Magento is a great ecommerce platform that is creating a revolution in the ecommerce world. It has been my pleasure to be involved with it from day 1, although I must admit that there has been a shortage of documentation for developers like me. As a result I'm very glad that there is a new Magento book published that is specifically aimed at developers - Magento 1.3: PHP Developer's Guide.

I'm hoping that my copy will arrive in the post today! As soon as I have had a chance to have a good look at it I will report back with my first impressions. After I have finished reading it I am planning to write up a full review.

Does anyone else have a copy? What were your impressions?

Well I feel like a bit of a luddite waiting this long to join the micro-blogging bandwagon, but I finally have. I guess I found all the hype a bit off-putting.

I am now on Twitter @rosskendall

Also, since I'm an Open Source (and open-data) fan, I have also signed up on Identi.ca - identi.ca/rosskendall
(the two accounts are linked, so all identi.ca posts end up on twitter)

Since I am usually short on time to write proper blog posts, I actually find micro-blogging suits me well. It is also a great way to keep up-to-date with things I am interested in - and pass helpful things on.

I'm going to keep my twitter posts focused on web-development, including: Magento, Drupal, programming (Perl and PHP), design, SEO, etc. I find trivial personal comments a bit distracting, especially if there are lots of them, so I won't be making them myself

I just received an email asking me just that.

I see on your site you mention about open source software like open office etc, can you recommend an opensource web design software that competes with dream weaver etc?

Well, here's my thoughts...

Those who are 'into' the Perl programming language will know about the mammoth project to re-design Perl for Perl 6. Part of that was to develop the Parrot Virtual Machine - a next generation VM specially designed for the unique needs of dynamic languages (in particular Perl 6).

...well, it's been quite a few years now, but I really feel that things are starting to come together. The launch of a shiny new website for Parrot at parrot.org is another thing that helps to confirm this. (As a side note, it's good to see the site running on Drupal, although I doubt they are using PHP on Parrot just yet.)

If you are not using Firefox yet, now is definitely the time. Go check it out, even if it's only for the groovy world map!

If you use Firefox 2 and are wondering why would I be interested in Firefox 3, have a look at this quick video screencast overview.

I have been using SUSE Linux (now openSUSE) on my desktop and laptop computers for a number of years now, and have always found it to be a better desktop that's more to my liking than other Linux distros (although I am more comfortable with Redhat on servers).

If you haven't heard of Magento yet, it is now time you should. The web based Magento software is a next-generation e-commerce system that puts previous open source 'shopping carts' to shame.

I have been putting the beta versions of Magento through their paces for the last 6 months, and while it is still early days, I am thoroughly impressed.

The version 1.0 release is a significant milestone, which I'm sure will make waves.

Go check it out: www.magentocommerce.com

I had heard of the Flock web browser before, and even downloaded and had a play with it, but since I'm not a seriously networked blogging geek it didn't grab my attention.

Quite excited about this! openSUSE 10.3 is ready to go, having had the goldmaster release announcement made yesterday. It is not supposed to be available for public download until 4th October, but for those who know where to look downloading has begun.

When it comes to office productivity software (word processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs) lots of people only know about Microsoft® Office - Word, Excel and PowerPoint (or perhaps the useless Microsoft® Works that came bundled with their PC).

Well, if that's you, I'm glad to be able to inform you that there is a growing number of 'office' suites, that not only provide a good alternative to Microsoft® Office but are also absolutely free!

In the last few days there has been a new release of the increasingly popular OpenOffice software (version 2.3), as well a an announcement from IBM, making the Lotus Symphony office software available for free download!