Matthew Weier O’Phinney has posted about the State of Zend Framework 2.0:

The past few months have kept myself and my team quite busy, as we’ve turned our attentions from maintenance of the Zend Framework 1.X series to Zend Framework 2.0. I’ve been fielding questions regularly about ZF2 lately, and felt it was time to talk about the roadmap for ZF2, what we’ve done so far, and how the community can help.

He goes on to talk about the processes being taken to get Zf2.0 the exemplar of PHP 5.3 and to add namespaces to the project. He talks about his team, the road map and the struggles they have already expereienced:

After completing this process, my entire team — all three of us — started the work of migrating the code to namespaces. Ralph wrote a tool that scanned the library and created a map file of existing classes and suggested namespace/classname combinations. We then used this tool as a launching point for the migration, each of us working on a component at a time. This work was by no means automated — we discovered very quickly that such a tool only took care of the most cursory work. I detailed some of our findings a couple months back; we ran into a number of issues we never anticipated, and the progress has been far from speedy. At this point, however, we have migrated everything but theZend_Service classes, the MVC, and those components that build on top of the MVC (Application, Navigation, Form, etc.).

Finally he shares details about getting ZF2.0 available through Git and Github, and what the community can do to help:

A number of contributors are also starting to discuss rewrites and refactoring of components. Much of this is being done on the zf-contributors mailing list, and some on the #zftalk.dev channel on Freenode. If you are interested in contributing, I highly recommend subscribing to the list and dropping into the channel when you can.

You can read the post in it’s entirety at  http://weierophinney.net

Ceiling Cat

Ceiling Cat announces:

#hackUTOS is is happening tomorrow, Friday June 4th, at CoffeeConnection!

Here’s how it works. #hackUTOS is a gathering of the hacking inclined. There is a main project (ConMan) that is being hacked on for the purpose of volunteering for Utah Open Source Conference 2010. More details on ConMan in a minute.

If you are looking to generally gather with geeks then this is the premier event in June for your geekiness! We will be gathering at CoffeeConnection who has great caffeinated beverages for sale (as well as food) and we will be getting our Geek on.

Want to get your geek on, but can’t make it in person… we are going to be on IRC too! Find us on Freenode at #hackUTOS

If you are not interested in hacking on ConMan, we still encourage you to come on down! We want all geeks to come by and share in the glory of #hackUTOS. That means you can even bring your own project. Think of #hackUTOS as a Jelly or CoWork (for 1 night). Come share your project and your ideas, find people, network, and generally have a good time.

Now some details on ConMan!

ConMan is the Conference Management software used by UTOS for the UTOS Conference. It is written in Python, using the Django framework. It is hosted at GitHub and it is open to the public. If you don’t hack python do not turn and run just yet. We are in need of things besides python coding. We need folks who are willing to conceptualize, we need graphic designers to help make the app look pretty, we need people to help with bug reporting, and more. If you are reading this blog post you are more than qualified to come help us tomorrow (and at any other #hackUTOS event).

Alright… I am tired of typing, and Ceiling cat is starting to freak me out… see you at #hackUTOS

The Utah Open Source Conference 2010, like the object in the rear view mirror, running October 7th through the 9th 2010, is closer then it appears!!

The Call for Papers for UTOSC 2010 is officially open! Paper submission deadline is July 15th, 2010 at Midnight and can be submitted through theUtah Open Source Conference website at http://2010.utosc.com.

If you’ve got something to share, something to tell, something to introduce or something to show, please take the time and submit a presentation to the Utah Open Source Conference 2010. We’d love to see your presentation!!

Some people are natural public speakers and presenters while others are reluctant to imagine themselves in front of a group of people at a conference. Nobody should feel unqualified or inexperienced to present. We want presenters who can share information at all levels.

And now, some tough questions

What should I talk about?

You should talk about Open Source software, philosophy, technology, etc. The theme for this year’s conference centers around being “free“, so your topic can be targeted at beginners, experts, or someone in between. Don’t forget that there are plenty of “free” applications out there as well!

It may help to see what topics were presented last year. Go to for information about 2009’s conference sessions.

Several sessions will be targeted at beginning or “newbie” users including those who are family members of an Open Source geek. Basic sessions around Linux, The GIMP, or WordPress are good examples of these types of sessions.

We have expanded our categories offerings this year and you can select multiple audiences as well. If there is a category you do not see listed, please let us know by emailing our program coordinator, atprogram@utos.org.

What does a response to a call for papers look like?

You should come up with a brief outline, or abstract, of your presentation and who would be interested. You should also provide some information about you, your
experience with open source software and the specific aspects you’re proposing to speak about.

