Postcards From My Life

Dear Reader,

No, I’ve not abandoned my new project, I did, however, have to put it on hold for a few weeks while I finished DPC09. Now that it’s over, I am back on the job.

Looking back, my last update was quite some time ago. Here’s what has been happening since then.

Content update

Right now I have 4 episodes written and I am constantly editing them to clean up the wording, etc. I hope to record the first episode within the next week or so but even then I have questions about production values. I have a good microphone and will be using Audacity to edit. from that standpoint, the production values will be pretty high. My questions center around things like:

• How important is a music bed?
• Do I stick with a strict format or ‘wing-it’ for each episode?
• Other “fit and finish” items like that.

My gut tells me that nothing except for experimenting and sending things to friends for opinions are going to be the only way to answers those.

Website

The lovely and talented Kathy has designed the new site. As soon as I finish fleshing out the content, it will go live and I’ll tweet it.

Marketing

I’m still struggling with a marketing plan. It was brought to my attention that my affiliate marketing program wouldn’t generate enough revenue for most participants to make it more than a curiosity. I really thought affiliate marketing would be a good way to go but given the finite market for the product and the pricing structure, my friend may be right. There may not be enough there to attract affiliates. This means I have to re-think my marketing plan. (Banking on TechCrunch coverage seems like a better idea with each passing day) :)

So that’s where I’m at right now. Still writing, not as fast as I would like but being correct is more important than being fast at the moment.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
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Dear Reader,

I’m a Guest Blogger

If you know me personally, follow me on twitter, read my blog or attend conferences I’m at, you know that I am never at a loss for an opinion. A couple of weeks ago, “Don” Marco Tabini pinged me on IM and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He asked me if I wanted to be a guest blogger for phparch.com. I’m not sure he knew what he was getting into because I wrote one a day for 5 days. Obviously though, he liked at least some of what I had to say because he has posted three of them already.

• Opinion:Arrogance is Limiting Framework Adoption
• Opinion: The Secret to Getting the Most out of Any Conference is in the Hallway
• Opinion: The Real Profit of Moonlighting

By the way, Marco has opened up the phparch.com home page to anyone with PHP related news or views. You first need to register an account there if you don’t have one already and then read the Editorial Guidelines to see what is appropriate.

In general, we publish well-researched, topical news articles and opinion pieces that we will be of interest to our readers—namely, professional PHP developers.

We do not publish news releases, marketing pieces or advertorials—all those will be rejected (the words “sent to /dev/null” come to mind). In addition, we reserve the right to reject any piece which, in our sole judgment, is not fit for publication.

Finally, once you understand what you can post and what has a chance of getting released, click on Submit News to submit your news or opinion.

Meanwhile, over at Ibuildings

Additionally, as part of my day job, I get to write things for the Ibuildings blog. (Seriously, they PAY me to write, I can’t believe it either. I’m not sure how I get these great jobs but I’m thankful I do) Recently I wrapped up a project there that helped define how we estimate projects. The end result was a very large document that unfortunately, I can’t share externally but they did allow me to ruminate on some of the things I learned while interviewing people and doing the research. That blog post was published as well.

“Best Practices in Estimating”

So in case you were wondering why I’ve not been blogging lately, I have, just not here. I’m scattered around the web right now. Make sure you drop by when you see me posting something and say hi. :)

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
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Dear Reader,

A friend of mine wrote me yesterday asking for a little help reaching the PHP community. Since I know a few of you and each of you know a few others, I thought maybe together we could help get the word out.

My friend, Esther Schindler, is working on a project and needs PHP developers to fill out a quick survey. The survey asks you questions regarding the company you work for, your role, what types of applications you develop, which open source platforms you develop on, what types of customers you serve, your pricing model, etc. All the the stuff you would expect when you hear the term “Market Research”. None of the questions reveal any sensitive information or competitive intelligence but there may be a question or two that you don’t know or may not want to share. (There weren’t for me but hey, I’m just that kinda guy.) And of course, all your personal information will be kept confidential.

Here is Esther’s description of the candidates they are looking for in her own words:

A market research company is currently interviewing developers about the adoption of various PHP technologies, particularly in open source circles.

