January 2006 Archives
I first got bitten by the open-source database-driven site bug back in 2001, when I launched a site using PHP-Nuke. The PHP scripting language and the MySQL database running on Linux, all freely available, combined with a sudden drop in the cost of hosting, had resulted in an explosion of both commercial and free PHP scripts. Some of these caught on and in time became fully-fledged applications with enough functionality out of the box to serve as the basis for a surprisingly robust site. One that could be customized to meet personal needs or those of a client.
While it's hard to think of many professions untouched by change, there's no doubt that designers are positioned right in the thick of it. Being reliant on highly-digital tools and delivery methods, you can count on something, somewhere, popping up every day that impacts the creation and distribution of graphic design services. So it was yesterday that amongst the usual torrent of ho-hum press releases flooding my inbox, an item from a German company for its DirecType product bobbed to the surface. (Thanks girls, you can lower those letters now.)
