Job Available: PHP Web Developer
October 5, 2009 by Jason · Leave a Comment
I've got a permanent PHP Development position available at work. If you (or someone you know) has the skills below and are within commuting distance to Malvern, PA 19355, or are willing to relocate at your own expense within the next month or so, please use the comment form on the About page to contact me.
Make sure you attach your resume, salary history/requirements, and cover letter (just zip them all up and use the attachment box on the form). I'm not Meatloaf, two out of three IS bad, so please do send everything rather than just spam me with a resume.
Mobile site now available
September 28, 2009 by Jason · 5 Comments
A couple days ago I noticed that this site didn't really lend itself to a mobile browser. Not sure why Wordpress doesn't include a mobile theme, but anyway, that's fixed now, thanks to a mobile-optimized theme and a plugin that automatically switches you based on your browser identification (no separate URL required). If you should happen to stop by the mobile site and notice an issue please let me know in the comments of this post or with the comment form on the about page.
Just about everything updated (including the site)
September 22, 2009 by Jason · 90 Comments
Alright, just about every package in the repo was just updated. Some significantly, others not so much, but the ones people are likely to care about are there. MySQL is now up to 5.0.84, PHP is up to 5.2.11, and httpd is up to 2.2.13.
In addition to the package updates, I also included php-memcache for connecting to a memcached server and a choice of PHP accelerators as these were both things that many people were requesting. You can now choose between php-xcache, php-apc, and php-eaccelerator (all of which conflict so don't try and force more than one to install). I've not extensively tested the latter two as I personally use xcache, so someone will have to let me know if I should change something.
Lastly, the site itself has been updated to the newest release of WordPress, I've ripped out a bunch of plugins, added a few new ones, and I've installed a new skin. I'll be tweaking everything as time goes on so things may be moving about and features may break from time to time. If you notice anything flaky then please use the comment form on the About page.
Not dead, just hibernating (like a bear)
September 21, 2009 by Jason · 11 Comments
Ok, maybe not like a bear. Bears eat a bunch before they sleep and wake up lighter. I, on the other hand, have put on about 10 lbs over the past year (need to spend more time at the gym and less time at the office). Oh, and bears don't do anything while hibernating, whereas I've been running around more like a chicken with it's head cut off. I guess not like a bear at all then... Bad analogy, sorry.
Here's a partial list of what I've been up to:
- Work
- Hired two people
- Fired two people
- Crashed my car into the median on Rt 202 (September 6th, 2008, all-wheel drive = overconfidence, overconfidence + worn tires + hurricane = boom)
- Got married (October 17th, 2008)
- Went on my Honeymoon (drove around the South-West US for 2 weeks, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix)
- Work
- Hired two more people
- Work
- Started looking for a home
- Work
- Bought a home in Exton (Closed June 30th, 2009)
- Moved on the Jult 4th holiday weekend (movers were miserable, the pending insurance claim for damaged goods is higher than what they billed to move, and they seriously overbilled...)
- Work
- Had carpet cleaners rip a hole in the one piece of carpet in my home (mostly wood floors) and then complain about doing anything to fix it
- Work
- Spent time looking to hire another developer (PHP this time, more on this in a later post, the job is still available)
- Had painters not show up as scheduled, do a lousy job when they did show, and then have to come back in the evening for three days to fix all their mistakes
- Work
- Started blowing tons of money trying to buy furniture for my home so it's not 90% empty.
- Work
- ...
You get the picture. By the time I got home I didn't feel like doing anything. As I write this, I should be mowing the lawn before it starts raining...
Anyway, massive update coming tomorrow, both to the site and to the repository. Think httpd 2.2.13, MySQL 5.0.84, PHP 5.2.11, a choice of XCache, APC, and eAccelerator, etc.
Lastly, for now, quite a few people have filled out the comment form asking about MySQL 5.1 and PHP 5.3. Let me say now, no, I don't have any plans at current to upgrade the repo to either of those. Those updates would likely break quite a few apps and I don't need that on my hands. If I do decide to push out those updates it will either be with a LOT of warning or as a separate, optional packages that obsolete the older version.
Busy week… Got Engaged!
February 4, 2008 by Jason · 38 Comments
Yeah, I know, I've been a bit lax in posting over the past week. I tried to keep up with answering questions and comments but it was a low priority...
In any case, last Saturday I proposed to Dot, my girlfriend of 7 years, and she said yes! No plans for a wedding date or honeymoon destination as of yet, although since both of us want a small wedding (neither of us know/like many people) we're pretty set on deciding on a honeymoon destination first and then planning the wedding around the best time of the year for that location.
Still alive, just busy…
October 24, 2007 by Jason · 4 Comments
For anyone wondering, yes, I'm still here. I'm in the final stretch of finishing up my Master's Degree and between that and work (big things going on there as well) I just haven't had much time to post anything. Stay tuned though, I'm bound to find something interesting to say, and time to say it, soon. 
Announcing the Utter Ramblings EL5 Repository
August 28, 2007 by Jason · 4 Comments
It's been a long time coming (I believe the first time I mentioned creating packages for Enterprise Linux 5 was back in April), but yes, that's right, the packages from my EL4 repository have finally been recompiled for use under RHEL and CentOS 5!
Continue Reading 'Announcing the Utter Ramblings EL5 Repository' »
Happy 25th Birthday to Me!
August 21, 2007 by Jason · 3 Comments
Yes, that's right, today I turn 25 years old. For those curious about the grand old year of 1982, the following are just a few of the notable things that happened:
- January 8 - AT&T agreed to break up its monopoly over the local phone exchanges (creating the "Baby Bells").
- January 17 - Temperatures drop to record lows on "Cold Sunday", including a drop to -27 °F in Chicago, Illinois (very near where I was born).
- May 2 - The Weather Channel airs on cable for the first time (threw this one in for my girlfriend, she was a Meteorology major in college).
- June 5 - The first Rubik's Cube World Championship is held in Budapest, Hungary.
- July2 - Lawn Chair Larry makes his maiden voyage at 16,000ft on a lawn chair tied to 45 weather balloons.
- August 17 - The first commercial Compact Disc (CD) is produced for release in Germany (it was ABBA's "The Visitors", if you're wondering)
- September 26 - Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff, first airs on NBC.
- October 1 - Sony launches the first consumer CD player (model CDP-101).
- December 26 - Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" award is given to the Computer.
Source: Wikipedia page on "1982"
A couple lost comments…
May 14, 2007 by Jason · 3 Comments
I had a bit of a mishap involving a comment-related plugin and lost about an hour's worth of comments when I restored from a backup. I believe that I only actually lost only one or two non-spam messages, but still... If you posted a comment on this site in the last 24 hours but no longer see it, please post it again. Thanks.
Update: Fixed! All comments have been recovered.
5,000+ Spam Comments!
May 10, 2007 by Jason · 4 Comments
About an hour ago this site rolled past 5,000 spam comments caught by Akismet. As far as I can remember there have only been a couple that snuck past and had to be manually classified as "spam". I wish my email filter worked this well. If anyone has any suggestions as to a client-based spam filter that integrates well with Outlook other than SpamBayes let me know.
