Archive for February, 2007
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:58 UTC
So, I popped into #apache on Freenode IRC today to ask a question. That’s when I noticed the news in their topic that ApacheCon US will take place this year in Atlanta, GA from November 12-16 at the Westin Peachtree. This is good news for me (since I won’t need to get a plane ticket) and Atlanta PHP!
I proceeded to ask Rich Bowen a few questions about the conference and what Atlanta PHP can do to help promote and take part in it. ApacheCon usually has a PHP track (ApacheCon EU does not have a PHP track this year), and Rich said he expects this conference to have the full complement of tracks. It’s my hope that Atlanta PHP can somehow be a part of this.
For now, there are no more details, and the CFP hasn’t been announced, but the dates (Nov 12-16) and location (Westin Peachtree) are “set in stone.”
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Tags: apache, apachecon, atlanta, atlantaphp, conferences, php
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 5:36 UTC
UPDATE: I’m an idiot. The LinkedIn “info” button shows up next to every e-mail address on every web page because I finally upgraded to the newest version of the LinkedIn Browser Toolbar for Firefox. I feel pretty stupid now for jumping the gun on this, and there is no mysterious partnership between Google and LinkedIn, but isn’t this a good example of how browser plugins are changing the way we view sites? (More thoughts on this later.) At any rate, I wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of mash-up of Google/LinkedIn/Plaxo; it’d definitely make managing my contacts between the three much easier.
There’s no mention of it on Google’s or LinkedIn’s websites, but just days after my post asking for a Google Contacts application, it would seem that Google is doing something about their contacts, and they’re doing that something with LinkedIn.
It’s unclear exactly where this is heading, but when I logged into Gmail today, I noticed a small little “info” image next to the name and e-mail address of the sender of each message I received. The first time you hover over the “info” image, it asks you to authenticate with LinkedIn. After that, when you hover over the image, you automatically see whether the sender has a LinkedIn profile, what degree of a connection they are to you (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), their position and company, location, how many LinkedIn contacts they have, and their LinkedIn profile summary. You can then click on their name to proceed to their LinkedIn profile. From this little window, you can also invite them to your network if you are not already connected to them.
Now, when you proceed to Gmail’s contacts page, there’s nothing of the sort connecting your contacts with LinkedIn, but this little, quiet addition makes me wonder what Google and LinkedIn are up to. Is there a partnership in the works? Will I be able to use LinkedIn to manage my Google contacts and vice versa in the not too distant future? I don’t think I’d be opposed to that. In fact, I’d laud it.
Now, if only LinkedIn would provide sync’ing services like Plaxo... or, better yet, LinkedIn and Plaxo should work together so that LinkedIn contacts are automatically sync’d to Plaxo, and then end-users could make use of Plaxo’s sync’ing services to synchronize contacts with desktop applications.
But now I’m just day-dreaming in fantasy-land.
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Tags: gmail, google, linkedin, plaxo, time-management
Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:50 UTC
If you’ve been following along, then you’ll recall the ‘Stache Bash photos I posted to my Flickr account a year ago. Well, my group of friends and I decided we wanted to take this year’s ‘Stache Bash to the next level, so we decided to promote the hell out of it on MySpace, but then I got an idea: why not make a website devoted to the ‘Stache Bash. Perhaps it might even become an Internet meme.
Thus was born StacheBash.com.
When throwing together this site, I wanted something that wouldn’t require much effort. I had some guiding ideas in mind, though, for what I wanted it to be: it must be a community site with blogs, user-created groups, forums for each group, a map to show the location of each group, etc. So, after several years of bitching about how I didn’t really like Drupal because of its sucky and unintuitive user interface for typical end users, I decided to give it another shot because I had heard good things about the recent 5.x release.
To make a long story short, Drupal has come a long way, and there were already modules to suit every need I had. I easily made a few of the tweaks I needed, added some custom blocks, and I had a working, fully-functional, community-driven website up in just one weekend!
If you’ve discounted Drupal in the past, I encourage you to look again. You may find yourself quite surprised. Drupal even has a section on their site devoted to security announcements.
In conclusion, I suppose Drupal and ‘Staches go together well after all. 
