An urgent, high-level security threat has been identified in Joomla 1.5. This exploit allows someone to gain full access to your Joomla web site with little or no knowledge. It is imperative that you upgrade your Joomla installation(s) immediately.

To upgrade from an existing 1.5.x installation, go to this page, find the appropriate Joomla 1.5.6 update (for example, Joomla_1.5.5_to_1.5.6-Stable-Patch_Package.zip), download the file, unpack the file, and use an FTP client to upload the files to your Joomla site.

Many people are running Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) without any problems, but it has been a nightmare for others.  For me, SP3 with Windows XP Pro was a nightmare.  Fortunately, I was able to restore my system to the point prior to the installation of SP3 (I felt a System Restore would be safer than trying to uninstall SP3).  To prevent future problems, I downloaded and installed Microsoft’s Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit.

This month I’m getting a new system with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista (I’m a glutton for punishment).  To go with it, I ordered Adobe® Creative Suite® 3.3 Web Premium.  The suite includes Adobe Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Fireworks® CS3, Adobe Version Cue® CS3, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Stock Photos, Adobe Device Central CS3, and Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.  Of course, Adobe has already posted a public beta of the upcoming Dreamweaver CS4, as well as a beta for the next version of Fireworks, and WebAssist is offering Dreamweaver CS4 Sneak Peak Tours.  It’s the story of my life — I make a purchase, and a new and better version is released shortly thereafter.  On the other hand, I’ve learned to avoid software until it has seasoned (read my April 26, 2007 post”A Sad Experience With Adobe CS3“).

WebAssist is offering no cost step-by-step training for Dreamweaver CS3.  Whether you’re just starting with Dreamweaver CS3 or trying to get up to speed on the latest technologies like Spry, the Dreamweaver CS3 Bible Simulations are just what you need. Each of the 50 interactive simulations takes you through a specific Dreamweaver task, from setting up your site to adding data to an XSL Page. All of this hands-on training is now available to you at no cost from WebAssist,  You can start the simulations here.

We’ve all experienced Internet black holes.  You send an email, it doesn’t bounce, but it never reaches the addressee.  Or maybe you can’t reach one of your web sites.  You know the site is operational, and the host server is online.  The cause in both cases could be an Internet black hole.  The good news is that the Hubble Project is monitoring Internet reachability in real-time.  You can read about the Hubble Project here.

“Black Hat” search engine optimization techniques include keyword stuffing, invisible text, and doorway pages.  Such techniques  may work temporarily, but they can get your site(s) banned from the listings permanently . WebRef has an article on the subject here.

The following is an excerpt from the March 24, 2008, issue of Sunbelt Software’s WServerNews:

“Since Vista SP1 was released this week and found wanting, the pending release of XP SP3 is getting more attention and importance than you’d expect for an officially obsolete OS. Well I still run XP in the office and at the house and it runs just fine for me, thank you very much. I’m looking forward to the new SP3 and the 10% performance gain we’re going to get out of it. The verdict is the new SP3 is a must-have update for XP ‘life-extenders’.”

Here is information on the release of SP3 for WinXP from The Hotfix.net:

We now have updated news and more details of the long-awaited Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. Microsoft has also made some changes to when and how Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be released. Here are the details…

1. Windows XP Service Pack 3 will contain hotfixes and updates released since Windows XP SP2. It will also include an expanded set of product keys for Windows XP Professional that were originally introduced in Windows XP SP2c.
2. Microsoft clarified that there will not be any integrated SP3 release for Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition. That means you won’t be able to buy or obtain a complete Windows XP Media Center Edition / Tablet Edition SP3 CD. In addition, users of Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows XP Tablet Edition will only be able to update to Service Pack 3 through Windows Update.
3. All languages will now be released in two waves. Earlier, Microsoft said that languages support for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be released in three waves. What was previously identified as wave 2 and 3 have now been combined into a single wave 2.
4. Microsoft has also delayed RTM for Windows XP Service Pack 3 to provide sufficient time to incorporate feedback from the beta testers. (In other words, they can’t make their original deadline!)

Due to the changes in language releases and Windows XP SP3 RTM’s release, here’s the updated schedule of RTM

Wave1 Will be released Second half of April 2008

(Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish)

Wave2 Approximately 21 days after Wave 1 RTM (which will have remaining languages)

Here is an interesting discussion regarding code validation from a web development forum:

Q. My school board hired a professional web design company to do their new website. Out of curiosity, I ran the home page through the W3C HTML validator and came up with 116 errors. The design company’s home page has 04 errors. Do designers pay attention to this? I thought having validated pages was important–but I’m just an amateur. Read the rest of this entry »

Many developers use Firefox as their default web browser, and those of us who use Firefox know that there are a number of add-ons for the browser, including the excellent Web Developer Toolbar. Some of us may not be aware that there is also a Web Developer Toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer.     Read the rest of this entry »

Although the HTML 5 specification is still in development, on January 22, 2008, the W3C published the first public working draft of the HTML 5 differences from HTML 4.  It looks to me as if developers who are familiar with HTML 5 and CSS positioning and styling will have plenty of work upgrading older sites. 

No More Frames!  According to the working draft, the elements frame, frameset, and noframes are not in HTML 5 because “…their usage affected usability and accessibility for the end user in a negative way.”

What About XHTML 2?  XHTML 2, as proposed, is an entirely new language that does not have backward compatibility to HTML 4.01, so the upgrade path will be from HTML 4 to HTML 5.