A great new feature in Joomla 1.5.12 that allows you to send email over SSL SMTP breaks compatibility with our extensions (If you want to use that feature).

We are aware of the issue and will release new versions that can take advantage of this new feature as soon as we can. For the time being please use the other available mail options that have been available before (PHP Mail, SMTP, SMTP With Auth and Sendmail).  The new SMTP over SSL feature will will incorporate for the next versions of our extensions.

More reading: PHPMailer version used in 1.5 does not allow secure connection to SMTP servers

UPDATE 02/Jul/09 6:47pm GMT: The additional code has now been written to support GMail/SSL/TLS connections for bfForms email sending – if you need this update before the official release please email me direct

Phil Taylor is almost a qualified Pilot!!

On April 17th I flew an airplane without an instructor for the first time, since then I have done it again twice! read all about it here: Not a bird or a plane – just Phil

Now I am looking to complete my training as quick as possible, but need to generate some quick income to support this its not cheap!

Therefore I have come up with a “Priority Customer” scheme, where for only £199.99 you can have unlimited copies of every product we sell from our website AND every future product we release in the next 12 months, free upgrades for the life of the products AND priority support for these installations.

Thats a pretty good offer I think – and will enable me to complete my pilots license quickly.

Interested?

Email me direct for a personal reply at phil@phil-taylor.com

Thanks for your support in advance!

We are pleased to announce this bank holiday weekend the immediate availability of our new download and service site at https://secure.myJoomla.com

We have served from the myJoomla.com domain for several years now the downloads that you purchase from us, and we are in the process of releasing some amazing new services and products that will rely on the new foundation that we set today.  Don’t worry you dont need to re-register, just login with your existing myJoomla login details!

Geeks amongst you will notice that the new myJoomla.com site is NOT running Joomla! which might shock some of you – however, being a Zend Certified PHP5 Developer I thought it was time to harness the power and flexibility of the Zend Framework and so built the whole new site in Zend Framework 1.8

myJoomla.com – your current resource for downloads of purchased products, and invoices, – and soon to become a whole lot more powerful – watch blog for more details soon…

(Everything at secure.myjoomla.com is conducted over SSL, however we will soon be replacing the standard SSL certificate with a brand new EV SSL Certificte (
To give the “green bar”) just like our contact page )

Following our return to trading through our UK company I am sorry to report that in line with UK law VAT will now be added to all transactions at the standard rate of 15% currently.  This will be applied to EU Countries only and will be added during your paypal checkout. USA Customers and non-EU Countries will not have to pay this extra tax

PLEASE BE PATIENT if you have sent me and email – and refrain from sending me abusive messages….. you know who you are…

I am moving house at the moment, and only have mobile broadband access and my main PC is in a box! I dont have all the tools I need to do my job and so therefore I cant

I’ll be up to full speed by next Monday again.

Thanks to those who are being patient

I write to inform you of some important changes to your relationship with my services. As many of you know, a few years ago we moved to Jersey, Channel Islands to be closer to my wifes family. At that time we started to trade through “Blue Flame IT (Jersey) Ltd.” a Jersey registered company.

On Monday 18th May, we will be returning back to Tewkesbury, England.

This means, with effect from that date, all services will be provided through our UK Registered company “Blue Flame IT Ltd” and VAT at the prevailing rate (Currently 15%) will be applied to all invoices raised after that date in line with current UK Law. (If you are located in the EU for VAT purposes).

All product purchases made through paypal will also have VAT applied to them if you are in the EU (For VAT purposes). This additional amount will be added at the paypal checkout.

Blue Flame IT Ltd is a UK registered company having company number of 04936037 and is VAT registered with VAT Number 970 5375 05.

Blue Flame IT Ltd complies with the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002.

Blue Flame IT Ltd is registered with the UK Information Commissioner and complies fully with the Data Protection Act so you rest easy knowing we take custom privacy seriously.

Please bear with us during the transition period as we update our FAQs and our website/branding once again.

Announcing the Ultimate Top 10 Joomla Extension competition sponsored by Joomlashack.

"What are your favorite Joomla extensions?"

You might have heard of UserVoice. Its a great web 2.0 application where people can vote on things. Everyone gets a set number of votes, in this case 10. You guessed it, we are going to ask you to vote on what you think are your "bread and butter" extensions. You can give one extension all your votes, or spread them around.

The only guideline is vote for extensions you "couldn’t do without". Also, make sure you search for an extension before you vote, we don’t want to dilate votes, and feel free to make enthusiastic comments! If you suggest an extension, try to enter the title as the name of the extension that appears on the extension directory.

You can vote for your top 10 extensions here.

Just to make it a little more fun, Joomlashack is giving out some prizes. In one month’s time (May 7th), the #1 extension gets a $200 prize, and #2 $100.

Come on and join in the fun, and here is a glimpse at the current top 3 extensions!

You can read more about the competition at Joomlashack

Thats right, while you were all working hard today, I was undertaking my first ever SOLO flight over the island of Jersey.

After a false start in the morning where we canceled due to fog, the weather dramatically improved to give clear skys and light winds.  At 4pm my instructor and I took off for dual circuit training (which is basically take off, fly a big rectangle circuit and then land).  After 4 of these circuits my instructor called the ATC and requested their permission for me to fly a solo circuit – my first! They agreed after the instructor assured them

So my instructor got out of the plane…

… and closed the door…

… and then it was just Me in .

After my power checks I was given clearance to take off, so I took a deep breath, and another, and another, checked all the instruments and applied full power…. wow.

Took off, turned left, turned left again and headed downwind, following another aircraft ahead, when the ATC came on the radio to say I was number 2 in line to land and had to give way to a commercial jumbo jet!!! so I circled in orbit for a few revolutions before being able to proceed to final and to land….  engine rpm reduced, flaps down, so far so good… line up with runway, received clearance to land – great!

I was a little low and so applied a little too much power and bounced on my landing, a little blast of more power to comfort the next landing and I was down… phew, I did it.

I cant say I was not a little nervous, cause I was, but the feeling was AMAZING knowing that I just flew my first 20mins solo in a plane.  The circuits here in Jersey are over 10 miles long unlike a normal circuit you can do in 7mins! this is because we track the coast of the island rather than flying over land…

So now, I have done my first solo flight, I get told that here in Jersey the next 3 hours training are ALL SOLO’s which is different to the training scheme I had in 2001 in the UK so I was taken aback, my next lesson is for tomorrow, so I guess that will be 1 hour of solo circuits, on my own, patting the seat next to me to prove I’m on my own, gasping for air as I land…

All good fun – really

I am looking for a Thunderbird XUL Developer for a custom job – would only take a few hours, but thats a few hours I can pay for rather than do myself

If you are capable of developing in XUL for Thunderbird then please contact me – serious developers only please, my requirements will require a good understanding of thunderbird and xul development.

Well as expected, Brian beat me to expanding on the newest exciting feature (large video)of Blue Flame Forms – the ability to take the HTML for ANY FORM and import it to Blue Flame Forms and apply our validation rules and post-submit processing actions.

(You know, there is a competing forms extension for Joomla that ONLY allows import forms – it doesnt allow you to create any of your own forms, or fields, or apply validation rules and only allows a single email to be sent! – Blue Flame Forms is MUCH better than that!)

This now means you can migrate form ANY other forms extension for Joomla direct to Blue Flame Forms, or to design your own forms using Dreamweaver or other HTML Editor and then just import the HMTL and the CSS into Joomla Forms (Thats right, the CSS can ALSO be imported – unlike our competitors extension!).

So check out the online demo at http://demo.joomla-forms.com/administrator/