SitePoint Podcast

Episode 162 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week the panel is made up of 3 of our 4 our regular hosts, Patrick O’Keefe (@ifroggy), Kevin Dees (@kevindees) and Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves). Listen in Your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #162: Taking Google For A Drive (MP3, 44:50, 43.0MB) Subscribe to the Podcast The SitePoint Podcast is on iTunes! Add the SitePoint Podcast to your iTunes player. Or, if you don’t use iTunes, you can subscribe to the feed directly. Episode Summary The panel discuss Adobe launching a host of Cloud services to go with CS 6 and also kicks off a new website dedicated to the open web. We also take a moment to remember web design pioneer Hillman Curtis and talk about the future of advertising on the Web. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1328644474660-10'); }); Here are the main topics covered in this episode: ComScore: Samsung Widens Lead As Top Mobile Brand In U.S., Android 51% Of All Smartphones | TechCrunch via Mobile Marketshare on Revenews.com Foursquare Launches New “History” Page Silent Browser Upgrades | David Walsh Official Google Blog: Google+ Hangouts On Air: broadcast your conversation to the world Google Drive Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/162. Host Spotlights Patrick: BlameSociety Videos Stephan: Reviews In Depth | Why Everyone Should Learn to Program Kevin: 20 Inspiring Examples of Big Backgrounds in Web Design | Inspiration Interview Transcript Patrick: Hello and welcome to another edition of the SitePoint Podcast. This is Patrick O’Keefe and I’m joined today by my usual co-hosts Kevin Dees and Stephan Segraves; hey guys, how’s it going? Kevin: Howdy, howdy. Stephan: Hi. Patrick: As you may notice we are without our other usual fourth co-host, he usually introduces the show, Louis Simoneau, he’s off with important business-like errands to attend to, or something along those lines, and we’ll be holding the fort down today in his absence. So I guess let’s go ahead and jump into the stories. I’ll take the first story today, on TechCrunch there was a story by Ingrid Lunden that caught my eye, it is about mobile hardware and operating system market share for the three months ending in March, this is according to ComScore and I found this story through Revenues. So the story has essentially three main numbers, like I said, hardware, software and then also usage through mobile, like use a downloaded app, use the browser, etcetera. So here are some of the numbers: for hardware you have Samsung in the lead with 26% of the market, that is a gain of .7% from the three months ending in December, in other words the previous three-month period. LG second with 19.3% with a small loss, Apple is third at 14% with a 1.6% gain, then you have Motorola fourth and HTC 5th, Motorola with 12.8% of the market and HTC with 6.0%, and that represents small losses for both of those brands. As far as our branding systems go, Google remains in the lead by a healthy margin with 51% of the market, that is a 3.7% change, and then you have Apple at 30.7%, a gain for them as well of just over a percentage point. And then you have a big loss from Blackberry from Research in Motion moving down to 12.3%, losing 3.7 percentage points. Microsoft is in at 3.9, a loss for them, and then Symbian, finally, maintains its ground at 1.4%. I don’t know, I guess Symbian is what I have, right? I don’t know what’s in this small, little, cheap pay-as-you-go phone. Kevin: So, looking at these numbers for the platform specifically, not the hardware but the platform side, it comes to my attention [...]

