phpBB Weekly

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Episode Duration: 42:02
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples), Micheal Cottingham (Techie-Micheal), and Paul Sohier (Paul)

Michael and Douglas are joined on this episode by an old friend, Paul Sohier, who is now on a new team: the Support Team. For obvious reasons, Micheal is pleased and Douglas a bit confused, but Paul explains that he’s been working in support longer than he’s been working with MODs, and has been enjoying the change of pace.

The MOD Team, however, hasn’t been standing still. Once again, a new release to talk about: AutoMOD has hit RC-1. Exciting, you bet, particularly since EasyMOD never made it out of beta! While it’s not approved for fully-stable use yet, AutoMOD is about to hit the big time, and we’ll continue to follow its progress over the summer.

Micheal mentions that this old blog post simply identifies possibilities that injections could be created by MODs if the authors aren’t careful–it does NOT list actual injection vulnerabilities in phpBB3! Beware the naysayers!

And for our main topic of discussion, a new phpBB.com blog post discusses the Gumblar and Martuz trojans, two trojans which track down your FTP credentials and then use them to trash your site(s). We go over the blog post and discuss what these trojans do, how they work, and how to keep yourself safe (hint: keep your antivirus definitions up-to-date!). Also be sure to keep regular backups of your site so that if it does get hacked (it may not be your fault if your site IS hacked), you can completely wipe the hacked site and start fresh. If your site has been hacked, use Unmask Parasites to do a thorough check once you’ve cleaned house.

The MOD of the Week is Posting Template by eviL<3, and the Style of the Week is Prospace by spaceace.

Be sure to join us on Saturday, May 30th, for David Lewis’ return to phpBB Weekly and important announcements about this show, as well as Douglas’ post-graduation attempts to stay awake!

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Episode Duration: 1:12:25
On This Episode: David Lewis (Highway of Life), Francis Lewis (Handyman), and Michael Williams (mtotheikle)

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NOTE: These show notes do not contain as many links as we would like them to due to the phpBB.com outage. We will add more links where appropriate once phpBB.com is back.

Douglas was at a conference in San Francisco during this episode, and you know what that means: David brings on guest team members to help him out. He was joined on this episode by Paul of the MOD Team, Francis Lewis (Handyman) of the MOD Team and StarTrekGuide, and Michael Williams (mtotheikle), Development Leader of StarTrekGuide. And the topic of discussion? Our well-known favorite topic of discussion–MODs.

First off, MODX 1.2.2 and AutoMOD 1.0.0 beta2 have been simultaneously released. MODX 1.2.2 mainly contains a number of XSL fixes and tweaks, and AutoMOD 1.0.0 beta2 includes a few new features and a number of bugfixes. The four of them also discuss some of their favorite MODs, take a look at some of the biggest MODs for phpBB3 and phpBB2, and chat about how MODding has evolved from phpBB2 to phpBB3.

February 1st marked the last day that the Development Team would release security patches for phpBB2, thus ending any and all support for phpBB2. It also marked the last day that any phpBB2 submissions would be accepted into the MODs Database. We talk about the ending of security patches as well as discuss how long it would take for very large boards to upgrade from phpBB2 to phpBB3. Finally, they also discuss the recent blog post on phpBB.com discussing why team members don’t give private support to users.

Last week’s poll question, “If you could add one more feature to the new WhiteHouse.gov website, what would it be?”, is still open and will run through Saturday, February 7. So go vote!
The MOD of the Week is Mods Database by lefty74, and the Style of the Week is Hermes by CyberAlien.

Be sure to join us next week when we will have a special edition phpBB Weekly episode with featured discussion of the ongoing phpBB.com outage, joined by members of the phpBB teams who have been busy this week rebuilding the site.

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Episode Duration: 1:53:23
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

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Well, we have come to the end of another year and just about closed out our second season of phpBB Weekly, and on this episode, we take a look back at how the phpBB project, teams, and community have evolved in the past year. We discuss all of the major announcements of the year and their lasting impact, as well as mention some of the best times we’ve had on this podcast over the past year, make some predictions for 2009, and we discuss what we think the accomplishments of this year have meant for phpBB overall. All of the announcements mentioned can be found in the phpBB.com Announcements forum.

David did also give us the scoop on the announcement that AutoMOD 1.0.0 beta 1 was released. We discussed how AutoMOD actually works and how to use it (which I don’t think we’ve actually covered before), and Douglas compares AutoMOD to EasyMOD for phpBB2 to look at their similarities and differences.

Additional AutoMOD Links Mentioned in this Episode:
AutoMOD
AutoMOD Support Forum
Installing AutoMOD
Installing MODs with AutoMOD
Known Issues with AutoMOD 1.0.0 beta1

Finally, Douglas closes out the show by thanking everyone who contributed to phpBB Weekly in the past year and helped make this show possible. Be sure to check back here on Wednesday, December 31st, when we will release a phpBB Weekly’s Best of 2008 clipshow episode featuring our best moments from this past year. Then, check back on Thursday, January 1st, when we will launch our brand new (and totally gorgeous) website and album artwork! You won’t want to miss it.

The MOD of the Week is Skype Mod by RMcGirr83 and the Style of the Week is Maxthon by Culprit.

Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

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Episode Duration: 1:14:35
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

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David had snow on the brain during this pre-Christmas/holiday episode of phpBB Weekly, though with the ridiculous amount of snow that eastern Washington state has been receiving (as evidenced on David’s webcam), who could blame him. And with free snow giveaways being advertised on the SCOFF News Report, which we couldn’t help but replay during this episode, it’s easy to imagine yourself in the midst of the insanity of the Northwestern Winter Wonderland. Throw in the fact that Douglas has figured out David’s sound effects method and you’re in for one crazy holiday fun-fest.

But this episode wasn’t all fun-and-games. We did review the list of phpBBHacks.com Awards winners and noted their accomplishments. Congrats to all of the winners. Plus, David tells us about UMIL (the Unified MOD Installation Library) which was recently previewed by the MOD Team as a way for MOD authors and MOD installers to automate the process of installing modules and performing other functions necessary to the initial installation of a MOD. David describes what UMIL can do, how it works, and its current and possible future relationship with AutoMOD (the new official name for Blinky).

The MOD of the Week is Guess Timezone 2 by TerraFrost, and the Style of the Week is DirtyBoard2.0 by abble. Additionally, the opening music is Flu Ride – Bob Rivers and the closing music is Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy.

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays for all of us at phpBB Weekly. Thank you so much for continuing to listen to our show and making this a worthwhile venture for us. Peace & blessings to your and your family during this season and through the new year.

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