If you are:

• Programming professionally with open source tools, for revenue-producing work (that is, not inside-the-company-only apps)
• In the U.S. or Canada
• Using one of the following regularly: Joomla, phpBB, SugarCRM, Drupal, WordPress
• Willing to answer some questions by phone

Head to this link: http://www.marketsurveys.com/sb/sb_s.php?s=120&p=100121&g=4d4502a838

Your personal information is, of course, kept entirely confidential. Participants will be sent a summary of the results in early summer; those who do a phone interview will get a $25 gift certificate from Amazon.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the Amazon Gift certificate if they actually interview you.

I took the survey and it took me about 7-10 minutes while I was chatting with someone. So we are not talking about a significant investment of your time here and it would help someone out. So I’m asking you, please go fill out the survey and then ask a couple of your PHP buddies to do the same. Help Ester and her clients understand the PHP market better.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
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Dear Reader,

It’s been a while since I’ve done a conference roundup and even when I did them, I don’t think I posted them here. So, let’s correct both oversights at once and do a php|tek 09 roundup.

Unlike other roundups, I’m not going to describe in detail all the cool sessions I attended. In all honestly, I only attended 2 sessions start to finish, and they were both mine. I did manage to slip into Sara Golemon’s PHP 5.3:Hot or Not session and really enjoyed it. So of the sessions I wanted to go to but didn’t get to, which ones would I have attended? All of them! The schedule was packed with topics I wanted to learn more about. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked on some other things and didn’t get as much session time as I would have liked.

The Community Conference

php|tek has a well deserved reputation of being “the community conference”. Unlike other conferences I attend, php|tek has a homey feeling to it. It may be the proximity of all my friends, it may be the “low-pressure” atmosphere but I come away from tek physically exhausted while mentally invigorated and inspired. If you are not actively involved in PHP in one way or another, that’s ok, you are welcome at php|tek anyhow but expect to be propositioned by one of the several groups there looking for volunteers.

Meetings

This year php|tek was a little different for me, I actually attended two of the behind the scenes meetings. The first one I attended was on Tuesday, the second half of the PHP Developers Meeting. This was the proverbial “watching the sausage being made”. While it did not have the drama of a good old-fashioned internals flame war, it was very interesting to see the personalities interact. I did learn a little about what is coming post-PHP 5.3. More than that though, I learned more about the people involved in creating the language I make my living on. That was worth the entire week for me.

On Wednesday, I was invited to attend a new PHP standards working group. Representatives from most of the major PHP frameworks all came together to start finding common ground when it comes to coding standards. Again, while the topic is of interest to me, the real value was in watching the process and learning more about the people involved in these projects. At the end of the meeting, since I did not represent a framework, I was voted in as the “at-large community representative”. I consider it an honor to be working on this group and hope that I can contribute in a meaningful way.

Events

The nightly events at tek are decidedly low key. This year we had an open bar both nights with the first night’s entertainment being peka kucha talks and the second night being “retro gaming night”. Peka kucha (Pikachu) was as fun as ever with Jeff Jones again walking off with the grand prize (a handshake this time) for his “LOLCode” talk. Retro gaming night was full of Twister, Clue and Connect Four. (The lovely and talented Kathy beat me 5 out of 6 games before I realized that I was drinking and she wasn’t.) These events prove that you don’t have to have shiny to amuse and engage the PHP community, you just have to have liquor. (One hour open bar seems to be the minimum but honestly, I’d shoot for 2 next year.)

That was, of course, said in jest. The PHP community is a fun loving bunch and welcome all comers to these events just to have fun. the fact that php|tek doesn’t go out of it’s way to have extravagant parties but spends it’s budget where it knows it will get the biggest bang is a tribute to the genius of the crew behind the conference.

Hallway Track

As with every PHP conference I’ve ever attended, the most interesting discussions take place between sessions or with people just hanging out. If you are attending a PHP conference in the near future, I strongly urge you to find at least one slot where the sessions aren’t that interesting and just sit in the common area. You never know who you might run into or the discussions you might be a part of.

