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Episode 80 - Quickfuseapps and conference announcement

mgkimsal — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:03:00 -0400

Last episode I talked about twilio, and this episode I wanted to introduce you to quickfuseapps, and also bring you the announcement I couldn't quite make last episode.

Indieconf is a conference for freelance and independent web professionals, to be held in Raleigh, NC in November. Visit indieconf.com for more, and use coupon code WDR to receive a webdevradio listener discount!

QuickFuseApps :: If Yahoo Pipes was mashed up with Twilio, it would be this awesome
Tropo :: Tropo is a Twilio competitor with some compelling features
indieconf :: Conference for independent web professionals. Use coupon code WDR when registering
CodingQA podcast :: Visit the CodingQA podcast 42 for more on WebMatrix and Razor
WatirPodcast :: Learn more about testing with Watir

File Download (9:14 min / 4 MB)

Episode 79: July catchup

mgkimsal — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:03:00 -0400

Just a quick episode catching you up on some of the things I've been up to recently, as well as a few recent tidbits of interest.

Tomcat 7 :: Tomcat 7 released
ASP.NET Web Matrix :: Web Matrix from MS
Razor view engine :: ASP.NET Razor view engine
Postgresql 9 :: Upcoming Postgresql 9.0 release notes.
ZendFramework starter kit :: Starter kit for Zend Framework
TwilioKit :: Starter kit for Twilio using ZF
Twilio :: Phone-app service in the cloud
WebDevIndie :: Blogging on topics for independent web developers
JSMag Blog :: JavaScript Magazine weekly JavaScript news roundup

File Download (21:44 min / 10 MB)

Episode 78: Bob Silverberg on ColdFusion, ORM, testing and more

mgkimsal — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:23:00 -0400

I caught up with Bob Silverberg shortly after his ORM presentation at NCDevCon and we rapped on the new CF9 ORM layer, testing and other goodness. Enjoy!

Bob's Blog :: Bob Silverberg's CF blog

File Download (59:19 min / 27 MB)

Episode 77: Matt and Sean from MuraCMS

mgkimsal — Fri, 28 May 2010 21:19:00 -0400

I got to chat with Matt Levine and Sean Schroeder from MuraCMS about, well, all sorts of stuff - a bit of CF historical stuff, the state of open source in the CF community, oh, and a bit of MuraCMS, the open source CMS built on ColdFusion.

MuraCMS :: MuraCMS for ColdFusion
NCDevCon :: NCDevCon Web Conference

File Download (25:59 min / 14 MB)

Episode 76: Lithium Framework for PHP

mgkimsal — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:36:00 -0400

I had a great chinwag with Nate Abele and Garrett Woodworth of the Lithium project - a new framework for PHP 5.3. Try as I might to inject Groovy and Grails in to the conversation, we kept coming back to PHP :) Curious about Lithium? Take a listen to see if their philosophy is for you.

Lithium Presentation :: Slideshare presentation on Lithium
Lithium homepage :: Lithium framework

File Download (65:54 min / 38 MB)

Episode 75 - Palm, Gosling and PHP

mgkimsal — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:38:00 -0400

Lots of small tidbits all cropped up around the same time. Palm (with its great webOS) looks to be trying to sell itself off. James Gosling, the father of Java, moves on to pastures greener (or just different). Opera Mini is now on the iPhone (and pretty fast too), and I rant a bit about my recent PHP experiences.

Palm for sale? :: Is Palm up for sale?
Gosling leaves Sun :: James Gosling's blog - Time to Move On
Canvas support from Adobe? :: 9to5mac has quick video of Canvas export from CS5
PHPFrameworks :: Find a new PHP framework
Zend Framework :: Zend's PHP Framework
Opera on iPhone :: Opera Mini now available on iPhone
WDR on Twitter :: Follow WebDevRadio on twitter :)

File Download (23:41 min / 14 MB)

Episode 74: IE9, visitor recording, conferences and more

mgkimsal — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:19:00 -0400

IE9 developer preview is out - are you testing with it yet?

I recently found UserFly.com as a great tool to track and record your visitors' sessions, then found an older set of example code called MoveLogger if you're inclined to try to build the same thing from scratch.

ClickHeat is a tool I've used to track where people are clicking on sites, giving you a pretty good idea of how visitors are engaging with your site.

Some interesting conferences coming up over next few months - JSConf in DC, TXJS in Austin and NCDevCon in Raleigh. Know of any more?

UserFly :: Track and watch visitors on your site
IE9 roundup :: IE9 roundup of links from JSMag
JSConf :: DC Conference for JavaScript
Texas JavaScript :: Texas JS Conference in Austin
NCDevCon :: North Carolina Developer Conference
JSMag Sampler :: Free sampler PDF of JSMag
MoveLogger :: DIY Code to track and watch your visitors
ClickHeat :: ClickHeat - open source heatmap clicking
YayQuery :: jQuery podcast

File Download (13:47 min / 8 MB)

Episode 73: Podcast Child... Slight Return

mgkimsal — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:13:00 -0500

Mostly a quick catch up letting you know what I've been up to, some new technologies I've found that might be of interest to you (Twilio and Titanium), where I'll be in the upcoming months, and an open invitation for your feedback.

Also, a quick update on GroovyMag and JSMag - use coupon code "oneyearold" at http://jsmag.com to select a free issue.

Email michael@webdevradio.com with your feedback, comments and questions.

CodeStock :: CodeStock conference
Twilio :: Twilio phone application service
Titanium :: Cross-platform native app development
JSMag :: Use coupon code "oneyearold" to select a free PDF issue

File Download (15:05 min / 9 MB)

Episode 72: Groovy Grails Griffon Greatness at CodeMash

mgkimsal — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:38:00 -0500

I got a chance to catch up with some legendary names from the GR8 community while at CodeMash. Andres Almiray, Dave Klein, Chris Judd and Jim Shingler all gave me a few minutes of their time to talk about the Groovy year behind us and the GR8 year ahead of us.

CodeMash :: Where we all met and chatted - great conference
Dave Klein :: Dave's blog
Andres Almiray :: Andres' blog
Jim Shingler :: Jim's blog
Chris Judd :: Chris' blog
Griffon :: Griffon project
Grails :: Grails project
Groovy :: Groovy project

File Download (29:22 min / 16 MB)

Episode 71: Frank Zammetti on webOS

mgkimsal — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:36:00 -0500

We last left Frank back in 2006(!) with the publication of his (then) first book. I caught up with him to talk about his latest book (#6!) - Practical Palm Pre webOS Projects (we eventually get the title right!). Frank talks about the good, the bad and the ugly in the Palm Pre development world.

Zammetti Blog :: Frank's blog
Ares Palm IDE :: Web-based IDE from Palm for webOS development
PreCentral :: Latest and greatest Palm Pre news
JSMag :: Part 1 of Frank's 3 part series on webOS in JSMag

File Download (32:00 min / 18 MB)

Episode 70: Brian Hitney of Microsoft

mgkimsal — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:57:00 -0500

I got a chance to talk about web development stuff with Brian Hitney, Developer Evangelist with Microsoft. We talked about WebsiteSpark, Silverlight, ASP.NET MVC, touched on cloud computing and I kept forgetting the name of a podcast (it was the Startup Success podcast from Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley!).

Structure Too Big :: Brian's blog
CodePlex :: Codeplex was mentioned
WebSiteSpark :: MS program for free enterprise-level software licenses for startup businesses
PHP on Windows :: PHP on IIS installation site
Windows Azure :: All about MS cloud computing initiative Azure

File Download (78:53 min / 48 MB)

Episode 69: Curtis Mitchell on Spark with ASP.NET MVC

mgkimsal — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:02:00 -0400

I had a chance to sit down with Curtis Mitchell at the Raleigh Code Camp to talk about the Spark view engine for ASP.NET MVC.

Curtis Mitchel :: Curtis Mitchell's blog
ASP.NET :: ASP.NET home page
Spark :: Spark View Engine

File Download (30:47 min / 17 MB)

Episode 68: Frank Wierzbicki on Python, Jython, Java and more

mgkimsal — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:39:00 -0400

I had a chance to catch up with local Jython hero and project lead (I get corrected early on!) Frank Wierzbicki. We cover some of the history, Jython players, web frameworks like Django, Pylons, TurboGears, future of Jython, and more. Frank takes *no* bait, despite my varied attempts at inciting a bit of friendly rivalry between the Jython/Python community and various frameworks.