Episode 161 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week our regular interview host Louis Simoneau (@rssaddict) interviews long-term podcast host, Kevin Yank (@sentience) who now works at Learnable and is releasing the fifth edition of his book on PHP and MySQL now called PHP and MySQL: Novice To Ninja (formerly Build Your Own Database Driven Website using PHP and MySQL). Listen in Your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #161: The Return of the Yank with Kevin Yank (MP3, 43:37, 41.9MB) Subscribe to the Podcast The SitePoint Podcast is on iTunes! Add the SitePoint Podcast to your iTunes player. Or, if you don’t use iTunes, you can subscribe to the feed directly. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1328644474660-10'); }); Episode Summary Louis and Kevin talk about how the changes in PHP over the 10 years since the launch of the book’s first version have driven the need for the different versions, and how the latests version differs to the previous editions. They also talk about how PHP still makes a great choice for getting beginners into server-side coding. Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/161. Interview Transcript TLouis: Hello and welcome to another episode of the SitePoint Podcast. We are kicking it old school today on the podcast, we have an alum from the SitePoint Podcast joining us, and also the author of a new book from SitePoint, if you haven’t guessed yet it’s Kevin Yank; hi, Kevin. Kevin: Hello! Hi, I’m here, I’m back! Louis: Welcome back, it’s good to have you back. Kevin: Thank you. Yeah, it feels weird to be introduced still on this show. Louis: I was toying with the idea of letting you do the introduction and playing it all backwards and surreal. Kevin: It’s the lost episode. Louis: So, yeah, lately you’ve been hard at work cranking out the latest edition of SitePoint’s most venerable title. Kevin: Yeah. Louis: It used to be not only SitePoint’s most venerable title, but also SitePoint’s longest title in terms of the title. Kevin: Oh, yeah, it was really long! I think we’ve had others, it used to be called Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL, and I’ve gotten really used to saying it that way over the years, and now I can’t even call it that, that’s not the title of my book anymore; it’s now PHP & MySQL: Novice to Ninja, but even though it’s a different title it’s still the fifth edition. It blows your mind. Louis: My mind is blown, I have no reaction. Kevin: (Laughs) Louis: So, yeah, this is sort of our, as the title now says, Novice to Ninja, so beginner title for PHP and MySQL. Kevin: Yep. It was the first-ever book that SitePoint published way back in I want to say 2001, I think the book might have actually been published in 2002 for the first time. But, yeah, back when SitePoint wasn’t even a book publishing company someone said “You know these articles we have on PHP and MySQL are really popular, we should put them out as a book that we can sell.” And I said, “You’re crazy, these articles are available for free online, why would anyone pay for them?” And it turned out a lot of people wanted them in a book format, and it’s just a whole lot nicer to read that way. These days you can’t get the whole thing for free online, I’m afraid, sorry dear listener, you’ll have to buy a copy of the book (laughs). This is the fifth edition; it’s had five whole editions over the years. Louis: Why don’t we just talk a little bit about what’s changed in the world of PHP since the good olden days. Kevin: Well, since the first edition a lot has changed, and [...]

Episode 160 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week the panel is made up of our regular host Louis Simoneau (@rssaddict), Kevin Dees (@kevindees), Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves) and Patrick O’Keefe (@ifroggy). Listen in Your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #160: Adobe and HTML Sitting in a Tree (MP3, 35:15, 33.9MB) Subscribe to the Podcast The SitePoint Podcast is on iTunes! Add the SitePoint Podcast to your iTunes player. Or, if you don’t use iTunes, you can subscribe to the feed directly. Episode Summary The panel discuss Adobe launching a host of Cloud services to go with CS 6 and also kicks off a new website dedicated to the open web. We also take a moment to remember web design pioneer Hillman Curtis and talk about the future of advertising on the Web. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1328644474660-10'); }); Here are the main topics covered in this episode: Hillman Curtis, a Pioneer in Web Design, Dies at 51 – NYTimes.com via Nathan King (NathanRKing) on Twitter Adobe Officially Unveils CS6 And Its $49/Month All-Inclusive Creative Cloud Subscription Service | TechCrunch Adobe and HTML Internet Ad Revenues Hit $31 Billion in 2011, Historic High Up 22% Over 2010 Record-Breaking Numbers | Business Wire via Cashing Out: Week of April 15th – 21st 2012 in Online Marketing News | ReveNews Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/160. Host Spotlights Patrick: JimGaffigan.com and Jim Gaffigan’s Trailer Louis: VIM Adventures Stephan: Noah Stokes | Es Bueno / How We Operate – The Potential Client Kevin: Impact – HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript Game Engine Interview Transcript Louis: Hello and welcome to another episode of the SitePoint Podcast, it’s a full panel show this week to talk about the news and happenings