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April
Checking your PHP Version
Here's a simple test to find out if you're running PHP 5 or later. Modify it to suit your needs.
{
if (version_compare("5.0.0", PHP_VERSION, ">="))
{
return TRUE;
}
return FALSE;
}
XML in PHP5, Let me Count the Ways
I've decided that I have to start using XML on PHP 5, so I thought I'd take some notes on my quick skim of the support available. Read on to get an idea of how the different PHP extensions relate to each other.
Rambling Jargon
I finally caved in and signed up for a month-to-month account with T-Mobile for wifi. I end up at this Starbuck's weekly lately. Usually I've found that I'm quite productive offline. I can't check my email and I can't get distracted surfing. Unfortunately there's only so much website you can build offline. It's surprising just how much. I've set up PHP5 and Apache 2 on my notebook computer, so I can easily develop and test out a whole lot of things. Lately though I've been experimenting with RSS, REST and Ajax.
Adobe buys Macromedia - what does it mean for SVG?
SVG Basics is now more Mozilla-friendly. I'm not making a big deal of it on that site yet because I still have to do more testing and see which sample code actually works well and what doesn't. For now though, surfers should at least be able to see the examples. I'll be testing with the SVG-enabled Firefox build any day now.
Keeping an Eye on the next X Box
The Next Generation of Game Console from Microsoft is coming. We all knew that, but they've announced a date when they'll announce the box. Geez.
So Google Knows A Lot…
How does google know where I'm going? When they first introduced google maps I was planning a trip to the GDC in San Francisco. One of their 3 example searches on the main page was in SF. Now I'm planning for E3 in LA and I read that they've added awesome (but creepy) satellite imaging to their maps. When I go to check it out I see they've changed the default searches and one is for hotels near LAX.
Just what are they watching on those satellites anyhow? I imaging someone at google watching the satellite feed, staring at my fingers typing as I talk about their service...
Sorting the World
In honour of the upcoming tax deadline, I decided to use last night to catch up on filing some things. Specifically every receipt and piece of mail that I've received in the past four months or so. I like to keep good records but I don't always spend the little time it takes to keep up. In lieu of that I take a few evenings every couple of months and get everything put away. The upshot is that I can check what my long-distance bill was in July of 2002. If I really wanted to. The basis of my philosophy is that I don't know which bill I'll have to refer to in the future. To make my future self happy and worry-free I just keep everything.
At first keeping everything was difficult and I thought it might be a dumb obsessive-compulsive sort of thing to do. Over time I've gotten used to it and it's really not that hard. Most of the papers that I keep record direct financial information. These are account statements from the bank, the natural gas company, cell phone provider and so on. Others are pay stubs, cashed cheques or movie ticket stubs. Yes, movie ticket stubs. That might sound anal, but it's a great way to jog memories.