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Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:03 UTC
Yesterday, php.net announced TestFest 2008!
The PHP-QA team would like to announce the TestFest for the month of May 2008. The TestFest is an event that aims at improving the code coverage of the test suite for the PHP language itself. As part of this event, local User Groups (UG) are invited to join the TestFest. These UGs can meet physically or come together virtually. The point however is that people network to learn together. Aside from being an opportunity for all of you to make friends with like minded people in your (virtual) community, it also will hopefully reduce the work load for the PHP.net mentors.
All it takes is someone to organize a UG to spearhead the event and to get others involved in writing phpt tests. The submissions will then be reviewed by members of php.net before getting included in the official test suite. Please visit the TestFest homepage to get additional details on the TestFest on how to get involved, either as a UG or by setting up the necessary infrastructure.
Atlanta PHP will be taking part in TestFest 2008! As a preview for our May 1st meeting, we will have a workshop format catering to two different groups of developers. For beginning PHP developers, we will help you get started developing PHP applications by helping to set up your environment and teaching a few of the basics. For intermediate-to-advanced developers, we will discuss how you can assist the PHP development community by writing phpt tests. More details to come in the future.
Tell your PHP user group organizer about TestFest 2008 and get your members started writing PHP tests today!
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Tags: atlanta, atlantaphp, php, php-qa, phpt, qa, testfest2008
Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:03 UTC
Even though today is officially “day 1” of php|works, I consider it “day 2” because I spent the majority of yesterday (six hours of it) standing and talking to a room full of people about topics they need to know to pass the Zend Certification Exam. It was a tiring day, and my lack of sleep and trek through two hours of Atlanta rush-hour traffic didn’t help. Still, I made it through the day, I think the tutorial was a success, and I hope that those attending who took the exam yesterday or today passed with flying colors.
Today began with Andrei Zmievski’s keynote entitled “The Future: PHP6,” or “Im in ur endginn, playin wif ur stringz.” Here are a few notes I gleaned from his presentation:
- Unicode is so simple you could probably explain it to Paris Hilton, or Miss Teen South Carolina might be able to explain it to you.
- PHP6 = PHP5 + Unicode, PHP5 = PHP6 – Unicode, Unicode = PHP6 – PHP5
- mojibake: phenomenon of incorrect, unreadable characters shown when software fails to render a text according to its associated encoding
- “APC is the best thing to happen to PHP since Rasmus stopped working on it single-handedly.”
- “Ask yourself: Can I live with PHP 4? Until 8/8/8? If yes, you’re done. Thanks for playing.”
Afterwards, I supported my colleague, Maggie Nelson, by attending her talk, “You Don’t Need A DBA.” I had the opportunity to see a preliminary version of her talk, and while I enjoyed the preliminary version, she had vastly improved it with great examples and information.
After Maggie’s presentation, it was my turn to give my talk “Designing RESTful Web Applications.” The slides for this talk are already available on my site.
Due to some unavoidable distractions from work, I had to miss the lunchtime keynote, “PHP 4 is dead! Migrate your code,” delivered by Chris Shiflett. This was unfortunate because I was apparently featured in all my drunken karaoke glory on one of the slides. Now, I’ll never know how I helped to convince people to transition from PHP 4 to PHP 5.
The highlight presentation of the day, though, was perhaps Sara Golemon’s “How PHP Ticks.” In this talk, Sara explained how the PHP engine converts PHP code into tokens, which get further converted into their opcodes that the Zend engine then runs. It was very informative and not at all dry, due mostly in part to Sara’s sense of humor and presentation style. Two big take-aways from this talk:
- Use token_get_all() to get all the tokens in your script
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:24 UTC
Atlanta PHP is proud to welcome php|works to Atlanta, GA on September 12-14!
php|architect invites you to Harness the Power of PHP, at this year’s php|works conference.
This year’s edition of php|works will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, home of the Braves and of the Atlanta PHP user group, on September 13th and 14th, with an extra tutorial day on September 12th.
The conference once again promises to be an excellent event for PHP developers of all levels, with talks from top PHP experts such as Derick Rethans, Chris Shiflett, Andrei Zmievski, Sara Golemon, and many more (and plenty of new faces, as well).
Sign up today before the conference sells out!
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Tags: atlanta, atlphp, conferences, php, phpworks, phpworks2007, works07
Wed, 21 Mar 2007 2:20 UTC
A year ago, I left a fast-paced, non-profit organization to work from home for Art & Logic, a software development company based in Pasadena, California. It was a much-needed change of pace for me, and allowed me the chance to rediscover PHP and work a lot more with PHP 5, sort through some personal things, cast off some excess weight (both physical and metaphorical), and spend time with my wife through her pregnancy up until now, seven weeks after my son’s birth.
I’ve really enjoyed this time, and I’ve enjoyed my home office. In fact, I’ve had numerous inquiries for my resume over the last year—many of them excellent opportunities—and every time, I’ve responded the same: “How do you feel about a remote employee in Atlanta?” That usually stops the hiring process dead in its tracks. So, while my new job is in the City of Atlanta, it isn’t a telecommuting position from my home forty miles outside the city. In fact, this is a job I must drive to everyday. So, why the change?
I’ve decided to accept a Software Architect position at Schematic, who has an office in Atlanta. This wasn’t a flippant decision, and there are several key reasons I chose to work for Schematic:
- Schematic is very community-oriented.
One of the main “filtering” questions I ask of prospective employers is how they feel about speaking at conferences, my involvement with Atlanta PHP and other PHP community activities, and writing articles/books. Believe it or not, most companies I’ve spoken to are very hesitant to touch these issues and prefer a “we’ll discuss that after you start working with us” policy. Schematic encourages these activities, and they hired me because of my community involvement rather than in spite of it. Schematic is already very active in the Flash developer community, and they appear to be positioning themselves as a leader in the PHP community.