in the world of the Internet; hi guys. Kevin: Howdy. Patrick: Hey! Stephan: Hello, hello. Louis: Very dynamic intro, I felt really energetic about that one. Patrick: Yeah, yeah, you sound — you’re a pro; you’re an old pro now. Louis: Ha, ha, seasoned hand (laughs). Patrick: You are. Louis: How you all doing? Patrick: Pretty good, pretty good. I actually got an email this week that was pretty short and to the point. Louis: Congratulations (laughter). Kevin: A whole email, Patrick. Patrick: Yeah, I got an email (laughter) through my contact form, and I’ll tell you the email, it was from Sam, Sam at sam.com, I doubt that’s the real address, but it was just one sentence and it was, “So, if you are a web designer do you think your website looks good? It looks like crab.” (Laughter) And that is “crab” with a b. Louis: I think I saw that on your Facebook or your Twitter or something. Patrick: Yeah, I like that. Louis: (Laughing) pretty classy. So many things wrong with that. Patrick: Right. I’m not a web designer, I don’t think my website looks good necessarily; I’m not that high on myself. Louis: It definitely doesn’t look like a crab. Patrick: Yeah, I’m not — it looks like crab; it’s not even red. Anyway. Louis: Alright, so with that out of the way let’s talk about people who are web designers, or who were web designers. Patrick: Yeah, so I picked up a story through Nathan R. King on Twitter that Hillman Curtis had passed away, and I’ll just read from the New York Times story about it by Paul Vitello, the title is: Hillman Curtis, A Pioneer in Web Design, Dies at 51. It says that “Hillman Curtis was an art director of a San Francisco software company, in ’96 he designed the first website for a new technology called Flash Player, a browser plugin that could be used to turn out high [...]

Episode 159 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week our regular interview host Louis Simoneau (@rssaddict) interviews Tim Boronczyk (@zaemis), the Managing Editor of phpmaster.com about the new features in PHP5.4, PHP’s strengths and weaknesses, and the DIY approach of the PHP community. Listen in Your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #159: PHP Master with Tim Boronczyk (MP3, 20:27, 19.6MB) Subscribe to the Podcast The SitePoint Podcast is on iTunes! Add the SitePoint Podcast to your iTunes player. Or, if you don’t use iTunes, you can subscribe to the feed directly. Episode Summary Louis and Tim Boronczyk talk about the starting up of phpmaster.com, about the new features in PHP5.4 including traits and the Session Upload Progress Indicator, PHP’s strengths and weaknesses including an exhaustive blog post made recently on the topic, and the DIY approach of the PHP community. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1328644474660-10'); }); Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/159. Interview Transcript Louis: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the SitePoint Podcast. We’ve got a bit of an interview show this week, with me on the show is Timothy Boronczyk, or Tim, do I call you Tim? Tim: You can call me Tim, Tim is fine. Louis: Alright, let’s go with Tim. Tim Boronczyk is the managing editor of phpmaster.com which is one of SitePoint’s latest ventures, so it’s a blog that’s all about the wonderful world of PHP. So, hi Tim, and welcome to the show. Tim: Hi, thanks for having me, it’s exciting. Louis: It’s great to have you. Have you been managing PHP Master from the get-go, or pretty much from the get-go? Tim: Yeah, right from its beginning, probably I want to say about eight months, six, seven, eight months, thereabouts. Louis: Alright. So do you want to just maybe for anyone listening who’s not familiar with PHP Master, or who hasn’t had a chance to see the site, what kind of things do you tend to publish about, how are things going, what’s the pitch? Tim: Well, it’s a little bit of everything, we publish three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so fire up your RSS readers if you haven’t already. We try to have a little bit of everything for everybody. We have some beginner level articles on there to help new programmers improve their skills and become a PHP master, we have some intermediate for those who have done their time in PHP apprenticeship land and are looking to improve their skills, and we have some really in-depth nitty-gritty articles for those who already consider themselves PHP masters. Louis: Right. So I figured given that I got a chance to have you on the show we could talk a little bit about just PHP in general, where it’s at and where it’s heading, so, first and foremost, the latest version of PHP is version 5.4 and that’s a relatively new release, right? Tim: Yes, it’s out probably a couple months now. Louis: I’ve only been superficially aware of PHP in version 5.4, I work a little bit with PHP but mostly with Ruby and Rails, so maybe can you talk a bit about what the really cool features are in PHP 5.4. Tim: There’s a lot of new features in 5.4 that you can be excited about, for me there are probably three or four that I personally think are pretty neat, the first one being the Session Upload Progress Indicator; the PHP developers have stuck information into the session while you’re doing a file upload so you don’t have to do any weird, hacky, flash, weird — just dirty code things; you can submit your form to post your file to the server and spin off an Ajax request [...]