Frank's blog :: Catch up with Frank and Jython here
Jython home :: Home of the Jython project
Jython podcast :: Learn more about Jython in audio form
Django :: The Django project homepage
Python :: Home of the Python project
Pylons :: Python web framework
TurboGears :: TurboGears web framework

File Download (62:48 min / 39 MB)

Episode 67: MySQL with Keith Murphy

mgkimsal — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:36:00 -0400

I did another catch-up show, this time with Keith Murphy (last chatted with in August 2007). Keith talks a bit about his new book, the MySQL Administrator's Bible, his new Open Source Database Magazine (coming out soon) and some of the new developments in the MySQL camp.

MySQL University :: Resource for MySQL developers
Keith's blog :: Keep up with Keith Murphy
Paragon CS :: Keith Murphy's consulting arm
MySQL Magazine :: Quarterly MySQL magazine
MySQL Administrator's Bible :: Purchase from Amazon

File Download (51:25 min / 28 MB)

Episode 66: Robert Fischer on Groovy, Grails, GORM and more

mgkimsal — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:10:00 -0400

I got a chance to chat with Robert Fischer, well known in the Groovy/Grails space for his work on Groovy plugins and recent GORM book. Robert and I chatted about dynamic languages on the JVM, his upcoming presentations on Agile and other NFJS talks, his GORM book and a new Polyglot Programming book he's working on for Manning.

Robert's Blog :: Blog of Robert Fischer
Robert's Book :: Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL
NFJS Bio :: Robert's bio page at No Fluff Just Stuff

File Download (58:08 min / 32 MB)

Episode 65: Kyle Simpson's SWFObject presentation from JSConf

mgkimsal — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:04:00 -0400

This episode is solely a recording of Kyle Simpson's discussion of SWFObject - how it works, recent changes, common problems people have using it, and more.

flxhr :: Cross domain AJAX with Flash
Flensed :: Kyle's set of JS tools for Flash
SWFObject :: The SWFObject code page

File Download (46:13 min / 24 MB)

Episode 64: CouchDB with Jan Lenhardt and Chris Anderson

mgkimsal — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:01:00 -0400

I caught up with Jan and Chris at the JSConf in DC last weekend. We went over a bit of the couchdb background, what it's good for, what they're up with with couch.io, and some more goodies. Enjoy!

CouchDB :: Apache's CouchDB project page
Couch IO :: Commercial CouchDB services
Planet CouchDB :: Catch up with all the CouchDB bloggers

File Download (27:51 min / 14 MB)

Episode 63: Talking YUI3 with Satyen Desai from Yahoo!

mgkimsal — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:56:00 -0400

I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Satyen Desai from Yahoo to talk about YUI3. There's numerous architectural changes coming, and Satyen had presented a few of the major ones in his presentation at JSConf 2009.

YUI Blog :: The place to keep up with all the latest YUI developer
YUI3 at GitHub :: GitHub repo for YUI3 development - fork away!

File Download (15:31 min / 9 MB)

Episode 62: Talking SEO and local web promotion with Ashley Berman Hale

mgkimsal — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:14:00 -0400

I got a chance to spend some time with Ashley Berman Hale to discuss steps for local businesses to take when getting in to SEO and web promotion.

Ashley Berman Hale :: Ashley's LinkedIn page
Google's Local Business Center :: Add your business to Google's Local Business listings

File Download (53:32 min / 25 MB)

Episode 61: Catching up with Joe Fiorini

mgkimsal — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:30:00 -0500

At the 2008 CodeMash I interviewed Joe Fiorini. Joe was a .Net developer doing ASP.Net work with some side interest in Ruby on Rails. A lot has happened to Joe (and the web world) over the last year, and I talk with Joe about some of those changes, including ASP.Net MVC, the upcoming Rails/Merb merge, and more.

Joe Fiorini :: Joe Fiorini's blog

File Download (46:21 min / 37 MB)

Episode 60: Interview with Rails Rumble winners

mgkimsal — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:25:00 -0500

I had a chance to sit down with the winners of the Rails Rumble challenge while I was at CodeMash last week. This is a chat with Josh, Joe and John (Andy couldn't be there due to some weather issues) about the ups and downs of the challenge, sleeping arrangements, monetization, Rails/Merb mering, and more. Enjoy!

Meet In Between Us :: Rails Rumble winning app!

File Download (31:33 min / 18 MB)

Episode 60: Interview with Rails Rumble winners (Comment #1)

Josh Walsh — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:22:32 -0500

Michael,

Thanks for taking the time at codemash to record our story and share it with your listeners. We'll see you at codemash next year, if not before that.

Josh

Episode 60: Interview with Rails Rumble winners (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:10:04 -0500

No problem Josh - nice to have met you and good UX presentation too! :)

Episode 59: Jobs, Javascript and Happy Holidays

mgkimsal — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:14:00 -0500

Medium sized update. Some of my thoughts on things people can do in this economic climate for jobs, jsbin.com, a javascript magazine in the planning, Google's Chrome out of beta, and a few more tidbits.

JSBin.com :: Javascript pastebin service
javascript Magazine :: Upcoming javascript magazine signup page

File Download (24:44 min / 23 MB)

Episode 58: Raleigh Code Camp reflections, Chrome wins speed tests, GroovyMag

mgkimsal — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:02:00 -0500

I attended the Raleigh Code Camp last week and had a blast meeting some awesome people (but of course there's never enough time to meet everyone you'd like to!). Some great sessions I attended covered the MS MVC platform and an introduction to MS DLR, both of which I discuss here in a bit more detail. Also, following up last podcast's ramblings on Javascript speed tests, there's a story today about how Chrome has beat out other browsers in a Javascript benchmark. Additionally, I chat about my new magazine project, GroovyMag.

130 Web Tools :: Mashable article with 130+ web design tools
CodeMash :: Sign up for CodeMash conference today!
Chrome tops speed tests :: Slashdot story on Chrome's latest benchmarks, from ExtremeTech
GroovyMag :: My magazine for Groovy and Grails developers
WebDevJobs :: Jobs board focused on web development jobs. Free to post, but all posts are vetted and approved before publication.

File Download (28:22 min / 13 MB)

Episode 57: Quick catch up

mgkimsal — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:47:00 -0400

Just a few musings on the state of Javascript, OpenID, and Yahoo's recent 'open strategy' announcement. Also, a brief note: GroovyMag.com - a magazine focused on Groovy and Grails - will launch next week.

Yahoo's Open Strategy :: Portal for all things regarding Yahoo's Open Strategy
OpenID :: Info on OpenID
Gmail account is now OpenID :: Techcrunch article on Gmail/OpenID announcement (link to story on MS as well)
FF3.1 speed improvements :: Slashdot article on latest FF3.1 speed improvements
Groovy/Grails magazine :: New magazine launching early November 2008 for Groovy and Grails developers

File Download (14:10 min / 7 MB)

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market

mgkimsal — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:13:00 -0400

No, those aren't related, but I've got a couple small rants about Adobe's Flex/AIR video system, why I moved back to Windows Media, and (separately) a small but insightful(!) take on the current state of job boards and how job seekers and employers find each other (hint - it stinks right now).

Google Chrome :: Google's Chrome Browser
WebDevJobs :: Post job openings for web development positions
Adobe AIR DevNet :: Developer area for Adobe AIR
Windows Media Services :: Windows Media Services info page
Boulder Job Fair :: Win a free trip to Boulder!

File Download (30:16 min / 21 MB)

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #1)

Logan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:50:39 -0400

What would we do without twitter?

Downloaded and listening to it now.

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:09:26 -0400

We'd probably all get a lot more 'work' done. :)

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #3)

Rob Christensen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:12:30 -0400

Hi Michael,

Wow, excellent podcast and thank you for sharing some of your frustrations around the application you were trying to build. I'd be interested in following up with you on this topic. Please feel free to send me an email.

Thanks,
-Rob Christensen
Product Manager, Adobe AIR

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #4)

Shawn Hartsock — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:23:22 -0400

Ah... the job market. Employers can't find qualified talent and job seekers can't find qualified employers. What to do?

