MGeary helped me clean a complex function—containing many lines and loops—up into four concise lines by utilizing the shuffle function. I thought that I would posted it here in case it helps anyone else. I was trying to randomly select five unique items from a multi-dimensional array and although I had achieved the results I wanted, his suggetion allowed me to shorten my code considerably.
$howmany_want = 5;
$author_keys = array_keys($authors);
shuffle($author_keys);
$author_keys = array_slice($author_keys, 0, $howmany_want);
Berkeley Data Systems, creators of Mozy Online Backup, will be holding its second semiannual coding deathmatch on Saturday, April 14. Billed as a “thinly disguised recruiting effort to find the best local engineers,” the competition is open to all Utah residents.
The previous deathmatch saw over 100 participants and was a success both for the 8 finalists who received prize money, and for BDS who hired 4 new engineers in the process.
I am excited to announce the launch of the Utah Graphic Artists Forum. For years I have longed for a place where I could interactive with and meet new local artists. Having participated in many technical groups, I have grown to rely on and take for granted both the camaraderie and invaluable resource of information that such communities provide. Often frustrated by the lack of an official forum for art related questions however, I vowed to someday create the resource I longed for.
Officially launching tomorrow, I present the Utah Graphic Artists Forum, a gathering place for local graphic artists. My purpose is to promote and support the development and expression of graphic arts and to facilitating and ecouraging conversations and interaction between graphic artists in Utah, in an environment free of dues or obligations. I hope to provide something of value to members involved in all forms of the graphic arts, including illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, typographers, user interface designers, and web developers.
Both working professionals and students are welcome and encouraged to participate, discussing current events and trends, historical topics, theory, techniques, technology, business, and/or employment.
Features include a forum, mailing lists, an IRC channel for chat, job announcements, RSS feeds, syndicated calendar events, and plans to meet periodically for socials and workshops. Membership is free and open to anyone interested.
I encourage you to visit the site, register an account, and participate in the forum.
Delphi for PHP was just recently released. If your intrested in learning more feel free to join the Salt Lake City Delphi Users Group at there next meeting.
It’s Free and they are giving way product.
CodeGear Delphi 2007 and Delphi for PHP Launch Tour
April 11, 2007 @ 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: U of U - EMCB 101
Topics in the meeting include.
CodeGear Update
Delphi 2007 for Win32
Delphi for PHP
InterBase 2007
Just register so we can get a head count (but if you forget to register show up anyway!)
All you fellow Geeks, it’s time for Geek Lunch, and this month, we are headed north to lunch! Well, actually, we are eating right in the heart of SLC, but it’s close enough that Ray and possibly Tim will be able to join us. The eats here are great!
Himalayan Kitchen
4/6/2007 @ 1:30p
73 E 400 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 328-2077
map
For those of you that colo @ xmission, it’s 2 doors down from the colo.
Bring your quarters for parking.
Please RSVP for a headcount
It’s time to fill the calendar again! We have reached the end of our list of scheduled presentations and thus are calling out for volunteers to pick their topic and date. Browse the past thirty-nine presentations for a review of previews topics and for ideas.
Picking one more than a year old is fine (as we have many new members and those that have been around a while could use the review) and can cover anything related to PHP, programming, databases, and general web development. Presenters can be anyone—member or not and qualified or not—that desires to prepare some thoughts/examples on a topic or simply lead a discussion.
We meet on the third Thursday of each month in a conference room with whiteboards and a projector. Post a comment to this post to volunteer and get your name on the calendar.
The March meeting has been cancelled. We’ll see you again next month.
For our February meeting, Alvaro Carrasco will present on Automated Testing as it applies to PHP web applications. He will be demonstrating tools like SimpleTest and Selenium, and a sample project setup.
I recently picked up a copy of the “ZEND PHP 5 Certification Study Guide” by php|architect. I have not yet finished it, however thus far I have liked it enough to want to tell other people about it.
The book is around 250 pages long (short by most standards). To this point I have found that this book is a good way to brush up on things I already knew and learn some things that I did not. I am personally using the book to help me study for the PHP 5 certification. However, certification or not, it is turning out to be an excellent tool for honing my skills. It has the added benefit of showing me areas that I need to work on as well as indicating to myself how much about PHP I really know.
I would recommend this book to the PHP programmer of any level.
I’ve been using WebScarab for a while now, and thought I’d share it with those who aren’t familiar with it. It’s a web security analysis application written in Java. It has numerous included plug-ins with the standard install, including a spider, parameter fuzzer, session analyzer, HTTP/HTTPS interception/mangling, and much more. OWASP once again proves their skill in creating a extremely useful tool. Check it out!
administered by Anavi Design
colocated at Tier Four