate Website

One of my biggest addictions lately has been checking out all the Web 2.0 websites that have been popping up all over the place. I guess I’ve been even more focused on the subject since the Web 2.0 conference has been going on in San Francisco this week. I sure wish that I could have been there, but I digress.

Today I came across the most Google like real estate website I’ve ever seen. Most real estate websites are chock full of crap. They have every piece of information displayed on every page. Most the time you’re just overwhelmed and don’t know where to start clicking and all you want is to be able to browse through the housing listings. Well, this Austrailian website has free share house, rental property and real estate in a real Google style. If you don’t know Google style it’s basically a Very fast loading page, it’s Super easy to use and is so simple it looks great. That’s what this website has gotten right.

The key for this website is going to be what they do next. Google has been able to really add to their content without compromising their principles of simplicity and user experience. I’d really like to see some more loan and mortgage information available on the site. However, they’ll have to avoid cluttering the page, slowing it down and making it look like crap. That will be a definite challenge, but will be important for the site to maintain its cool Web 2.0 feel amidst growth of the website.

Sickness and Vacation Really Drag a Blog Down

So my brother decided to get married. I’m happy for him, but my blog isn’t. A blog just doesn’t like it when you go to a wedding, because there just isn’t time to blog when there is so much family around. Not to mention when it is my family and not my wife’s family. If I were to start blogging, then my wife would be stuck alone with my family and any of you husbands out there know that this isn’t a good thing. Not that I’m perfect at this. I’m far from it, but I at least make the effort.

Even worse is that when I got back from this ~~vacation~~wedding, my wife and I decided to get sick. It was a really bad sickness. At least it was for me. My wife took it much better than I did. The weird thing is that both of us got sick within a couple hours of each other. I’ve never had that happen. I wonder who gave it to us. The world may never know.

Well, now that I’m not traveling and not really sick, I’ll be back to blogging more regularly. Although, I can’t make any promises when we go to Italy. I think there might be a couple week lull when we’re in Italy. Internet isn’t nearly as available in Italy.

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April 18, 2007 I Written By Juanchito

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Filed Under: General Life

My Recent Education in Mortgages

My wife and I have been looking all over for a house to buy. We even made an offer on a house that we thought would work out just great for us. Unfortunately, I think we got the order wrong, because after making the offer I went to the lender and learned all about what it would take to get a mortgage. Let’s just say that housing prices in Vegas just make me cringe.

Here’s a little look at what I learned about mortgages. First, I would not want to deal with bad credit mortgages. I have a clean credit report and a great score and even with all of that, there are challenges. I can’t imagine what someone with bad credit must have to work out to get a mortgage. I also learned some really interesting things about a short sell. Turns out that the house we were looking at is a short sell. I guess it’s essentially when a home owner needs to sell the house for less than his mortgage. Well, this guy had didn’t just have one mortgage on the house, but had either done a remortgage or a second mortgage or something like that. That was good news for us, because we thought that we could get a good deal.

Well, there’s a lot more to be said, but it turns out that we just couldn’t afford the down payment, closing costs and everything else associated with getting a mortgage. We could handle the payment, but the rest was just killing us. The good part is that I’ve learned a ton about mortgages and the process of getting a mortgage. I also know about my good credit score and my wife’s bad credit score. We’ll have to work on that one. However, the best thing is..

When we move from Las Vegas and we purchase a bigger home for half the price, we are going to be in heaven.
This post sponsored by Personal Loan Store.

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April 11, 2007 I Written By Juanchito

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Filed Under: General Life Loan Consolidation Mortgages Real Estate

Vonage Patent Spat with Verizon

I’ve often talked about how much I love Vonage. Today was another example of why I love Vonage. I can’t make long distance personal phone calls at work without paying. Since I don’t want to pay I just brought in my vonage phone and I can call to my hearts content. I wonder if one day work will charge me for bandwidth I use. Probably not.

