Recently on Slashdot, this article – Do we still need LUGs?– came up and it raised an interesting point: A few years ago, LUGs enjoyed a heady heyday. If you were lucky enough to have a LUG close enough to drive to, you probably attended meetings regularly. Enthusiasm, both for Linux and the ideals for […]
There are quite a few PHP'ers that I've talked to who openly disdain templating tools like Smarty, Flexy, and whatever others are out there. They point at the simple and undeniable point: PHP is already a templating system. True. You've gotten me there. I guess there's nothing else to discuss, thanks for coming. But wait, […]
When you're just starting off a microISV (micro Independent Software Vendor), every dollar counts. Every dollar keeps you in operation that much longer. Every dollar makes it more likely to be able to earn the next dollar. Without money you can't pay the bills, you can't focus on the code and more importantly, you make […]
UPDATE: Actually, it looks like the bulk of the events/fun should be on Saturday the 11th. Update your calendars. I missed it last time around, but it's about that time again… This year BarCampDC is being hosted by the PR firm Fleishman-Hillard, Inc. on August 10 and 11 2007. Yes, there is going to be […]
This past weekend, I caught an interesting commercial from H&R Block*. Since we're already 3 months past tax time, I was a little surprised but then I paid closer attention. Instead of touting their tax services, they touted your tax services… Unless you're one of the millions of people who don't pay income tax, almost […]
In my previous discussion of the Open Source Community – I described the fundamental dichotomy that exists in the two halves of the community. Generally, we all get along and drive towards similar goals… even if our motivations are a bit different and our goals don't completely align. Anyway, with the recent release of GPL3, […]
For any PHP'ers who might have been asleep for the past week, it is official… The PHP4 End of Life has been announced: Today it is exactly three years ago since PHP 5 has been released. In those three years it has seen many improvements over PHP 4. PHP 5 is fast, stable & production-ready […]
Disclaimer: The author of this book – Bob Walsh – was a CodeSniper last year, set me up with a free copy of this latest work, and recently invited me to contribute to the new Business of Software Wiki on Joel On Software. I may be biased, but would I buy it again? Read on… […]
I generally don't get into policy and practice topics such as education, but considering I recently wrote on recruiting, this really struck a chord. "Bosses rely on psychological tests over degrees to find the best staff". Some of the key quotes: Academic degrees are no longer seen as a reliable indication of students' numerical and […]
After the last release of the Importer, I thought things would be relatively calm and quiet with this module. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Dead wrong. It turns out that more people are using it than ever and the few discovered errors are subtle, complicated, and generally require a sample file and particular phase of the […]