Acqal Experts Blog About TYPO3 and Other Hot Topics

Acqal Promotes Biking and Families with World Vision

By: Michael Cannon

Acqal continues to promote helping others and having a little fun with a recent charity contribution to World Vision for 10 bicycle loans. This donation enables families to be loaned the funds to purchase a bicycle and every 6-months another family will be able to do the same. The simple addition of a bicycle to impoverished farm families allows them to move more goods safely and quickly between home and market. This positively influences their health and helps them make their labors more efficient.

From World Vision:

Give a bike loan and help 10 families out of poverty. Your gift of a...

It's Official T3CON10-Dallas Web Site Launched! Join Us!

By: Virgil Huston

As one of the organizers of the conference, there will be more original posts from me on the plans and events for T3CON10-Dallas, but for now, here is the official announcement. I hope to meet as many of you there as possible!We invite you to T3CON10-Dallas, the 2nd annual North American TYPO3 conference on May 20-22nd. This will be a great time to learn more about the powerful system we use everyday and to connect with other developers and TYPO3 users from both North America, Europe and around the world. Several internationally-known leaders of the TYPO3 community will be attending and...

Zenhabits: 8 Ways Doing Less Can Transform Your Work & Life

By: Michael Cannon

I’m a busy guy, living in a busy society and like you, constantly distracted by activities that want more of us than what we’ve got to give. A major goal of my moving to Taiwan was to focus on family life and Acqal success. For the most part, it’s worked.

I’d like to recap Zenhabits 8 ways of getting more out of work & life by describing how I’ve integrated them into my life. Hopefully, they’ll spark inspiration in you that can lead to more time to do what you want and happier clients as well.

1. Less hectic, busy schedule, less stress, more peace. Doing less leaves free to schedule...

Reflections on T3CON09 Part 2

By: Virgil Huston

T3CON09 officially started on Thursday morning with the tutorial sessions. I was torn between Ron Hall's "A Framework for TemplaVoila" and Riona Kuthe / Jochen Weiland's "How to customize the TYPO3 Backend for the needs of each editor." I ended up in Ron's tutorial and it was fantastic. Check out his TV framework at templavoila.busynoggin.com/.Here is how Ron explains it:"TemplaVoila is the most powerful of the TYPO3 templating methods. With this templating extension an experienced developer can produce sites with very flexible layout options for the content...

Reflections on T3CON09 Part 1

By: Virgil Huston

I know we promised to blog and Tweet during our trip to Frankfurt, but I never got around to doing a blog, we just had too much to do and were having too much fun. I did do a lot of tweets and uploaded pics to Flickr and my Facebook account.

Flickr

Sitting on the plane, just passing Iceland and headed in the direction of Greenland, wearing my T3CON09 t-shirt (nice green with skyline of Frankfurt), I have some time to write about the past week. I am not as comfortable as I could be because my TYPO3 pillow is in my checked baggage. There was some cool swag this year. Speakers got a toaster...

Sync files between computers

By: Michael Cannon

Keep them all in sync: Sync your files between computers so you always have the latest copy.

Guarding Heaven's Streets

By: Virgil Huston

"If the Army and the NavyEver look on Heaven’s scenes;They will find the streets are guardedBy United States Marines."--excerpt from the US Marines' HymnI have been pretty quiet the past few weeks on the blog writing scene. I think my last post was about my brother-in-law's fight with prostrate cancer where I talked about the importance of PSA testing for men and how supportive my partners at Acqal were and are.Robert "Bobby" Lee Crumley Sr passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends on August 7, 2009 and was buried in a national cemetery on August...

Family First, Prostate Cancer and the Joys of a Supportive Company

By: Virgil Huston

I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, but I am married to a nurse and know the importance for men of getting Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) tests done once you hit 40-50 years of age or have a family history of prostrate cancer.According to the Prostrate Health Improvement Program, suggested upper limits of PSA for various age groups are:

Age (years)Serum PSA (ng/ml)40 - 492.050 - 593.060 - 694.070 - 795.5

The point of all this is twofold, one to express my appreciation for working for a company that cares about its employees. The other point is to encourage all men to make sure you...

Keeping up with TYPO3

By: Virgil Huston

Like all things in the Information Age, keeping up with TYPO3 is a double edged sword. There is tons of information available, but the problem is keeping up with all. This is a good problem to have, so I am not complaining, but I am struggling to find a solution on:How best to make sure you find all the relevant informationThis is perhaps the easiest part, especially now that Twitter has arrived on the scene. Twitter allows one to find new sources of information, articles, blogs, new and updated extensions, as well as helping with meeting new people. You can set up groups of people you...

Netbooks and Productivity

By: Virgil Huston

The reason I didn't get my usual blog posting out yesterday is because I was doing client work and then got preoccupied with getting my new HP Mini 1000 netbook up and running. This is one sweet little machine.My laptop has seen better days and is still quite useful, but not for toting around. For travel, I had a Verizon USB wireless card that was eligible for an upgrade. When I saw the deal on the HP Mini I jumped on it. Standard Verizon price for the mini with a two year contract ($59.95/mo for 5GB transfer, same as I was paying for the USB card) is $ 199. With the upgrade eligibility, it...