International PHP Mag gets a lime-green overhaul

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Tuesday, November 15. 2005

International PHP Mag gets a lime-green overhaul

International PHP Magazine (you know php|arch readers.. the other one) received something of a face-lift today on its web site. Gone are the yellow and blue colours, and in comes a "whoa! where's my contrast switch?" fresh-green style. Better? Worse? Well it doesn't really make all that much difference, because the real content is the magazine itself, and this one happens to have one of my articles in it...

The first thing to note is that International PHP Magazine used to be printed. I guess it just wasn't working out, because now it is download only (PDF). This is a shame, personally I'm a fan of being able to "touch" the magazines I read. Sure, I enjoy a quick-fix of news on-line, but you can't beat settling down into a comfy chair, with a steaming coffee and a quality read. But now I'll have to revert to printing out cold A4 sheets of paper and stapling them together.

But at least it costs a lot less now!

The price used to be quite ball-bustingly expensive for the printed magazine. One of the contributing factors I dare say to dropping it. But the PDF is only €4 - well within the industry 'norm' for this kind of item. The November issue features some nice topics, including the second part of Marcus's XML Handling with DOM, Distributing Content with RSS2, How to Build a PHP User Group (and have it then over-thrown, huh PHPDN?! ), 27 Tips for Freelance developers, a feature on touch screens and Triggers in MySQL 5

... and what about the great book review?

It also includes a book review by yours truly, this time it's the 'Zend PHP Certification Study Guide' that was under the microscope. For some reason, if you read the Table of Contents on the PHP Mag site, it will sound like I'm singing the praises of this book from the tallest possible location. I'm not sure why they chose to paraphrase my article like this. They summarised my article as:

"This book is completely essential. You literally have no other choice right now when it comes to reading about the exam contents, and you absolutely must read about them in order to stand any chance of passing. Buy this book if you’re thinking of taking the exam."

Yet my actual summary goes more like this:

"In conclusion this book is both completely essential, but with a good measure of ‘frustration’ throw in. You literally have no other choice right now when it comes to reading about the exam contents, and you absolutely must read about them in order to stand any chance of passing. Blindly sitting down and trying to digest the whole PHP manual is whilst quite admirable, ultimately fruitless unless you’re blessed with a photographic memory."

(I then go on to say how you really should get the php architect 'Official Practise Exam' book too)

Still, there we go! I'm a media puppet it would appear. Incidentally I'm also the only one to appear as a black silhouette outline for a photograph. That is because I don't really exist, and am a figment of your PHP imagination. Or actually, it's because I was moving house at the time they required this photo, and I simply didn't have time to sort it out. But it's nice to see the rest of authors this issue. I notice a distinct 50/50 split between 'suit' photos and 'polo shirt' photos, while I maintain my rigid black sturdy outline. Not that it matters anyway, as we're all upstaged by the inclusion of the eminently more photogenic Elizabeth Naramore.

Roll on Decembers issue. Perhaps this time they'll give my outline a Santa hat?

Posted by Richard Davey in Out There at 23:51 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (25)

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