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Book Review: PHP Reference by Mario Lurig September 18, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Reviews, Books, Friends , add a comment

From the very first page, the author of this book lets us know exactly its purpose - to act as an off-line reference to the hundred or so domestic PHP functions one might use in the course of writing software, and a couple of their lesser-used variants.

One of my favorite parts was the list of related functions below each description: this allows you to hyperlink your way around the book in a more semantic way than simply reading it front-to-back.

This is certainly not a book just for beginners, because I wouldn’t consider output buffer functions to be used by beginners (if you don’t know what I mean when I say ob_start() or ob_flush(), then you should probably pick up a copy).

This is the kind of book you should throw in your laptop bag as you get started on a new project, or keep on the shelf of your cubicle. Think about which is faster - tabbing back and forth between your browser window with the current page you’re testing, and your text editor, AND the php.net site, or just having a small reference book next to your keyboard.

Also consider your ability to make notes next to functions about your own personal tricks and experiences - I always find myself digging back into my own code as a reference, but if you just had this paper version to carry with you everywhere, you could save yourself a lot of time by not having to grep through your code.

Completely worth your time and money.

Edit: It should be said that I went to school with Andy (Mario), but that does not affect my review of his book. You should buy one.

Hey Mary Gardner, I heard you are getting into Twitter July 19, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Career, Friends, Twitter, Orlando Business Journal , 2 comments

Shout-outs to Mary Gardner, who happens to be my manager’s wife. She is a very cool lady and someone you should all get to know. Here’s an excerpt of her blog where she recounts our meeting over lunch today with most of the PHP Team and a couple of project managers:

The Charisma Coach!: Hanging out with the Techies

They’re programmers who have a personal interest in social media as well as doing it for their jobs.

For me, it was so much easier hanging with them for an hour than reading a techie magazine, and easier to pick up on the language. They gave me content for an upcoming business article and ideas for others.

Hanging with those outside your own industry can give your own creativity a boost and sharpen your own knowledge about something that might be out of your comfort zone but that is interesting.

I told her she MUST go to BlogOrlando and add me on twitter as well as Eric and the other twitter folks at the table. For her it makes lots of sense, she is in the life coaching and professional speaking fields, and she wants to build a personal brand around celebrities with causes. I think she will find some great resources and utility through twitter, so Mary, hoping you have Google Alerts turned on, sign up; or if you saw the “new blog post” link in Twitter, good for you!

Either way, welcome to the Dark Side, Mary. I look forward to your update in my daily (OMG, they mean daily) Orlando Business Journal update.

Falling in Love 5 Minutes at a Time April 25, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Blogging, Podcasts, Quotes, Puppets, Trends, BarCamp, BlogOrlando, Friends, Twitter , add a comment

A few years ago at the second Orlando Puppet Festival, I was trying to sell Heather Henson on the idea of my podcasting about the festival becoming official. Needless to say, she’s super-busy running the festival, and we don’t have time to get into all the ins and outs of podcasting, so she asks me to give her a sample. The next time I see Heather I hand her a CD, and she’s grateful for the ability to time-shift her decision-making process.

The following day I see her, she’s a bit frustrated with me, because she says “I put this in my car and nothing happened, you gave me a bad CD!” Oops! Not the case, in fact it was a collection of every podcast I’d released to date - totaling around 80 hours of audio, or about enough to fill 60 regular CDs. “They’re MP3’s” I said, “Normally you’d have to spend hours downloading them all, and I’ve saved you the trouble!” Heather retorts, “But how do I know where to start?” She didn’t like having the entire library of congress and no card catalog (OK, not the ENTIRE library, but still…).

This brings me to an interesting point I haven’t dwelled much on in the past year and a half. How do we begin to introduce people to something like, let’s say Lady Raptastic, which has more than 80 hour-long episodes by itself, not to mention all the other shows Mark Baratelli produces. I suppose the old adage “You’re only as good as your last [whatever]” may come into play here, but that’s just not how it is with blogs and most podcasts.

