After spending a great deal of time helping lock down file access for restricted areas of the Cobb County site, we began experiencing issues with pages that required login before accessing, even though the user was already shown as logged in. Troubleshooting narrowed down the problem to users of MS Office. It seems that MS Office doesn't carry cookies with it's links, according to this article by Lars Pind.

The workaround described by Lars Pind worked out rather well for us. I established a new webroot file to catch failed authentication attempts for the file system and redirect them back to the file system a second time to attempt getting the file, since the browser will carry the cookie that MS Office fails to pick up.

Due to the sensitive nature of the code in question, I cannot post snippets, but you should easily be able to discern your own workaround based on the above-linked article.

After spending several weeks getting familiar with the various API systems available for interacting with social networking sites, I was starting to get tired of the disparate arrangements provided and the spotty feature fulfillment. I succeeded in setting up a micro/status blog that cross-posts status updates to both Twitter and Facebook.

Remote publishing to Twitter took an hour or two to get working correctly by using CURL to interface with it.

Remote publishing to Facebook took about two weeks, but that was mostly due to my persistence in wanting to publish status/micro blogs instead of normal ones.

Remote publishing to MySpace was looking like it would take until the MySpace developers got their API working correctly. However, in the process of trying to figure this one out, I stumbled on Ping.fm.

Ping.fm is, essentially the uber-cross-poster that I have been looking for. Setting it up took less time than setting up a direct Twitter cross-poster. Now I don't have to keep hunting down API's and libraries for using them to cross-post anymore; I just add them to my profile on Ping.fm when they become available.

I get asked why I use the Xaraya platform, from time to time.

Other CMS systems are Open Source, use PHP and mySQL, and support a modular architecture; why not use one of them?

Xaraya isn't a CMS system. Users of Xaraya employ it in a variety of different ways, but if you have to describe it to someone, it is usually just easier to call it a "CMS" instead of trying to explain that it sorta makes whatever web stuff that you happen to be in need of.

It is a bit like asking what a LEGO is, or why you would use LEGOs to build something instead of carving it out of wood or simply buying a finished model of whatever you need.

Everyone remembers the hype surrounding Ruby-on-Rails over the past few years, I'm sure. Working with Xaraya is a bit like working on Ruby-on-Rails... except you don't have to stop using PHP, which is easier to host and has a longer track record, not to mention the fact that it's what everyone is (finally) using for the web.

If you have ever wished that your client had a sense of humor, you should try working for a comedian. I've spent a good portion of this year creating a website for Aaron Karo, a published comedian, called Ruminations.

Phrases like "please tell me you are joking" take on a whole new meaning in this context. When you are working on a funny website for a funny client, it is difficult to lose your sense of humor. I have often wondered what it would be like to hang out with a real comedian, because it would be like being privvy to jokes before they become part of an act. You know: the impromptu funny remarks that are the hallmark of any time spent around people who have a penchant for being entertaining.

During the course of the project, I had the distinct privilege of attending one of Karo's live performances here, in Austin. Afterwards, like an overgrown kid being sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, I got to attend the afterparty...

Hanging out with Aaron Karo fulfilled my expectations and proved to be a tremendously enjoyable experience. RTFA for more details.