We are condering some new ideas and events to increase group participation and skills. Please take a moment to vote. We are very interested in feedback from the group and nonmembers alike.
First, we are interested in knowing what individuals are looking for in our montly presentations? Are you satisfied or are could you use more? Why do you come? Why don’t you come? What would bring you out more often? Would you like to meet more than once a month?
Second, we are considered sponsoring monthly or even semi-monthly training courses. Please let us know if this is something that you could benefit from and would be interested in. How much would you be willing to pay? The cost of these would be minimal and would for the most part be only to cover production costs.
Thanks for everyone’s interest and participation!
The generosity and support that pours out to our group never ceases to amaze me. Once again, in our hour of need, some of the most wonderful and unexpected individuals have stepped up and taken care of us, often even before we realized we needed it.
We would like to take a moment to report on the progress of our project and to publicly thank everyone that has so graciously contributed. To-date, we have received almost a hundred dollars in donations from our members. I am thrilled to announce that with this a server has been purchased. Installation and configuration is nearly complete and it will be online very shortly. We have been able to acquire hardware that will serve us well for some time. Several offers for donated or subsidized rack space and bandwidth have also been given. The invitation from UVNet has been selected and we will begin calling their data center in Orem our new home within a few days. We have also received much assistance in planning, preparation, and execution of the overall project from local businesses, organization, members, and friends of the group.
Specifically, we would like to thank the following for their support or donations:
Adam Olsen, Beau Scott, Brady Mitchell, Computer Admin, LLC, Fluidtiger.com, Gary Thornock, Jared Smith, Jonathan Duncan, John Anderson, Ken Williams, Lonnie Olson, Mac Newbold, Ray Hunter, Twin Peaks Technology, LLC, UVNET, Inc., Webpipe.net, Inc., XMission.
We would also like to announce that UVNet has just been selected as an additional official mirror for php.net! We are thrilled about this new formed friendship, excited about their interest in our group and PHP, and look forward to working with them in the future. We encourage everyone to recommend them to clients and to look to them for any collocation or ISP needs that you may have.
In conclusion, we thank everyone for the outpouring of support and for the wonderful community that we have. Please take a moment to send in both your donation (if you have not yet and would still like to do so) and your comments on ideas you have for the group or ways in which we can better serve you.
With the anticipated upgrade of a new server and the hope that we can continue to increase our range of resources and usefulness, we would also like to poll our members regarding additional features and tools that may be of use to them. A few have mentioned bulletin boards in the past, paste bins, php.net mirrors, project archives among other things. What about services such as our library and the relationships that we have with publishers? What about our monthly presentations? audio and video? streaming? We have also talked repeatedly over the years about collaborating on a project. Is there still interest in that? Who’s willing? (Post your name and level of interest as a comment to this article.) What would you be interested in working on? Even if it’s far fetched, we would love to know what you are interested in or what could help you.
As noted in an article posted by Mac just last week, our group has grown significantly recently as we are fast becoming a premier resource for PHP and general web development not only in Utah but throughout the world. We are well over 200 members in number now. With this success however, we are increasing our bandwidth and services, all items that are paid by someone whether via donations or direct cost. We would like to resolve our transient status once and for all, plan for the future, and establish a home that has room to grow.
As most of you are aware, the Utah PHP Users Group outgrew it’s home on the internet last fall and undertook an effort to acquire a new server by means of donations from our members. Surprisingly, however, one of our own stepped up with a much larger donation, offering the group an entire server, rack space, and bandwidth all at once. Thus seemingly ending the need for donations, we moved to this new server without further petition and were happily there for the next couple of months. Unfortunately, this favor soon became unavailable and we were forced to move again. Luckily, another member stepped up immediately and offered to configure an old, unused server laying around his office for us to share, providing a quick solution to our problem.
With the other favors however, this situation has unfortunately also become unavailable, leaving us once again looking for a new home. As was the feelings in September, yet much stronger and urgent now, we believe that the Utah PHP Users Group needs a permanent home. There are many that have offered and are currently willing to donate space on servers and personal bandwidth but it is important to remember that nothing comes for free. There is always someone, somewhere paying the bill.
The web-a-thon that we held in September sadly only resulted $20 from two donations. Although this is a start, we will need much more to keep UPHPU online, at least without interruption. So, we are officially requesting that each individual that has benefitted from the group support the future of the organization by donating $10 dollars. This money will be used to purchase our new server and pay for bandwidth. XMission has already agreed to donate the necessary rack space.
We would like to once again offer sincere thanks to each individual and organization that has assisted us in the past, including Matt Fredricko at Hosting Inferno, and Fred Larsen. Each person that offered hosting, spent time configuring the server, and donated have been paramount to our existence and growth.
