Details

Written by Omar Ramos | Admin

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 15 August 2010

Hits: 3572

Joomla!

Joomla!(TM) is the trademark of Open Source Matters, Inc in the United States and other countries. The Joomla! name and variations on it such as J, Joom, etc, is used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters. orware networks is not affiliated with or endorsed by Open Source Matters or the Joomla! Project.

Other Trademarks

All trademarks remain property of their respective holders, and are used only to directly describe the products being provided.  Their use in no way indicates any relationship between orware networks and the holders of said trademarks. 

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Details

Written by Omar Ramos | Admin

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 13 August 2010

Hits: 14578

Before joining any clubs or purchasing any products there are always many unanswered questions people have. We have collected many of our frequently asked pre-sales questions here in the hope that they may assist people in making the right decision.

Extensions and Purchasing

Can I test out an extension before I buy it?

Currently we have some front end demonstrations of our extensions available on our demo site. Administrator demonstrations however are currently not available.

With our 90 day guarantee though, you are free to get your money back if the extension doesn't do what you believed it to. So you have nothing to lose by getting a membership and trying it out.

Can I keep using the extensions if I cancel my membership?

Yes you can. However, you won't be able to download any patches or updates to the extensions anymore. You also won't receive priority support anymore.

I only want ABC extension. Can I buy it separately?

We have chosen a club model for several reasons, one of which is the ability to provide a lot of value - i.e. extensions, for a low price. If we were to sell items separately, the number of items sold would drop so we would be forced to raise prices to meet that. So you would end up paying the same price for 1 extension as you do now for all of them.

Most people would agree that access to many is better value than access to one at the same price.

That still didn't answer my question, can I get ABC separately for less than the cost of a membership?

Ok, ok. Well the short answer is no. A membership is only $60/yr so we can't sell any of them for much less than that and still make a profit. Many of our are worth $60 by themselves. Some of them have had thousands of dollars spent on development. So $60 is a more than fair price for them we feel. However if you REALLY, REALLY want only one extension, then we will sell it to you. But not for less than the cost of a membership.

I don't have a Paypal account, how do I pay?

Paypal also accepts credit cards, but if you still can't use Paypal, we are hopefully getting 2CO in soon as well. In the meantime please contact us and we will arrange for someone to invoice you via 2CO.

I work for a non profit with a low budget. Can we get free extensions?

We are certainly willing to work with people from non profit groups, or for that matter anyone without the funds to purchase a membership. All we ask is for a fair trade of value for value.

I paid for my membership, but I can't download. Why not?

Sometimes you may need to log out, clear your browser cache, and then in again before your account updates itself. This is because some browers are a little over enthusiastic about remembering your session information in Joomla and it continues to remember your old membership level.

Licenses and Support

Do free members get support?

If you downloaded a free extension, you will get support yes, but it will be non priority support. Meaning that you will get helped only after all our paying members have been.

What licenses are your extensions covered by?

We primarily use the GNU GPL and LGPL licenses for our work, though you may find included source code bearing a different (but GPL compatible) license, such as the MIT license in mootools.

How many sites can I use the extensions on?

Because we use Open Source licenses, there is no limit we can put on the number of sites you can use our extensions. Even if we could, we wouldn't. We hate domain based licensing as much as you do.

Why do you use Open Source licenses and not proprietary?

We could have gone proprietary, and we would probably be making more money that way, but we all love Open Source work. We want to contribute back to the community that made us what we are today.

Isn't selling Open Source extensions illegal, or at least immoral?

This is a common misconception, but entirely not true. Many Free Open Source Software (FOSS) projects are 'no cost' to download. But this doesn't mean they have to be. The 'Free' in FOSS refers to freedom, and not to price. Just read the third paragraph of the GPL License which is the most commonly used FOSS license in the world.

We also feel that there is nothing immoral about desiring a fair compensation for our efforts. We all have families to feed, clothe, take to the doctor and provide for, and we can't subsist on goodwill and download counts alone.Our prices, taking into account our level of support, and the number and quality of our extensions, are the best in the world for any commercial CMS company.

Miscellaneous

Do you do custom work?

We do, but be warned it's not cheap. We charge at least $1500 USD for an extension and at least $3000 USD for a website (not including template). We do however guarantee that you will get top quality for that price.

Do you do installations of your extensions?

Yes we do, but again it's not cheap. We charge $50-$100 USD an hour, and a minimum of one hour, depending on the developer and the extension.

Details

Written by Omar Ramos | Admin

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 14 August 2010

Hits: 16949

Technically, orware networks has been around for a number of years.

The company name originated back in 2003 or so during high school and comes from a fusion of my initials, Omar Ramos, and my favorite computer maker at the time, Alienware (even though I never owned an Alienware PC).

I started out wanting to make computers (buying the necessary hardware and building them from scratch) so the original name of the company was ORWARE Systems.

After a short while (it didn't take me too long to figure out that not that many people wanted custom gaming rigs built for themselves) I moved into the computer consulting field and began doing various side jobs after school fixing  computers for various families around my local area.

