About



Technologies

This site could not exist without some very cool technologies. Without the openness and generosity of these projects, my own little project could not exist. The first four are the all-important LAMP stack that provides a stable and powerful platform for me to develop on.

  • Linux - Since I can't really afford several hundred dollars for an inferior operating system, I've been running Linux for nearly a decade. The Linux way of doing things has influenced most of my code. I personally run Debian. FreeBSD is nice, by FAMP just doesn't have the same ring as LAMP, does it?
  • Apache - Rock solid web server.
  • MySQL - Free, easy to use, and powerful database. Plus, the dolphin is a pretty cute mascot.
  • PHP - PHP is the magic smoke that powers this site. As a PHP developer by trade, I believe strongly that PHP is a great language, despite what some people might say. It's easy and powerful. Plus, I'm a big fan of recursive acronyms. PHP stands for PHP Hypertext Processor, which if you try to unroll the PHP in the long name leads you to question the very make up of space and time. I suggest you don't do it, or your head might explode.


In addition to the big four, various other projects have either made my development life easier, or have added flourishes to the site to make it flashy while still lightweight:

  • ADODB - Database abstraction layer. If for some reason I want to downgrade from MySQL to a "real" database like DB2 or Oracle, ADODB makes it easier. It also allegedly adds some speed, though I haven't benchmarked it.
  • Prototype - The prototype library makes interacting with a web page's DOM much easier, makes the code look cleaner, and just makes things cool. I dig it, and you should too.
  • JSCalendar - Handy calendar script to provide the little popup calendars on the event editor page.
  • WZ Tooltip - Cool script for adding tooltips to a link. It's used extensively on the calendar page. When you hover over an event, this script powers the popup that you see.
  • Eclipse with the PHPeclipse plugin - Development environment that keeps me from pulling out my hair.
  • Firefox with many of the great extensions, such as Web Developer, HTML Tidy, and the Javascript Debugger.
  • Sociable by Peter Harkins - Code to add the social bookmarking features.
  • PHPUnit - Regression testing suite to make sure that I don't break other parts of the codebase when I modify something.
  • HitTail - Cool service that lets me see what people are searching for so I can add content that people want to read.
  • Google Maps - Allowed me to create a mashup that shows the Dallas area venues on a map.