September, 2011

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Dan

I hadn’t been able to get to my laptop since our meeting this weekend, so please fill in details below that I miss.

But, here is an update from our User Group meeting this weekend:

Book Recommendations

Bryan and John recommended some top notch books on Development and OO
[url=http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670]Code Complete[/url]
[url=http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882]CleanCode[/url]
[url=http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X]Pragmatic Programmer[/url]

Remote / Freelance / CoWorking styles

We had some great discussions on enjoying the workday free of the cubicle. We talked briefly about some co-working options and Noah suggested Dan look into the Enterprise Center of Johnson County at 87th and I 35.

Tools of the Trade – Windows edition

We have noticed a possible surge in windows-laptop-based development again. Dan mentioned two tools that have come to save his sanity recently:
[url=http://smtp4dev.codeplex.com/]SMTP4Dev[/url] – A local-only smtp server / email mail viewer
[url=http://code.google.com/p/mdesktop/]mdesktop[/url] – fast, clean and light virtual desktops

John Kary – Building a first-class API with Symfony2 and Doctrine’s Behavioral Extensions

[url=http://twitter.com/#!/johnkary]John Kary[/url] walked us through an application he is building for managing links. The project is centered around building a first class API to get, put, post and delete the links as needed by whatever front end client.

He walked us through the tools he was using to test the API (I think he said JAX-RS), but also drilled into his code.

The system used Symfony2 as well as the [url=http://www.doctrine-project.org/blog/doctrine2-behavioral-extensions]Doctrine2 Behavioral Extensions[/url].

It was not only fantastic to see how behaviors were being leveraged to make cleaner, more easily testable code–but also to see some PHP 5.3 in real life! 🙂

Thanks John for the excellent talk!

Daycamp4Developers Giveaway

Congratulations to Our newest member–Andrew! Andrew “Won” our DC4D#3 giveaway. Enjoy the presentations, Andrew!!

There was much more, so if I missed a topic that was near and dear to you–PLEASE add as a comment below!

See you next month!

Come Today to win a ticket for this year’s DC4D!

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Dan

Hey there Kansas City!

We are giving away a free online registration to this year’s [url=http://daycamp4developers.com/]daycamp4developers[/url] generously provided by Elizabeth Naramore!

Come on by, talk PHP, share your opinions, and enter to win!

PHP|Arch opens its library to new subscribers Aug 29 – Sep 3rd 2011

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Dan

I saw this in a tweet from [url=http://twitter.com/#!/Remi_Woler]@Remi_Woler[/url] this morning, and am probably going to get a subscription tonight:
http://www.phparch.com/2011/08/this-week-only-subscribe-and-get-every-phpa-ever-published/

$44 / yr alone is a great price–their issues always have a few stories I want to read. Now that they are throwing in their entire digital library of back issues–that just makes it even more enticing.

I know I don’t seem to have the time to read either, but it’s certainly cheaper than dragging my backside to ZendCon this year.

Happy reading!

KCITP Summer Happy Hour

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Dan

[size=large]Help KCITP celebrate their 3 year anniversary![/size]Just a note to share word about this KCITP happy hour event I’ll be going to. Join us from 5:30 – 7:30pm on Wednesday, August 3rd @ [url=http://www.waldowell.com/]The Waldo Well[/url].

From their site:
[quote]In addition to helping to celebrate this milestone, our happy hours are a great way to come connect with your fellow geeks and talk about the latest in technology trends.

Find a mentor! Meet a business partner to help you execute on that startup idea you’ve always dreamed of!

Build new connections!
[/quote]

More information and registration / RSVP info on their site:
http://www.kcitp.com/2011/07/19/kcitp-summer-happy-hour-help-us-celebrate-our-3-year-anniversary/

KCITP Career Fair – 2011

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Dan

Looking for a new Job? Our friends (ok, tweeps) at [url=http://twitter.com/@kcitp]@KCITP[/url] are hosting a career fair at JCCC this month!

