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If you haven’t seen the news Zune 30s are bricking all over the world today. I unfortunately was hit by this flaw in the Zune device too. Thanks to my buddy TagGerr a quick case cracking and battery unplugging later and my Zune was back to rocking some All That Remains for my listening pleasure.

Thanks TagGerr!

Update: Looks like Microsoft is aware of the problem and working on a fix.

Screen Capture from Zune.net

I am not sure how they plan to fix bricked Zunes already. Unless their answer is wait til your battery dies and try again.

So yesterday was Christmas. The day was spent with family and friends, and in part of Salt Lake with 12+ inches of snow. The day overall was quite enjoyable. Included in my haul was what I consider to be the greatest gift ever, my new Electronic Learning Lab!

Electronics Learning Lab

Here is a short description:

Learn all about electronics with the Electronic Learning Lab. This set includes everything children age 10 and up need to learn basic and integrated circuits. Build projects that reward with warbles, sirens, flashing lights and circuits that make decisions. Topics are presented in an increasing order of complexity to keep learning fresh and fun. Ultimately advance to circuits using transistors, diodes and 15 integrated circuits.

I am really learning a lot already, and making steps toward my plans for world domination.

I have always been amazed by electronics. I have always wanted to understand them more and be able to look at the things I have and think “I can make that better”. So this new Learning Lab has started me down that path.

So far I haven’t done anything fancy, but I am learning little be little about electronics and what they do. Thanks Santa!

The PHP Complete Reference

Living up to it’s name the PHP Complete Reference is a tome of PHP knowledge. With great detail about each (and just about every) PHP function, the book easily warrants the space it takes on your desk. If you are like me you will spend most of your time flipping back into the book to remember the correct order of arguments for in_array or another function.

Don’t expect to learn anything fancy or exciting, the book covers the functions and the basics. It is also not exactly where you want to learn PHP, but that is where my second book I am reviewing comes in. The book PHP: A Beginner’s Guide is the perfect companion to the Complete Reference. What you learn in the Beginner’s Guide is backed up and reinforced in the Complete Reference.

PHP: A Beginner's Guide

The Beginner’s Guide is really a great starter book for PHP developers, or those who think they will be PHP programmers. The information is provided in usable chunks, but fast enough that the book isn’t a boring text book. When paired with the PHP: Complete Reference you will become a better PHP developer in no time at all.

Both books are from McGraw-Hill, and are availble at Amazon.com or directly from McGraw-Hill.

Looks like Microsoft and the Zune Team may be having problems with their servers again. I am not able to download any music, while getting errors of a “Firewall” issue. Great error as I have no firewall in place, and I can touch all of their servers except the DRM one.

Guess that just details for us how well DRM works. Oh well, sit and wait.

Pro PHP: Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More

Kevin McArthur is a self-taught entreperneur and opensource developer from Edmonton Alberta. Kevin has been running a very successful PHP application development studio for over 7 years. Additionally Kevin took time to write Pro PHP: Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More, published by Apress.

The book really lives up to the name. It disucsses in great details the framworks that are most popular including Zend Framework. Kevin has what seems an infinite amount of knowledge on Zend Framework, and a quick Google search will reveal he is quite active is sharing that information.

I was a little let down on the Testing and Code Control sections of the book. I felt like Kevin mearly skimmed, and could have really dug into more detail, espeically about testing.

In talking about patterns for PHP Kevin reinforces some of the basics of good programming, and explains the pros and cons of each style of framework. You can tell he has spent his fair share of time in each of the patterns discussed.

Overall if you are thinking about playing with patterns and frameworks this is the book for you. Don’t look for any golden knowledge about testing, but the rest is gold!

A break from the normal routine of book reviews and code. This weekend I was the recipient of some great white elephant gifts. The most notable of all a 2Lb log of Summer Sausage.

This brought to question:

Why is it called Summer Suasage?

And thanks to the geek in me, I wikied it! Without further ado:

Summer sausage is the general term for any sausage that can be kept without the need of refrigeration.

My first guess was close, I guessed it was made of meats that would be left over come Summer, which if you keep reading

Summer sausage, like all sausages, makes use of leftover scrap meat and organ meat that would otherwise be wasted.

Finally, when is it made? Summer, right? Wrong!

In spite of its name, summer sausage actually tends to be made in the autumn, during traditional hunting seasons in North America and Europe.

The more you know!

JavaScript & Ajax: For the Web, Seventh Edition

Any web developer should be able to tell you the secrets to the web at JavaScript and Ajax. They are after all what makes Web 2.0 what it is. Lending to the ability of a site to have dynamics that were once thought impossible this book unlocks the secrets of the web and shows you what you must know to be a good javascript developer.

PeachPit really picked a winner in Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. They present the information in a playful but informative manner. Each chapter covers a direct purpose, but overall the pieces fit together quite well and explain in common english the best practices of JavaScript.

They didn’t stop at good chapters either, the Appendixes are actually really informative too! The first (Appenix A) talks about the history of JavaScript and is also a quick reference. Appendix B is reserved words, which is really handy. Appendix C is a CSS Reference, which is really handy while doing Dynamic page chagnes. 

Overall this books was quite informative and I will keep it close as it is a good reference of Javascript as well.