A professional association? A guild? Open source contribution as a prereq? A code dojo?

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #5)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:36:24 -0400

Hoisted by my own petard. I had a long reply to this and then lost it due to the 'preview' mode, guarding against spam. :(

Reduced reply - not sure that guilds or associations will help much. They exist already to some degree, but I'm not sure they've helped people get jobs or find workers. I recently became 'zend certified' (last month) but I was able to get PHP work well before that - certification had not been an issue for places I'd worked.

Reputation helps some, but not everyone can have world-known reputations. It's just not feasible for 100,000 developers to be known world-wide (or even regionally) by name and reputation - people can't process that much information!

That said, word of mouth has been the biggest single factor in my working life, working both ways (people referring work to me and me referring work to other people). Places like linkedin.com help the 'word of mouth' network further as well.

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #6)

Kaity G. B. — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:50:28 -0400

Why not use ffmpeg?

I agree that Adobe tries to own flash but the easiest way to have resolved this would have been to use ffmpeg's video recording option. One simply command can record from 1 or more video & audio sources & than stream or record the output in literally any format, quality, & etc that you would like. I'd write some examples but ffmpeg's man page, wiki, & etc documentation covers it very well. I've used it to stream meeting, wedding, & presentations. It really is flexible & should feel this gap & def be platform independent.

I can't believe after all of your show's I'm just now learning that you're a windows developer, hmm. I would have guessed you where a Linux programmer. Of course that does fill in some blanks.

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #7)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:53:05 -0400

What blanks does it fill in? :)

I'm not a Windows developer. Likely true hard core Windows developers would laugh at my seemingly idiotic attempts to do something so 'basic' as to encode video.

You're the second person to suggest ffmpeg, so this is obviously something I'll have to dig in to further. I wasn't aware that ffmpeg would allow for all this sort of stuff (embedding in to UI, etc.). However, at first blush, it does look like it's GPL (LGPL, but other parts are GPL) and I'm not 100% certain what effect that would have on the redistributability of this app.

My background:

Started with BASIC on ZX81 in 1981. Moved to C128 BASIC and machine code (lovely 6502 with JMPs everywhere!). Migrated in to PC era with a brief diversion in to Amiga. Did VB3-5 development, then Notes, then started doing web stuff in Perl in late 1995, then PHP2 (PHP/FI) in early 1996. Did some ASP in late 90s (who didn't?!) then back to primarily PHP, with dollops of Perl, Python, Java, CF and other stuff over the years. This latest project happens to be .NET based, but coming back to the Windows world reminds me of all the things I have *not* missed about developing in MS (although there's certainly some nice things too).

So, in short, I'm not particularly a 'windows' developer - I'm a generalist developer (I think) but every project has to be done in *something*. In this particular case, Windows was the most practical to meet the client's needs as they were understood at that time, along with budgetary and time constraints (time being the biggest one). I have XP, Ubuntu and OSX running at the house, but I spend most of my time in Ubuntu.

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #8)

Peter McDonald — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:30:33 -0400

Finally got around to listening to this episode and listened to your comments on chrome with interest.

Of course the security holes would not necessary have been in the limelight at the time but of course as it was beta security holes were expected.

However it has been a month so far and I have never came across an announcement that a new version has been released. I downloaded the exe again and reinstalled it and found the security holes have been repaired.

Why have Google never announced this and just as disturbing the version number from prior to the upgrade is the same as it was after the new install. Why are they keeping version numbers the same? And how many people are actually still using those original susceptible versions?

Episode 56: Recent experiences with Adobe AIR and the job market (Comment #9)

Michael Kimsal — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:20:58 -0500

Hello Peter:

Good point, if it's true. I've no reason to doubt you, but don't know much about that particular issue. I'll see if I can dig anything up on it. Slightly disturbing, to say the least. Google's mostly done 'in the cloud' stuff and can roll out new versions whenever with fixes/etc and no one necessarily notices. But to do that same thing with desktop software without even updating version numbers is not a good practice to adopt.

Episode 55: Widgenie interview

mgkimsal — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:35:00 -0400

I had the opportunity to meet with some of the team from LogiXML to discuss their new product Widgenie. Widgenie enables easy publishing and sharing of data with a point and click web interface, saving hours of development time.

LogiXML :: LogiXML
Widgenie :: The all-powerful data visualizer

File Download (17:34 min / 16 MB)

Episode 55: Widgenie interview (Comment #1)

darius — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:12:54 -0400

Hi Micheal,
I've been listening to your podcast for nearly 1 year and I really love your shows. However, I was disappointed with this one as it seems like it's a big plug of logiXML product. I don't have anything against plugging someones product. Honestly speaking everybody does that these days :) But do you think it's a good idea dedicate the whole show just for someone's product?

Episode 55: Widgenie interview (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:57:54 -0400

Hello Darius:

First off, thanks for the kind words. I didn't mean it to come across expressly as a plug, but I guess it did. This wasn't a paid for endorsement or anything like that. I had the chance to meet with them in person and really just liked what I saw. My schedule was such that I didn't have time to do much more than put out the recording 'as is'. In the future I will try to keep this sort of thing more balanced as part of a larger episode.

I appreciated the feedback and support. Thank you!

Episode 54

mgkimsal — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:51:00 -0400

Recap of the Raleigh Startup weekend, plus some news on happenings in PHP, .NET, Java, Ruby and more.

Raleigh Startup Weekend :: Overview with links to various projects
WebDevJobs :: Post job openings for web development positions
Yahoo Stencil Kit :: Design stencils for site mockups
ASP.NET MVC :: Info/tutorials on upcoming MVC framework for ASP.NET
Github Gist :: Codepast service from GitHub
Ruby Search Sniffer :: Sniff the incoming search engine referrers
Zend Framework 1.6.rc1 :: Announcement of latest RC of Zend Framework
PHP Closures :: Info and code examples on PHP closures
Silverlight2 Reference Card :: Refcardz from Dzone for Silverlight
Groovy/Grails Netbeans :: Example of Groovy/Grails integration in latest Netbeans.

File Download (31:22 min / 27 MB)

Episode 54 (Comment #1)

Daniel Cousineau — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:23:51 -0400

Thanks for the link to my post, it's kinda cool seeing my blog post as a link/reference on a podcast :)

Episode 54 (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:15:46 -0400

Daniel:

No problem. Thanks for being a handy reference source!

Episode 54 (Comment #3)

Randal L. Schwartz — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:16:31 -0400

OSCON is Portland, not Seattle!

Episode 54 (Comment #4)

paul — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:40:49 -0400

hi mike could move the podcast button with the speaker icon up the page next to where you put the episode number and date because currently the more popular the episode the further way the icon moves

Episode 54 (Comment #5)

Michael Kimsal — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:19:13 -0400

@Paul - good suggestion - done.

@randal - sorry - I claim temporary insanity because I couldn't get out there this year.

Episode 53: Crawlable Flash, Concurrent Python, Smart Robots.txt and more

mgkimsal — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:01:00 -0400

Mixed topics today

Adobe works with Google, Yahoo and others to make Flash apps crawlable.

Reddit.com open sources their codebase

"Smart" robots.txt files - do you use them?

Bruce Eckel article on concurrent Python with Twisted

Railo - open source ColdFusion

Cognifty - new PHP framework

Upcoming conferences - Ruby Hoedown, CodeStock, PHPWorks

Follow WebDevRadio on twitter (http://twitter.com/webdevradio)

Visit http://www.webdevjobs.com for web development job listings

WebDevRadio on Twitter :: Follow WebDevRadio on Twitter!
WebDevRadio FriendFeed :: Join the WebDevRadio room on FriendFeed!
PHP Job Hunter Handbook :: Buy my new book for PHP Job Hunters
Cognifty.com :: New PHP framework based on old ideas
Ruby Hoedown :: Ruby Hoedown in Alabama Aug 8,9
Codestock :: Codestock conference in Knoxville, TN August 9
Concurrent Python article :: Article from Bruce Eckel on Twisted, Python and Flex
Railo :: The alternative CFML engine
Lovable Loser :: Music provided by Bob Maus
Smart Robots :: Article on how to program your robots.txt file for search engine crawlers

File Download (29:17 min / 23 MB)

Episode 52: Randal Schwartz on Seaside (among other things)

mgkimsal — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:58:00 -0400

This episode is a conversation with Randal Schwartz about Seaside, a Smalltalk-based web application framework. His passion for Seaside and some of the unique features it brings to web development comes through loud and clear here. I hope you enjoy our discussion.

