Greets all,

Being in my seat, I’ve heard from many people over the course of this past
year who have lost / changed employment. I know there is concern by many
who are employed as to what will happen long term. The reality of the matter
is this, though. Recession or no, change happens and the best way to be
ready for it is to have a great skill set. To that end, we are
restructuring the way our meetings will be.

New Meeting Structure
We will be splitting our PHP meetings into 2 parts. First part is basic
skills / best practices training. This is for you new guys who want to
learn, but don’t know where to start. This section is called PHP
fundamentals and will be hosted by Justin Carmony. He and I are working on
some printed materials and are ramping this up as we speak. We also have
several very senior and tenured members who are VERY friendly to questions.
The second portion of our meeting will be a more advanced topic that will be
of benefit to intermediate / advanced members, but will still be of great
benefit to those who are new.

Still Social!
For those interested in the social aspect of our meeting, we still have the
famous UPHPU Afterhours party.

Resources
As far as learning resources, Ray Hunter and I are working on having books
available at our meetings. While we will have some fun / zany way of
handing out the books, there is an understood condition of receiving the
book. You MUST write a review of the book and post it online. If you don’t
want to write a review, don’t take the book. I will be breaking arms on
this!

Online Resources
I know that our recordings have been sporadic. i’m working on allocating
more time to this.

Whew! All that said, here is the meeting info:

Meeting Thursday, January 21st at 7pm @ Bill Good Marketing in Draper

Bill Good Marketing
12393 Gateway Park Place
Draper, Ut 84020

PHP Fundamentals by Justin Carmony – RTFM – Reading the Fabulous Manual
For a new person to PHP, reading the documentation can be a daunting task.
Even worse when you have legions of other developers screaming the acronym
“RTFM!” Hopefully we can shed some light on how to get the most out of PHP
Documentation, how to search it, how to understand it, and how to get help
if the documentation doesn’t answer your questions. Justin Carmony will be
giving the presentation, and will leave time for questions. You’re not alone
in learning PHP, let the Utah PHP Usergroup help you.

Justin Carmony has worked in web development professionally for the last
five years. With emphasis on PHP, .NET, and Web Services, he has worked on
projects ranging from simple websites to complex communications between
thousands of remote systems. He currently is working as an independent
contractor & private consultant. If you have any questions, comments, or
curiosities you can contact him (justin AT justincarmony DOT com) or read
about his latest endeavors at his blog.

Advanced Topic by Trevor Sharpe – Basic Linux Server Administration
Many programmers are finding themselves needing to understand and administer
linux servers. This presentation is focused on learning how to effectively
use the server through scripts, etc. Q & A session on admining to follow.

Trevor Sharpe is a Systems Administrator for a company in SLC and is also a
board member for Utah Open Source.

Look forward to seeing everyone this year!

Related posts:

1. 100th Blog Entry – First Year of Real Blogging
2. Happy New Year – Snowmobile Trip
3. Speaking: Utah PHP Usergroup – Streamlined Web Development