Well, I must admit that I’m a little nervous for Vonage after the ruling on their patent infringement. However, I really think it will all work out and we won’t be any worse off than before. Sure, the price might change a little, but it will still be a great value. The worst that could happen is that they turn off our service completely and I don’t see them just flipping a switch and we don’t have phone anymore.

I did enjoy reading this article called Is Vonage Doomed? The clear answer was No. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t have some rough waters ahead.

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I Written By Juanchito

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Filed Under: General Life Technology

Romance Is In The Air

When my husband and I first started dating we didn’t really go out on dates. We just sat around and talked. Sometimes we went out to eat. But we were poor. And didn’t have much money. The best way for me to express my feelings to him was to write romantic love letters. We both kept the letters we wrote and have them in our file cabinet in a file titled lovey dovey. It is fun to look back on them and remember the courting days.

Much to my surprise my husband proposed to proposed to me in a very romantic way. We went to Niagara Falls for the day and went on the Maid of The Mist and then afterwards went and sat on the benches that overlook the American Falls. We were talking like normal and then he proposed. And as his little lip was quivering he said, “will you marry me?” a little flower fell from a tree above and landed on me. It was very romantic and perfect.

We have now been married for 4.5 years and it isn’t always easy to find time and ways to be romantic between work and the kids. However, eHarmony offers tips to anyone he looking to add a little romance in their relationship. My favorite idea that I got from harmony is the “I love…game” You and your spouse take turns telling each other what you love about the other person.

I love this game because so often we get so stressed out in our daily lives that sometimes all we see are the faults we each have. This game allows us to sit back and reflect on why we both fell in love with in the first place. I think that if we can just remember to do this more often that our marriage will not only last but be happy and fulfilling for both of us.

Ways of the Geek

A recently article I found on Digg was titled 10 Ways Being a Geek Makes You More Attractive. I personally prefer nerd to geek, but in this instance I was interested since they are very similar.

My 2 favorites is that geeks make more money. My wife might argue otherwise, but it is generally true. I also loved the Geeks are passionate. I’m very passionate about almost everything. Technology is included in that passion.

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April 5, 2007 I Written By Juanchito

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Filed Under: General Life Technology

Virtual and Real Future Markets

I’ve recently almost become addicted to a website that is like a virtual stock market called Inkling Markets. I’ve been doing quite well with it and my initial $3000 has quickly turned into nearly $60,000. I’m even on this weeks top 10 traders. Granted this is all virtual, but it has me completely interested in the potential of futures for investment.

I must admit that my current investment strategy is quite conservative. However, I think I might need to expose myself to bigger rewards. I think futures has the potential to do that for me. Plus, there are a plethora of tools out there from places like Global Futures Exchange & Trading Co., Inc. They have such a wide variety of tools and information available for anyone to start looking into futures. Another interesting option is forex trading. I guess the real problem is just getting started. All of you interested can e-mail GlobalFutures@GlobalFutures.com if they have any questions about how they can get started with as little as $250.

Disclaimer: There is risk of loss trading Futures, options and forex
This post sponsored by Global Futures.

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April 4, 2007 I Written By Juanchito

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Filed Under: General Life Technology

Alternative to Webex

If you work in a business that uses technology (I think that pretty much includes everyone), then you probably have had a chance to run across a WebEx session with some vendor before. I know I have hundreds of times and I absolutely love the technology. It facilitates the software selection process so much. Not to mention the type of support and training you can get using WebEx. It’s perfect.

The only problem. WebEx is EXPENSIVE. TechCrunch recently reported that Cisco bought WebEx.

Lucky for us they also reported about the best competitors out there for WebEx. “Teamslide, DimDim (open source), 1videoconference (open source), Vyew, Live Meeting and SlideShare are all competitive with WebEx in one way or another, and all are better at cross platform collaboration.”

Competition is great for us the consumer. Free Open Source products are even better.