I was having a conversation with someone at BarCamp about this very subject. She was getting into blogging based on a few pokes by her friends, and she was worried about writing something relevant. I told her “The magic of blogging doesn’t happen in an instant, you sort of fall in love 5 minutes at a time.”

I don’t really know where else to go from here, but suffice it to say there will likely be a “part 2″ of this post, and perhaps more. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’d especially like to see what the 200+ attendees of BlogOrlando have to say about the subject.

For Post’s Sake! April 23, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Blogging, Orlando, Links, Drupal, Events, floridacreatives, Likemind.orl, OrlandoScene, Friends, Petentials, PopSci , add a comment

Feeling like I haven’t blogged in a while, so here are some things that have happened.

I saw (and played a bit at) an awesome marathon show by marc. with a c. on Saturday at Stardust. I used to be in the band, and I remain a fan. Marc just released his latest album, Linda Lovelace for President, on Amazon MP3, official plastic + DVD due out this summer.

We had a super-awesome Florida Creatives Happy Hour last night - HUGE thanks to all the first-timers, and of course our repeat offenders. If you haven’t seen or registered for the new site yet, surf on over and create a group, get organized, or otherwise try to toss some useful information in there.

Went to an inaugural Refresh Central Florida and Orlando PHP group (seperately). Refresh may or may not be the “tech association” that everyone has been hububbing about - there was talk of turning it into a “United Arts for Geeks”, supporting local groups and individuals. Actually, I was thinking of using United Arts as a channel to have a Florida Creatives professional grant that gets specified in all the same ways the regular UA grants go, just sponsored by us.

Things have been going gangbusters for pet dating site Petentials.com in the last few weeks our US ranking for Alexa is hovering around 100K (we’re more like 400K globally). We’re currently on the second page of Google for “Internet Pets”, but not too high for “pet dating”, hence the googlebombing you may or may not want to participate in… ha!

We’re planning a downtown Orlando photowalk as part of an episode for OrlandoScene.TV - this will be either May 10th or 11th, barring weather, number of RSVPs and other factors. Bring your SLR and your eyes. We’ll be doing interviews with photographers and linking to photosets and whatnot. The idea is to get a little co-promotion on, and get a hold of some much-needed production stills for Orlando Scene. In the AXIS Mag article, well, globe with a network cable… yikes.

Did I mention the kick-ass Drupal meetup we had last week? That was a fun time. I signed up to talk about Drupal Theming with Zen and… I think Views sometime this summer, but I know for certain that our next meetup will be held May 17th in Maitland. Check the Florida Drupal Group page for more info.

Ah, let’s not forget Likemind - we ARE still doing that - now we’re back at Panera Bread by Lake Eola. The next one of those should be May 16th. I have a picture of that somewhere… check the Ryan Price and the Media feed for those bonus Flickr pics you get in there from time to time.

I’m sure I’m missing lots and lots and lots. I have been SO busy lately.

BTW, over at Bonnier (the makers of PopSci) we’re hiring a MySQL Admin. If you are an experienced database administrator, or you have several years of experience with MySQL, send us an email.

P.S. I almost forgot! If you like the movie Clue, Improv Comedy, theatre, mystery, games, or if you’re my friend then you MUST MUST go and see “Murder We Wrote” over at Rollins College this weekend. YOU WILL THANK ME.

Tell those bitches! March 4, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Markteting, Blogging, Music, MySpace, Public Relations, Friends , 8 comments

Don’t you love all those form letters you get about “We can get you to the top of search engines”, and “I’d like to buy text links from you”? I know I do, and I’m not alone…

My friend Marc, otherwise known as “marc with a c” to the music community of Orlando, has recently decided to let ‘em have it. He was contacted by a chain-lettering, canvassing, music rep from Hitt Music Group.

Here’s a sample of Marc’s reply from his MySpace blog:

You mean that THE Hitt Music Group is interested in me? Oh my God. Here I was thinking that MySpace was just A Place For Friends, but no… you really do make dreams come true.

Of course, you must be joking, right? This CANNOT be the same Hitt Music Group that brought us such unmitigated talents as Friday Night Gunfight and the Lords Of Conversation, can it?

