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Sun, 25 Jan 2009 2:42 UTC
We’re well into the New Year—24 days to be exact—and I’ve long since been putting off this post, but it’s not really a single post. Instead, it’s a collection of things that I’ve been wanting to say but have been putting off, and it’s a look forward to things I’m working on, would like to see happen, or would like to be involved with this year. So, rather than the obligatory look back at what I did last year, this is a look forward at what I’m interested in for the coming year (in no particular order).
First of all, I would like to offer some congratulations to a handful of friends of mine. These congrats have been a long time coming from me and are already old news to many of you. In no particular order, I want to congratulate: Andrei Zmievski on being hired as an Open Source Fellow at Digg; Jon Tan on taking a role as the new Creative Director at OmniTI; Cal Evans, who moved to the Netherlands to be the Director of the PHP Centre of Expertise at Ibuildings; Marco Tabini and Keith Casey for launching Blue Parabola, and Matthew Turland for joining them; Eli White for accepting a position at Zend as the Zend Community Manager/Leader & DevZone Editor-In-Chief; and last, but not least, Brian DeShong for his promotion to Director of Technology at Schematic.
Next, I wanted to take a moment to mention and promote the writing I’ve been working on. I didn’t publish a single thing last year, and in 2007, I published only one article, so I resolved this year to get off my ass and remedy this. In February, php|architect will publish my article entitled “Grokking the REST Architectural Style.” This article attempts to explain what Representational State Transfer really is by going beyond peoples’ fascination with designing URLs, using XML, and focusing on HTTP methods. Instead, I’ll look at the real heart of REST with hopes that readers will fully understand what it means to build a RESTful application. A fellow web services aficionado said of the article, “I think you expressed very nicely what the concepts are all about—and without a URL or HTTP verb in sight!”
Following the REST article, in March php|architect will begin publishing my monthly column “From the Cloud.” In “From the Cloud,” I’ll be looking at practical web services you can use, as well as exploring trends that are transforming the way we use the Web. Here’s a quick blurb from the column that describes its focus:
As the Web matures and enters its third decade of life, many services are turning to cloud-based models of data storage. End users are becoming more and more comfortable with the notion that their data lives in the ether of the Internet rather than on their personal computers. Finding that data, retrieving it, manipulating it, and using it in meaningful ways are the challenges that face the era of the intelligent Web. I hope you’ll join me each month as we explore these services and technologies From the Cloud.
Finally, later this year, php|architect will publish another article I’m working on that will take a practical look at using HTTP in your applications in a RESTful way. There may also be a book idea or two in the works for me, but more on that later.
Oh, and I also had the privilege of being invited again to write a PHP Advent post during the month of December. I wrote a post entitled “Practice Safe & Idempotent Methods.”
Furthering my ramblings in this post, I also wanted to mention some community projects I’m working on this year. As always, I’d like to see PHPCommunity.org evolve and grow into a real website that offers real value to the PHP community, so that’s on my list of things to do. I’ll post more on that in the future. In addition, I have some plans for Atlanta PHP this year that include a new website, incorporation so we can accept donations, and an event to occur later in the year, but you’ll hear more from me about this as the details are finalized. Inspired by my own writings for the “From the Cloud” column, I’ll also be developing a PHP library of classes for interacting with various web services. This began with the Amazon Web Services library in PHP project, but I’ll be migrating that elsewhere to be part of a larger project in the near future, so be on the lookout for that.
Last, but not least, I wanted to mention the website that I built for my dad over the holidays. He recently launched his own business, Small Business Resource Associates, that provides services to small businesses and commercial real estate investors. I did all of the HTML/CSS and PHP programming for the website, while my aunt did the design work. It was an interesting project for me because I haven’t really touched front-end (client-side) web development in several years (I stick mainly to back-end, server-side development these days), and I was proud that I was able to make a website that validates successfully as XHTML 1.1. Another interesting part of the site is that it has a blog, something that I don’t believe many in the financial services industry are doing, so I think that’s one thing that sets apart Small Business Resource Associates from the competition. If your small business is looking for a loan, business plan, business consulting, SBA help, etc., please check it out.
Well, that’s a wrap. I’ve got a growing list of topics I want to blog about, so I hope that you’ll be hearing much more from me this year than you did last year.
Happy New Year!
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Tags: atlantaphp, http, php, phpc, phpcommunity, rest, webservices
Fri, 7 Nov 2008 15:54 UTC
Next week, I’ll be speaking at php|works and PyWorks in Atlanta on Representational State Transfer (REST). My talk is in the general track this time, so it’s good for both the PHP and Python audiences who will be attending the conference.
I’ve already invited the Atlanta PHP community, and if you’ll be in the Atlanta area, you should come, too. I can’t say it enough: the price of this conference compared to the value you receive from the talks and networking is a steal! In addition, if you sign up for the tutorials, you get a free training course at php|architect. You really can’t get a better deal at any other conference. I guarantee you’ll be glad you attended.
