me talking out loud

Finally took my tests (yep took both instead of doing the upgrade from Core) for the Certified MySQL Developer cert and I have to say - Dang that was hard. I passed them both thankfully though. The first test is on the basics and wasn’t too bad - did pretty well though I would have been happier if my score was higher. The second test though - man did it kick my buttocks. It covers Joins, stored procedures, triggers, views and all that good stuff. And stupid, arrogant me didn’t study much for it since I do so much of it at work - and oh boy did it show.

Anyway - at least I got a nice breakdown of my test with percentages on the various part to help me work a bit on my soft areas. That is nice. I have to admit to being a bit embarrassed by some of my scores so I won’t be posting them.

Now I just have to wait for official word that I passed, so I can see what the logo looks like and put it up. Yeah - it is all about the pretty picture.

Hmm - now time to start working on my CMDBA cert… *sigh* - no rest for the wicked.

Went to the Florida Linux Show today - a 1 day conference held in Jacksonville at the University of North Florida University Center. At only $10 to attend - it is hard to find a reason not to attend something so close and so affordable. Had a good time and met a number of my fellow JaxPHP members there who were also attending.

The conference ran from 8:30AM - 5PM and had 12 different sessions with 3 keynote presentations. There seemed to be about 150- 200 people (saw all together maybe 10 women) in attendance with representatives of Redhat, Ubuntu, and gentoo in booths along with various other companies both local and linux centric (like Linux Journal and the local LUG).

The sessions I attended were quite interesting. I particularly enjoyed “Software as a Service: Implications of Web Apps for Software Freedom” by Mr. Gavin Baker for the interesting questions it raised on web applications being closed source though they are built on the popular open source tools and languages. Until then I never realized how closed source a site is - which goes completely counter to FOSS like PHP.

All in all a good time and I will be back again next time.

Woot - the book, The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks, 2nd Edition, has been slash-dotted - and they actually liked it giving it a 9/10 rating. *gasp*

The reviewer, Michael J. Ross, seems to only have 5 major grips with the book overall:

1. Firstly, a reader hoping for a well-edited book will likely become distrustful by the authors’ misuse of the term “that” in place of “who.”
2. Secondly, there are far too many ambiguous comments in the first-person, e.g., “I would dare to say that…” In a book written by five authors, the reader naturally has no idea who is speaking.
3. Thirdly, there is a fair amount of inconsistency in the formatting of the code throughout the book, including indentation and other spacing, as well as variable naming.
4. Also, every instance of a “{” on its own line (presumably to line up vertically with the corresponding “}”), is an antiquated waste of space, since any decent programmer’s editor or integrated development environment (IDE) can do brace matching automatically.
5. Lastly, almost all of the section titles begin with the phrase “How do I.” That is fine within the body of the book, at the beginning of every section. But when dozens of these section titles are listed together in the table of contents, that phrase could be excised so each section’s topic would be faster to spot, and there would be fewer unnecessary words.

I can live with those, (to me they are kinda minor),though I have to admit to being the person with a “{” on a new line - sorry but I like my code formatted that way when I am left to my own devices. Call it a quirk if you will - I like to see my braces visually line up.

On the plus side he remarks:

The chapters on error handling and access control are alone worth the price of the book.

Since I was responsible for the chapter on access control - I will take that as a pat on the back.

As a member of ACM I regularly get tech news announcements. This happened to be one of them. Below is from the W3C home page:

2007-03-07: W3C is pleased to invite participation in the new HTML Working Group, chartered to create the next HTML standard with the active participation of browser vendors, software developers, and content designers. “It’s time to revisit the standard and see what we can do to meet the current community needs, and to do so effectively with commitments from browser manufacturers in a visible and open way,” said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director.

Now I have to admit to being curious about what is going on - after all anything new dealing with the web affects me as PHP coder. Since the W3C is supposedly interested in input from the Web community and content developers, I decided to see who from PHP would be there. Granted it is very early for the formation of the group so it didn’t really surprise me to see no one from PHP that I know or heard about in there, but I wonder if anyone from the PHP Group will become a “invited expert” somewhere down the road.

Oh I know - they already are extremely busy working on the various PHP versions (for which I thank them), and this would only add more work to people who are already doing more then their fair share. But a girl can wish - can’t she.

(And just because I know there will be someone out there that says/thinks I should do it since I’m sitting here talking about it… Well I must admit to considering it - but I really am not qualified for something like this. Though I do wish I was.)

Found this in the news and while not a huge comic book fan definitely caught my attention. He has got to come back. You can’t have comics and not have Captain America.

NSA ordered to stop wiretap programme

Pluto’s status attacked

Interesting discussion on whether Pluto will continue to be considered a planet even though over a dozen similar masses have been found within our solar system and not been designated as planets.

Yahoo, eBay join forces in defense against Google

Hmm.. Interesting how the Internet biggies are positioning themselves.

CNN.com - Bush says U.S. not ‘trolling through personal lives’ - May 11, 2006

This simply scares the crap out of me…

Cartoon blasphemy uproar gathers pace

Talk about a heated arguement. A newspapers right to free speech and an religion’s right to be offended. While I sympathize with the Muslim world for the caricatures and it’s considered blasphamy - I hate to remind them that most religions have at one time or another been insulted, defamed, or even vilified. They however have not asked for the offending party to be killed because of it.

