I just finished recording the first episode of Ask Chris, a new joint effort between the Pro PHP Podcast and Brain Bulb. I'd like to take a minute to explain how this show came to exist.

I receive quite a bit of email from people asking technical questions about various things - sometimes I know the answers, and sometimes I don't. I can't answer every email I receive, but I try to answer as many as I can in an effort to be polite and helpful. One problem with sending personal replies, however, is that only one person benefits from my effort. For this reason, I often request that people ask questions in a public medium.

Over time, I've observed patterns in the questions that I receive - people generally seem to have similar questions within a specific period of time. This makes sense, because once a few people figure out the answer to a question (or solution to a problem), the open and friendly nature of the PHP community guarantees that this information spreads rapidly. With this in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to publish the answers to questions that I receive, and inspired by Ask Tim, I came up with the very unoriginal idea of Ask Chris.

Coincidentally, Marcus Whitney recently asked me to do a segment on the Pro PHP Podcast where I answer questions sent in by listeners. Because I don't have anything set up yet, this seemed like the perfect chance to get the ball rolling.

I hope you enjoy the show, and many thanks to Marcus for hosting it.