OH MY GOD, I JUST CHECKED OUT YOUR WEBSITE. You guys TOTALLY are *that* Hitt Music Group.

One of the modern conveniences technology affords us - the ability to spam thousands of independent musicians on MySpace… yes!

This is good for a laugh, and probably an indicator that no matter how much transparency and genuineness gain value in the marketplace, there will always be a Hitt Music Group.

Cookie cutter PR is bad PR - but I’m no expert.

WPRK 91.5FM is not O-ROCK, but it’s a cure for what ails ya January 17, 2008

Posted by Ryan in : Blogging, Orlando, Reviews, Radio, OrlandoScene, Friends , 1 comment so far

Alex Rudloff asks, Why Does Orlando Radio Suck?

I guess I just don’t understand the business behind local radio. I’m sure margins are tight and everything is pre-planned and digital now. It just sucks, that’s all.

Thank god for my iPod and my tape deck connector…. New school meets the old.

My response:

There IS an alternative - it’s produced for exactly $0, so it’s not like it promises to blow you away - it’s Rollins’ College Radio Station, 91.5 FM. Some talk, some classical, some of everything else. Every 12:00-1:00PM hour is talk, and there are varying degrees of shows in other parts of the day. It is never the same, unless you listen to too much of it, then a pattern emerges, but it takes a LOOOONG time (months) to get sick of anything on that station (if you didn’t mind it to start). You can also call anytime (just about) 24/7 and have your request played - anything - and they have thousands of titles and genres available. Check them out.

WPRK 91.5 FM

And if you are inside or out of range, try WPRKDJ.org

They also have a cool thing called Audio Postings (open forum) at the top of every hour - supposedly anyone with a non-commercial message can get their audio clips played as a public service to the listeners. Very cool.

Watch A Local Folkus, Learn About Central Florida’s Local Food Movement December 20, 2007

Posted by Ryan in : Podcasts, Orlando, Links, Video, TV, Trends, Earth, Travel, Restaurants, Web Sites, floridacreatives, OrlandoScene, Storytelling, Friends, Viddler , add a comment

I finally got to watch John Rife’s awesome locavore video, and I now feel very educated and inspired to explore and sample some of the places and foods he intoduces us to in his first installment of A Local Folkus.

It’s also nice seeing this project happen, because John is renting space on our server, and I helped him set up the Wordpress (a bit).

I’d like to post a lot of relevant links to go with this video, but that will take a little while. Check back soon for some more info.

Flock and Facebook Screencast November 21, 2007

Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Podcasts, Music, HowTo, Video, Browsers, Trends, Web Sites, mashups, Facebook, interface, Teaching, Friends , add a comment


The new Flock is out and better than ever, so I’m inspired yet again to screencast about it and show you more about this browser. In this edition we talk about how Flock has integrated your Facebook friends (and Flickr, MySpace, YouTube) right into the sidebar. You can keep the People bar open while you surf the web and make updates to your status, write messages, subscribe to media and share with your friends with just a simple drag-and-drop. This is the version of Flock you’ve been waiting for, trust me.

Download the Screencast (iPhone friendly!)

If you want to see anything else demonstrated, like if you want to teach your boss how to upload YouTube videos, I would be happy to create something custom for you. We do dedications!

Coworking London, any takers? November 8, 2007

Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Music, Coworking, Trends, Travel, London, Friends, Arts , 1 comment so far

If anyone has Google Alerts set for CoworkingLondon, they’ll come across this blog post and reply soon.

I am currently staying in Northern London, and I’m now an expert at the tubes and trains here, so I can get to anyplace I like. I have a day off tomorrow until around 1600 (that’s 4PM for you non-Europeans), and I’d like to co-work somewhere in town.

The easiest way to be in touch is by email < rprice AT ryanpricemedia.com >. I also have a phone, but I don’t have the number handy. I’m hoping to get a response from Noel, because I know he’s been here on a coworking expedition before.