To the muslims I say - Get angry, boycott, denounce the papers. That is your right. Just as it is the newspapers right to free speech.

I admit it - I was stunned this morning coming into work and finding the superbowl this year is going to be Denver vs. Pittsburgh (Broncos vs. Steelers). I was all excited about the superbowl match up of Patton vs. Brady (these champianship games where just a formality - everyone knows Colts and Pats are the teams that are going). This was going to be a great game….

Then what happens - both teams lose! I mean New England was supposed to go for their 3rd title - a record breaker. Indianapolis was supposed to be blocking the road by continuing to play fantastic football. It was supposed to be great! *sigh* The superbowl isn’t even here and I’m already let down.

Edit - OK so it wasn’t who was to play in the Superbowl (Steelers and Seahawks actually) . I have been so out of it this year.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New Year ‘delayed’ by leap second

“Lets do the time warp again”

InformationWeek > Security > Hackers Hitting Popular Apps > November 21, 2005

A quote from the article:

“The applications under fire span a variety of operating systems. They include enterprise backup software, anti-virus software, PHP applications, database software, peer-to-peer file sharing software, DNS software, media player software, IM software, and Internet browsers.”

Unfortunately we are the ONLY computer language mentioned specifically… This will not help with the acceptance of PHP as a solid, secure programming language.

Stanford team clinches top spot in robot desert race

4 actually finished this year - Outstanding! Congratulations to all those who participated.

CNN.com - Bush: Military may have to help if bird flu breaks out - Oct 4, 2005

I’m sorry - but the US Military has no right to play police officer in the US. They are there to defend the country, and support local authorities - not take over. The National Guard is is the military force in country - not the Army. I can too easily see this “power” being abused.

First off I just want to say thank you to Lisa and Lee (our tour guide and driver). Our trip wouldn’t of been half as informative, fun, and noteworthy if not for you. Thank you for showing us your incredable home.

Now for anyone who cares to know about our trip I will give you a full recap.

Sept 19th -
Caught the 6AM flight out of Guam to the Kansai International Airport - in Osaka, Japan (That is the new airport that is being built on a man made island in the south of Japan. The terminal is a sculpture all by intself.) From there we flew on to Beijing. It should be noted that for some reason there were problems with my ticket… Nothing major - just enough for my husband to threaten to leave me behind while he went on the trip. He even promised to take lots of pictures for me - .

We arrived in Beijing ~ 2pm did the whole customs, immigration thing and then luckily found Lisa, our tour guide, right away. She speaks excellent English - which is more then I can say about myself. Lee - our driver - unfortunately did not speak English, but she definately knew how to drive in the craziness of Beijing traffic. Anyway - off we went to lunch (which had a small show going on at the time), to fuel up and recharge.

From there we went to the Temple of Heaven. The main building was under renovation so we didn’t get to see it - but the gardens more then made up for it. They were spectacular. As was the rest of the complex. After that we took a rickshaw ride of the small, twisting roads behind the Forbidden City. Back there a “normal” road was 6 feet wide. It is slowly turning from a poor man neighborhood - into a rich mans… It should also be noted that this area is adjacent to one of the big bar areas.

By now we are starting to crash hard (exhaustion) - so we went to dinner and then on to our hotel for the night.

Sept 20th -
This was a free day for us. We spent the morning visiting the National Museum for the People. It was pretty cool but I guess I was expecting more. China has the terra cotta worriors, the history of the emporers and the beautiful artwork that went with it, many dinosaur fossil sites, ect and yet there were not exhibits for them. Many of the exhibits they did have did not allow pictures so we didn’t have as many as I would like. The rest of the day was spent shopping and eating in the back alleys off of Tian’anmen Square - haggling to our hearts content. Picked up a beautiful piece of art for my mother-in-law. She will love it.

Sept 21st -
Lisa came and picked us up at around 8:30. Off we go to explore Tian’anmen Square. Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall had a line that had to of been at least a mile long… never seen such a long line before. Walked around and giggled at the large tour groups… then moved on to the Forbidden City.

I can’t begin to tell you how incredable the Forbidden City was. We were there easily 2 - 3 hours and I could have stayed there twice as long and not seen the same thing twice. Anyway - we went to lunch after that (that lunch sucked - but such is life).

After lunch we visited a pearl “factory” - where we were shown how the Chinese cultivate fresh water pearls (and of course offered the opportunity to buy some). After that we moved on to the Summer Palace. We entered on the far side of the lake and took a “dragon boat” ride across to see the building in all of its glory. We didn’t get to see much of the main building (just the exterior) but we did see the “Long Corridor” with its magnificent paintings and some of the outer buildings. All were very cool and very crowded. Hit up a silk factory after that and picked up an all silk bed set (the quilt is even stuffed with silk). Dinner (which was excellant) and back to the hotel afterwards.

