Time for what? PLEASE read this: http://au2.php.net/register_globals - read the part in RED.

I've finished yet another posting spree trying to help users with security and performance issues and I am still SHOCKED at how many hosts still have register_gloabls ON serverwide. Come on hosting providers, isn't it time you you kept up? Isn't it time you closed this security hole that only you as a host can close, and help prevent cross server file compromises?

What about running suphp (or an equivalent)? Why are so many hosts STILL not running a 'more secure' environment for their users?

I am sure all hosts understand (they should!!) what I am talking about, but for the users, who I suggest take this and pressure your hosts, let me try to explain these two things in laymans terms:

1. With register_globals ON serverwide even if you as a user disable them (via a php.ini or .htaccess directive) under certain circumstances your site can still be compromised if another user account on the server is compromised or is used maliciously. It's that simple, and it happens day in and day out, people posting on the Joomla Forum making it apparent that this was the reason their site was compromised.

* Disclaimer: It's true, your host may have a method of working around this huge security hole, but even still, I ask "WHY?" register_globals has been off since php 4.2 by default, and we are well into the php5 world now.

2. suphp (or equlivalent). Running Apache/php via this method means permission problems for you users are a thing of the past (almost). Under this environment when php writes a file (ie installing a template for example) the files are owned by your user account. Files that are 644 are writable by your user (ftp), and yet other users on the same shared server cannot write to them. Again, why would you not want this simple extra layer of security, as well as making it so much easier for your users to mange their Joomla (and any other php script) website?

* Disclaimer: Again, there are circumstances when suphp is not efficient (dedicated server possibly, and extremely high load possibly), however at the least, check with your provider and ask them what methods they use and why.

.. anyway.. that's if for now. PLEASE, do your users, and by extension yourself a favor and consider my comments.

Oh, and I guess it goes without saying, since php4 is now EOL all hosts should be running php5 now.

Don't you just love it: www.joomla.org

I just wanted to say a public thanks to Louis, Ron and others on the team who have worked so hard to make this new site happen. They have been working overtime (more than 12 hours a day recently I estimate) to bring this kind of amazing work to the community. Make sure you check out the new sites and it's many new features and sections.

If you see any of them around, make sure you say thanks. 

Primarily of course, this site is for people who have not heard of Joomla before, for the the rest us, we have community.joomla.org Make sure you keep putting it to good use. When will this site receive the new design? I can't wait.

... and if you want to be apart of all this, there is one new page you should see: http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla/contribute-to-joomla.html

Enjoy!

I was just shared some partial information on an interchange that occurred between a representative of OSM and a 3rd party developer.  All round, due to the cooperation and response everyone benefits.

Of course the names etc have been removed, but enjoy this wonderful example of cooperation in part of the exchange below:

Currently you are distributing something labeled the "Joomla! ****" from the **** site and mirrored at Joomlacode.org. Unfortunately, the naming of this package is very problematic for Open Source Matters and the Joomla! Project because of the strong likelihood that users will believe that it is an officially supported release. ....  there is a strong likelihood that your users will believe that these are in fact Joomla! products and nothing on your site leads them to believe otherwise.  The steady flow of emails we get for **** support via the OSM contact form indicates that this confusion is fairly widespread.

So, what do we need you to do? ....For example, "***** Preinstalled on Joomla! 1.5.x" would be descriptive.

However .... First, we need you to add  prominent disclaimers to your site indicating that what is being downloaded is not an official Joomla! release, will not be supported or warranted by the Joomla! Project or Open Source Matters and that all support questions should be addressed to your team. Second, we need you to include this statement "Joomla! is the trademark of Open Source Matters, Inc." Also, the first use of the term Joomla! on each page should be accompanied by a superscript TM. 

and the reply:

thank you for your email. I fully understand that you want to prevent
confusion among Joomla! beginners. You also need to take care of the
Joomla! trademark for OpenSourceMatters and we at **** of course
respect it.

I have added a prominent notice at our downloads page
The **** will be renamed to "**** (with
Joomla! 1.5) and so will the package files be renamed.
The next release of this "bundle" (with J! 1.5.4) will include this notice
(that it's an unofficial release) too.

The Trademark notice was added to all pages on ****.

Let me know if it's ok now-
Best wishes!

How about that for community cooperation! Great work to the developer for setting such a fine example.

Our infrastructure currently is made up of 6 servers. Currently, three servers are used to serve the heavy loads of joomla.org (including sub domains like forum.joomla.org, extensions.joomla.org, community.joomla.org, developer.joomla.org, docs.joomla.org etc.) and two others are used for serving JoomlaCode. The Joomla! extension Directory (JED) is our busiest site and needs a server upgrade. Time to add a new server to the Joomla! 'cluster' by moving away the Joomla! extension Directory (JED) to this new box.

This new server is a Dual Xeon 3060, 4 Gb Ram, SCSI drives for faster read/write performance. This new server is located in a different data center and will host just JED. The old JED server will be used for a few other sites, probably developer.j.org, docs.j.org and community.j.org. With an Apple Xserve for future package generation we then will go to a total of 7 servers used to host the complete Joomla! infrastructure.

On the development - and community blog several blogs have been written on people contributing to the project. In the donations blog I have briefly discussed another way of contributing back to the Joomla! project; donations (hopefully an update on this will be blogged soon). Anyway, there are dozen of ways to contribute back to the project and in this blog I want to focus on the infrastructure this project is using to serve the community.

Rochen is putting in a tremendous effort on helping out this project by donating most of the infrastructure needs, not only by offering most of the hardware but also by providing professional resources to keep the infrastructure running 7 days per week. Rochen is adding this new server as a service to the project for free! As we did earlier on we want to thank Rochen for their endless support to our open source project and the very high level of support we receive 365 days per year since this project started in September 2005!

Rochen will be handling the move, and there should be hardly any downtime at all. The move is planned, but if all goes well no one will even notice the site has been moved. As usual we expect their skills to be used to tweak and optimize this new box for peak performance.