Seaside :: Seaside main home page
Tutorials :: Seaside tutorials
Randal Schwartz :: Randal's overview page
Planet Squeak :: Learn more about Squeak, an open source Smalltalk implementation
Methods and Messages :: Randal's Smalltalk blog

File Download (72:35 min / 49 MB)

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight

mgkimsal — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:23:00 -0400

I (finally!) got a chance to speak with Martha Rotter from Microsoft Ireland. Martha has been involved in the Silverlight project on multiple fronts, and took time to answer some questions recently. We covered a bit of what Silverlight is all about, where Silverlight is heading, competition with Adobe Flash, and more.

Silverlight :: Main starting point for all things Silverlight
Martha Rotter :: Martha's blog

File Download (44:35 min / 33 MB)

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight (Comment #1)

Chris — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:29:58 -0400

I was just at the Halo 3 site, it seems like the whole thing is made in Flash

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:51:36 -0400

Chris,

Do you have the Silverlight plugin? Perhaps it defaults to Flash if you don't have Silverlight installed?

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight (Comment #3)

Chris — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:45:44 -0400

Yes I do have the plugin, and the SL on Microsoft's homepage works fine.
I'm using Safari on a Mac though, so to be fair I checked it on Internet Explorer on my PC.
Same story, the Microsoft.com Silverlight works fine, and the Halo site is made in Flash.

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight (Comment #4)

Martha Rotter — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:03:20 -0400

Hi Chris,

Sorry for any confusion. I should have been more clear. The Silverlight / Halo 3 site to which I was referring was a special application made for the Halo 3 launch. It is a game guide, and it offers previews and tips about the game as well as an overall view of what players and Halo enthusiasts can expect from Halo 3. I didn't mean to imply the Halo 3 site was built in Silverlight.

The site is here if you want to check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/halo3.aspx When we launched it, we saw an incredible surge in the number of downloads of Silverlight, so it was definitely impressive enough (or there are simply tons of Halo fans! :) to warrant lots of new interest.

Hope that helps - please let me know if you have additional questions. Thanks!

--Martha

Episode 51: Martha Rotter on Silverlight (Comment #5)

Chris — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:58:28 -0400

Oh ok, my mistake.
How long until a site as important as Halo 3's uses exclusively Silverlight you think? Maybe Halo Wars?

And by the way, I just noticed a mistake on the SL page:
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

It claims that the "What Happens In Vegas" site is done in Silverlight, but it's actually done in Flash
http://www.whathappensinvegasmovie.com/

(You probably think I'm awesome for pointing that out)

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap

mgkimsal — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:08:00 -0400

Just a quick recap of some news and tools I've found recently, including the Adobe Flash Open Screen Project announcement. Also, the new job board http://Jobs.WebDevRadio.com is announced.

Open Screen Project :: http://adobe.com/openscreenproject
Jobs WebDevRadio :: http://jobs.webdevradio.com
AJAX debugging tools :: http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/03/1432247
CleanCSS :: http://www.cleancss.com
Blueprint CSS project :: http://code.google.com/p/blueprintcss/
Grails Groovy podcast :: http://hansamann.podspot.de

File Download (14:49 min / 11 MB)

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap (Comment #1)

Dave Kroondyk — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:49:00 -0400

Nice podcast. I'm wondering, have you been using Blueprint lately? I've been looking at another grid system called 960 Grid System ( http://960.gs ). I think it's nice, but I haven't spent any time with Blueprint to compare. What is your take on grid frameworks in general? Reasons for and against them?

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:42:40 -0400

Haven't used them directly myself yet. I did some tests with the YUI grid system, but nothing concrete. In general, I *like* the idea though, and am still planning to try to use one in a production system over the next few months.

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap (Comment #3)

Ryan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:24:43 -0400

I am a new listener. In your podcast (I think it was this episode), you mentioned you are working on some flash code to allow a user to record their voice upload it to the server, and have it almost immediately available to playback.

I want to find a way to allow users to test their microphone functionality prior to entering a flash based web-conference application. I thought your application might help.

You had mentioned you would be willing to share this with people. If you still are willing to share this, could you contact me? I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Ryan

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap (Comment #4)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:11:23 -0400

@Ryan:

My raw flex files are here: http://audiblab.com/flex/mgk/audiblab_flex_files.tgz

However, more recently I used http://sourceforge.net/projects/intelligerevrs/ and it's a more feature complete codebase (focuses on video as well as audio, but it's not hard to make it audio only) and it has a 'preview' concept as well.

Good luck!

Episode 50: Live and late - Flash opens up, CSS cleaner, MySQL conf recap (Comment #5)

Ruslan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:09:11 -0400

Small bugreport :) Tried to use links on the page and discovered that you exchange HREF and ALT anchors.

WBR

Episode 49: Brian Moon at the MySQL User Conference

mgkimsal — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:38:00 -0400

Brian was kind enough to review both of his presentations which go in to great detail about the scaling issues he's faced both with DealNews.com and the Phorum forum software project (which recently turned 10 years old!)

Phorum :: Brian's Phorum project, one of the stalwarts of the web forum scene. :)
Brian Moon's blog :: Brian's weblog
Presentation slides :: Brian's presentation slides from the MySQL User Conference

File Download (54:18 min / 36 MB)

Episode 49: Brian Moon at the MySQL User Conference (Comment #1)

Brian Moon — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:36:36 -0400

I have posted links to the slides on my blog. http://doughboy.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/interview-with-webdevradio/

Episode 49: Brian Moon at the MySQL User Conference (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:50:21 -0400

Thanks Brian - I'll make another link in the notes too!

Episode 48: SilverStripe CMS at MySQL User Conference

mgkimsal — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:15:00 -0400

Got a chance to talk to Sigurd Magnusson from the SilverStripe CMS project last week. Sigurd was kind enough to answer some questions about the project's history, current status as an open source project and some upcoming features. We touched a bit on code testing and some other stuff towards the end as well.

SilverStripe :: SilverStripe CMS home page

File Download (15:28 min / 10 MB)

Episode 48: SilverStripe CMS at MySQL User Conference (Comment #1)

Marty — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:40:34 -0400

Interesting product. I would of loved to hear the differences between other CMS solutions, like Drupal and Sharepoint, vs SilverStripe.

Episode 48: SilverStripe CMS at MySQL User Conference (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:12:16 -0400

I'd wanted to try to get the Drupal and SilverStripe guys together for something - they were only a few booths apart - but people's schedules didn't allow for it. Good question, though.

Episode 48: SilverStripe CMS at MySQL User Conference (Comment #3)

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:38:45 -0400

This makes me curious as to how many other major content management systems are developed using MVC?

This base with MVC allows for extensibility, and because of this seems to be a viable alternative to to other frameworks such as Cake and Symfony.

I'm definitely going to try it!

Episode 48: SilverStripe CMS at MySQL User Conference (Comment #4)

Michael Kimsal — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:27:02 -0400

I'm not aware of any off the top of my head which have started off by building on a specific 'MVC' 'framework', though many CMS projects seem to naturally adopt some degree of separation of concerns, either initially or over several versions.

Episode 47: SnapLogic at the MySQL User Conference

mgkimsal — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:49:00 -0400

I got a chance to get a quick demo of SnapLogic, and open source application to make mashing up your internal data easier. Think of it like an open source Yahoo! Pipes. It's more than that, but that's a quick idea of what it can do. From their site: "SnapLogic makes it easy to access, transform and integrate all kinds of data wherever it may be: databases, hosted applications, Web pages, SOA Web services, flat files, RSS feeds, XML documents and more." The guys gave me some background on the project, what it's capable of, and where it's heading.

SnapLogic :: SnapLogic - Really Simple Integration

File Download (15:55 min / 11 MB)

Episode 47: SnapLogic at the MySQL User Conference (Comment #1)

Randal L. Schwartz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:46:51 -0400

Why do people have such a hard time learning how to pronounce PostgreSQL? Your guest said it as "post grey sequel". Ugh. If you don't mispronounce SQL as "sequel" (which always hurts my ears) but use the proper "ess cue ell", the pronunciation for PostgreSQL comes out as simply "post gres cue ell", with the "s" sorta sliding towards the first word. That's good because the short form is "Postgres", not "post-gre".