Here’s an example of an abstract:

Title: Open source home security
This presentation will outline how I have used a Linux server,
IP cameras, and open source software, to provide around-the-clock
video and image surveillance of my home which is archived for
later viewing and is available for viewing via the Web when
I’m not at home.
The presentation will describe how to set up a system similar to
mine and what alternatives are available for software and hardware
in the system.

What’s in it for me?

There are lots of perks reserved for people chosen to present at the Utah Open Source Conference!

Resumé material
Having presented on a topic at a conference is a great thing to add to your resumé and could make the difference the next time you apply for a job.

Free admission
If you’re chosen as a speaker, we’ll let you — and your family — into the conference for FREE!

A picture and a paragraph
Speakers are asked to submit a digital photo and a paragraph of biographical information which will be seen by those viewing the UTOSC website and those reading the conference program.

Warm fuzzies
Being involved in the Utah Open Source Conference is a great experience. Just ask anyone who was involved in UTOSC 2007, UTOSC 2008 or UTOSC 2009.

What’s that URL again?

Go to http://2010.utosc.com and get yourself an account. Then you can submit as many presentation ideas as you wish!!

2010 is here and moving along at a good clip, can you believe it is already May?! Well the good folks at the Utah Open Source Conference have just announced their plans for this year’s conference, including dates, theme and location!

Here are the details:

The Utah Open Source Foundation is pleased to announce its 2010 Conference: October 7th-9th, 2010 at the Salt Lake Community College –Miller Free Enterprise Center in Sandy, Utah.

The Utah Open Source Conference 2010 will explore the theme “It’s better when it’s free*”.

The conference, now in its fourth year, is designed for all users, developers and administrators of Free and Open Source Software of any skill level.

You can see the official press release a Free Press Release: Utah Open Source Conference 2010 Announcement

For more information about the conference and to keep up with Open Source technology in Utah check out the foundations websites:

• http://blog.utos.org – Utah Open Source Blog
• http://utosc.com – Utah Open Source Conference 2010 Website
• #utos on irc.freenode.net
• http://identi.ca/utos – Utah Open Source on Identi.ca
• http://twitter.com/utos – Utah Open Source on Twitter
• http://www.flickr.com/groups/utosc/ – Flickr photos from previous years
• http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=117121981637421 – UTOSC on Facebook

Hey everyone!

It is time to do it again. Our monthly #hackUTOS

What is #hackUTOS?

UTOS has been sponsoring Open Source technologies in Utah for years now. This is a chance for all the members (and potential members) to come out meet some of the UTOS hackers including herlo, utahcon, and DexterTheDragon.

We will be hacking on ConMan, the Open Source Conference Management system used by UTOSC! This is a great chance for you to participate, learn,teach, and get credit toward attending the conference for a discounted price!

When is #hackUTOS?

We will be meeting Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 at 7:00PM MST.

Where is #hackUTOS?

Online

Along with meeting in person (details below) you can find us online in IRC. We are on the Freenode network in #utos-dev

IRL

Since the meeting place worked out well last time we will be meeting again at the Salt Lake Coffee Connection.

Located at:

1588 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84115

The Salt Lake Coffee Connection is a really great place to meet. They have a great internet connection (provided by our good friends at Xmission), awesome drinks (check out the Dirty Chai!) and good food! The prices are good, and internet access is included with all purchases.

What Language?

ConMan is written in Python, using the Django framework. We run it on MySQL and SQLite databases.

Don’t know Python, or Django? Don’t worry, we are all open to helping you get started. Please realize we are here to mainly work on our project, we are happy to offer light support to get you up and running.

If you aren’t interested in working on ConMan bring your own Open Source project! We would love to have you in the house for some great co-working!

When I was attending high school, only 10-13 years ago, I remember learning cutting edge technologies like HTML, JavaScript, C, and Hypercard. We weren’t quite a networked school, in fact we only had 1 or 2 classrooms with internet access. I spent most of my time in the graphics lab working with Adobe Photoshop 3, and Pagemaker. I was running printing presses that were cutting edge too, they worked like over powered copiers. I designed, printed, cut, bonded, folder, and distributed every document, award, flier, etc. the school needed. We downloaded the newest in music technology the MP3. We were crazy tech savvy kids.

Shortly after I graduated from ITT Technical, a mere 3 years later, I remember hearing about kids being able to take the A+, CCNA, and some Microsoft certification test right in high school. I felt cheated. Cheated because I had just paid over $30,000 to some monkey who ran a school that wasted 3 years of my life giving me a paper that said I already knew a bunch of things kids were learning in high school.

Dark Corners

In the tech world there are two ways to learn anything. First, you can go to school and pay a ton of money to learn things from a book, and if you are lucky you will get to put the rubber to the road, at least a little and see how all this theory really works out in real life.

