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php|tek 2011 Closing Remarks
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Date: 13 June, 2011 - 07:30

A few weeks ago at php|tek, I was lucky enough to deliver the Closing Remarks. Well.. it was less "lucky" and more of a "wait..


php|tek 2011 Hackathon
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Date: 10 May, 2011 - 08:00

php|tek: a professional conference with a community flairIf you haven't figured out by now, I attend quite a few conferences and catch a lot of presentations from numerous speakers. I've found that most presenters have a sweet spot. They're good at expressing a concept but don't get into the code. Others can build ridiculously powerful applications but couldn't describe the concept if their lives depended on it.

In the middle, there's a special kind of person. They're the ones that can explain a concept and whip up some demo code. Or alternatively, they can look at some code and identify not just what it's doing but likely reasons why.


PHPBenelux 2011 Recap
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Date: 4 February, 2011 - 16:37

Last week I attended and spoke at the PHPBenelux conference for the first time. What's unique about this conference is that it's entirely run by the local Benelux PHP Users Group. While there was lots of PHP-specific content, it also had a good mix of community and general concept talks too.

I gave one session over the weekend called "Project Triage and Recovery" [slides available here] which was based on the simple premise:


CodeMash 2011 Recap
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Date: 21 January, 2011 - 09:00

CodeMash 2011Last week I attended and spoke at CodeMash for the first time. For those unaware - and I was until last year - CodeMash is a community run effort that just wrapped its fifth year. Unlike most of the conferences I attend, there wasn't much PHP and instead there was a heavy focus on .Net, Rails, and various functional languages. In fact, the only prominent PHPers in attendance were Elizabeth Naramore, Chris Hartjes, and organizer W. Jason Gilmore.


Web2project v2.2 Release Notes
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Date: 21 December, 2010 - 11:22

web2project homepageAs of 19 December 2010, web2project v2.2 is officially live! You can download it from SourceForge now.

While in many releases we might focus on cleanup or functionality or developer aspects or similar, this one is a mishmash of a bunch of useful updates on numerous fronts. This isn't all of the updates but a bunch of the important ones:

For the Project Managers:


The community mourns the passing of Richard "Cyberlot" Thomas
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Date: 13 December, 2010 - 09:00

This post was lifted wholesale from Cal Evans's post from DevZone. I think he summed it up well and I had nothing to add.

Today, the PHP community mourns the passing of a friend. Three weeks ago, Richard Thomas, community member and friend to all who knew him passed away. I had planned on writing this post today and am ashamed that I put it off so long. Thanks to Jeff Moore's post and Paul M. Jones's post I was reminded of my duty to my friend.

I didn't know Richard as well as some. I hung out with him on IRC and we swapped work horror stories and coding tips whenever we met at conferences. I was privileged to see him just days before he passed when we were both at CodeWorks Portland. I got to talk to him for a bit at lunch and between sessions. Sadly for me, that conversations centered around topics so trivial that I don't even recall the details, just that fact that it was with Richard.

From Jeff's blog:

Richard is survived by his wife Lisa and four year old daughter Nicollette. Donations are being accepted to assist them. Even if you haven’t had contact with Richard, consider making a donation if you’ve done freelance work, as Richard was doing at the time of his death. Donations can be sent to:

Niki Fund, 4818 Davis Place #G, Renton WA, 98055

While I never like to hijack a moment, Paul made an excellent point on his post that I'll repost here for all because it is sagely advice from a man I highly respect.

And now, a practical note: A lot of PHP folk out there are freelancers or independent consultants, or are in other kinds of unstable job situations. If you are one of these, and you have a family, *please* consider purchasing term life insurance to take care of your loved ones if you pass suddenly. Get it even if you are very young. It is not expensive. It’s not the only thing you should do to prepare, but it’s an important thing.

Richard died at his computer doing what he loved, programming. We will miss you Richard, the world is a little darker place without you.

Admittedly, I only knew Richard in passing. We'd met at a couple conferences and he was at CodeWorks last month. I wish I'd gotten to know him a little bit better.


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