Checking in

A couple weeks, a couple job interviews. I like my job...and my IV-E percentages are high...but sometimes I feel ready for a new challenge.

No new job yet. I really need to hone my interview skills!

I like the challenge of putting together websites, but I have not been successful at it when it comes to satisfying customers. People generally don't know what they want...and my success has been creating websites they don't want!

My hope, though, is to parlay what I have learned into a job that requires the skills I have learned. One of the jobs I applied for involved Joomla cms.

Joomla is a open source cms...a content management system. It is a nice framework for building websites with many bells and whistles. I had success using Joomla until my websites started getting hacked! I made it through two or three hackings. People would add malicious files to my websites, or they would insert malicious code into my files. It came down to weeding through my files, directories, and mysql databases to delete the bad stuff.

Not easy!

I tried, but was not successful, in figuring out how to properly secure my websites. An overly secured site does not come up at all...underly secured are easily hacked.

I want to learn how to back my websites up. I also want to find a webhost I can afford. All these webhosts have low monthly costs...but they require you to pay for 1, 2 or 3 years at once.

I have been using the free stuff - Google Sites, Google Blogger, Google App Engine. The first two are very easy and non-technical to use, but the coding is not very ADA compliant, and the customization options are limiting.

I have been looking at wordpress lately. The free version does not seem to let me adjust the font. If I can find a decent webhost at a good price, maybe I will give it a shot.

I will see...