Old Friends and New

php|tek offered me an opportunity to spend time with old friends and make new ones. I won’t try and list names here because I would invariable leave someone out. The point is though that the PHP community is widely distributed. it is only at these events that we get to put faces with the names. We get to sit down and really spend some quality time with each other. To me, that’s invaluable.

Conclusion

And so, I close the book on another awesome PHP conference. Looking back, tek09 wasn’t great because of the sessions, it wasn’t great because of what I learned and it wasn’t great because I got to see all my friends. It was great because it had all three. (it was extra-special though because it was the first time that the lovely and Talented Kathy was able to attend a PHP conference with me.)

Thank you Marco, Elizabeth, Arbi and Keith; you guys never cease to rock my world. See you online.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
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Dear Reader,

Keith Casey (@caseysoftware) is walking around php|tek recording videos of people on his phone. I wasn’t paying attention and he snuck up on me and interviewed me. Here is the result.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=

Dear Reader,

Ok, the lovely and talented Kathy and I are off to Chicago for a week of deep immersion in PHP and hot tubs.

Here is how you can keep up with what is going on and play the php|tek home version.

• Follow me on twitter, @calevans.
• Follow all the twitter action on the hashtag #tek09.
• Join us on irc. Pop over to #phptek on irc.freenode.net and chat with us. If you aren’t a regular, click here for a web based interface into #phptek.
• Follow all the blogosphere tek09 action.
• Follow all the pictures and videos on flickr.

To all my friends (the ones I’ve met and the ones I’m about to meet) at tek, I’m looking forward to seeing you all there. I’d say, look for daily wrap-ups of each day’s activity but those of you who know me, know I would be lying.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=

Dear Reader,

I’ve been doing a lot of research on PHP running on Windows lately and I’ve been really surprised by two things.

1: It actually runs well if setup properly.
I don’t have a spare computer so I’m not going to discuss performance or show benchmarks. I am talking about ease of use in getting things setup. I installed WS08 in VirtualBox. Then I used Web Platform Installer to install PHP, FastCGI, URL Re-writer (I didn’t even know they had one) and finally WordPress. The only thing that Web Platform Installer didn’t do was install MySQL for me. (but it told me it needed it.) If you are used to Installatron or Fantastico, Web Platform Installer isn’t nearly as polished but it’s a good first effort and I was able to eventually get everything installed. (WordPress took 3 tries and some guessing because the error reporting wasn’t great) All in all though, it was a positive experience and Wordpress runs well.

No, I’m not nearly ready to give up my Linux servers in production and despite Sam Ramji’s recent pleas to their open source vendors not to compete on price but compete on value, I can still fail fast and cheap using open source software and operating systems, and I just can’t do that with Windows. Now though, PHP is a stable and fast option for companies with existing Windows infrastructure.

As you can see from this very informal and unscientific poll, a lot of PHP developers don’t use Windows because of stability/performance issues.

It is to those developers that I suggest that you may want to look again. If you participated in that poll and your second answer was price, sorry, can’t help you there. I don’t begrudge Microsoft its licensing fees even if I do sometimes disagree with how they collect them.

2: A lot of open source developers just don’t trust Microsoft, just because.

(Yet another informal and unscientific poll)

Let me preface this section by saying that I have been in IT for 26 years now, I owned a copy of Windows 1.0. So I not only know a lot of the history of Microsoft, I lived through most of it. I can remember being very excited about Windows NT Server because finally, I could throw off the shackles of Novel and work with an open server operating system. (No, kidding, I actually told someone that one time) So I’m smart enough to see the wisdom in what Microsoft is doing with PHP but I’m old enough to be suspicious.

I am, however, willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I am part of the slim majority on the above poll who thinks they are sincere. (BTW, since the link is to a live poll, let me say that currently, “Microsoft is Sincere” is in the lead with 54%.) The reason I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt is not because I believe that the core of Microsoft has changed in any way – their recent lawsuit against TomTom proved that to me – but because I believe that inside of Microsoft, there are pockets of brilliance. I believe these pockets of brilliance will eventually infect the rest of Microsoft. People like Sam Ramji, Laruen Cooney, Josh Holms, Drew Robbins and of course, Joe Stagner, give me hope that things will change there.