Episode 47: SnapLogic at the MySQL User Conference (Comment #2)

Randal L. Schwartz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:29:20 -0400

Ugh, sorry. That comment is for the previous podcast... didn't realize you released two in one day.

Episode 47: SnapLogic at the MySQL User Conference (Comment #3)

Michael Kimsal — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:15:52 -0400

No problem. mojoportal was yesterday afternoon, and snaplogic was this morning. Can we agree there's no mispronounciation of Firebird? ;)

Episode 46: MojoPortal at the MySQL User Conference

mgkimsal — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:06:00 -0400

I met Joe Audette of the MojoPortal project out at the MySQL User Conference last week and took a few minutes to give us some background on the project and where it's going. If you're looking for a portal project built on ASP.NET (and it also runs on Mono!) check it out!

MojoPortal :: MojoPortal is a cross-platform web portal built on ASP.NET

File Download (10:00 min / 7 MB)

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference

mgkimsal — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:34:00 -0400

I had a chance to catch up with the Symfony guys at the MySQL User Conference a few days ago. We get some background on the Symfony project, and a glimpse as to where things are going in the near future. This was my first 'from the floor' recording - I think the levels are *OK*, but please bear with me - Fabien sounded better in person :) I think I got a small 'exclusive/breaking news' at the time, but I wasn't able to get the podcast up until now.

Symfony :: Symfony Project home page

File Download (10:44 min / 7 MB)

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #1)

Stefan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:12:24 -0400

I think the scoop you got in there is still a scoop, it hasn't been announced anywhere else so far.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:56:23 -0400

Great! It was a bit late to be checking all around, but I figured after a week I might have been 'pipped at the post' as they say.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #3)

Robin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:08:11 -0400

Nice scoop Michael, Just the last week i installed symfony on my laptop at home, I was going to go with zend or cake but the debian package to install symfony just makes it so easy.
Was the Justin in the interview Justin Diaz?

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #4)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:07:01 -0400

Hi Robin!

Unfortunately, I didn't catch last names (except the one I slaughtered!).

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #5)

Chris Hartjes — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:48:37 -0400

(Disclaimer: I am a core contributer to CakePHP)

I just listened to the conversation with the Symfony guys and couldn't stop chuckling. Why? The totally-unnecessary use of the word 'enterprise'.

What does 'enterprise' mean in this context any way? That there is someone to blame when things go wrong? That there is paid support for the framework? Calling your framework "enterprise" means you've decided to believe that labels are more important than results. Otherwise, why constantly tag your framework 'enterprise'?

Sure, Yahoo! uses some hacked-up version of Symfony. Mozilla uses CakePHP to run the Firefox Add-ons site. That's about as 'enterprise' as you get I would think.

Michael, you should talk to the CakePHP guys to get a different perspective on PHP-based web application frameworks. It's not about Symfony vs. CakePHP, it's about an approach in building a framework.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #6)

Martin Bavio — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:08:52 -0400

Before any opinion, I´m a CakePHP developer.

I have only one question:

This guy, Fabien, has try any other framework than his? All the things that he labels as enterprise, are in any framework today.

So please, tell to him that before speak, check other products (in this case frameworks), other way he could looks like a real ignorant, at least to me.

Cheers,
mbavio

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #7)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:15:34 -0400

Guys - Matrin and Chris - I will talk to Cake people at some point. I've got my own views on frameworks altogether which I try not to let cloud things too much - I don't want to get in to shouting matches with people :)

I'm not sure the use of the word 'enterprise' is entirely off the mark though. I don't think it's simply believing that labels matter more than results. It's likely more that results can only take you so far, and at some point you have to start actively framing how people view your offering. I do think 'paid support' and things like that are things that go along with almost any definitions of 'enterprise' with respect to software products and services.

As far as Yahoo vs Mozilla cake/symfony/etc - the needs of each are different. As much traffic as Mozilla may get, I'm going to believe that there's more order with respect to how the Yahoo internal processes need to work, and that the symfony project may be able to fit within those constraints or internal needs possibly better than other options.

With all that said, cake may have fit Yahoo's needs perfectly (and Symfony for Mozilla's) and at the end of the day an 'enterprise' (of any flavor) really only has a need for *1* system, and they ultimately have to make a choice. Notice Fabien really stayed away from the question I almost led him in to (it was off the cuff - I didn't quite have that question come out as I wanted it to).

@Martin - I doubt he's done much with cake, but doesn't really need to. Have you delved in to Symfony in much detail? Probably not, as you're a cake dev, as you stated. So what? I would say that I think there are likely some things Symfony has that Cake doesn't, and vice versa, but that's just me trying to be optimistic. :)

Also, I think that's why they're looking to spread out in to other aspects of service - paid support, certification, and so on. Because at the end of the day, all the major frameworks are going to end up providing mostly the same services, implemented in slightly different ways. I had a discussion with Brian Moon about this (off the record, unfortunately) which I may get him on the show to talk about in more detail.

I've tried Symfony, Cake, Zend and others, and find good and bad in all of them. I'm working more with Cake at the moment, and am finding more wrong with it than right, but I'm a bit of a hard taskmaster when it comes to these things.

One example that I don't think any major framework gets right is 'out of the box' experience with respect to building usable web apps. Last I checked (few months back) *none* of the PHP frameworks that get much press (Zend, Cake, Symfony, CodeIgniter, etc) come with any default user/group permissioning system built in. This seems to be done in the name of 'extensibility' and 'customization' but time and again when I've come across apps built with these systems, people end up rolling their own systems, and every one is slightly different, and most end up having some logical flaws. The first framework to come up with a standard 'out of the box' user/group permission system with a web-based admin screen will see huge uptake in adoption for app writing.

Those of you old enough to remember PHPNuke will appreciate what I'm saying. Under the hood, Nuke was quite ugly, but it had a built-in system for user/group stuff that people could tie in to and build modules on top of. People did some amazing (and amazingly bad!) things with Nuke, which accounted for its rapid ascension in the web world for years. 'Abstractions' and 'code quality' had pretty much nothing to do with it. Where are the good web apps in PHP built on any of these frameworks? There aren't any right now. IMO, at least part of that is because the frameworks don't provide much more for you than you can do for yourself at this point (defined structure, separation of concerns, etc.) If I still have to write something as fundamental to my app as a user/reg system, I'm going to end up writing it 'my way' which will eventually conflict with a framework's way, and I'll choose my own way to go on the project. Where are the forum systems, feed reader projects, ecommerce packages, blog systems and so on built in frameworks (magento's the only one that comes to mind)?

I'll stop the rant now :)

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #8)

Martin Bavio — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:53:53 -0400

Michael,

You don´t need to try every framework to realize that the features that Fabien describes as "uniques" and "enterprises" are in every framework. Go to Cake, CI or Zend website and you can READ that.

And Cake DOES have a built-in permission system. In fact, is has two, Auth and ACL, that works together. I can´t speak for the other frameworks, but I think you need to check again.

And please, DO NOT compare PhpNuke with any framework, remember that PhpNuke is a CMS, a very different software that the one we start this discussion.

Cheers,
Martin

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #9)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:03:15 -0400

Martin:

Having an ACL list is not the same as having an 'out of the box' *default* and *standard* way of dealing with the common user registration and authentication needs that most websites have. It's the difference between buying a ready made product and buying a bunch of parts for something. You run the risk of many people putting the parts together in the wrong way. Specifically with respect to security, having a home-made security system is much worse than having one that was put together and tested by professionals (or at least the people who made the tools in the first place).

What I'm saying is needed is a modern lightweight CMS built around modern web framework principles. I don't care if it's Cake, CI, ZF, Sym or whatever. You may think "That's just CMS", but I hazard to say that just about everything that people do with web apps is manage content of some sort. And yes, I'm using 'content' and 'manage' in the broadest sense of the words, intentionally. I'm not meaning simply news sites and blogs and such, though they do tend to form the basis of many home grown applications that morph in to something more.

Martin, you were the one that asked if Fabien had tried other frameworks, now you're saying he doesn't need to try them to know the similarities? I think he knows (as do most people) that most frameworks provide the same type of functionality. What specifically did he refer to as "unique" with respect to Symfony?

