tech ramblings

At last…. Luke, my partner in crime, has a blog.

I have arrived in the US to work on site at OmniTI.  More when the jetlag fades

Long time no post.  I’ve been up to my eyeballs in work. 

On that note, if anybody is aware of an implementation of the Compositor (not Composite) pattern in PHP, let me know.  Today is the first time I ever wished for Java in my PHP career.  Don’t worry, it didn’t last long.  ;)  I am making a widgetized web app and need a way to automate widget layout.  Sometimes you can out-clever yourself.

Next week I will be speaking at the AUUG Conference in Sydney.  (AUUG is the Australian UNIX and Open Systems Users Group.)  I have a tutorial with Luke on Monday morning on PHP and MySQL, and a talk on Friday afternoon on PHP Security.   Luke also has a talk on Friday on
          Building a Simple PHP/MySQL Geographical Information System, which is quite fun.

Should be fun, I haven’t been to one of these before, but if you’re in Sydney, come along and say hello. 

Well, now I can reveal why I haven’t been blogging (or doing much else for that matter) since I started my new job.

I’ve been working on Ning, (previously gossiped about as Marc Andreesen’s new startup 24 Hour Laundry).  It is amazingly cool.  Ning is a free online service - as they like to call it, a playground for building social apps.  You can make an app in about 5 seconds by cloning an existing app if you don’t want to or can’t code.  Or clone one and hack on it.   Or write your own from scratch. 

Go and play, Ning rocks.

I have a new job.  I am working for George Schlossnagle at OmniTI.  I am pretty excited about it

(I will be finishing up my teaching of "Web Servers and Web Technology"  this semester in parallel, and yes, I will be finishing my PhD, before anybody asks.)

Incidentally, to go with my shiny new job I am in the market for a shiny new laptop, probably a Panasonic Y4.  All feedback appreciated.

Later today Zend has a WebCast about the state of the PHP Job Market.  From their website:

"The PHP job market is booming. But recruiters and hiring agents often have a difficult time assessing potential
PHP developers. Meanwhile, PHP developers often have difficulty conveying their skills and expertise in their
field.

Join our panel of industry experts, and hiring decision-makers, to find out what skills are coveted, how to
find people with those skills, and how to advance your PHP career." 

It is on at 9am PDT on Wednesday 24th August which I believe is 2am Thursday Melbourne time, for those locals that are interested.

I keep getting questions about where to read more about REST web services.  There is some great material at  http://www.xfront.com/, along with some other XML related tutorials.  In particular,  an excellent overview can be found here [PPT].  (Thanks to Roger Costello for this goldmine of information.)

I’ve been too busy with work to blog much, so we pause for this humorous interlude…this is excerpted English subtitles from a Chinese pirate DVD of Revenge of the Sith.   (Contains a couple of swearwords  but otherwise work safe).  I haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.

The second Open Source Developer’s Conference will take place at Monash University in my hometown Melbourne, Australia from December 5-7.  The call for proposals is currently open and closes this Friday.  This is a great conference.  Topics include:

Languages

• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• Java
• Ruby
• C/C++
• C#/Mono
• Web - XML/HTML/Javascript

Areas

• Security
• Education
• Business
• Databases

Operating Systems

• OS X
• Windows
• Linux/Unix

There is also the category "Other"  :)  (There is also a refereed paper category for academics.)

More information here:
http://www.osdc.com.au/