Open Source Network Blog

This summer PHP 5.3 was released, but while the incrementation of the version-number suggests a minor change, it is important to know that in fact it includes some major changes. While PHP 6 is actively developed, it takes time to round up such a major new version. But PHP-developers are eagerly waiting for some of the PHP 6 functionality, so it was decided to implement some of the PHP 6 features in PHP 5.3 anyway.

Hidden in the north of India, Tibetans have settled down in the town of Dharamsala together with their political and spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. This has attracted noy only more Tibetans, hippies and backpackers to come over, but as well lots of young people willing to help the Tibetan community through various voluntary projects.

Kayako, vendor of help desk software, CRM and live chat software solutions has announced the immediate availability of free, perpetual and unlimited licenses for their entire line-up of help desk solutions for charities and open source software projects.

Established in 2001 and now with more than 30,000 customers including the likes of FedEx, John Deere and ICANN, Kayako is one of the largest vendors of help desk and live chat software solutions, offering affordable and accessible help desk software to organizations of all kinds and sizes.

"We have been helping organizations and teams cut their costs by making their customer service more efficient and enabling them to offer easy-to-use self-help resources to their own customers," said Jamie Edwards, operations manager at Kayako.

"As a business, we are acutely aware of our social responsibilities. We are passionate about helping those in need, especially during markedly tough times for charitable and non-profit organizations.

"We would hate to think that price is a barrier to entry for these organizations wanting and needing to cut down on their operating costs, which is why we are giving away our help desk software."

The free license on offer is perpetual and comes with twelve months of technical support. Eligible organizations are also entitled to receive any number of free licenses of Kayako's supplementary add-on products, such as KayakoMobile - a help desk management client for mobile devices.

The offer is also available to established open source projects. "We feel strongly about the undervalued contribution open source developers are making to the progression of technology and software, which is why we are offering to give something back," said Edwards.

Organizations wanting to take advantage of the offer need to contact Kayako by e-mail at the following address: sales@kayako.com.

More information is available on Kayako's website

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Mage::Camp - a great Magento event in London, UK. Organized by Magento Enterprise partner OnTap, the event offered presentations on various subjects for both managers as well as technical boys like me.

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Today Varien ("the Magento Company") released the long awaited Magento Enterprise Edition. The commercially licensed Magento Enterprise Edition software will be the premium grade Magento product. It is geared towards larger companies and includes additional features, including ROI specific features, not available in the open source, Community Edition product. In addition to features, the Enterprise Edition will include SLA based support with guaranteed response times, warranties, indemnification and soon, PA-DSS certification.

A couple of days ago I ordered and received the book Joomla! Web Security written by Tom Canavan and last night I found some free time to read the book. Because I am already familiair with most of the topics covered the book, "reading" is actually not the right term - it was more like scanning and it took me about 30 minutes. Here's my review.

As Joomla! is the prime CMS nowadays and Magento the prime e-commerce solution, people wonder if it is possible to build a bridge between Joomla! and Magento. There are various approaches that can be used to build such a bridge, but some are unwanted and others impossible. In the article I will lay them out, as I've been working on such a bridge myself.