We are an entirely volunteer organization, supported and run by a group individuals dedicated and passionate to supporting the cause. This incredible resource and service is ours because of the generosity of every member’s time and talents. Because of this, we have an excellent list of services available to offer our community that we would like to remind you of. From our interactive website, mailing lists, RSS feeds, a library of free books, training and information seminars, and visibility for employers, this is definitely a significant value and something to be part of.
So, please take a moment to send in your donation and notes of any other ways in which you are interested in supporting or assisting the group. Donations can be submitted via PayPal (address at bottom of page) or a mailing address for personal checks can be obtained by contacting the group administrator. Thank you!
We are sorry to report, but an error occured during an upgrade to the system this morning and we lost some data. We were forced to roll the system back to an archive from two weeks ago. Although we have been able to recreate nearly every change or addition since then, a few comments and all new users accounts are missing. Thus, we will have to ask all new users that registered accounts since 14 January 2005, to reregister. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Well, the sun has really shined on use this past week. First, I would like to sincerelly thank each member that donated towards our new server fund! Your support is very much apprecaited by all. We have been very blessed.
I am very excited to announce to everyone that yesterday morning a group member’s company responded to our plea and offered to sponsor us. They will be covering the rest of our needs for the new server. They will also be providing bandwidth and rack space.
Although the server is now taken care off, I would still like to encourage everyone to donate, as we still have some expenses and we would also like some funds to use for refreshments, activities, speakers for presentations and so forth.
Please take a minute to visit Hosting Inferno and thank them for their support. Please recommend them when consulting with clients.
So, thanks to all and we should be on the new server shortly. Enjoy your Thursday.
The Utah PHP Users Group is run and supported entirely by volunteers. This incredible resource and service is ours because of the generosity of every member’s time and talents. These services include support from local businesses and corporations, locations for our monthly meetings, donations from publishers, and our web resources (bandwidth and hosting).
As we have just recently passed our one year anniversary, it is a good time for reflection on what we have accomplished and how we have grown. We are now 150 members strong. I would take the opportunity to thank everyone that has given to the group so selflessly and generously. We are fast becoming the definitive resource in Utah for both developers and employers, in resource of knowledge and skill, camaraderie, and support of standards-based and developing technologies. I hope that we may continue to grow and continue to become increase our recognition and respect for this.
I also approach you with some requests. The success of our group is directly proportional to what each of us put into it. We are continually seeking for additional assistance from local companies and organizations for support. We need more volunteers to present and host activities. We would like to establish additional relationships with sponsors and technology firms.
We are also needing to upgrade our server. The wind has carried rumors of us upgrading our mailing list for some time now and it is time to take action on this need. Our website is currently hosted on a virtual account with the mail and mailing list(s) on a separate server. I would like to move everything to a collocated server where we may have a home that is entirely ours. There, we will also be able to finally make the upgrade to mailman, that we have all dreamed of for so long. I will continue to supply the hosting and bandwidth, but will need some assistance for the purchase of the hardware.
If you are interested in assisting an anyway, wether it be time, talents, or resources, you may do so by contacting Dave, our volunteer in charge of activities.
You may donate financially through PayPal or in person at any of our activities. If only fifty of us donate five dollars each, we would have $250 to put towards a new server.
Thanks for your support! We are glad you are part of the group. Please let us know what things your find useful and feel free to submit any suggestions or ideas.
We would like to remind everyone that August’s meeting has been cancelled in favor of a family barbecue! Please note that it will be this Saturday, the twenty-first, instead of the usual time.
Bring your family, your meat, and a potluck dish to share. Hamburger and hot dog buns will be provided, and a cauldron of root beer will be brewing. There will be prizes for young and old, games for the kids, and geeky discussion for the adults.
See the calendar for more details, a map, and to RSVP.
I just wanted to let everyone know that we should have some really great giveaways and door prizes for the family bar-b-que. I am still trying to get some stuff for the kiddies (not to sure what I can get). I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy themselves.
Also, I would like to thank all the Publishers for their support. Each publisher has been extremely generous above and beyond our expectations.
For those unaware of UPHPU’s iCalendar event syndication, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to this great resource.
iCalendars (.ics) are an open-source, universal calendar file format.
If you are using a calender application that supports this file format, you can click on the “subscribe” button on our syndication page and subscribe to the calendar. “Subscribing” to a calendar downloads a copy to your hard drive and loads it into your application. You can then set syncronization preferences, determining how often your application checks this site for changes.
Here is a list of free applications that support the iCalendar file format…
administered by Anavi Design
colocated at Tier Four