In this post, I’ll cover the newly overhauled version of OpenSourceCMS, which lets you put on your administrator gloves and try top, free CMS tools.

OpenSourceCMS goes beyond just collecting a series of online demos for CMS platforms; instead, it delivers user ratings for them, and allows you to play administrator for hours. If you do this, you can get a strong sense of the capabilities and limitations of these tools, which have become very strong in the past few years.

Where should you start if you have no experience at all with CMS platforms? Drupal happens to be a pet platform that I like, and it runs some of the web’s most popular sites, so consider starting with OpenSourceCMS’s Drupal Demo. You can get a feel for what it feels like to be the administrator of a Drupal-driven site, and you can watch free video tutorials on building and running a Drupal site.

Joomla is another very popular open source CMS choice, and you can get the feel of administration with the Joomla Demo here. You’ll find user comments down the page there, and an overall rating at the top of the page.

There are many other demos available for open source CMS platforms, found here. Under OpenSourceCMS’s E-Commerce category, you can also try out some of the free, e-commerce platform solutions. These are found here. Among them, Magento is a very fast-growing and well-liked choice, and OpenSourceCMS has a complete demo available for it. It gets a 4.3 star rating out of possible 5 from readers,

There are many other demos, news items, and forums related to free, open-source CMS platforms at OpenSourceCMS. Especially if you’re paying or considering paying for a proprietary solution, take some of the demos for a spin. A full-blown content management system may be overkill if you’re just producing a quick, miniature site for a client, but if you’re putting together a game plan for an ambitious site or blog, picking the right CMS platform is an excellent initial step.

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Image by sxc.hu user blu_arim

One of the things that I struggle with most when I’m working from home is wrapping up and finishing for the day. Quite often, I’ll mean to finish at, say, 6:30 pm, but then another email drops into the old inbox, or I’ll move onto “just one more” task, and before I know it it’s late into the night and I haven’t even started thinking about dinner.

When working from home, separating “work” and “home” is one of my biggest challenges. I’ve developed a few strategies to try to deal with this over the years.

Here are the three strategies that I’ve found work best for me:

Have a clearly defined end time and stick to it.

This is an important one for me because if I don’t, I’ll tend to find myself working later and later. Having a goal end time also means that I try to get all my tasks done for the day by that time which makes my afternoon more productive. Of course, sometimes an emergency will pop up that needs dealing with there and then, but I try to make sure that I only extend my working time for emergencies.

If you need to use the Internet after the work day is finished, don’t open your work email.

If I open my work email and see an important email, I’ll be tempted to want to open it and deal with it. By making sure that I don’t open my work account in the evening, that temptation is removed. Another tip: if you have two computers, it can be a good idea to designate one as your “work” machine and one as your “home” machine.

If possible, have a home office in separate room designated for the purpose of working in.

If you have a separate room (a study or office) that you can set aside for working in, it means that you can leave the room, shut the door, and be done with your work for the day. It also have the benefit of meaning you don’t get distracted by home chores during your working day.

Unfortunately, my current apartment is too small and doesn’t have a separate room that I can use, so I’ve got a couple of methods that I use to delineate “home” mode and “work” mode:

Use a drop leaf-table as a desk and fold it away at the end of the day.

This means that when the desk is folded away, the work day is done. It also has the benefit of saving some space in my small apartment.

Towards the end of the day, try to get out of the house and work at a coffee shop.

That means that when I finish at the coffee shop and return home, I shouldn’t be doing any more work.

Following these methods, I find that I am more productive during the day and don’t find myself working late into the night as often.

How do you clearly define “work” time and “home” time? What strategies do you use to make sure thatyou finish on time?

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But there are times when becoming a freelancer seems like a regular 9-to-5 job.  This usually happens when we pull all-nighters, do repetitive work, and can’t seem to find peace of mind during a busy week.  It’s these times that make freelancing seem so much harder than traditional employment.  The good news is that there are ways to minimize the chances of this happening, or to avoid it altogether.

