Many dismiss copywriting as something that ad agency people do. Truthfully, all of us need to pay close attention to copywriting if we want to achieve our business objectives.

The goal of a "regular" text is to inform or entertain. The goal of Web copy (and ideally your website in general) is to get people to do something—to sign up, make a purchase, or something similar. Hiring a professional copywriter can be very expensive, which is one of the reasons why this is a valuable skill to have yourself.

  

Responsive design is the hottest topic in front-end Web development right now. It’s going to transform the Web into an all-singing, all-dancing, all-devices party, where we can access any information located anywhere in the world. But does responsive design translate well from the text-heavy Web design blogosphere to the cold hard reality of commercial systems?

Rumors came through our office grapevine that management was looking to revamp our mobile presence. There was talk of multiple apps being built externally that could be used on some of the major mobile devices.

  

If you're just getting started with WordPress, or have been running with default functionality for a while and now want to dig in with some useful and easy ways to customize your WordPress site, a great place to start is the WordPress Admin area, or backend. One of the great things about WordPress is that each part of the backend is easily customized using simple PHP functions.

In this article, you'll learn how to customize the login page with your own logo, add new widgets to the dashboard, add custom content to the admin footer, make it easier to get in and out of the Admin area, and more. When combined, these techniques can improve branding, accessibility, and usability of your WordPress-powered site.

The Sustainable Living Foundation (www.slf.org.au/festival) is seeking a volunteer Web Programer to help construct a series of simple but effective 'brochure' style websites. The websites would display static educational material for a number of our programs.

SLF's current website is formatted in Drupal, so people interested would need to have compatible skills. Design skills are not necessary for this project.

Please Contact: Luke Taylor - luke@slf.org.au

Many Thanks!

• Melbourne

  

E-commerce runs on secrets. Those secrets let you update your blog, shop at Amazon and share code on GitHub. Computer security is all about keeping your secrets known only to you and the people you choose to share them with.

We’ve been sharing secrets for centuries, but the Internet runs on a special kind of secret sharing called public-key cryptography. Most secret messages depend on a shared secret—a key or password that everyone agrees on ahead of time. Public-key cryptography shares secret messages without a shared secret key and makes technologies like SSL possible.

Start:  2012-05-17 18:30 - 21:30 Australia/Sydney User group meeting Organizers:  rcross

Just a reminder about the Sydney meetup tonight. Usual time & place.

Based on some feedback from last month, we're going to experiment with "BoFs" (Birds of a Feather), which will be small group discussions about particular topics. These groups will form on the night, but if you have a topic you'd like to lead please make a comment below - ideally you can do a short lightning talk about your topic before we break out.

When: Thursday, May 17th
Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm (Show up around 6:30pm for firm 7pm start)
Venue: ABC Centre 700 Harris Street, Ultimo ( Map | Directions )

Agenda:

• Greetings and Welcome new people
• Community News by Ryan Cross
• Lightning Talks
• BoFs
  Up to 3-4 spaces for BoFs
• Continued at the pub with Drinks/food

Resources:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrupalSydney
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/drupalsydney/
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/group/sydney-drupal-users-group
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/drupal-au/
Chat: #drupal-au on freenode : Connect

• Australia

This feed URL is no longer valid. Visit this page to find the new URL, if you have access: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/minifeed.php?status&amp;id=1176692857">http://www.facebook.com/minifeed.php?status&amp;id=1176692857</a>

Albany weather radar

Satellite cloud map

  

In my nearly two decades as an information architect, I’ve seen my clients flush away millions upon millions of dollars on worthless, pointless, “fix it once and for all” website redesigns. All types of organizations are guilty: large government agencies, Fortune 500s, not-for-profits and (especially) institutions of higher education.

Worst of all, these offending organizations are prone to repeating the redesign process every few years like spendthrift amnesiacs. Sadly, redesigns rarely solve actual problems faced by end users. I’m frustrated because it really doesn’t have to be this way. Let’s look at why redesigns happen, and some straightforward and inexpensive ways we might avoid them.

PHP Drupal Developer - Required Is A Mid or Senior Drupal Developer For A 3 - 6 month contract with a leading Australian company.

As a PHP Drupal Developer you will be building large websites from the ground up, including the build of custom modules in Drupal7.

