Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:38 UTC
Here are my slides for the memcached presentation I gave at OSCON this year. I experimented with a new slide template, which turned out for the worst, since the contrast of the type on the screen was very poor, making it difficult for attendees to read. I apologize for this. In addition, I was completely distracted during my entire talk by loud music coming from the room next door. Nevertheless, the majority of my audience was still around even after I ran 5-10 minutes over schedule, eating into their free beer time, so I suppose that says something and that they were learning. 
Thanks to all who attended!
Give Your Site a Boost With Memcache
Today’s high-traffic websites must implement performance-boosting measures that reduce data processing and reduce load on the database, while increasing the speed of content delivery. One such method is the use of a cache to temporarily store whole pages, database recordsets, large objects, and sessions. While many caching mechanisms exist, memcached provides one of the fastest and easiest-to-use caching servers. This talk will cover memcached and the memcache extension for PHP from setting up a memcached server to using it to provide a variety of caching solutions, including the use of memcached as a session data store.
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Tags: memcache, memcached, oscon, oscon08, presentation, talk
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:50 UTC
I find myself once again in Portland, OR at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. This year, I’m giving a talk on memcached. The talk is on the PHP track, but the concepts can apply in any of the other languages represented at OSCON, so if you’re interested in memcached and how to use it, stop by on Wednesday at 5:20pm.
In previous years at OSCON, I’ve stuck mainly to the PHP track. This is because I have a lot of friends who are speakers, and so I’ve attended their talks to learn from and support them. This year, though, I’ve decided to focus on some of the other languages represented here, particularly Python and Erlang. This morning, for example, I attended Steve Holden’s Python In 3 Hours tutorial. Tomorrow, I’ll be attending the Practical Erlang Programming tutorial, and later this week, I’ll get Just Enough C for Open Source Projects.
So, today, one of the more interesting features I learned that Python supports is the concept of closures. Here’s a simple example from the tutorial:
def adder(n):
def add(m):
return m+n
return add
add20 = adder(20)
print add20(2)
l = []
for i in range(100):
l.append(adder(i))
print l[13](22) FYI: There’s been some discussion surrounding a recent patch proposal to add closures and lambda functions to PHP.
At any rate, it’s good to be back at OSCON this year, catching up with old friends, making new friends, and expanding my knowledge of open source languages.
By the way, I’ve brought along with me 10 elePHPants who need good homes. If you want one, it’s yours. You just have to find me in person and let me know. They’re first-come, first-serve.
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Tags: closures, erlang, memcached, opensource, oscon, oscon08, python
Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:10 UTC
As you may have already noticed, I’ve started focusing a lot of my attention on XML, specifically with regard to the Atom Publishing Protocol. Now, please don’t confuse this attention with the giddy excitement of a newbie encountering XML for the first time and thinking of it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. On the contrary, that moment happened for me back in 2001 when I bought the first editions of Learning XML and XML in a Nutshell. Rather, I’ve simply come full-circle to a renewed appreciation for the syntax. In these days when people are singing the praises of JSON and other data interchange formats, I still think XML is the best format for exchanging data between disparate systems.
This year marks the tenth anniversary—or birthday, if you will—of the Extensible Markup Language. Version 1.0 of the W3C recommendation was published on February 10, 1998. In a press release covering this occasion, Tim Bray said:
There is essentially no computer in the world, desk-top, hand-held, or back-room, that doesn’t process XML sometimes. This is a good thing, because it shows that information can be packaged and transmitted and used in a way that’s independent of the kinds of computer and software that are involved. XML won’t be the last neutral information-wrapping system; but as the first, it’s done very well.
According to the press release, there will be “a variety of activities and events” planned throughout the year “to recognize and thank the dedicated communities and individuals responsible for XML for their contributions.” Since this is also the tenth anniversary of open source and the tenth anniversary of OSCON, I wonder if there will be any XML “birthday” festivities at OSCON this year. It already sounds like it’s going to be one big 10th anniversary party; I can’t wait to see who shows up for the fun. 
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Tags: birthday, oscon, oscon08, w3c, xml
