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To protect against security vulnerabilities the LSNet site has been upgraded to Drupal 5.8. In the process, module locations were reorganized and drush, the Drupal shell was installed. Drush makes the contributed module update process easy.

The locally modified theme was replaced by Tapestry, a roopletheme.com contribution. Tapestry defines numerous regions on the page which can be filled with Drupal blocks, a suckerfish menu system (drop down menus arranged horizontally) and handles for many of the properties which define look and feel.

The site drupal.ls.net has been created to house Drupal specific content which has until now been commingled with local content. Several others are in the planning stage including Ubuntu, Open Source Software and hardware.

Two local websites - twincountyunitedway.com and ingalax.net - have been identified by Google as attack sites which download malicious software to your computer. The footer of both websites includes the text "Website developed and hosted by Professional Networks, Inc. and Wiredog Internet".  Both of these websites were constructed using Adobe Dreamweaver.

LSNet is now supporting Drupal 6.x. It is early in the "module" season meaning many of the modules available for 5.x are not available for 6.x and many of the modules for 6.x are either in alpha, beta or HEAD (current development snapshot).

For people getting started in Drupal, 6.x may be a good choice. It takes some time to assimilate each module and more are becoming available each day. For those with dependence on specific modules, e.g. ecommerce, stick with 5.x.

We have established a "reference" site http://drupal6.ls.net/ to monitor developments and try out features as they become available.

The first session was attended by five people and culminated in the creation or augmentation of four websites.

• Starbuck the Flying Goat - http://starbuck.net/
• Wolfe Serevices - http://wolfeservices.net/
• N4ZDA - http://n4zda.org/
• Celina Bonita - http://celinabonita.com/

Starbuck benefited from a previous session and a commitment to publish weekly. Incremental progress bears fruit over time and a distance learning course is now in preparation.

Wolfe Services revived a previous website. Stephen has been posting to the LSNet page - regularly and seems to appreciate the company.

N4ZDA realized that one can contribute to one's own website with Drupal and is looking forward to a revival of the dreams he had in college.

Celina Bonita is bent on building a family website and has dreams of developing a commercial website in the future.

Most of us, including me, have modest Drupal sites.

I got to wondering where are the scaling points of Drupal. It seems that modest PC hardware and Drupal services up to around 50,000 visits/day. More than that would be an excellent problem to have!

It is suggested that for those with moderate amounts of money, one should stay on one machine and buy better gear. A major site runs upwards of 180,000 views/day on Mid size iron without a PHP accelerator: 1 quad core xeon, 2Gb ram, disk type unknown.

Somewhere above 50,000 views/day apparently one should think about scaling out. I loved the Scaling Drupal article. It shows how to go from one box, to two web servers, two webservers and two database servers ... etc.

enjoy!

reference:
How much server do I need:
http://drupal.org/node/87868#comment-160984
5-6 million page views a month:
http://drupal.org/node/88143

A note to those interested in Drupal.

I have been reading "Drupal Creating Blogs, forums, portals, and community Websites" by David Mercer and Packt press. The Drupal Camp at LS.net helped "put meat on the bones" of the topic. Drupal makes more sense now.

The books is available from Amazon and many other fine places.
link to amazon:
Drupal Creating Blogs, Forums, Portals, and Community Websites

LSNet will host an open multi-cultural multi-lingual gathering to promote popular participation in the World Wide Web through content management technology (Drupal).

Participants will learn how to:

    * post announcements of community events
    * publish photographs of community interest
    * write a blog - online diary
    * write news stories about community issues
    * build community websites
    * ...

The event is sponsored by LSNet at 115 1/2 W Grayson Street, Galax, VA. Doors will open at 10:00 AM. Snacks provided. People should bring their laptops but can share one of a number of workstations. A $35 donation is suggested but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information email webmaster@ls.net or visit http://ls.net/node/471

Jim Tarvid