During my junior year of high school I began running a dial-up Internet service business that my family purchased from a relative named Dial-Up Extreme. That lasted for about two years, until about midway through my first year at UC Berkeley. At the time, I had the dial-up Internet business, a part-time job in the dormitory computing center, my classes and if that weren't enough...there was also a long-distance relationship I was trying to maintain with my girlfriend at the time :-).

After my first year at Berkeley, even though my grades were good enough, I decided the pace I was learning at, and the things I was focusing on, weren't all the things I wanted to do. Perhaps the best thing to come out of it though was my foundational computer science courses: CS3 and CS61A (thank you very much Brian Harvey!). So I came home after my first year and switched to an online university where I was able to make use of my high school AP credits and units from Berkeley to complete my degree in less time.

Shortly after completing my bachelors degree in Information Technology (at the ripe age of 20), I released a new website concept I had put together that still has the potential to raise a lot of money for communities if it were properly understood and used by a region. I dubbed it the "Virtual County Superstore" concept  and it received some notice in the local paper: read the Imperial Valley Press article.This may have inadvertently gotten myself noticed by the local community college where I had applied to earlier in the year for a webmaster position because a short while thereafter, they contacted me to come in for an interview and I was eventually hired by the college.

Since I've begun working at the college, I've been able to focus on what's now become my passion: developing cool and useful web applications and focusing on contributing towards the Joomla! project as my skills have grown.

I had put my business on the back burner after starting my job at the college, and even more so during my second year there as I began teaching two web development courses, but I've been wanting to put together an extensions club for a while now and allow others to benefit from the other extensions I've built since that day two years ago when I released my first extension: ArtCats.

I pledge to anyone coming to my site that I will do my best to treat you fairly and with the respect that you deserve and that I will do my best to make my extensions as error free and feature filled as I possibly can.

I hope you enjoy your experience with orware networks and look forward to doing business with you!

Details

Written by Omar Ramos | Admin

Category: Uncategorised

Published: 13 August 2010

Hits: 15234

Here at orware networks, we like our privacy as much as you do. So we are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and members. There is however a certain amount of information that we must collect in order to provide for you the best experience possible.

This policy is to let you know just how we will handle and protect your personal information

What information do we need to collect?

We may collect, store and use the following types of data:

• Information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website, including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views via our analytics software
• Information relating to any transactions carried out between you and us on or in relation to this website, such as your membership level, price paid, duration and user account
• Information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us such as your name, email, gallery images and so on
• Information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our website services, email notifications and/or newsletters
• Any other information that you choose to send to us such as for support purposes, web site urls and problems descriptions
• We may also collect a username and password for administrator access to your site, but we DO NOT keep this information once we have finished helping you with the required support request

Cookies

A cookie consists of information sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.

We use the cookies on orware networks to keep track of you whilst you navigate the website, provide you with your own personal account and information, and to give you access to the appropriate downloads, videos and tools for your membership level.

These cookies will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until several hours have passed since you last visited our site.

We use Google Analytics to analyze the use of this website.  Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on members' computers.  The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information.  Google's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html .

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies.  (For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector.)  This will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one, as you will not be able to log into your account or access your membership entitlements.

Using your personal data

Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.

We may use your personal information to:

• administer the website
• Improve your browsing experience by personalising the website
• Enable your use of the services available on the website
• Supply to you services purchased via the website
• Send statements and invoices to you, and collect payments from you
• Send you email notifications which you have specifically requested
• Send to you our newsletter and other communications relating to our business by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require these communications)
• Deal with inquiries, product support and complaints made by or about you relating to the website

Where you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.

We will not without your express consent provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.

All our website financial transactions are handled through our payment services provider, Paypal.  You should only provide your personal information to Paypal after reviewing the Paypal privacy policy (available at www.paypal.com ).  We will share information with  Paypal only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments you make via our website.

Disclosures

We may disclose information about you to any of our employees or officers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy policy.

In addition, we may disclose information about you:

• To the extent that we are required to do so by law
• In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings
• In order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk)
• To the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.

Except as provided in this privacy policy, we will NOT provide your information to third parties.

International data transfers

Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), information which you provide may be transferred to countries (including [the United States, Japan, or other countries) which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the EEA.

In addition, personal information that you submit for publication on the website, such as your public profile, or forum posts, will be published on the internet and may be available, via the internet, around the world.

You expressly agree to such transfers of personal information.

Security of your personal data

We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.

We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall- protected) servers. All electronic transactions you make to or receive from us will be encrypted using SSL technology. 

Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will never ask you for your account password.

Policy amendments

We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time by posting a new version on our website.  You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.  

We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email. 

Your rights

You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you.  Provision of such information may be subject to the payment of a fee (currently fixed at $15.00) due to the processing time required.

You may instruct us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes by email at any time.  (In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal data for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal data for marketing purposes.)

Third party websites

The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.

Updating information

Please let us know if the personal information which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please contact us via our contact form.