Just a note that I’ll be speaking at this year’s Zend PHP Conference in Santa Clara, CA from September 15-18. This time around, I’ll be giving a new talk:
Rickroll To Go With PHP, WURFL, and Other Open Source Tools
Want to get that wallpaper on your iPhone or that Rick Astley video on your Nokia N95? In a world where mobile content is becoming more prevalent by the day, how can we enhance the experience of gathering images, audio and video for consumption on mobile devices?
Brian will demonstrate how you can leverage the Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL), PHP, ImageMagick, ffmpeg, and other open source tools to optimize content for consumption on mobile devices.
As is my normal custom, I’ll be practicing this talk at both work and maybe even Atlanta PHP sometime. See you all in sunny California!
June 27th, 2008
Someday I’ll look back on this post and think it’s super lame, but my recent submission of two tests for PHP’s putenv() function made it into PHP_5_3! I’ve officially made a contribution…it’s a red letter day, folks. Without Atlanta PHP and PHP’s Testfest, none of this would have been possible. 
See the CVS commit message here
Specifically, these two tests test the use of putenv() with INI settings safe_mode_allowed_env_vars and safe_mode_protected_env_vars set. I just wanted to do my part to increase the code coverage a little bit, that’s all. Too bad safe mode is being dropped in PHP 6, but ssssshhhh!
June 12th, 2008
For those of you interested, I’ve made the PDFs of my slides from php|tek 2008 available below:
If you have any questions or comments on the materials, feel free to email me (brian at deshong dot net).
May 23rd, 2008
For those of you that read my blog and happen to be attending php|tek 2008, I’m heading up that way today! Over the past few weeks, I’ve received a handful of Twitter messages and other emails regarding batch processing with PHP. I look forward to seeing the few curious, interested people there. Don’t hesitate to stop by and say hello.
I’ll be presenting on “Robust Batch Processing with PHP,” as well as my “The Grown-Up Company’s Guide to Development,” which has been spruced up a bit post-ZendCon 2007 (read: “made less boring”). Happy conferencing, everyone! Ayyyyyyyyy!
May 19th, 2008
Just a quick “congratulations” to my former employer, Community Connect Inc., for their recent sale to Radio One.
Congrats, CCI!
April 18th, 2008
One of my talks from ZendCon 2007, “The Grown-Up Company’s Guide to Development,” has been posted to the ZendCon Sessions.
If you missed my talk and are interested, head on over there to check it out!
Is it a coincidence that everyone’s favorite Zend pal, Cal Evans, posted it on April Fool’s Day? That’s for you to decide. Thanks, Cal!
April 1st, 2008
Since I posted my Zend_Log_Writer_Mail proposal and asked for feedback on fw-core, it’s gotten a bit of traction in the comments.
Perhaps it will be officially reviewed and placed into the incubator before php|tek 2008 in May because it’s part of my “Robust Batch Processing with PHP” talk.
Special thanks to Thomas Fritz, Lars Strojny, Tomas Markauskas, Apaella, and Vincent de Lau for the feedback and “+1″s thus far.
March 31st, 2008
For you Atlantans that may read my blog, I’ll be speaking at this week’s Atlanta PHP meetup. Specifically, I’ll be presenting on “Robust Batch Processing with PHP,” which I’m also slated to present at php|tek 2008 in May.
Also, special thanks to all Atlanta PHP attendees for allowing me to use them as my guinea pigs before taking new talks out to conferences. You regulars know that I’ve done this with other talks in the past. You’re a very gracious, brave bunch, so thanks, everyone!
See you all there!
March 4th, 2008
So, I’m beginning to take a crack at my PHP New Year’s resolutions while also making progress towards my php|tek presentation, Robust Batch Processing with PHP. My first step is proposing Zend_Log_Writer_Mail.
Now, to be fair, this module isn’t rocket science. Hell, maybe it won’t even get accepted! It is something I’ll need in preparing for my talk, though. See, my stance on batch processes is that they need to be proactive in notifying developers (or whomever) when problems occur. The best notification method, in my opinion, is by email (or SMS, for example). You know, something they’ll actually see and respond to.
In preparing for my talk, I’ve come to realize that I can’t get up there and say:
“This is the code that I’ve personally written, but have never released. My interface includes these methods, now go off and write them on your own!”
So, it behooves me to put together my batch processing code and propose it to Zend Framework, of which this module is the first step (and admittedly, the lowest hanging piece of fruit).
So hooray…it’s my first attempt at a Zend Framework module proposal, and it’s tangible progress towards my talk and spreading my vision of what “robust” batch processing is. Stay tuned to see if it gets accepted!
I’ll be writing the real part two of this blog post in the next few weeks, as I begin to wrap up my presentation and formulate complete thoughts that are organized for consumption by an audience (all two of you).
January 27th, 2008
2007 was a great year for me and PHP. After seven years of learning and mastering (?) the language, this year I began speaking with my first outing at the Zend PHP Conference in October. I was also accepted to speak at php|tek 2008 in May, 2008.
First, I’d like to give a special thank you to my employer, Schematic, for supporting me in my community involvement. Without your encouragement and backing, my 2007 in this community might not have been as bright. Thanks, Schematic!
Given all this, I consider 2007 my year of breaking into the PHP community. I’ve met many of my fellow community members, specifically those from #phpc on Freenode, and was able to begin putting faces with nicknames.
This has been quite a year for me in the PHP world, but I want to layout some of my resolutions for 2008. 2007 was all about starting my community involvement, but I’d like to make 2008 my year of contribution. Here’s are my PHP resolutions for 2008:
- Contribute to PECL in some way, shape, or form. Earlier this year, I sort of unofficially took over maintenance of the usblib extension, though I have yet to do much with it (work, home stuff and all). This year, I’d like to dive into this or other extensions by helping out with maintenance tasks, or even writing something from scratch to, say, leverage an existing C library.
- Contribute to Zend Framework. I started to dive into Zend Framework earlier in this year for work purposes. I’ve found it to be a great toolkit for my consumption. However, I’ve also submitted an issue or two to the Zend Framework Issue Tracker. This year, I’d like to start helping out with maintenance of Zend Framework, either by way of tackling tickets or proposing new modules.
- Contribute to PEAR or PEAR2. I’ve got a little bit of a start on a PEAR2::Batch package to make CLI-based scripting a little more easy, robust, and full-featured. I’d like to continue with this and/or other PEAR-related goals in order to contribute to this valuable code base.
- Write an article or get into podcasting. Resources such as php|architect and Zend DevZone’s “PHP Abstract” series are great for giving and receiving PHP knowledge. Whether it’s a few-thousand words on something that worked out really well for me at work, or a podcast on nifty PHP tricks, I’d love to make a foray into these mediums.
So, again, it’s been a great 2007 for me and PHP. Here’s hoping that 2008 is even better and more action-packed!
Also, to all of you that I’ve met this year, either digitally or in person, I wish you all a happy and healthy 2008! For those of you I haven’t met yet, I look forward to networking with you as we embark on 2008 together. Happy New Year, PHP community!
Leave a comment if you think this was the most lame post ever! It came to me while washing dishes this evening.
December 31st, 2007
Previous Posts
