ESchrade

I’m doing some work for a webinar and I figured out that if you want use AWS SQS in your app you need to specify not just the queue name, but the full URL. What is the full URL? It is what createQueue() returns.

For example, I was doing this to store the queue name in a task that was stored in the session so I could get it at a later point in time:

$this->_queueName = sha1(‘fileProcess-’ . $this->_sourceId);
$queue->createQueue($this->_queueName);

I have no “findings”, no “conclusions”, but I have some thoughts on my continuing goal to help bad/nominal PHP programmers become better PHP programmers.

The first question I asked is “Is there really a shortage of good PHP developers?” While I didn’t get a specific answer the general jist of it is that yes, there is a problem with finding good PHP developers. Now, some of that may that the people responding ARE the above-average PHP developers and so there can often frustrations in figuring out how to work with developers who don’t yet have the chops that they do.

OK, this is it. The LAST giveaway for “You want to do WHAT with PHP?” The giveaway will occur at the end of the day on Tuesday! This will also be the second last giveaway for the User Group library. The rules still apply; if you win I will ask you to cover shipping costs. See one of my previous posts on what that looks like.

So, to win

This Friday I will be giving away the second (technically 4th and 5th) copies of my book “You want to do WHAT with PHP?” The rules still apply; if you win I will ask you to cover shipping costs. See one of my previous posts on what that looks like.

So, to win

Tweet this posting. I will change it up a little and say that it needs to contain the bit.ly link for this page. I will make the drawing based off of who bit.ly says has tweeted it. The ywtdwwphp hashtag was a little wierd.

Become a fan of my Facebook page and Like this posting. The Like will be how you will be entered. But remember, the winner will be asked to cover shipping costs.

A little while ago I had come upon the problem of having to store sensitive data in a user session. The solution that I (and several others came upon) was creating a mechanism for storing encrypted data in a session. But what we wanted to do was build something that didn’t have a single point of failure. We also wanted to build something portable. What we built was a simple Zend Framework session handler for storing sensitive data.

One of the interesting conversations I had during Zendcon was while talking to a recruiter. She asked what questions she could ask to help guage how strong a PHP developer is. The best one I could come up with was “name 6 of the 10 variable types in PHP”. I’ve had the pleasure of being able to interview several people for working at Zend and that is usually one of the first questions I ask and I can usually get a good feel for how long the conversation will be after that. It’s an esoteric question but by asking it I can guage a) how well that person knows PHP, and b) how easy it will be for me to work with them. If they know the answer (and correct it) they know their PHP. If they don’t know the answer but get flustered or angered by it, then they will probably be harder to work with.

I’m sitting here waiting for a half terabyte drive to format on Vista (apparently quick format should be “quick” format). So I’m trying to figure out what to do. It’s towards the end of the day and there’s not much my brain could do right now that would be worth starting. Yesterday, there was a trend on Twitter about “boring movies”. So, why not do something on boring/useless/pointless/wrong book titles?

Big news for me today. Yesterday I uploaded my album to CD Baby, which will be sending it off to iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.

But, I have a problem. I know what I like about it, but that’s just me. I don’t expect that I will get rich, or famous off of this album. And, honestly, I don’t want to be famous. Rich, on the other hand… But what I really need is people to give their perspectives on it so I can a) quote them on it, and b) properly position in for others. The way I describe it isn’t so much what it is, but what it isn’t. It isn’t rock. It isn’t dance. It isn’t orchestra. But it has elements of each in it.

A few weeks ago I blogged that I was going to give away 9 copies of my book, You want to do WHAT with PHP? Well, today is the day to start. There are a few ways you can win.

After I posted my slides for use by user groups Michelango van Dam of PHPBenelux posted on the Zend Facebook page that people could use his too. They are CC-licensed so you are free to use them as well. So I asked if he could provide the PPT versions so I could post the full deal for people and he agreed. So here are three presentations that Michelangelo did that you can use for your user group as well.