TextMate and Drupal
This summer I joined the dark side...I moved away from using an Ubuntu laptop to a MacBook. More recently, I switched code editors from Komodo Edit to TextMate.
As a Drupal developer, I can't recommend TextMate enough. The Drupal PHP bundle for Textmate is great. Auto-completion of Drupal hooks saves me considerable time.
I also just started using the "It's All Text" Firefox plug-in that allows you to edit web form content areas with any text editor. Combining this little plug-in with TextMate's Lorem Epsum quick tab function saves me considerable time on those not-so-infrequent times that you need quick placeholder content.
ThinkShout has a new world headquarters
We're proud to announce that we have new digs in a cool new sustainable industries incubator in the heart of downtown Portland, called the Dekum Beehive. Currently, we're pretty busy moving in, but we did take some time this morning to take some pictures of the new space. Check us out on Flickr and stay tuned to hear more about our rooftop office warming party in two weeks!
If you want to stop by to check things out and to see if your company might be a good fit for this space, give us a call and then stop by:
ThinkShout
519 SW 3rd Street, Suite 500
PDX, OR 97204
6 Drupal Modules to Improve Administration/Editorial Usability
Yesterday I built out a quick Drupal site for a fairly non-technical client. He manages a busy team and doesn't have the time for me to train his staff on the intricacies of Drupal content administration. The project also has a shoestring budget, so I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Below are a few Drupal modules and tricks that I used to cut down on Drupal admin interface clutter, and more importantly, to make the site bombproof to unexperienced Drupal content editors.
Think!Shout takes the "Sotomayor" approach to opinionated technology planning
Think!Shout is still largely in the brainstorming phase of our own brand development. Sure, we're busy with client work already, actively solving interesting social media problems for social entrepreneurs - so we don't have a ton of time for navel gazing. But in the evenings, we do get together to discuss what we ultimately want to do with Think!Shout and how we want to carve out our own niche in the social media and web technology business.
Why Think!Shout? Why Now?
A lot of people have been asking me lately why I've decided to set up my own IT company in "the worst economic downturn in modern history" [insert screams of terror]. In the interest of full disclosure, the most immediate impetus was because, like many other people these days, I was recently laid off from my more-comfortable, full-time job. But that's actually just the opportune starting point for this chapter in my entrepreneurial work with start-ups, small businesses and non-profits to make the internet a more inhabitable and productive space. The fact is, I've been promoting open source technologies to start-ups and nonprofits for much of the last seven years, and I couldn't think of a better time for me to start my own web technology business - for four key reasons...