I'm also curious as to why this aroused such spirited input from Cake people. Does the Cake community feel slighted somehow? I don't mean by this podcast specifically, but in general.

Thanks!

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #10)

halfer — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:24:09 -0400

Disclaimer: I'm a symfony user.

Just my penny's worth: it's a real shame when framework supporters feel the need to throw insults around in defence of their preferred technology: anyone who uses phrases like "real ignorant" is either hitting a language barrier (and needs to be more careful) or is in danger of looking like a teenager picking a flame fight.

One of the things I like about the spirit of the core devs at the symfony project is that they regularly and publicly admire good features in frameworks, such as Rails and Zend (and probably CakePHP too) rather than publicly disparaging them. In a similar vein, many of the regular forum contributors take the view of "the right framework for the project" rather than a blinkered "my framework for all projects". It would be great if we could see this from contributors here, too - can't we agree that there's some great things about Cake AND symfony, rather than rain on each other's parade?

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #11)

Chris Hartjes — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:46:53 -0400

@halfer

I admire a lot of stuff in Rails and have contributed stuff to Zend Framework (Audioscrobbler web service module) I can definitely see the good in (for lack of a better word) "competiting" frameworks. Good ideas push everyone forward.

My objection is to the label "enterprise". I don't think Symfony is "enterprisey" any more than Cake or Zend Framework.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #12)

Stefan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:08:05 -0400

disclaimer: big symfony fan/user here

Chris: What is the problem with the word enterprise then? The fact that symfony uses that word does not mean it is *more* enterprise than Cake or Zend. It never implies that. It is only a description for the framework, for the market it is targetting. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

Cake could also start presenting itself as an enterprise framework. I don't understand what is wrong with labelling your framework enterprise if you feel that is what you're trying to accomplish.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #13)

halfer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:05:55 -0400

@Chris, I'm pleased you are, to a certain extent, framework-agnostic, even as a Cake core dev. And it may please you to know that I'm keen to try Cake at some point (I think it was lack of Oracle support 18 months ago that meant I didn't look further during company time). I believe also you have a good homegrown ORM, which I've heard positive things about (and wonder whether that might be worth mixing with symfony for the folks who don't get on with Propel?).

FWIW, I think the 'enterprise' tag is not something to get unduly worried about, and I believe that Fabien + co are specifically intending to market symfony in this direction. I hear a promo website aimed at IT managers and non-techies is planned. As Stefan says, Cake could go in the same direction if it chooses, but equally it could aim for the small-to-medium market, which arguably might attract more users and more production installations.

I can't comment on the relative "enterpriseness" of PHP frameworks as I only know symfony in detail, but if asked, I'd probably first think of symfony or ZF, probably because both have a reputation of having a learning curve to master.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #14)

Anonymous — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:22:34 -0400

I've been a Cake developer for over a year now, and am considering switching to Symfony simply because of the friction within the core Cake team. There is an obvious power struggle occurring with the main developers that is hindering the advancement of the framework. There has even been rumor of a fork of the Cake project.

Episode 45: Symfony Project at MySQL User Conference (Comment #15)

Michael Kimsal — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:24:40 -0400

Funny you say that because I've picked up on some of that too, but had felt it earlier this year - I wasn't sure if that had been ironed out by now or not.

Episode 44: Managing Online Forums

mgkimsal — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:01:00 -0400

I had a chance to interview Patrick O'Keefe, author of the new book "Managing Online Forums". Patrick offered some great tips on forum management and answered some listener questions.

Managing Online Forums :: Companion website for the Managing Online Forums book.

File Download (21:13 min / 15 MB)

Episode 44a - Upcoming interview

mgkimsal — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:03:00 -0400

Quick notice that I'll be interviewing Patrick O'Keefe from managingonlineforums.com about his upcoming book. We've got a drawing going on for a copy of the book, and also for a copy of the 'Dreamweaver 8 - Missing Manual' book. Send a question to me for Patrick about online communities via comments@webdevradio.com to be entered in to the drawings. Get your entries in by next Friday morning (April 11, 2008). In this episode I misspoke and referenced Patrick's book as 'Managine Online Communities' - I apologize for the discrepancy.

Managing Online Forums :: New book about online community building
Michael Kimsal blog :: My blog - post about PDO
Music from Bob Maus :: Bob Maus music used in this show

File Download (13:04 min / 11 MB)

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference

mgkimsal — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:25:00 -0400

Lots of small stuff in here - my view on Yahoo's semantic web announcement, PHPUnit 3.3 TDD functionality, MySQL conference, MySQL dealing with 15 gig of new data per day, and my audiblab service

Audiblab :: Free service to record MP3 from your browser via Flash
Red5 server :: Red5 is an open source java implementation of the Flash Media Server
TechCrunch :: TechCrunch's take on the Yahoo Semantic Web announcement
MySQL User Conference :: The site of the 2008 MySQL User Conference
Yahoo! Silverlight Dev Center :: Your source for information about using Microsoft Silverlight with Yahoo! Web Services and APIs.
Microformats.org :: Learn more about microformats
PHPUnit 3.3 post :: Post describing PHPunit TDD support
MGKIMSAL Twitter :: Follow me on Twitter!
Music used in show :: Tracks from Bob Maus used in this program under Creative Commons license.

File Download (27:58 min / 23 MB)

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #1)

TermiT — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:29:12 -0400

Thanks for the podcast!

Audio feedback wordpress plugin would be awesome! I really want it to my blog. When you plan to done it?

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:59:15 -0400

Hey TermiT - Can you try it out on michaelkimsal.com/blog and let me know if it works for you? If so I will carry on and try to wrap up a plugin in the next week or so.

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #3)

Robin — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:58:18 -0400

thanks Michael for another informative podcast, I followed the link to mysql conference site and got a whole heap of last years talks which is great.

keep up the awesome work.

Robin

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #4)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:35:48 -0400

Robin - you're very welcome. Thanks for the feedback, and let me know other topics you're interested in hearing about.

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #5)

Robin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:22:10 -0400

Michael,
my areas of interest really lie in the OS world, mainly on anything including and around the LAMP stack and also in the ways that Linux / Debian / Ubuntu are carving a way in to the desktop world (all be it slowly).

thanks Michael

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #6)

Paul — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:40:00 -0400

Thanks Michael, very interesting. Also good to hear that you had some fun with Flex. The IDE ( Felxbuilder ) is available for Linux in Alpha so you can use that you position your UI if you so desire.

Episode 43: Open Source Flash/Flex overview, Yahoo's semantic play, MySQL conference (Comment #7)

paul — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:42:28 -0400

hi mike you've got to get W,Jason Gilmore on the show after the MySql Con
he's been the open source editor for Apress
as written a few php books himself co-founded Codemash and is a member of the 2008
MySQL Conference speaker selection board.
his e-mail is
wj@wjgilmore.com.

Episode 42: Catching up, openId, hypertable, web jobs

mgkimsal — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:39:00 -0500

Just a quick catch up on a few outstanding issues, also trying some new tunes.

MS Virtual Labs :: Try out MS software without installing it
My homepage :: Link to openid presentation PDF
OpenID :: OpenID home
Hypertable :: New distributed database

File Download (11:47 min / 9 MB)

Episode 42: Catching up, openId, hypertable, web jobs (Comment #1)

Paul M. Jones — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:38:33 -0400

Hi Michael -- thanks for the apology. Accepted, and appreciated. :-)

Episode 42: Catching up, openId, hypertable, web jobs (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:01:27 -0400

Cool Paul - thanks! I recently heard a pretty successful startup in the Bay Area is using SOLAR for all their PHP work (though you probably already know about it). 'Twas pretty cool to hear that too!

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini

mgkimsal — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:44:00 -0500

I had a good discussion with Joe about his explorations of the Ruby/Rails world from the perspective of someone already in the ASP.NET world.

FaithfulGeek :: Joe Fiorini's weblog

File Download (34:32 min / 23 MB)

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #1)

paul — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:44:58 -0500

hi micheal don't you think it's time you got your hands dirty with rails?

