Tag: technology

Introducing 3DBug!

It was October 24, 2024 when we wrote here about a big top-secret project involving Joomla. After over 600 hours of development and promotional efforts we are pleased to announce that 3DBug is finally here and available on the Joomla Extensions Directory!

This is, of course, a huge achievement and an important milestone.

What is 3DBug?

3DBug is a component that you install on your Joomla website. It lets you use graphics of any sort to build a “world”. Within the world, you position “rooms”. Within the rooms, you position “assets”. Rooms and assets can be associated with various digital media, including 3D models and scans (a.k.a. “gaussian splats”). Furthermore it lets your world integrate with any content in Joomla.

Virtual tour with 3-D room view built with 3DBug Joomla component
Virtual tour with 3-D room view

The end result is a versatile multimedia display and navigation system which can be used for virtual tours, games, e-Learning, galleries, site maps, and e-commerce among other things. A more detailed description can be seen on the 3DBug website.

Why does it exist?

Over the years Confidant gained experience with a number of very interesting projects:

As time went on, a question began growing in my little brain: Is there any way I can combine all of this experience into a single product?

Screen shot showing a map using SVG graphics being displayed in the 3DBug component administration context
3DBug administration interface with an SVG map

The dreams became more vivid, and as plans began to take root there were other fortunate developments rapidly advancing in technology.

  1. The Joomla Component Builder tool released some major updates which supported the latest version of Joomla.
  2. A.I. was becoming a very useful tool for debugging and solving complex coding challenges.
  3. Gaussian splat technology has been rapidly advancing as the new standard in immersive 3-D web graphics.

The result of these three factors was that the project, which normally would require a large multi-disciplinary team, was streamlined into something which could be handled by a single person with spare hours over the course of about 18 months. So here we are celebrating!

3DBug combines 3D graphics with your shopping cart system
Integration with shopping cart

What does the future hold?

It seems that this was an interesting enough project that Allan was accepted to be a speaker at the Joomla World Conference 2026 in Potsdam, Germany. Leading up to that time we will be very busy enhancing documentation, securing development and/or marketing funding, and doing promotional activity. It remains to be seen whether 3DBug itself will be a profitable long-term business or simply a nice portfolio piece.

If you have any need for this tool or have a custom application idea, please get in touch. We’ll be happy to explore a solution for you!

Defeating the Jargon Hydra

Jargon drives me bonkers. Biz speak, technobabble—whatever you want to call the esoteric language people use so often. Now maybe I am simply losing my capacity for advanced wording but when I take the time to decipher jargon I often discover that it is being used to obscure bad ideas or empty words. It seems I am not the only person noticing this. As a lover of truth this bothers me. So why does it happen?

1. We’ve become conditioned to skip over it

Technology is making our society communicate more briefly. In high school I was taught to write business letters using a typewriter, and they would always include a proper greeting, fully formed paragraphs, and a courteous sign-off. These conventions were the norm when I began using email 23 years ago, and it wasn’t long before I was doing double-takes when someone left out what I thought were the right elements. Then just when I became used to the brevity of email, along came Twitter and instant messaging and even more terse exchanges.

The problem is as we get used to quick information we get lazy about reading longer writing. Nowadays we tend to scan for the takeaway items and buzz words but skim over the words that we aren’t wanting to read (maybe you’re even doing it with this article). Anyway, even in our skimming our brains still register the fact that we have just experienced some high-fluting language and the suggestion is planted in our minds that because the author uses some big words they must have some worthy ideas even when we don’t understand them. The result is that the writer can fake their way through the social media scene or even into a scientific journal without really saying anything of value.

2. We let them get away with it

Even before electronic media people could still spout drivel. In college I had a lot of exposure to the arts community and would come across statements like this:

My work, which is figurative and symbolic in nature, explores the complex narrative of “being”. I am interested in the anthropomorphic as it associates to the human condition, where image, self and the subconscious reside and collide. Abstraction and figuration constantly intertwine facilitating a narrative that is subjective, idiosyncratic and coloured.

It would be much easier for them to say “I like blending human and abstract images. Use your imagination to gain your own meaning and feelings from it.” However, just like in The Emperor’s New Clothes, the artist convinces many people to nod their heads and pretend that the word salad they just read points to some much deeper meaning.

Perhaps we’re already sold on this person being a legitimate artist or maybe we just don’t care enough about being deceived. The hydra will simply grow two more heads if we attack this one. So we don’t challenge it (as Tom Wolfe did) and the artist keeps on selling their paintings to the uncritical.

3. We Chicken Out

Most people like to live in peace, and the sad fact is that challenging someone’s ideas carries the risk of offending them. Do it online, and you might even get a legion of like-minded people harassing you for a long time without even fully understanding why. Is it any wonder that we avoid conflict online?

Defeating the Hydra

When it comes to jargon, it is the truth and our valued time which are at stake. We should do something to protect these.

There’s some wisdom on the internet which says “Don’t feed the trolls.” There is much older wisdom which says both “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him,” and “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” These statements taken together give us a good start for engaging jargon-spouters. There is no one right method—we simply have to choose our battles wisely with the little time we have. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Do I think the hydra can be defeated? It depends on how you frame it. There’s all sorts of little hydras we can defeat every day. Very few people can change the world all by themselves but we all can do good works and have victories of our own. Choose wisely my friend, and fight for truth when you can!

When Your Heart is a Hammer

Hammer and Screw

It’s great when you find the perfect match between your challenge and solution. The right ratchet for your nut or the perfect swing for a hole-in-one.

As a web designer this often means choosing the right technology to support your end goal. Should the site be static, or CMS-based? Or will it be completely custom, like a web app or something built upon a 3D framework? Then each one of those paths carry a big set of choices of their own. It can be daunting, but good web designers don’t shy away from making the hard decisions carefully. After all, it’s a choice between long-term usefulness and prosperity versus wasted effort.

I ponder these things and am thinking that we need to be equally careful about choosing our people.

For example, a few years ago I took a job at an interactive agency which was looking for a designer with some Flash skills. The job began with a mix of both interactive work and design, but after a couple years I was only doing the technical work with no creative at all.

I began to have an internal struggle over this because I enjoyed programming and loved the company, but I was trained as a designer and was not prepared to abandon that other love of mine. In the end, my heart for being a designer won out over my heart for the company and job, and I eventually left to start my own business.

Although the changes in heart and job resulted in my leaving, I did work there happily and effectively for four years and we parted on very good terms. I would call that a successful employment.

In filling that job I believe my employer did well, because my heart matched well with their own corporate philosophy. Skills and versatility were important, but more important was that I agreed with their philosophy of caring for their people, having fun, being responsible and working hard.

The heart is most important. This might seem like a no-brainer, but if your organisation serves Liberals you don’t fill your positions with Conservatives. If your company exists to promote Christianity you don’t hire atheists. You don’t hire known anarchists for government jobs and you don’t outsource national security projects to overseas organisations if you can help it.

Any of these examples is like using a hammer to drive in a screw. It might sort of work, but in the end you will probably regret it.