This has been a fun trip, the other day we rode a boat down to Greenwich (as in Greenwich, Mean Time or GMT) where all time begins and saw the “Painted Hall”. Been to some other random places in town, and went to an awesome french horn concert the other night, followed by a “buttoned down” concert with period instruments and guys wearing trainers (sneakers). It was really neat, an event called The Night Shift, wherein the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment gets on stage for just such a no-collars-required concert every so-often. You can bring your wine and beer in the hall, get up during the performance, and actually hear a bit of talkback from the conductor and the host instead of having to read it all off the program (or have your girlfriend whisper it in your ear).

2 Weeks Away from Blogging October 19, 2007

Posted by Ryan in : Site News, Blogging, Video, Reviews, Trends, Restaurants, Contributors, OrlandoScene, Storytelling, Friends , 2 comments

I haven’t announced this yet, but in an effort to get Petentials launched that much sooner, I decided I was going to take a month off of blogging - it’s more like 2 weeks off, 2 weeks in England, 2 more weeks off.

Still, I find that in the past several weeks, between moving downtown, ELLA Fest and Drupal Drupal Drupal Drupal Drupal, I’ve missed hearing about what’s going on with my friends and the people I follow but haven’t yet befriended.

Just now I’m having a thought about people I’ve inspired in some way to publish a blog: Katharine, Kait, Becky (coming soon), Kate (with an E), Aleshia, Kyle, and Charlie. I’m not saying I’m the reason they’re blogging, but I had something to do with them installing wordpress or registering their own domain (there are lots more of those people around) or setting up a wordpress.com/Blogger account. These people all have something to say, or wanted to have something to say, and for my part, I helped them find the method of delivery, and if nothing else, I read all the posts they write.

Here’s my attempt to give one of those folks a shove today. My friend Kate (who lives in New York, not London) from Absent-Minded Improv, and SO many other things in Orlando, was having trouble with restaurant reviews last week:

I suppose I have no future as a restaurant critic. Maybe that Guide to Coffee won’t be as likely as I’d hoped.

The ironic thing about this situation, though, is that Kate is a writer - it’s her job, her passion, her chosen profession. I don’t see it as a problem, I see it as a failure to connect with your goals, or perhaps a lack of structure, but cerainly not a lack of something to say or a talent with which to say it. I reply:

I think the reason why you have trouble expressing this in writing is the medium - break out your still camera and switch it to “video” mode. You’re an improviser, you can make this work.

AND/OR

Describe the scene to us, don’t just tell us how it was. Give us a story - if you read any restaurant reviews, you’ll find the best ones are very linear. They really only cover one person’s (at most a small group’s) interaction with the store on a single occasion, with possible recaps of previous or return visits. Reviews are stories. You’re a storyteller. You are powerful. You have it inside you to make me love or hate a coffee shop in New York.

Think about it. Then do it.

The major medium (other than my OrlandoScene.TV videos) where I have made any attempt at storytelling is through the subtle art of screencasting. Search for the word “Flock” on this blog, and you’ll see what I mean… I hope. Instead of just pointing at the buttons, you have to have a real example. That’s why I only screencast when I have a real example to show off. Teaching “in theory” always lacks a bit of that spark (or it does for me). A good teacher can make you care about the project just by making it feel real. This wasn’t always something we achieved in my Digital Media classes at UCF, but when we did, I didn’t mind doing large portions of the work for the project, nor did the other group members.

What’s this all about? Storytelling. That’s why it’s “vs. the Media”. Their storytelling has been tainted by centuries of corporate interest and tradition. The new guard of Digital Medians doesn’t have those blinders on (or we try not to). If we can stop trying to emulate what we grew up with and really create something(s) on our own (and use lots of parenthesis), we can change the world. Being a New Media Marketer, or a Podcaster, or a Vlogger, or a Teacher, or whatever term we may label ourselves with, is about just that — doing it your own way. That’s why I turn down more of the clients that come across my doorstep. They all want something that’s “just enough”, but that’s never enough. They want a story, and I want to give them a story. If I can’t care about the project, I can’t commit to it. Sometimes I can care and I can commit, but I’m just not motivated. That’s a personal problem.

This is getting rant-y and I’m supposed to be somewhere in 4 hours.