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Tags: drupal, moustache, mustache, php, stachebash
Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:50 UTC
In an effort to organize my life, I’ve been trying out various organizer programs, from Yojimbo to SOHO Organizer to Contactizer. That’s when I realized that I need Google’s help. If I do everything the Apple way, then I need to use Address Book, iCal, and Apple Mail. Then, I can make the most out of organization software like SOHO Organizer and Contactizer, but I don’t use the Apple programs. I use things on the Web like Gmail and Google Calendar. I could go back to using programs like Apple Mail, but Gmail has ruined me simply because of two simple features that seem so obvious I don’t know why other mail applications don’t have them: tagging and conversation threading.
So, what am I to do? As a member of the Cult of Google, I beseech thee, O Google, to overhaul your crappy contact system and make a full-fledged Google Contacts application to go alongside with your suite of productivity apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. Follow your normal protocol and keep it beta indefinitely and open only to invitees (but invite me, first, please), and make it awesome, as usual. Help us to log our calls and all communication with our contacts, much like you already allow us to see all e-mail communication with a particular contact. Let us schedule meetings with a contact that show up on our Google Calendars, and allow us to define relationships and assign tasks.
Give us the tools we need for a complete virtual on-line office, and make it free! We don’t mind the text ads on the side; in fact, we love them. O Google, we love thee!
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Tags: google, productivity, time-management
Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:39 UTC
I have the bad habit of being unable to say “no” when something comes along that I think will be a good opportunity. The truth is: I just don’t want a good opportunity to pass me by that I will regret later. The problem is that, in accepting these opportunities, I’ve caused myself to become needlessly overwhelmed, and I’ve even hurt my relationships with other people because I’ve let them down, being unable to pull through and finish certain things.
Early last year, I saw Guy Kawasaki’s “Art of Innovation” presentation at N-TEN’s Non-profit Technology Conference. In his presentation, he mentioned that he was offered the CEO position at Yahoo! in the mid-90s, but he turned it down thinking that the company would go nowhere. I guess something like this goes through my mind when I’m considering an exciting opportunity, whether it’s writing a book or looking at some potential side project.
However, now I’m going to have to start drawing the line and putting my foot down. I need to learn to say “no” to things I know I can’t handle right now, even if I think I’m passing up an awesome opportunity. This is what’s best for me and my family. For the first time in two years, I have no side projects (other than Atlanta PHP), and it feels good. I feel like I am actually in charge of my time management, and I’m not overwhelmed by the weight of various projects all around me. I do have a few things lingering around, but I’m going to get them set up and ready to turn loose on the community, so that others can be in charge of them. Look for these soon.
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Tags: time-management
Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:02 UTC
I recall several years ago a discussion on #phpc on Freenode IRC about the need for white papers on the use of PHP in the enterprise/business world. These white papers would serve as a sort of advocacy for PHP, but more important than advocating the use of PHP, they would help answer questions about PHP that management types have. The white papers would discuss the benefits of using PHP, highlighting its strengths and even noting its limitations. In short, it would answer the question: why is PHP suited (or not suited) for the task we need to complete? I was particularly interested in these white papers for Atlanta PHP to use and distribute to the local business community.
Well, three years have passed, and I don’t believe anyone has ever published any white papers on PHP, giving it a business case, and while we have companies like Zend, OmniTI, and eZ Systems providing support for PHP, I haven’t seen any documentation from them like this. So, last Thursday when Stuart Herbert announced his Google Group for developing a business case for PHP, I took notice and joined.
While I know that this group isn’t trying to advocate the use of PHP over other languages, I hope that it can generate white papers that will explain the benefits/advantages of PHP and why it is well-suited for particular tasks. Also, I think these white papers would do well to outline how PHP can work alongside other languages like Java, and how PHP has excellent support for XML and SOAP, making it a good choice to communicate with legacy/disparate systems.
I encourage those companies who use PHP and have an investment in the language to take part in this effort.
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Tags: atlantaphp, business, php
Thu, 1 Feb 2007 22:37 UTC
Sean Quinn Ramsey was born this morning (Feb 1st) at 2:27AM. He was a big baby, weighing in at 9lbs. 7oz. and 19.7 inches long. Lizzy delivered him completely natural, without any pain killers or an epidural, but she was in labor for about 22 hours and almost had to have a caesarean section because of the length of the labor.
We’re still at the hospital, and Mom and baby are currently resting well.
More details and many pictures to follow at BenandLiz.com.
UPDATE: If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so here. My wife wants to keep track of them all in one place for scrapbook purposes. 
26 Comments »
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Tags: baby, birth, family