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #2)

andre — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:21:52 -0500

I like the philosophy behind RoR and it's concepts. But one of the advantages of .NET is, as you know, the third-party component library. .NET has the greatest collection of third-party controls in the programming world. That means high productivity for you don't have to code anything. So, you are right: If you have very specific needs concerning, for instance, complex datagrids, reports and schedules, you can't let .NET go. In a case you can code everything or use the standard libraries, I believe RoR would do the job in a more organized way.

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #3)

michael kimsal — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:11:03 -0500

@paul - I've tried it a bit, but it didn't appeal to me. Grails is my current love. :)

@andre - the IronRubyonRails.net mashup seems like it'll be a good choice for many in 2008. We'll wait and see.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #4)

Joe F. — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:24:12 -0500

@andre - I do agree that .NET has an awesome collection of third-party controls. However, I have also been impressed by the plugins selection of Ruby on Rails (and the amount of free plugins in RoR vs. .NET). One of my problems with using third-party utilities is that oftentimes I have no control over the HTML that is being rendered. It is very important these days to adhere to web standards, therefore RoR is a good choice in that arena, since you have full control over the rendered output.

There's always advantages and disadvantages to both, that's what makes our world so beautiful :).

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #5)

andre — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:01:03 -0500

@michael and @joe - I'll keep in touch with the upcoming things related to Ruby/.NET integration :)

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #6)

Bob — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:25:59 -0500

Joe, I think a lot of what you are referring to as benefits is really about using Model View Controller. I know a lot of people like MVC as a pattern but MVC doesn't work for all scenarios.

Codemash 2008 - Joe Fiorini (Comment #7)

Josh Holmes — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:52:39 -0500

@Joe - I have three comments. One, the vast majority of RoR sites, PHP sites and in fact plain old HTML sites that are out there are not standards compliant. Two, the vast majority of the controls in ASP.NET spit out standards compliant HTML, just not the ones that people seem to gravitate to like the grid. Third, as much of a ruby/RoR fanboy as I am, I'm really excited about the ASP.NET MVC Framework that's coming because it combines the great MVC pattern with the power of .NET. Now I just gotta believe that it will be that much better when we get it in IronRuby.

Codemash Open Spaces - Open Source on .NET

mgkimsal — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:46:00 -0500

I had a fun time recording this 'open spaces' meeting at Codemash last week. This was led by Joe Brinkman from the DotNetNuke project, and joining us was Kevin Devine from the Euclid Public Library, Sara Ford from Codeplex @ Microsoft, Steven Harman from the Subtext project and Jay Wren from the Castle project (among other things, I'm sure). The sound was *decent*, although there was a shortage of mics. I also accidentally dropped Joe's volume on a few occasions, but overall it felt like a great chat, so here it is. Topics include the pros and cons of getting Contributor License Agreements in place on an open source project, building community, a bit of good natured back and forth on Microsoft's role in all this, interesting comparisons to the Java community, and more. BTW, this is just a sample of many of the informal chats that happen for 2 days @ codemash. If you like these types of discussions, join us next year!

DotNetNuke :: DotNetNuke homepage
Subtext project :: The subtext project homepage
Codeplex :: Codeplex - Microsoft's open source projects site
Sara Ford :: Sara Ford's blog
Jay Wren :: Jay Wren's blog
Steven Harman :: Steven Harman's blog

File Download (74:29 min / 51 MB)

Codemash - Bull session with ideacore and giftsforengineers

mgkimsal — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:45:00 -0500

I had a chance to have a fun discussion with Dave Kroondyk, Adam Lumsden and Elizabeth Naramore about web development, ecommerce, project management, content management systems, shark dissection, PHP, Mozilla's Weave project, general MIchigan awesomeness and some other topics. I was a bit closer to the mike than I should have been, but worse things have happened. Enjoy the eternal optimism of youth distilled in to 45 minutes of listening pleasure.

GiftsForEngineers.com :: Gifts For Engineers - shouldn't need any more description!
IdeaCore.com :: Dave and Adam's generous and benevolent employer.
Mozilla Labs :: Home of Weave project
Joomla :: Joomla CMS
Hanselman.com :: Scott Hanselman gave a Codemash keynote and is awesome (he even told us so himself)
PHPWomen :: A place for women in the PHP community

File Download (47:22 min / 43 MB)

Codemash - Bull session with ideacore and giftsforengineers (Comment #1)

Paul M. Jones — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:19:38 -0500

At or about 36:50, the hosts get their story horribly wrong.

I did not write a book about Smarty, Hasin Hayder did. My blog post was about *his* emigration from Smarty-land; the "this guy" link at the top of that post links to Hayder's blog post.

Not only have I *not* been a Smarty user for some years now, I developed Savant (three versions), Zend_View, and Solar_View as responses *against* the Smarty way. To call me a Smarty user is the furthest thing from the truth.

And to answer your speculative comments: no, Solar does not use Smarty.

Source links:

http://paul-m-jones.com/?p=273

http://phpsavant.com

http://solarphp.com

Codemash - Bull session with ideacore and giftsforengineers (Comment #2)

Elizabeth naramore — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:54:37 -0500

Paul - We were just making sure you were paying attention :)

Codemash - Bull session with ideacore and giftsforengineers (Comment #3)

Adam Lumsden — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:15:29 -0500

As a follow-up, the Joomla cart plug-in VirtueMart is free like I suspected. http://virtuemart.net/

I also came across another interesting simplistic solution called OpenCart. http://www.opencart.com/

Codemash - Bull session with ideacore and giftsforengineers (Comment #4)

Loughlin McSweeney — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:58:11 -0500

Hi Mike,

Just wanted to say that Dave or Adam's point (can't remember now) about Firebug having export capabilities for CSS files is a very common request amongst my peers in the industry and I think it was a very valid point which you kind of brushed over saying that some CSS is created dynamically so why output it from the browser when developing the layouts.

In fairness, if a CSS file is written to dynamically it's going to be after the page layout containers are in place - it would be AMAZING if firebug wrote the CSS file changes to the css file locally or remotely as firebug is invaluable for the laborious process of converting the designers flat designs into a functional, standards-complient working design and this process usually takes place long before a CMS or other CSS-altering beast is in place.

Really liked this podcast by the way!

Brief update

mgkimsal — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:05:00 -0500

Welcome to 2008! Our codemash conference giveaway winner is announced, I sympathize with cold sufferers worldwide, and ask for your input on technologies and topics you'd like to hear more about in 2008.

Codemash :: Software development conference in Sandusky, Ohio.

File Download (2:57 min / 3 MB)

Brief update (Comment #1)

Andre — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:54:08 -0500

Hi, I'd like to hear more about .NET. Congratulations for the podcast, it's great.

Brief update (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:45:45 -0500

Hey Andre:

Thanks for the kind words. Funny enough, I did a small interview with a guy here from codemash talking about his experiences using .NET and how it led to some interest in Ruby On Rails. I don't think it's quite the typical conversion story though, so hopefully that'll be interesting to you on some level.

I will look at bringing more .NET technology interviews in in the next several months. I can suggest that the codemash.org site will probably have some or all of its content available and there will be some great .NET content from that too. Don't have a date on that yet, but I saw recorders in every single room running for every single session this year.

Brief update (Comment #3)

André — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:14:37 -0500

Hi Michael,
I haven't had the oportunity to hear the entire interview so far, I'll do that as soon as possible.

That's great will you bring more .NET content. I'll keep an eye on codemash.org and check what's next.

thanks

Codemash - overview and admission pass giveaway

mgkimsal — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:53:00 -0500

This installment is a conversation with Jim Holmes from the Codemash conference about the conference, what to expect and who will be there. Codemash has graciously given us a free pass to webdevradio listeners. Listen for the instructions in the interview, then send in your email by December 20. Winner will be drawn Dec 21 and notified before December 31. Transportation and lodging are winner's responsibility. P. S. His sound is good, mine is not as good (apologies - lot of tech problem on my end).

Codemash :: Information about the upcoming Codemash conference in Sandusky, Ohio.

File Download (40:02 min / 26 MB)

Episode 41: new HTML, perl on rails, new forums and more

mgkimsal — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:32:00 -0500

Listener feedback, BBC's Perl On Rails, Douglas Crockford's HTML suggestions, question about collaboration tools.

