http://www.gen-x-design.com Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:41:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A while back, I wrote an article on the importance of cloud computing. A few people posted some good comments and feedback, but last night I got such a long and well thought out comment that I thought it deserved it's own post. So, without further adieu, here ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/more-on-cloud-computing-for-php-developers/ OK, so this article probably doesn't have a ton of mass appeal, but since upgrading to Snow Leopard I've run into a major issue with the way PHP is compiled in this distribution. Overall, I'm incredibly satisfied with the way everything's set up by default in Snow Leopard (PHP ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/recompiling-php-5-3-on-snow-leopard-with-freetype-support/ Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know I haven't lost interest in writing or fallen off the face of the planet... I've just been incredibly busy with other things. Also, frankly, I can't think of anything compelling to write about. I used to think ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/im-not-dead-im-just-out-of-ideas-for-now/ You may (or may not) have noticed that there's A LOT of talk about cloud computing these days. The problem with all this chatter is that it's incredibly hard to follow. There seems to be a wealth of different definitions of just what cloud computing actually is, and ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/the-importance-of-cloud-computing-for-php-developers/ Well, it's been a long time coming, but I've finally managed to get the next release of my PHP Thumbnailer library completed! I'm also happy to announce that the project finally has its own website: http://phpthumb.gxdlabs.com. I've put a lot of work into bringing the class up to ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/php-thumb-30-released/ Mozilla announced a new feature for add-ons today: collections. It also looks like they're getting the ball rolling with several useful collections, such as the Web Developer Collection. It includes all sorts of goodness like Firebug, ySlow, GreaseMonkey, ColorZilla, and many more. Well worth a quick visit. FireFox ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/web-developer-collection-packaged-up-firefox-extensions/ David Walsh has put together a really handy plugin for MooTools called ScrollSpy. What impressed me the most was the automatic display of a "Return to Top" link on your page once you've scrolled beyond a certain boundary. There are also a handful of other neat demos worth ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/mootools-scrollspy-surprising-useful-js-plugin/ It's been said a thousand times I'm sure, but picking the right JavaScript framework is a pain. There are all sorts of biased arguments for one vs. another, but there's really nothing subjective out there... until now. Arguably, jQuery is probably the most popular JS framework out in ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/jquery-vs-mootools/ ORM is certainly a very popular concept these days, but I haven't really come across any PHP implementations that I found worth-while. Sure, big frameworks like CakePHP may have ORM functionality, but I'm not a fan of huge frameworks. I've also dabbled in my own implementations, but never ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/doctrine-php-object-relational-mapper/ APIs have become a very commonplace part of many popular web sites and services... especially REST APIs. I've already discussed how you can roll your own REST API for your PHP apps, but I've also received countless requests to go over how to actually make RESTful requests. That's ... http://www.gen-x-design.com/archives/making-restful-requests-in-php/