Don’t overbook yourself. While we all want to increase our income, there is such a thing as getting too much work.  If you fill every waking hour with projects, there won’t be room for any unexpected opportunities that will come along.  I generally don’t mind passing up on jobs that are similar to the ones I already have.  What I hate is the feeling that comes when an exciting project comes along but I have to decline working on it because I’ve already got my hands full.

To make sure that I have some allowance time for any new opportunities, I prepare my schedule approximately a month in advance.  This gives me an idea of what my workload is for each month and how much time I have left for new projects.  Whether it’s a month in advance or a week, it’s always a good idea to account for the time you’ll spend on your projects so that you’ll know how flexible you are.

Acquire different skills. It’s also important to have a variety of skills – not necessarily so you could provide several services, but so you could at least have an understanding of other related fields.  This is especially important if you plan to outsource some of the work, so you’ll know what to look for when hiring a specialist in a field that isn’t your forte.

Having different skills also allows you to take advantage of multiple income streams.  You can sell additional services to existing clients and have more variety in the kind of work you do.

Stay small. What I love about solo freelancing is that it’s a small operation.  While you can still delegate to others, but the main work comes from you.  This makes it easy to adapt to changes in the industry, customized requests from your clients, Why is it easier?  Because most of what you’re changing is yourself and your own processes.  37Signals says the same thing about app development, but I think it applies to freelancers as well.

Less mass lets you change direction quickly. You can react and evolve. You can focus on the good ideas and drop the bad ones. You can listen and respond to your customers. You can integrate new technologies now instead of later. Source: “Getting Real” by 37Signals

True, you can still start a business, but know that the larger your business becomes, the harder it will be to maintain flexibility.

If the variety of your schedule and your work is what drew you to freelancing, you should do everything you can to maintain your flexibility.  By keeping your schedule a bit loose, learning new skills, and making yourself adaptable, you’re actually choosing to experience the freedoms that are often promised to freelancers everywhere.

How do you make sure your schedule is flexible?  How do you adapt to the changes in your career?

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Whether you’re looking for something full time or part time, oDesk is a good place to start. It’s a staffing marketplace and management platform that provides a simple way to get hired for tech jobs available all around the world. We recently did an interview with the CEO, where he explains how the service works.

Many oDesk workers find sideline jobs that they do in conjunction with other work. You can showcase your skills there, whether they’re programming, design or other types of strengths.

Over on Webware, they’ve been using spreadsheets to post very regularly updated lists of which tech companies are hiring, and which ones are laying people off. You’ll find the latest spreadsheet of sunshine representing companies that are hiring here.

And here, you’ll find Webware’s spreadsheet of companies currently laying people off. You can also find the number of layoffs and the percentage of the workforce affected.

Over on OStatic, we recently ran a post on resources for those who are looking for work in open source software. If you have open source skills, many of these resources may be excellent places to start looking for work. Even if you don’t though, you’ll find many good starting points for finding web work, including Elance. Also check this post for even more ideas.

Even in this economic environment, there are opportunities. Leverage the web to find them.

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According to John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop, the entire Creative Suite 4 is now shipping.

Announced in September, the release date itself was not initially specified.  Those looking to test out the new programs before deciding whether or not to upgrade will have to wait, as trials are not yet available for download on Adobe’s site.  You can however sign up here to be notified when the downloads do go live.

All products in the suite have received some nice feature additions, including the Application Frame for Mac versions, which allows users to opt for a a single window display if they prefer, rather than the floating pane configuration of CS3 and earlier products. The new mode addresses the complaints of some users regarding accidentally clicking through to background applications, and the visual distraction and clutter of the independent pane UI.

