A few days ago, I posted a video about how to become a better developer. There were a few interesting comments made, but one in particular from the Reddit thread ( http://www.reddit.com/r/PHP/comments/... ) peaked my interest. So I decided to do a reply. Check it out:

In today’s episode, I talk a little bit about what it takes to become a better developer. Nobody will ever expect you to know everything, but you better know how to find it…

I’m trying out a new format with this video. Less scripted, more free-form, and with less visuals. This is not going to replace the other format (which I’m still working on), but instead compliment it from time to time. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Check it out:

There’s been a viral video that’s been circulating the internet recently called Wealth Inequality In America. It’s actually been published for quite some time, but it’s crossed my plane of vision a few times in the past few days. While I don’t believe that the content is wrong (in fact, it is actually quite right), I believe that the point the video makes and how it makes it are both misleading. The video tends to imply some nefarious plot to keep the poor down. But in reality, all it is showing is the natural tendency for any system of sufficient complexity to trend towards having a power-law distribution.

Over the past 3 or 4 days there’s been a huge upturn on Twitter and in the community bashing Web and PHP Magazine for giving away T-Shirts (and tweeting a photo) with a double-entendre at PHPUK. A lot of banter going back and forth from those like Cal Evans who went so far as to pledge never to go to another conference sponsored by the magazine, to Stefan Koopmanschap who basically thinks it’s no big deal. (note: these are my interpretations from their posts). I think the whole thing has grown WAY out of proportion…

Brandon Savage has recently posted two blog posts portraying his opinion that using private visibility on class methods can be considered harmful in a lot of situations. While I understand the point he is trying to make, I can’t say that I agree with it. I do like private visibility and think that it’s actually under-used in a lot of software. But it’s not because I think Brandon is wrong…

It’s not really a secret, but I’m not a huge fan of the modern education system in America (I only speak about America, because that’s the only education system that I have experience with). I’m not just talking about “higher education”, but education as a whole. There are many problems with it, but I don’t really want to get into enumerating the problems. What I want to talk about is the lessons that education can learn from the Open Source movement.

The other day, PHP 5.5 Alpha 1 was released to the public for the first round of testing the new features that are coming out. One of those new features is the Simplified Password Hashing API that I proposed (and was accepted). I have received a lot of feedback and criticism of the new API in the months since it’s been committed. I figured now that Alpha 1 is out and people can play with it, I should respond to some of those items, and give a little bit more insight into why it was built the way it was…

There’s nothing as universally controversial in this world as change. Change can be (in aggregate) for the better or for the worse, yet people will always be split down the middle. Some will believe that the change is a good thing, and others will see it as a bad thing. Often your view points will be dictated by your perspective and how the change will directly effect you. When it comes to software projects and change, what’s the right thing to do?

Last weekend I was at the True North PHP conference in Toronto, Canada. Aside from being an incredible experience (really, it was an incredible conference, huge props to Chris Hartjes (@grmpyprogrammer) and Peter Meth (@mrpmeth)), it was an inspiration. I was particularly inspired by both of the keynote speakers. They both really took really unique spins on programming and how the culture of open source inspires, enables and empowers programmers to do cool and important things. The problem with all of this is that I hate the term programmer. I think it unfairly paints a picture of what we do. Let me elaborate.

In recent months, a number of new frameworks have cropped up for PHP as PECL extensions (Including YAF and PhalconPHP). They promise to provide huge performance gains and lower resource usage for PHP applications. On the surface, they appear to be incredible tools for improving development. But they aren’t all they are cracked up to be. In fact, I would argue that they are actually not necessary at all.