Sept 22nd -
This was another free day for us and again we spent it shopping (With all the tours there is little time to go shopping except in the gift shops of the various attractions.) This time we went to Wangfujing Street (Walking Street) - one of the biggest shopping areas of Beijing. Unfortuantely it wasn’t really what we were looking for. It had all the high end stuff - Hermes, Rolex, things like that. We prefer the smaller shops.

Anyway - the clothes, silks, art, jade were all incredably cheap as compared to the states, but you have to know what you are looking for. There are more then a few fakes mixed in with the real deal.

Sept 23rd -
This was our busiest day. We started out with the Great Wall. It was fabulous… well except for the fact that it almost went completely vertical. Stair Stepper had nothing on this baby. And it wasn’t like all the steps were of uniform size either… nope - a step could be 4 inches or 1.5 feet high. I only went to the third watch tower… Jason went all the way up (he only turned around because the wall started going down and he didn’t want to climb back up later). Both of us had an incredable time there and now we can mark off visiting the Great Wall from our life’s TODO list.

After the Wall our legs were rubber. Luckily it was time for lunch. The food was pretty good and we got to check out the enamal ware factory that was next door… After that it was time to go to the Ming Tombs. Again - it was beautiful… and the few steps involved really burned in our legs . From there - on to the Jade factory. Here we were shown how to distinguish between the good stuff and the not so good stuff (did you know the good jade is hard enough to scratch glass?). We picked up something for Kayla there.

After that we were supposed to see a chinese acrobat show but the matinee viewing was cancelled for the evening show. So off we go to dinner (Peking Duck - Mmmm). Then back to see the evening show of the acrobats.

The show was very good (I have an AVI file someplace - have to find it and upload it). And I would recommend it to anyone going. By the time everything was done - it was ~20:30. Time to go back to the hotel and pack for our fly out tomorrow.

Sept 24th -
Eat breakfast - finish up any last minute packing and chill out… Lisa meets us at ~10AM to take us to the airport. They do things a little different there… immigration and customs goes first - before you even check into the flights. And you can only check into your flight during a designated time. Also the airlines are not grouped together (like a Continental counter). Instead you have to find the counter that will handle your flight (they airlines change out counters depending upon where the flight check-in will be which is in turn determined by when you are flying out). It was all a little odd - but you quickly figure things out. Once you are done checking in - it is just like any other airport in the world. It should be noted that we again had a few problems checking in (this time it was both of us though). Again we had to check in at Japan (where for a while they couldn’t find our reservations/tickets). Everything eventually was straightened out and we arrived home on Guam at ~1:50 AM. We arrived a little late since the plain had to be rerouted around a typhoon.

So there you have it - our entire trip in a nutshell. The hotel was nice but we had more then a few problems (like getting the computer in our room that was promised - took 3 days to get it. Never did get the extra pillows and towels, and the kitchenette was basically disconnected so the fridge and stove didn’t work). Minor stuff - but kinda irritating. If anyone would like to know our tourguide’s contact information I am more then happy to pass it on along with a very high recommendation.

Went to the the Great Wall at the Juyong Pass today. It was incredable! (Again I will be posting the pictures when we get back home.) I only walked to the third watch tower off of the main entry way. Doesn’t sound like much but it was about a 500 foot elevation and it was almost completely vertical. My husband decided to keep going and went to the 9th tower (about a 1500 foot elevation). All in all he went about 1.5 - 2 miles from the beginning. By the time we left we were both walking around on rubber legs.

I promise to tell you all about everything else we did while out here - but later - need to pack and get ready to fly out tomorrow. For now - later all.

Hey world! This is coming from Beijing, China. We are doing well and having a wonderful time. So far we have seen the Temple of Heaven, gone on a rickshaw ride through the small back streets behind the Forbidden City, walked through Forbidden City and marveled in awe at it, seen Tian’anmen Square with Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall, the Parliment Building, and walked through the National Museum, been to a silk factory, and gone through a tea ceramony. We have gone shopping in the little back alleys and the major shopping center on Wangfujing Street. We have eaten some incredible (and not so incredable) food that has been familar (sweet and sour) and brand new (this incredable fish dish).

Through out it all our tour guide (Lisa) has been very informative, flexable with our idiosyncrecies, and cheerful to be around. Basically wonderful. We have tons of pictures but unfortuantely we will not be able to upload them until we get home. I promise not to dilly dally around when we get back.

Still to come… One of the highlights of the trip - The Great Wall of China. We will also be seeing the Ming tombs, a jade factory, and a Chinese acrobat troupe.

One thing I must admit to - this trip has been a lot less expensive then I thought it would be… everything here is easily affordable - from meals to clothes to silk, jade, pearls and other forms of jewelry and statuary.

Before you ask - yes our feet hurt. But it has been well worth it. We would do it all aver again - and I highly recommend it to everyone. See everyone when we get back home.

Google Blog Search

Another new toy by Google… noticed my blog isn’t listed on it though… hmm

Red Cross Paying Hotel Bills for Thousands

I find this amazingly generous. Over 57,000 people will be helped by this. Staying in a Hotel for any length of time is expensive… Honestly I would of been impressed if they just did a subsidy for the hotels.

If you haven’t given to the Red Cross yet - Now is a good time.