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php|works

25 Sep 2004

php|works turned out really well. Marco and everyone else at php|architect did a super job with everything.

The conference was split into three tracks: two technology tracks and a business track. This meant that there were always three talks to choose from, although most attendees were technical people. During my talk (PHP Session Security), the other technology talk was something on DB2, so my room was very crowded (standing room only). Apparently the DB2 talk had a total of 2 people in the audience, and Derick explained that this is referred to as being rasmussed (some other people thought the correct term was harasmussed, so I'm not sure). I think this was the first time I've rasmussed someone, and I promise it was an accident. :-)

Having the business track was interesting. It provided a nicer mix among the conference attendees. While I found myself often in disagreement with speakers from the business track, I always enjoy having my opinions challenged and getting a glimpse into other perspectives.

As an example, I don't understand why people still choose Java for creating Web applications when it's the more expensive and time-consuming choice, developers are more expensive and less competent (on average), and there doesn't exist a Java Web application that doesn't suck. Do people who make this decision think they can beat the odds or something? Well, I still don't have an answer that has any merit, but Richard Rosa explained why some companies make this decision, and he also pointed out that Java isn't such a bad choice for middleware.

While in Toronto, I also made a trip to Tucows, which was interesting. In addition to getting a squishy cow with their logo on it, I met Joey deVilla of The Farm. I was surprised to learn that domain registrations and other Internet services now make up the vast majority of their business.

There has been plenty of coverage elsewhere - I'll try to mention the links I know about:

If you know about any other links, please feel free to add them to the comments.