The second I call the Dark Corners. Most tech savvy folk when asked will tell you they prefer to work on their systems, programs, etc. in a lightly lit dark room, usually in the corner of a building. Somewhere that they can loose their crazy socially awkward side and get some real work done. My personal “Dark Corner” is in the basement, a common favorite.

The folks spending time in Dark Corners are learning by doing. They are plugging holes in firewalls as they are learning how they are exposed, and exploited. They are designing websites in HTML5 now because they want to have the advantage when the spec is standardized, and just to be sure they are covered they are working on XHTML2 as well.

These people in the Dark Corners are your geeks. They guys who would rather spend their evenings and weekends figuring out where their packets are going across the network, how they can better encrypt their computer’s data without losing everything when one of the drives in their RAID fails.

The folks in the Dark Corners are the doers, and they are the people who know the most, no questions asked.

Bright Futures

I am sure you are wondering the point of all of this, the bright future I am talking about is this:

http://newsltechhs.wordpress.com/

The New Salt Lake City “A Charter School Preparing Tomorrow’s Tech Progeny”. This is a charter school that is designed around the idea of having your kids be tech gurus! They will learn everything from the history of computing and punch cards, to the latest and greatest OO Programming, supporting and maintaining *nix servers, and even the Windows world.

a brand new charter high school in southern Salt Lake county/northern Utah county area, dedicated to preparing tomorrow’s software and network systems engineers

This is something I would have killed to attend when I was a kid.

Help Out

They are looking for support from the community in the way of Human Resources, Policy and Procedure, budgeting and more!

As this is something I would hope my kids would one day attend, you can believe I will be getting involved. I hope each of you will see the value of something like this in our community and culture and will give it your honest best effort to help it come to fruition.

Geek Lunch

Meet at the nearest location to you at 12:30pm this Friday, February 26, 2010.  If you have never been, look for the group with this logo at their table.  Geek Lunch is organized by the Utah Open Source Foundation, but you must pay for your meal.  We look forward to seeing all of you there.

When:

Date: Friday,February 26, 2010
Time: 12:30pm – 2:00pm

Where:

We have geeks all over Utah, and as such we like to spread the love to more than just 1 pub, so we have two (because Utah county is slacking) locations to choose from.

Salt Lake County
The Green Pig
31 East 400 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Website: http://www.thegreenpigpub.com/
Map: http://snipr.com/uhhox
Phone: (801) 532-7441

Weber / Davis Counties
Roosters
748 Heritage Park Boulevard
Layton, Utah 84041
Website: http://roostersbrewingco.com/
Map: http://snipr.com/uhizp
Phone: (801) 774-9330

Utah County
There is currently no place planned for in Utah county due to low turnout.  If you would like to help organize a Geek Lunch in Utah county, please email clint@utos.org.

ConMan Hack Night

Did you attend UTOSC last year? Are you going to attend this year? Did you like how the process to register and attend was super easy? That is all thanks to ConMan, the Conference Management software that the Utah Open Source Foundation created, and maintains.

If you want to make sure things stay smooth at the conference, and participate in an open source project then you are invited to come down and help us code the project to the next milestone!

Where:

Salt Lake Coffee Connection

1588 South State Street, Salt Lake City UT

Directions

When: 7pm – ??

You see the ?? means you can come and code as late as you want! The coffee house is open really late, and you are welcome to stay and code till they kick you out!

What:

So we get together each week to work on the project, cause we think ConMan can be the best conference management software ever! We simply would love to have some more people who love open source, and know python and django come down and contribute to the code base!

If you are lazy like me then bookmarking is great!

In that thought, I have copied all the links from utos.org and made them into a bookmarks file for Chrome.

I have tarred and gzipped it, so you will need to untar and un-gzip it

http://utahcon.com/files/utos_bookmarks.tar.gz

Over the last year I have read and reviewed a lot of books by Packt Publishing, and I wanted to share one of the reasons (aside from the awesome books) why I have chosen to work with Packt Publishing.

From PacktPub.com

Packt Open Source Project Royalty Scheme

Packt believes in Open Source. When we sell a book written on an Open Source project, we pay a royalty directly to that project. As a result of purchasing one of our Open Source books, Packt will have given some of the money received to the Open Source project.

In the long term, we see ourselves and yourselves, as customers and readers of our books, as part of the Open Source ecosystem, providing sustainable revenue for the projects we publish on. Our aim at Packt is to establish publishing royalties as an essential part of the service and support business model that sustains Open Source.

It’s this kind of commitment from a publisher that really separates the wheat form the chaff.  I feel good when I read a book that is written by Packt because I know that I am, at least in some part, giving back to a community that has given so much to us.