I’ve been involved in web-development projects for a long time and appreciate a well executed site when I see it. SelfGrowth.com is a nice blend of technologies and has a good clean layout. The site architecture and content are well integrated. It also does a good job or working it’s online directory and maximizing their SEO by providing clear instructions on how to implement a reciprocal link

SelfGrowth.com- - SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.

A personal post for today:

I want to acknowledge and celebrate the fact that my wonderful wife, Lori, has opened her new business.

She has been working towards this for a long time and has embraced the project with all the heart and passion that she brings to everything else in her life.

She has also been diligently writing WONDERFUL enewsletters on a weekly basis, archives of which she posts on her web site.

Lori is trained as a Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP) and has a natural talent for helping people get “unstuck” and to move ahead with their life.

Congratulations Lori!

Check out her website at: Soul Escape

I heard on the radio today that office workers spend an average of 45 minutes per day looking for things on their desk.

Is there any hope? I think “yes.”

Occasionally a book shows up, steps confidently up to the plate, and hits one right out of the ballpark (replace baseball metaphor with one of your own choosing). Such is “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen.

I find myself laughing with nervous recognition — as if I’ve been found out — as he dissects the patterns and habits of disorganization that have plagued me in the physical world my entire life … and the show the way to the promised land of peaceful organization and productivity.

Part of the reason I am drawn to the digital realm is that things “fit” into digital drawers and boxes more easily than they do in my overstuffed and staggering filing cabinets. David Allen also makes it clear that I’m not alone (and I’m not talking alien invaders). He clearly details how it is possible to live with the same ease an comfort on good ol’ terra firma as I do in cyberspace.

Check out his book, and the reader reviews at Amazon

After 8 months of development Drupal 5.0 has been released.

Fittingly, the release date coincided with Drupal’s sixth birthday.

New features added

• Status page and requirement checking: added a status report page with detailed PHP/MySQL/Drupal information and requirement checking.
• Web-based installer: added web-based installer that checks run-time requirements and that supports pre-made install profiles or distributions with better support for database table prefixes. It is also localizable.
• Core theme: introduced a new default core theme, called Garland (and a fixed width version Minnelli). Garland uses the new color module to change the theme’s entire color scheme on the fly.
• Custom content types: core now includes part of the Content Construction Kit and allows you to set up arbitrary types out of the box. For more fields, install the full CCK package from the contributions repository.
• URL filter: integrated the URL filter module into the filter module. This will cause web and e-mail addressed to be automatically hyperlinked.
• Blocks per role: extended the block visibility settings with a role specific setting and retained the option to control blocks by PHP snippets..
• Edit block titles: Drupal 5 makes it possible to customize or overwrite all block titles, even set block titles to empty.
• User management improvements: Added support for auto-complete forms to user profiles. The ability to filter users by role, permission and status to help better manage users. Made email verification of user accounts optional.
• Improved module administration: Modules are listed by category and origin, their versions are displayed, and their dependencies are listed in the module descriptions as required or optional.
• More logging reports: Drupal now provides detailed reports on search terms, ‘page not found’ and ‘access denied’ errors to help improve your site.
• CSS preprocessor: All (cacheable) stylesheets are now aggregated into one compressed file, which makes your site faster, especially for first time visitors.
• Performance tuning: Key parts such as Drupal’s session and access mechanism have been optimized for faster page loading across the board.

There have also been numerous usability improvements and developer features.

Click here for full details

OK … no “bring on the clones” references (oooops … to late)

New Joomla Component to simplify the process of moving a Joomla installation to a new host. I haven’t tried it but features and reviews look pretty darn good. Anything that simplifies adminstration is fine by me.

 Backend Features:

- Create full or partial backups based on your input
- Create ZIP or TAR backups based on your configuration input
- Possibility to create incremental backups, so you avoid the time limit problems on php script executions
- Possibility to exclude components, modules, mambots from your generated clone
- Possibility to exclude directory and files from the backup, manually or through cron settings(AJAX powered)
- Create backups based on a cron task, created backups can be stored on the local server, remotely through ftp or emailed to a custom email account
- Ability to manage existing backups, rename/delete/move, publish to user frontend for sharing
- Posibility to clone any backup to another location, it can be done automatically by using the server ftp function or manually
- Configuration area lets you choose on how to generate backups based on your server possibilities
- You can choose to create backups by using only PHP, or by also using some server utilities to speed things up

Restore Features:

- The generated clone of JoomlaCloner can be restored on a totally different server, with new server and mysql details
- Restore both ZIP or TAR archives
- Restore script is independent from the main component and Joomla and can be run on any host
- Full restore of a clone made with JoomlaCloner
- Ability to restore the original files and directories permissions
- Automatic re-write of the new host settings to the configuration file
- Ability to import the clone using either a ftp simulated sessions, or direct restore through php
- Possibility to exclude database from importing
- Ability to restore multiple clones to different locations

Overview and Reviews: Joomla.org
Free trial or buy at: Joomlaplug.com  

Cost:49.95 Commercial License 1 year support and upgrades; 69.95 for 2 years; 99.95 for unlimited support and upgrades