- Schematic is dedicated to open source
I’ll be working in Schematic’s Open Source Platforms Group. This group develops software using the LAMP stack and other open source technologies. The OSPG also has plans to contribute and give back to the open source technologies it uses. I should be able to post more about this in the future.
- I needed a promotion
Since I left Eureka Interactive in 2004, I feel like I’ve taken a few steps backwards on my career path. I started at Eureka in an intro-level position and quickly worked my way up to a decision-making position of responsibility. I was not just another programmer, but I had responsibilities to our clients and small team of junior developers. Leaving Eureka placed me in a role where I was just another programmer with few responsibilities. Leaving Hands On Network further complicated this by placing me on my own. While I worked with teams at both Hands On Network and Art & Logic, I felt that I was not moving forward but, rather, stagnating in my career path. I feel that Schematic’s Software Architect position is the culmination of the past ten years of professional experience for me. It is a step forward, and will help grow and advance my career.
So, for these reasons and others, starting tomorrow (or today if you read the UTC timestamp on this post), I’m joining Brian DeShong, Patrick Reilly, and the rest of the Schematic crew. Wish me luck.
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Tags: atlanta, job, php, schematic
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:34 UTC
As I mentioned a while ago, I will be attending PodCamp Atlanta this weekend. I also mentioned that I’m interested in attending to hear more about vlogging. However, PodCamp Atlanta didn’t have any vlogging sessions scheduled at the time. So, in the spirit of the unconference, I decided to pull together a group of vloggers from across the Southeast to form a vlogging panel—moderated by yours truly.
The vlogging panel will take place on Saturday, March 17 at 1:45pm in the Governor’s Hall room. Here’s my little description of it:
Meet the Vloggers
Vlogging is a new medium of podcasting that is catching on quickly. This panel of experienced vloggers will share their vlogging experiences, reasons for vlogging, advice, helpful tips and tools, and answer audience questions.
The panelists are:
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, atlphp, conferences, php
Sun, 28 Jan 2007 2:36 UTC
Just thought I’d take a moment to promote a local BarCamp-style event being held at Emory University in Atlanta on March 16-18: PodCamp Atlanta. Apparently, there’s a lot of PodCamps going on around the world this year, and this is just one of them.
I plan on attending since I’m interested in creating a vlog for another website (perhaps more details on that later… or maybe I’ll just be a tease and make you find it on your own), but I’m not sure if there will be much discussion about podcasting related to vlogs. Nevertheless, I’ll try to make it if only to hear about the various podcasts in Georgia.
If you’re in the Atlanta area in March, you should try to make it.
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Tags: atlanta, barcamp, podcamp, podcast, vlog
Tue, 9 Jan 2007 16:06 UTC
I’m pleased to announce the official Atlanta PHP Call for Proposals. If you’re going to be in the Atlanta area and would like to present at an Atlanta PHP meeting, then, by all means, please let me know!
From the official post at Atlanta PHP:
Atlanta PHP announces its official Call for Proposals!
Atlanta PHP meets on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00pm Eastern Time in midtown Atlanta. We seek a wide variety of presentation topics of interest to intermediate-to-advanced Web developers with a focus on PHP and related technologies. Atlanta PHP connects and unites PHP users across the Southeast, provides world-class support and resources to the community, and advocates the adoption of PHP to local, national, and international businesses.
If you will be in the Atlanta area on the first Thursday of a month and would like to present a PHP-related topic at an Atlanta PHP meeting, please contact Ben Ramsey (ben [at] atlphp.org) and include your talk title, brief synopsis of your talk, full contact information (including phone number), and desired meeting date.
At this time, we cannot provide a speaker compensation package, though this is being investigated for the future. If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities allowing Atlanta PHP to provide speaker compensation packages, please contact Ben Ramsey (ben [at] atlphp.org) for further details.
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Tags: atlanta, atlphp, cfp, php, presentations, proposals, talks, user-group
Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:57 UTC
Over the weekend, Atlanta PHP launched its brand new Web site and forum. We hope that this new site and forum will allow us to serve our local developer community much more effectively.
Also, something that I’ve not pointed out in any of the language posted on the Atlanta PHP Web site is that the new forum allows members to get in touch with each other, something the Drupal installation we had did not allow. Members can send private messages or even e-mail to each other using the forum software.
I also noticed a lot of people looking for a PHP user group in the area through Meetup.com. I quickly reassessed my attitude towards Meetup.com—over a year ago we left Meetup.com because of the mandatory imposed group fees—and set up a new Meetup group for Atlanta PHP. This is just another channel for us to find local developers or, rather, for local developers to find us.
Finally, the old site is still available as an archive for our old content. I’ve set up some rewrites to funnel old links to the archive site so that old content doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. If you’re looking for something and can’t find it, ask me or check http://archive.atlphp.org.
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Tags: atlanta, atlphp, php
Thu, 5 Aug 2004 11:24 UTC
I have recently accepted a Web application development position (heavily involving PHP) at Hands On Network in downtown Atlanta. This leaves the position I have with my previous employer, EUREKA! Interactive, wide open, and he needs a developer that has a strong command of PHP (and also ASP) to take over where I’ve left off. Because of my good relationship with him, I have informed him that I would try to provide him with a list of local PHP developers before I leave, so that he has an easier time finding someone to replace me. The company is a creative place to work, and the culture is very relaxed.
If you’re interested in this opportunity and you live in or around the Atlanta area, please send your resume to me and I’ll forward a recommendation on to my previous employer.
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Tags: atlanta, eureka-interactive, hands-on-network, job, php