Episode 158 of The SitePoint Podcast is now available! This week the panel is made up of Louis Simoneau (@rssaddict), Kevin Dees (@kevindees), Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves) and Patrick O’Keefe (@ifroggy). Listen in Your Browser Play this episode directly in your browser — just click the orange “play” button below: Download this Episode You can download this episode as a standalone MP3 file. Here’s the link: SitePoint Podcast #158: Drinking and Technology (MP3, 37:55, 34.8MB) Subscribe to the Podcast The SitePoint Podcast is on iTunes! Add the SitePoint Podcast to your iTunes player. Or, if you don’t use iTunes, you can subscribe to the feed directly. Episode Summary The panel discuss the UK Government’s new Design Principle site, the ongoing debate about the role of alcohol in the tech community, and a cool new HTML5 music video project put out by Microsoft to promote Internet Explorer 10. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1328644474660-10'); }); Here are the main topics covered in this episode: GDS design principles Just A Friend – An Interactive Music Video ryanfunduk.com » Our Culture of Exclusion I drink for a reason Wikipedia dumps Google Maps | Digital Media – CNET News Browse the full list of links referenced in the show at http://delicious.com/sitepointpodcast/158. Host Spotlights Patrick and Louis: ZeFrank – A Show Stephan: Instagram Engineering • Keeping Instagram up with over a million new users in twelve hours Kevin: Snipt | Share and store code or command snippets. Interview Transcript Louis: Hello and welcome to yet another episode of the SitePoint Podcast, I’m back after a brief hiatus, last week Kevin interviewed Paul Boag for the show, but this week we’re back with a full panel; hi guys. Kevin: Howdy, howdy. Stephan: Howdy, howdy. Patrick: Hello. Louis: How you guys doing? Don’t answer all at once! Stephan: It’s a Monday (laughter). Patrick: Full of Easter candy. Louis: Yeah, so you guys have got the day off today, right, is it a holiday there? Stephan: No, we only got Friday off. Louis: Only Friday, alright. Patrick: When you work for yourself you don’t get days off, so, um, no; I didn’t have Easter off. Louis: Alright, well, hey, it’s good to have you all back on the show, so let’s just kick into it, who wants to go first with the first story? I’m going to nominate Kevin. Kevin: Okay, yes! Sweet, I like being the nominee, it’s a pleasure. Patrick: But will you win? (Laughter) Kevin: Yes, I will. My link, or story for today, comes from the gov.uk, they’re working on a new project for the government to use, and basically what I want to talk about is a portion of that. The design team has released some design principles that they’ve been using throughout their website, and so this isn’t necessarily a set of principles for “the designing world,” but they did craft this for this specific site, so these are kind of guidelines that they’re using within their project, but I believe that these could definitely be used throughout the web design community as well; I think these are really good principles, and I’ll just go through them quickly here. The first, there are ten of these, the first is Starting with Needs, and they talk about user needs there, and they talk about doing less than designing with the data that you have, doing the hard work to make things simple basically make things usable. And then Iterate, and then Iterate Again, is the 5th one; 6th we have Build for Inclusion, so they talk about accessibility in this section, and we’ll discuss all these in a second, or at least some of the highlighted points. And then Understanding Context, Build Digital Service, Not Websites, Be Consistent, Not Uniform, and Make Things Open, It Makes Things Better. And the 10th one is kind of the flavor of this post in [...]