When you do a fresh install of x86_64 CentOS 5, you might be surprised and annoyed to find yum trying to install 32 bit packages on your 64 bit server. You’ve got a 64 bit processor and operating system so why is it trying to install these un-needed 32 bit packages? CentOS comes with multilib […]

Magento recently posted an important security update that affects all versions prior to CE 1.7.0.2 and EE 1.12.0.2. The vulnerability is specifically in the Zend Framework’s Zend_XmlRpc module, which means that any application built on the Zend Framework is potentially vulnerable. See: ZF2012-01 Nexcess implements a Web Application Firewall that should offer protection from this […]

Until recently, integrating a WordPress site with Facebook has been a rather hit-and-miss affair, with functionality spread across third-party extensions that were often less than reliable. The release of a Facebook for WordPress extension, developed in partnership with WordPress, has removed much of the hassle involved in making your site social. This is a smart […]

The evidence has been in for quite some time now: banner ads are not an effective use of the webspace on your page. The expected CTR (Click-Through Rate) for banner ads is below 0.2 percent. That means for every 1000 people that view your page, less than 2 of them are going to click on […]

This week sees the release of a new version of everyone’s favorite Content Management System. It’s an opportune time to take a look at the new features and improvements we can expect from WordPress 3.4, which is scheduled for release on Tuesday. Improved Theme Control One of the improvements to WordPress we are most excited […]

You’ve compressed and minified your JavaScript and CSS, optimized your database, and tweaked your caching config, and yet you still can’t seem to get that time-to-first-byte to drop below one second. Tweaking dynamic applications like Magento can be frustrating. Sometimes there’s so much behind-the-scenes processing that goes into generating that catalog page that even your […]

Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 14, 2012 -Nexcess, a leading provider of Magento eCommerce solutions and Magento hosting partner, is pleased to announce sponsorship of the upcoming Meet Magento #6.12 conference in Leipzig, Germany. The conference will feature keynotes from industry leaders, panels, lectures, and the chance to network with over 500 attendees. Attendees will also […]

The benefits of using social media for building brand awareness, driving traffic, and creating leads are well accepted. However, maintaining and monitoring a coherent content strategy across multiple channels can involve a lot of work. Thankfully, for those with a WordPress site at the heart of their web presence, there are a huge number of […]

A survey of e-commerce sites in the Alexa top million websites has found that, as of the first quarter of 2012, Magento is by far the most popular e-commerce solution. Alexa Internet Inc. tracks the web use of millions of internet users and gathers information about the sites they visit. A recent analysis of their […]

While doing some profiling and benchmarking of Magento to test PHP-FPM I found that Magento was spending roughly a quarter of the run time for some page loads on comparing attributes. This struck me as odd, and so I looked into it more and found that it was specifically on pages with several products (like […]