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Tags: atlanta, atlantaphp, php, phpworks, pyworks
Mon, 3 Nov 2008 20:41 UTC
I usually don’t announce Atlanta PHP meetings from my blog, but given the short notice, I figured that greater exposure would be best, so here we go…
When: Thursday, November 6, 2008—7pm-9pm
Where: Consulate General of Canada
November Topic: Got a problem? We’ve got answers!
Got a bug that’s been nagging you for hours? How about a feature that you just can’t seem to implement? This month at Atlanta PHP, we’re diverging from our usual presentation format and opening the floor for a “round table” discussion about development problems you are facing.
So, feel free to bring your coding problems to us, and as a group, we’ll come up with the solutions. Bring your laptop or a thumb drive containing snippets/samples of your code or application, so we can look at it as a group. This is sure to be a learning experience for us all.
Our meeting takes place at the Consulate General of Canada at 100 Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta (at the corner of Peachtree and 14th Streets). Click here for directions. You will need to see the concierge in order to gain access to the 17th floor.
PHP Basics at the Atlanta Web Design Group Meetup on November 11
On November 11 at 7:00pm, Matthew Turland will speak to the Atlanta Web Design Group about PHP, covering basics of the language and best practices from a designer’s perspective. This will include basic output, variables, conditional branches, loops, output modularization using includes, coding style, and escaping output for security purposes.
Matthew is the Lead Programmer for a Web application service provider, is Zend PHP Certified, and works with PHP and MySQL on a daily basis. He’s also a member of the PHP Community organization and serves as an organizer for the Acadiana Open Source Group. You can also read his blog at http://ishouldbecoding.com/.
There will be a 30-40 minute presentation followed by Q&A and discussion.
You must RSVP at Meetup.com for this meeting.
php|works and PyWorks in Atlanta November 12-14!
Atlanta PHP invites you to join us at php|works and PyWorks in Atlanta, GA November 12 through 14!
Atlanta PHP user group members receive $100 off the price of registration!
The publishers of php|architect and Python Magazine, are proud to invite you to php|works and PyWorks, two great conferences that will take place in Atlanta, GA, USA, between November 12 and November 14.
With over 65 talks in 5 tracks, 10 tutorials and great networking events and parties, php|works and PyWorks represent a unique opportunity to not only hone your technical skills, but also meet and interact with members of a vibrant community of developers from all walks of life. And remember—your attendance fee covers access to both conferences!
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Tags: atlanta, atlantaphp, php, phpworks, pug, pyworks, user-group
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
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, atlantaphp, conferences, php, phpworks, phpworks2007, works07
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
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
Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:52 UTC
Just got a call from Robert Swarthout of PaperBackSwap.com and SwapaCD.com. Robert’s a member of the Atlanta PHP user group, and he was calling to let me know that he and Zack (also of PaperBackSwap and SwapaCD) want to speak at a meeting about what to do when your “pet” project grows into a huge, heavily-trafficked website.
I also noticed today that Robert has a blog (which is why I’m writing this post), so I decided to check it out. Looks to me like he’ll be sharing some of those same experiences with scaling their sites from hardware issues to helpful scripts to build a standard install of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on new machines. Good luck with the blog, Robert!
While writing this post, Robert sent me the blurb for the talk he and Zack will give at the Atlanta PHP February meeting. If you’re in the Atlanta area on February 1st, feel free to attend the meeting. Here’s the blurb:
So what happens when your pet project is no longer a small little site but rather a site with thousands of visitors a day? This month we will talk about the growing pains and code changes we have experienced in taking our pet project to a site that has in excess of 650,000 page loads a day. Can your site scale? What kind of hardware, database and software has it taken to scale our site, PaperBackSwap.com? We will share our experiences with these issues and many other problems we have tackled. Let it be known that we are not experts, just normal Joes sharing what we have learned and continue to discover.
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Tags: atlantaphp, blogs, php, scalability
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, atlantaphp, cfp, php, presentations, proposals, talks, user-group
Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:46 UTC
I’m at the Zend/PHP Conference and Expo right now sitting in Robert Richards’s Advanced XML and Web Services tutorial. I’ll be attending Marcus’s and Sara’s Extending PHP tutorial later today. Had a great day yesterday, in which Andrei drove us to wine tastings at two different wineries: Ridge and Picchetti.
I wanted to take a moment to mention a 24-hour coding marathon announced by Elizabeth Naramore: PHP Throwdown. The competition sounds exciting, and I’m hoping to get a group together from Atlanta PHP to participate. It’s still in the planning stages, so you need to keep your eyes on it for announcements and more information. For now, here are the details:
What: 24-hour coding competition to see who can code the best PHP app
When: January 27, 2007
Who: You! You may enter individually or as a team, so if you think you’ve got what it takes then read more.
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Tags: atlantaphp, competitions, conferences, php, phpthrowdown, zend, zendconference2006
