Software

"Hey, since the upgrade, I can't use the power edit feature anymore!" came the request. Ok. There have been several different upgrades over the past few months. The menu editor module has been updated. The server has been upgraded.

Apparently there's some FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) being sown by a few Drupal shops who are spreading downright wrong information about Drupal 8, trying to encourage people to upgrade to 7 now.

The short answer: Not Vulnerable.

We've been asked by several customers about whether they or we are affected by the recently discovered Bash ShellShock vulnerability. And to the best of our knowledge, we are completely unaffected.

Previously we learned why a custom web site is not a car. But it is a lot like a building.

"Make me a building. How much is it going to cost?"

"My budget is really tight, can you get the project started and show me what to do to finish it?" -- Yet another request from several different prospective customers.

Clients love fixed-price projects, because they have transferred the risk of the unknowns to the vendor. Even so, if the vendor cannot fully handle those risks, the entire project might fail.

It goes something like this:

(Client): I want to add a shopping cart to my site. I heard that xyz cart is free, can you add that for me?

(Developer): Sure! That looks easy.

There's a little controversy in the Drupal world, a fork by Nathan Haug, aka QuickSketch. Last week he tweeted:

There's a few problems with setting up shop on the web. All of your competitors are right next door. You're in the worst neighborhood, with crooks inventing new tools to break in every day. That parking lot you just built now has to accommodate scooters and semi trucks.

1. EMBRACE YOUR INNER PESSIMIST...

This doesn't mean you can't be your usual, happy-go-lucky self! In fact, it's absolutely vital that you approach any project with a healthy 'yes we can' attitude.

Results. Return On Investment. Value. How do you measure these things in a website? There's one thing you can easily measure -- cost. Or at least the amount you actually spend to build and maintain a site. The others are far more troublesome to measure.