PHP Drupal Developer - Key skills:

2+ years Drupal experience
4+ years in PHP and LAMP stack web development
3+ years front end knowledge - CSS, HTML, JS
Team player and results driven attitude
Strong communication skills

PHP Drupal Developer - Offering a fantastic rate and benefits this opportunity is second to none. The successful candidate will be working within a fantastic team and utilising the latest technology to develop a high profile site.

Please apply to David Steven on: 8083 8905 or e-mail your CV to: david.steven@reedglobal.com

• Australia

This Digital Giant based in the heart of the Sydney CBD are seeking a highly skilled PHP / Drupal developer to build a brand-new CMS for one of Australia's most recognised high-traffic web sites, starting with the mobile site.

You will possess 5+ years experience in PHP, 1-2 years solid Drupal. Other skills will be especially around development best practices, quality, standards, optimization, with a deep understanding of all things PHP.

This is a permanent opportunity paying up to $110k package for the right person. There maybe some flexibility on this but depends on experience!!

Please submit resumes to jobs@pbisearch.com.au and quote the reference CN/DRU/1212 or contact Carl Nunn on 02 8014 8959 for a chat.

• Australia

  

The idea behind this project was to produce a consistent set of buttons that could be used for the range of social actions frequently taken in Web applications. These actions are often important goals for users, such as connecting third-party accounts or sharing content to third-party platforms, so their appearance has to be attractive and clear.

The standard buttons provided by third parties (such as Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud) vary in size, style and interactivity. A consistent button set could reduce a lot of that visual noise and inconsistency. Furthermore, having it in CSS format means that changing the text for certain actions would be a breeze for developers, and it also allows administrators of non-English websites to translate labels into their native languages.

  

Editor's Note: This post is the first in the new Smashing Daily series on Smashing Magazine, where we highlight items to help you stay on the top of what's going on in the industry. Vasilis van Gemert will carefully pick the most interesting discussions, tools, techniques and articles that were published recently and present them in a nice compact overview.

Vasilis goes through dozens of RSS feeds and hundreds of tweets so that you don’t have to. Do you find the new series interesting? What would you like to have? And what wouldn’t you like to see? Let us know! We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Hello, got another one for you…

The Melbourne Scrum and Agile meetup would love a Drupal related topic at some point, so either contact them through the contact details on that page, or email Craig Brown craig.brown@erinalegal.com.au

http://www.meetup.com/scrum-12/

Thanks!

• Melbourne

Howdy!

The Node.js Melbourne meetup group would love a speaker n Drupal / Node.js. Any takers? Apparently the best way to propose a topic is to pst in: http://groups.google.com/group/nodejsau

Can I leave it with you guys to handle?

Thanks, Chris

• Melbourne

Australian based, internationally operating company is entering a new phase of expansion and is looking for experienced Drupal developers. With multiple positions available to the right individuals, the successful applicants will assist with the set-up, configuration and ongoing maintenance and support of Drupal based websites for a number of high profile clients.

Your skills will include:

• 5+ years PHP development
• Extensive experience with Drupal 6 & 7 with a portfolio of work
• Strong JavaScript/JQuery
• Strong HTML/CSS (including HTML 5/CSS 3)
• Knowledge of UX design and its implications
• Ability to work to coding standards to produce secure, efficient code
• Good attention to detail
• Has the ability to work remotely as part of a team
• Experience with IT work-flows and continuous integration, and
• Ability to write system support documentation.

These skills would be considered a bonus:

• Experience working with and integrating web services
• Language skills, in particular Spanish or Korean, and
• Ability to work flexible work hours.

If you fit the above criteria we would love to hear from you. Please send a CV, examples of your works and salary expectations to jobs.drupal7@gmail.com.

• Australia

  

I had thought terms like “intellectual property” and “intellectual theft” were of fairly recent provenance, so my eye was caught by the latter’s use in a headline of a 1930 edition of the US trade journal The American Printer.

The article it headed proved to be equally intriguing, a response by the president of American Type Founders (ATF) to a June 1929 article in the German journal Gebrauchsgraphik by the designer Rudolf Koch, calling the ATF a “highway robber of German intellectual property.” At issue was a typeface marketed by the ATF earlier in 1929 called Rivoli.

Saturday, May 12, 2012.

Saturday, May 12, 2012.

Saturday, May 12, 2012.