What IS your point?
This entire post was sparked by the second poll and Joe’s response to my comment on the results. I know there is a group of open source developers who will never like Microsoft. I know there is a group who won’t use Windows because of the price tag.

I believe though that there is a group of us out there that use the best tool for the job. We use PHP because it’s the best tool for web development. When it comes to operating systems, the best tool for the job is whatever fits best with the client. We recognize that Windows is a viable option for PHP applications.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=

Dear Reader,

I really need a better name for these updates. :)

Ok, so last week was my “stay-cation” Originally, Kathy and I had plans but those had to be put on hold so I had a week here at the house. This should have given me plenty of time to get things done. I really need to look at my interruptions because I accomplished a lot less than I wanted to.

I did knock one concrete thing off my list though, I got PHPLists installed to manage my house list until it grows large enough to move it to a service. If you are curious, my favorite mailing service is right here in Nashville and even thought they passed on hiring the lovely and talented Kathy, I’ll probably still use Emma.

These blog posts are not to pimp the project so I try to concentrate on what I’m doing and not promote the project. That having been said, it is impossible to explain things clearly without giving you a few details along the way. My new project is “episodic” in nature. Therefore a good chunk of what I do is writing and producing each episode. So far, I have 2 written and ready to record and have started on the third. The writing doesn’t take as long as I expected but the research is taking way longer. Since I’m writing training materials, it has to be accurate. So Episode 3 is coming along but slowly.

I’m still fretting over the marketing strategy. As I said previously, I plan on using affiliate marketing as one of my strategies but I know it can’t be the only one. If I were trying to reach developers I would know how to market it but since I’m trying to reach management, I’m really scratching my head. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.

That’s all for this week, as I said, more things went on to the To Do list than came off. :)

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=

Dear Reader,

Lists are all the rave these days for bloggers. The reason is obvious, they require very little thought or research to create. So, in keeping with the current trend, here is my list of three lists never want to see again.

3: 5,000 PHP classes and tutorials

Please, write about either classes or tutorials, doing both together means that all you did was put PHP into google, scraped the first 5,000 links and published. Seriously, classes and tutorials are not related, they are separate categories. Why would you feel the need to combine these? Even if you did, it’s already been done to death. I think we can safely say that until after the Mayan calendar ends and he sun explodes, we don’t need another list of PHP classes or tutorials. If you really want to keep up with the latest good tutorials in PHP, check out sites like phpdeveloper.org. Those guys do a great job of finding the best and they never feel the need to give me a list of the Top X.

2: 50 new PHP tricks you didn’t know, didn’t want to know, and will get you fired if you ever use them on the job

Yes there are a lot of ways to do things in PHP, some of them are good, some of them are bad. Some of them are so incredibly bad that recommending them should automatically trigger an Internet worm that formats your hard drive. My favorite tip in bad category is people “discovering” that IF statements don’t have to have curly braces. People, there is a reason we don’t tell new programmers this, it’s a bad idea!

1: Top PHP Frameworks

Look, I know a new PHP framework is born every 12.3 seconds but seriously, there are only a handful of them that will gain enough of a community to become viable. Of those, most change less than once a quarter, even though it feels like they tag a new release nightly. It’s great that you have discovered that PHP has frameworks and googled to find all of them. However, since google has 15,000,000 hits on the search term php frameworks it is safe to assume that you aren’t the first to discover them.

Conclusion

I love the blogosphere. I can find opinions from people I respect and new ideas from friends I’ve not yet met. Whenever I see a list though, I think “someone needed a post and didn’t know what to write”.

