Last month most of us learned the results of the voting in our local elections. Like it or not, the people have spoken, and now some of us have new leadership teams, while others kept the same officials. I’m sure you and I have heard the same chatter around the towns where we live. Some residents are passionate about a candidate and what they bring to the table, while others are so detached they didn’t even cast a vote. If you’re one of the passionate ones, and have considered becoming more involved in your community, this column is for you. Even if you’re new to your community and just want to learn how things work on a local level, read on for the crash course in getting informed!

There is a fairly simple fix for the "Internet Explorer - Cannot open the site..." problem that is becoming more prevalent as we experiment with different Javascript libraries and Google API. In the index.php of the template file of Joomla, there should be a segment of code that calls the Google component config.php through a require function, as well as a Javascript call from Google itself. This segment of code was originally set to be inserted before head section the of the HTML. This insertion, however causes IE6 to abort all functions and not load the site. Solution: Remove the code...

To refund a PayPal payment: Log onto PayPalClick the History subtab.Find the payment you would like to refund and click Details.Click the Issue Refund link (at the very bottom of the page).Enter the refund amount and click Continue.You can issue a partial refund here. It's a good idea to put a note to the customer about what you're refunding.Confirm the details and click Process Refund. You should note when looking at the orders that you can print a shipping label from PayPal, which simplifies things and is a nice way to track the process!

Although we hope all of your VirtueMart transactions stick and earn your company lots of money, from time to time, you may need to issue a refund. To do this: Log onto the administrator console for the siteSelect Components, VirtueMartSelect OrdersFind the order that requires a refundYou have two options, depending upon the degree of notification to the customer you wish to use:Select "Refunded" in the drop-down box in the "Status" column; click the "Notify Customer" box and click the "Update Status" box. This will send a refund statement to the customer via e-mail; ORClick on the order number, which will...

Advertising is a complex topic. This is evident by the huge number of companies in business merely to provide advertising services provided to those organizations unable to successfully navigate the maze of messages, markets, and mediums on their own.  The advertising industry itself is a multi-billion  dollar operation in the United States, and contains many media-specific areas of expertise. Already sounds complicated and expensive, eh?