Flattr-y Will Get You Everywhere

For many years, I’ve been convinced that micropayments are the way of the future. The internet has brought us so much that is freely available, but often it’s nice to show some appreciation for something someone has given us. This is true both for the open source software without which I couldn’t do my job, and for the excellent content that makes me think or guides me through a particular issue. Continue reading

My Book is Published: PHP Master

PHP Master Cover ShotI am truly delighted to announce that “my” book is published. Technically it’s really “our” book since I had the pleasure of co-authoring with friends and PHP rockstars Davey Shafik and Matt Turland. The book is “PHP Master” and it’s a broad-ranging text covering a series of topics that we felt were relevant to PHP developers who aren’t beginners, but who are looking to fill in some gaps and get a good grounding in creating whole applications in PHP.
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Announcing Training Dates for November

I’m teaching some new public courses next month (in Leeds), so I thought I’d mention them on the blog in case anyone is interested. I’m super-excited because this is the first time I’ve delivered my own training content as a public course, so even if you aren’t in the position where you work with lots of people who need the same training, you can pop along! Continue reading

Ada Lovlace Day: Laura Thomson

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Today we celebrate geeky female role models, and I’m going to write about someone I consider a friend. It feels a bit strange to do so (and I didn’t actually tell her beforehand), however having been written about before on this special day, I know I’ve never been offended by such flattery and so I hope she won’t be either :)
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QR Codes with Google Charts API

I’m a big fan of the google charts API – it draws much better-looking graphs than I would ever manage and all I have to do is assemble the right URL to make it work. I recently got a feature request to add QR codes to joind.in, so that speakers and event admins could easily allow people to link in to a particular talk page.
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Eleven WordPress Plugins

When I moved this blog to wordpress a few weeks ago, I got a lot of questions about its implementation and setup. Today I’m sharing a list of all the plugins I have enabled, with a little description of what they are and what they do.
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