The products shipping today, available in profession-specific packages, all together, or individually, are:

• InDesign CS4
• Photoshop CS4
• Photoshop CS4 Extended
• Illustrator CS4
• Acrobat 9 (Previously available)
• Flash CS4 Professional
• Dreamweaver CS4
• Fireworks CS4
• Contribute CS4
• After Effects CS4
• Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
• Soundbooth CS4
• Adobe OnLocation CS4
• Encore CS4
• Adobe Bridge CS4
• Adobe Device Central CS4
• Version Cue CS4

We posted a thorough preview of the new featuresets available when the suite was officially announced.  Check it out here.

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VGA iTunes compatible version (MP4 format, 640 x 480, 87.4 MB,13 minutes)

VGA Windows Media Player version (WMV format, 640 x 480, 71 MB, 13 minutes)

The Microsoft Origami Project team was generous enough to provide us the forthcoming Origami Expereience software and we give you a quick tour. Unlike the original Origami interface, I think I’ll be using this new one on my UMPC running Vista. You’ll see how everything is accessible and usable without a stylus and the performance is nothing short of astounding!

Watch the brief video and then watch for the Origami Experience software to become available around Vista launch time!

Subscribe to jkOnTheRun Mobile Media Edition here (RSS)

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VGA iTunes compatible version (MP4 format, 640 x 480, 299 MB, 44 minutes)

VGA Windows Media Player version (WMV format, 640 x 480, 242 MB, 44 minutes)

What a powerhouse! The Fujitsu Stylistic ST5112 is all power and all slate. The 12.1-inch Tablet PC with the Core Duo processor runs for hours and hours After using the slate for a few weeks, I share some of the following aspects:

• Complete walk around of the device
• Thoughts on the pen and single speaker
• Skype demo with the dual array microphone
• Viewing angle of the screen and usage of the VGA out capabilities
• Hardware buttons
• Using the fingerprint sensor
• Covering the included applications
• Demonstrating the "warm" battery swap
• Final thoughts

Three quick production notes:

1. Lighting was a tad poor in my office studio, so the brightness isn’t what we’d normally like to provide; I apologize.
2. Due to a lack of sunlight, I had to do a separate demo of the view anywhere screen on a different day; you’ll see this in the final two minutes of the video. I nominate this segment as the "worst demo of a great screen. ever."
3. We now have a QVGA version of the video up on our YouTube channel if you want a lower-resolution version streamed.

A special thanks goes out to Allegiance Technology Partners for loaning us the Fujitsu Stylistic ST 5112 Tablet PC!

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We will also produce a smaller bandwidth-friendly QVGA version in WMV format so you can get it the same way you’ve always used.  Since most of our podcasts are now in video we will change the name to jkOnTheRun Mobile Media Edition to reflect that fact.  The most recent video #28 has already been produced in MP4 format if you want to test it out in iTunes, just go to the show post and give it a shot.

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Watch jkOnTheRun Audio Edition #28 here (WMV format, 320 x 240, 192MB, 52 minutes)

For the bandwidth-conscious, there’s a low-res version too. (WMV format, 320 x 240, 94 MB).

Hold your horses!  Before you get all excited because you missed show #27 just hold on and listen a minute.  It seems that running off the production crew in show #25 was a very bad move on my part and although this would be show #27 it’s labeled all over as show #28.  It really is show #27 so you haven’t missed a thing, just pretend the last show was #27 and everything will be all right.

This show is a video overview of the new Fujitsu P1610 Tablet PC and I think once you’ve seen this baby in action you’ll see why I like it so much.  It’s a mini-Tablet PC with an 8.9" touchscreen displaying 1280 x 768 and in the video you’ll see why it provides a complete Tablet PC experience without an active digitizer.  You’ll also see the first look at the port replicator and extended battery that provides 6 hours of ink time.

Enjoy the show and leave us some feedback about the Fujitsu.

Special thanks to Allegiance Technology Partners for supplying me with the review unit used in this video.  Visit their web site and see all the Tablety goodness they offer!

Subscribe to jkOnTheRun Audio Edition here (RSS)

Please note:  This video is in WMV format so it will not show up nor play in iTunes.  You will have to use another podcatcher or download the show direct to view.

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