About me

I’m an Engineering Manager at Mozilla Corporation, where I look after the Webtools group.  I’m also a former open source consultant, university lecturer, freelance developer, management consultant, PhD student, and computer book author (”PHP and MySQL Web Development”) from Melbourne, Australia. I live in Maryland, USA. I have too many animals. I love to travel and I love coming home again. I am an open source evangelist. I am Australian so I like to talk and argue about the above topics over a few beers.

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24 Comments

  1. Evan:

    One question… are you spoken for? :)

    Thanks for all you have done for FOSS.

    15 May 2008, 1:00 pm

  2. admin:

    Yes, sorry :)

    I’m married to Luke Welling.

    15 May 2008, 1:27 pm

  3. John Zens:

    Hi Laura,

    I am a technical recruiter with Allen Partners. I came across your LinkedIn profile, clicked over to your blog, and thought that you probably know a ton of people. I am currently conducting a search on behalf of a dynamic company looking for top talent. They offer the opportunity for a talented PHP developer to face intriguing challenges daily and the opportunity to grow and advance. If you know anyone who you think would be good to talk to, I would appreciate you shooting me over an e-mail: john@allen-partners.com. Thank you in advance for thinking about it.

    31 July 2008, 12:29 pm

  4. Radhakrishna:

    Hi,

    I have a problem in integrating tomcat my sql and php. Could you please provide me with the step by step instructions with the compatible versions above mentioned three. Also, I have explored many sites on the same topic. But different sites have different opinions on this. Could you please explain me with the actual procedure including the setting of environment variables etc.?

    Regards
    Radhakrishna

    9 August 2008, 11:39 am

  5. Paula Rizzuto:

    Hello. Was just thinking about you guys. Haven’t seen you in ages. I knew you had a blog somewhere, and I must say, I was not surprised to find it right at the TOP of my Google! It connects through to your old blog location though, so I had to click through.

    Anyway - I’ll get on with reading. Catch you later in the year, maybe?

    1 September 2008, 12:08 am

  6. Gerard Vignes:

    I totally enjoyed the podcast made by Luke Welling and yourself on PHP and MySQL Web Development for OnOpen Source. I especially loved the comments about frameworks and framework developers. I also loved the comments about Ruby on Rails.

    I would really like to know, how do you feel about Python? If you had included Python in the comparison of PHP and Ruby, what would you say?

    Thanks!

    G :-)

    26 September 2008, 9:48 pm

  7. admin:

    Hey Gerard! I am merely a Padewan on the path of Python, but I really do like it. It feels like Ruby’s older brother to me, in the good ways.

    28 September 2008, 3:59 pm

  8. Gerard Vignes:

    Thanks!

    6 October 2008, 4:07 pm

  9. Jared:

    Hi Laura,

    I saw your video about SQL on Youtube. I want to get into web developement. Im a newbie who has taken a basic Web design course that focused on building a site in Dreamweaver. There seem to be various codes and programming technologies. What would be the next logical step? I dont really want to go back to university as I’ve spent half of my life there! Any advice or information would be greatly appretiated.

    Merry Christmas!

    Jared (Tokyo)

    7 December 2008, 11:50 pm

  10. Sandeep:

    Hi Laura,

    Were you teaching Masters students at RMIT? if yes, then i must say you are a great lecturer. i was your sudent :)

    18 December 2008, 2:52 pm

  11. alf tanner:

    Hi Laura!, im php programmer from Peru, i’ve a problem for generate a pdf template what i want using in php.
    I have a word document with the follow text: “<>” and i use adobe distiller for print it in pdf.
    When i get the pdf document and test your code used in your book “PHP and MySQL Web Development”, a alert says me “The file is damaged and could not be repaired”
    I’d like to know how did you do your pdf template for your book?
    Saludos desde Peru!

    22 January 2009, 1:10 pm

  12. E:

    Hi –I’m studying “PHP and MySQL Web Development, 4th ed” which you coauthored with Luke Welling. I’m very happy with the book except for one mayor issue: the adobe digital edition doesn’t include the stuff on the CD. In addition, it has severe copying restrictions. So it seems that if I want to test the code in the book I will have to type every line of code or else also buy the print edition. If I had known this I would’ve purchased the print edition in the first place. Can I get a copy listing of the code by providing my ebook id or something? Thank you kindly for your help with this matter.

    19 February 2009, 4:25 am

  13. Colin Boyd:

    Hi Laura
    Would you be at all interested in authoring some video based tutorials on PHP for Beginners? We are currently seeking an author who is skilled not only in coding, but also able to convey the topic in an enjoyable manner and informative manner. Having read a couple of your books in the past I felt you fitted the bill perfectly. If you do please contact me and I will be happy to tell you more.

    Thanks
    Colin

    12 June 2009, 2:30 pm

  14. Howard Kaikow:

    I recently purchased your PHP and MySQL Web Development book.

    I downloaded missing_source.zip from the publisher’s web site.
    Alas, the html file(s) for chapter 3 are still missing,
    From where can I download those files?

    15 July 2009, 2:53 pm

  15. Greg:

    Hi Laura,

    I was just wondering which version of PHP and MySQL your book PHP and MySQL Web Development, 4th edition covers?

    Thank you,

    -Greg

    17 December 2009, 10:15 am

  16. Met:

    Hey laura, I’m from turkey and working as webdeveloper. I bought a book which was written by you PHP and MySQL Web Development”) I checked whole subject of the book I really liked it and I’m sure I will be good at php when I read it thank you for this nice book

    21 December 2009, 12:40 pm

  17. GADEL:

    Hello Laura, You are such an inspiration to many. Greetings from Ghana.

    28 July 2010, 8:51 pm

  18. Frank:

    Aloha,

    Is there an errata page for PHP and MySQL Web Development? I’ve been looking all over and can’t find it.

    Mahalo!

    30 September 2010, 12:47 am

  19. Saad Yaseen:

    Enjoyed your book to the utmost! God bless you people! :)

    10 December 2010, 8:35 am

  20. Greg Clark:

    Hey Laura and Luke (as well),
    Good to see you’re still somewhere at least.

    My new neighbors are weird and kiwis this time.

    Love from Yarraville,

    Your neighbor,
    Greg… (LOL)

    16 October 2011, 8:28 pm

  21. Eric:

    Hi Laura.
    I’m learning nearly all of my php from your 4th ed of _PHP and MySQL Web Development_.
    Recently I’m coming across things like ‘@author’ etc in comment sections to code (e.g., in WordPress files. These
    lines seem to be more than comments, but the ‘@’ operator isn’t suppressing error messages in a comments section.
    I can’t find anything in your book about this use of the ‘@’ operator.
    So I’m curious why such an otherwise comprehensive book doesn’t talk about what’s happening here.

    Thanks

    8 November 2011, 5:42 am

  22. Nicolas:

    Hi Laura,
    when is release date for “PHP and MySQL Web Development” 5th edition?

    15 August 2012, 2:19 pm

  23. Tim Killian:

    Hi Laura, I downloaded the PHP & MySQL Web Development book. Where do I get the CD-ROM from that is mentioned in the book? Regards, Tim Killian

    4 December 2012, 9:10 pm

  24. Jocelyn:

    Hi Laura,

    I just read about you and wanted to invite you to join cloudnetworkofwomen.com (cloudnow), we are non profit whose mission is to promote women in tech.

    We were started in silicon valley, but have members world wide. Please check us out and let us know if you are interested.

    Thanks!

    17 December 2012, 6:32 pm

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