Collanos :: P2P teamwork system
GForge :: Sourceforge-based development hub
Crockford on HTML :: Douglas Crockford's call for HTML changes
125 tools :: List from Paul Spoerry's blog on dozens of great tools
Perl on Rails :: Announcement from BBC team about new Perl framework
Twit TV :: FLOSS episode with Randall Schwartz interviewing Avi Bryant of the Seaside web framework project

File Download (20:52 min / 20 MB)

Episode 41: new HTML, perl on rails, new forums and more (Comment #1)

Randal L. Schwartz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:02:54 -0500

Just some slight clarification... the FLOSS Weekly podcast is hosted by Leo. I'm just a "guest host", and only when I'm also the producer bringing in the guest. Also, it's not "TWIT TV". The domain name just happens to be twit.tv. It's merely "the twit network". But thanks for referencing our interview with Avi about Seaside.

Episode 41: new HTML, perl on rails, new forums and more (Comment #2)

Michael Kimsal — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:05:57 -0500

Hey Randal:

Sorry about the wrong reference there. I've had a couple other people refer me to 'twit tv' and given the domain, I figured that's how it was pronounced.

Thanks for the update and the great interview with Avi.

Episode 40: Listener questions

mgkimsal — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:13:00 -0500

Hello! We’ve got a winner from our last contest for the Frank Zammetti book, and I put some questions I’ve received out to you, the listening community. We’re looking for some feedback on what webdev technologies you’d point people to who are just looking to get in to the field, and also looking for suggestions for good PHP OO learning resources.

File Download (14:22 min / 14 MB)

Episode 40: Listener questions (Comment #1)

Peter — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:39:34 -0500

As usual an excellent podcast.

With regards to the question of which technology I would advise someone to learn, I personally suggest PHP (coupled with mySQL). The reason being PHP has very good online documentation as well as a large user base which helps greatly when problems ocur and you need help. Another good reason for using these technologies is that it they are cross platform so can be used on a nix box or a windows box. As this is the case the majority of web hosts support it.

You mentioned a particular PHP oo book. Another 1 that I would suggest is PHP|Architects Guide To PHP Design Patterns written by Jason Sweat. Many books about Design Patterns have the basic problem of not being based on a particular language. This causes problems especially for new programmers when they try to transfer those ideas into their language of choice. This book being based upon PHP gets over this flaw.

Episode 40: Listener questions (Comment #2)

Jason Querido — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:16:39 -0500

Thanks for the podcast!

I would definitely recommend users start with PHP for a couple of reasons:

First, the community. There is a very different feeling in the air with an open-source community. Seems to be more helpful in general -- people are often uploading their personal solutions, just incase it could help someone. Further, the online documentation is the best I've seen from any language.

Second, it is a more forgiving language. This could offend some purists, I know. I love the strict typing of, for example, of C#. The fact is that the advantages of strict typing are generally not necessary for many apps... more especially for those learning the ropes. PHP is a great language to learn programming principles, and then to grow with -- it can be a very powerful language!

In the end, the most important thing to me is oo... so I guess I'm pushing for PHP5. I would have loved it if I started in an OOP language.

Episode 40: Listener questions (Comment #3)

James Bauer — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:29:47 -0500

As always Michael, great podcast!

I thought to voice the Microsoft community and recommend developing with .NET.

.NET as a platform has a huge list of things to offer– OOP/Easy Configuration and Deployment/Comprehensive Class Library/Scalability/Security/Rich Development Experience though a Top Notch IDE (Visual Studio)/Easy Integration with SQL Server & SharePoint Services/Tons of 3rd party plug-ins/etc

I recently made the switch from the PHP/Ruby world and I took a solid 25K pay raise. Not that developing is all about the money, but I have found that if you can get paid more to do the work you have a passion for ... why not right?

But my top reason to recommend .NET would be flexibility. If you don't like the verbose syntax of VB just use C#. If you prefer Ruby you will be able to use the DLR implementation, IronRuby, in the near future. (Python, etc) This is of value to me because at some point you will have the ability to code in almost any language, but still have access to the .NET framework.

Another huge reason I took the leap into .NET was the fact that everyone I respect is using this powerful framework! Jean-Paul Boodhoo, Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack and Jeff Atwood just to name a few.

Episode 40: Listener questions (Comment #4)

Michael Kimsal — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:50:40 -0500

@all - thanks for the great comments and suggestions so far everyone!

@james - I do respect the multiple language thing in the .net world. The Java community has had it in theory for a long time - I remember 4-5 years ago people talking about the hundred or so languages that could run on the JVM. In practice, however, nearly all of those were proof-of-concepts, nothing more, nor terribly supported.

The big ones these days seem to be jruby and groovy, though I think jython is getting some new traction. Being able to leverage a solid core VM and choose between multiple languages is definitely a good thing. It'll be interesting to see how much of an impact c#3 will have when it's been out in the wild for awhile (new features, linq, etc.)

Episode 40: Listener questions (Comment #5)

Michael Pelz-Sherman — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:28:44 -0500

I think one's choice of languages to learn should depend primarily on the kinds of projects one wants to work on, and companies one wants to work for. Dynamic/Interpreted languages like PHP, Perl, and Python tend to be used on "gonzo" projects with aggressive schedules and fuzzy requirements. Web 2.0 tends to be all about the UI; there isn't a whole lot of complexity on the back end on most of these projects. PHP is a great fit for "Web" development because of its ease of use and ubiquitous nature - it's generally available on most web servers; no special config required. Because of its "quick and dirty" (or should I say "utilitarian"?) mindset, PHP is a good choice for "throwaway" projects, which (let's face it) a large percentage of web sites are. Very few people develop web sites that they honestly expect to live basically unchanged for decades. For these reasons and more, PHP has become virtually synonymous with "Web Development".

Java and .Net, OTOH, tend to be used by large "enterprise" organizations with deep pockets and long time horizons. Think Blue Cross, Fidelity, and IBM. These applications tend to have very complex logic on the server side, with lifespans of multiple decades, as opposed to a web site thrown together by a startup as a proof of concept or as "bait" for venture capital.

This is not necessarily intended as a critique of these languages themselves. It's more about the culture engendered by the language. Java/.Net companies do tend to be much more stable, but they also move much more slowly and carefully. If you are a slow, careful person who likes lots of structure, and someone who values stability over speed & convenience, you'll be happier in the Java/.Net world. If you are more of a "thrill seeking" type who likes doing lots of new, small projects rather than working for years on one big project, you'll love PHP.

Episode 39: Interview with Frank Zammetti

mgkimsal — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:27:00 -0400

Frank is a developer in Pennsylvania who has written a couple books on AJAX and the various toolkits available, as well as contributed to and started some open source projects. Listen closely, and email in to win a copy of Frank’s latest book!

Zammetti's blog :: Frank Zammetti's weblog
Frank Zammetti's books :: Frank's books for sale at Amazon

File Download (51:44 min / 59 MB)

Episode 39: Interview with Frank Zammetti (Comment #1)

open source cms — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:51:26 -0500

I learn more listen this audio.

Episode 38: Silverlight, codemash, codetolive and more

mgkimsal — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:02:00 -0400

There’s been a whole lot of interesting things happening in the webdev world the past couple months, and this is a quick catch up on just a few of the highlights. Podcast covers MS Silverlight project, codemash conference, codetolive webcast, simunication prototyping tool, yui compressor, zotero research tool and the hibernate/lucene search project.

Silverlight project site :: MS' foray in to rich internet applications
Code To Live :: On the road project interviewing "real life" developers
Simunication :: Interesting prototyping/requirements tool
Zotero :: Firefox plugin for researchers
YUI compressor :: Compress the heck out of your javascript!
Hibernate Search project :: Hibernate and Lucene - together at last
Keith Elder :: Former .net pimp

File Download (15:00 min / 10 MB)

Episode 37: Interview with Jason Rudolph

mgkimsal — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:57:00 -0400

I got to speak with author and speaker Jason Rudolph about the Grails project, the Ruby Streamlined project, and the No Fluff Just Stuff touring conference. (monday morning v2 – fixed an earlier editing flub from Saturday!)

Jason Rudolph :: Jason Rudolph's homepage
Grails :: The Grails project homepage
Streamlined :: The Streamlined Framework plugin for Ruby on Rails
No Fluff Stuff Stuff :: The NFJS conference site

File Download (31:24 min / 22 MB)