If you are using a new PHP class, CMS, framework, or have a new technique you want to share, share it. Write a blog post and tell me how or why it solved your problem; bonus points if you describe the problem that it solved. You are not adding to the conversation is you are just recapping what others have said.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=

Dear Reader,

I am embarking on a new journey that scares the crap out of me. Those that know me know that I always have a lot of ideas floating around in my head. My problem has never been lack of ideas, my problem has always been execution. I’m an awesome idea man but I really suck at making them happen. Honestly, in all my years, I’ve only successfully executed one business idea. (and it worked pretty dang good)

So today I’m jumping out of my comfort zone and I’m going to drag you along for the ride. Just so you know, this blog post and the others that follow it are not about pimping my idea, they are about the struggles I face trying to make the idea into a reality. If you are not into watching someone inflict pain on themselves, this series is probably not going to be of interest to you. However, if you are an entrepreneur, or like me a “wanna be”, follow along and by all means, comment!

“Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.”

One of my friends I’ve never met, Kyle Chowning posted on his blog back in February a post titled “Quit Being Stingy & Give Your Ideas Away“. In it he talked about Seth Godwin’s “Six Month MBA program. One of the off-shoots of that program was that the participants posted 999 idea that they had for new businesses. The concept was simple, if you like one of the ideas, take it and do it. You don’t make money from ideas, you make money from making ideas into a business.

Kyle took that to heart and has a page on his blog dedicated to his “Free Ideas“. I may have to start me a page like that, but that’s a project for another day. After rolling this around in my head for a month it really started to sink in, nobody cares how great your ideas are, people want to see you do something.

No, seriously—that’s all it takes.

Back in December a friend of mine that I have met, Keith Casey, wrote for the PHP Advent Calendar 2008. His post was titled “Getting Started the Right Way“. It really started me thinking, if it’s so easy to get a project started, why haven’t I been able to do it. I’ve read his post more than 10 times now to reinforce the message, find the first step, one that you can do yourself, without help from anyone else, and do it.

I looking at my history of ideas, doing is not my problem, it’s figuring out what to do.

Ok, so if ideas are cheap and plentiful but action is rare and valuable, I’m going to take the first step. I’ve started a new venture. (No, I’m not leaving Ibuildings till they toss me out) This is not a “part time” venture either though; it’s a serious endeavor to build something that adds value to the lives of others as well as myself.

I can’t talk about the venture without mentioning the name and it’s stupid not to give a link if I do that. The new project is called Box Lunch Training, there is a logo over on the left sidebar. The idea is simple, provide team based training for PHP development teams. The execution is turning out to be a bit more difficult. :)

My First Step

My first step was to write a business plan. Being a “cowboy coder” I usually skip the planning phase of any coding project and just start coding, so writing a business plan kinda went against the grain for me. However, I knew that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to see the next steps. So I wrote my business plan.

Writing it naturally let me to my next step, actually creating a product. Since the training is episodic, I wrote the first two episodes. Originally, my thought was that after an episode, I would know what it will take to write others. Writing the first episode was eye-opening, writing the second was so much more difficult that it almost convinced me the idea wasn’t viable. However, after I finished it and assessed everything, I think I’m back on track.

I have to adjust my expectations a bit; writing training isn’t as easy as sitting down and writing an opinionated blog post. (For some reason, people want training to be accurate) :) So there is a LOT of research that goes into an episode. I was prepared for research but not to the extent I am doing.

The upside is I’m researching PHP so it’s fun. :)

My Next Step

I think my next step will be to get 2 more episodes under my belt. The lovely and talented Kathy is working on building out a web site for the project and we are shooting for a July 1 launch. I want to keep about 4 episodes in the can at all times in case of emergencies. That is a lesson I learned from podcasting, never wait until the week the episode is due to create it.

Future steps

As I see them at the moment these are the things I need to do.

• Build out website
• Start contacting likely affiliates
• Finish the first four episodes
• Refine and prioritize the list of topics. (I’ve got a list of about 60 episode topics that I need to prioritize.)
• Find a way to sell the idea to businesses. This is really my weak point, I can code, manage and build but for the life of me, I can’t sell. I’m really hoping that I can attract a few top-notch affiliate sites and outsource the selling to them. (I’m open to other ideas if you have them)

More to come

This blog post and the others that will follow are more for my sake than anything else. I do encourage you to comment if you’ve got something to say that will help. Mainly though, I just need a place to gather my thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)

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