June 21st from 10am – 2pm @ JCCC

They have 9 participating companies: Cerner, DST, Commerce Bank, Sprint, Digital Evolution Group, Perceptive Software, Red Nova Labs, Multi Service & SMG.

These companies are hiring for:

– Mid/Sr level Software Engineers w/ one or more of these languages: PHP/.NET/C#/Java/Perl
– Mid/Sr level DBAs: SQL Server and/or Oracle
– Systems Engineers
– Security Analysts
– IT Project Managers / Business Analysts

…..and more!

Details can be found here, including registration & requirements: http://www.kcitp.com/2011/06/01/kcitp-job-fair/

May 2011 :: From Hash to Encryption, Solr

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Dan

Byron and Brian kicked us off this month with a great spontaneous discussion into encrypting values rather than storing hashes. (And, I finally got it into my head that Rainbow tables have gotten, really, really big.)

I’ll let them post any links here, etc if they want to reference anything. Otherwise, thank you for the discussion.

I also had a great time delivering my mini-talk on Apache Solr. While, I admit–I’ve been using it just long enough to be a dangerous fanboy, but I’m certainly no expert.

We had a fun time diving into the various aspects of usage, implementation, care and feeding–a great time.

I’ve also uploaded the [url=”http://www.kcpug.org/doghouse/2011_may/kcpug-ApacheSolr.pdf”]Apache SOLR Slides[/url] on the website.

Thanks everyone for the great turnout. See you all next month at the Buzzz!

WordCamp coming to Kansas City

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Dan

I wanted to give a shout out and plug to WordCamp Kansas City!

Whether you are using WordPress out of the box, as a development framework or just keeping your options open–there looks to be something for everyone.

Where: Johnson County Community College
When: June 11-12, 2011
Cost: $50/$40 (students)

You can check out their [url=http://www.wckansascity.org/schedule/]schedule[/url] on their site: http://wckansascity.org

Presentation (with live Demo) on Solr this weekend!

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Dan

Since you all MISSED IT at JCCC’s Free College Day, I’ll be giving my presentation and demo of getting started with the Apache Solr search engine.

Learn how to add full text search, faceted searches to any development project. Impress your friends, your neighbors, your grandma.

This is one presentation you won’t want to miss. 🙂

Buzzz Coffee House
135th and Quivera
05/21/2011 @2:30pm

JCCC Free College Day 2011

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Dan

Johnson County Community College will be hosting their free college day on April 30th. I’ve signed up to do a couple of talks–and far less general than last time.

It’s a day of free fun and learning for the community, even with entertainment!

[url=”https://secure.touchnet.com/C20110_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=7593&SINGLESTORE=true”]Dynamically Creating Spreadsheets with PHPExcel (1pm)[/url]
[url=https://secure.touchnet.com/C20110_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=7592&SINGLESTORE=true]Creating Your Own Custom Search with Apache Solr (2pm)[/url]

</plug>

The PHPExcel talk will be very similar to the one I did this month here at the PUG. And, the Solr one may be May’s talk (unless someone else volunteers). But, there will be free cookies!!

Oh, and you can check out all the other [url=”https://secure.touchnet.com/C20110_ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=24&CATID=395&SINGLESTORE=true”]Technology classes[/url] or find anything that floats your boat from the [url=http://www.jccc.edu/freecollegeday/index.html]Free College Day[/url] website.

April 2011 :: Meeting Notes

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Dan

We had another great set of discussions this week. Google, Pros and cons (but interestingly not a compare) of Win / Mac for development, Brian brought up some insights from a talk from Rasmus you can find here:

Rasmus talk: http://ontwik.com/php/php-performance-by-rasmus-lerdorf/

Plenty of other great things too.

Finally, the group let me give a talk on [url=http://phpexcel.codeplex.com]PHP_Excel[/url]. Feel free to find the [url=http://kcpug.org/doghouse/2011_apr/PHP_Excel.pdf]slides in PDF here[/url]. (sorry Noah–but should be virus free. 🙂 )

Comments, as always are welcome below.