“Rickroll…” goes to print with php|architect!

One of my accomplishments during 2008 was preparing and presenting a new talk, “Rickroll To Go With WURFL, PHP, and Other Open Source Tools”. This talk focused on some of the challenges with delivering content to mobile device users, such as limited bandwidth, limited resources on the device, and varying device support for video and audio formats. It illustrated how to use tools such as the imagick extension and FFmpeg to deliver content and an experience that was optimized for mobile devices.

Or, another way to refer to it: if you were ever at a PHP conference and heard of some dude Rickrolling a group during his talk, that was me.

I gave this talk at Atlanta PHP, ZendCon 2008 and PHP Appalachia, and received positive reception and feedback in all cases.

Now, in trying to knock out my New Year’s resolutions, I am adapting this talk into an article for php|architect, which will be published around October 2009.

I’ve only got 3,000 words to work with, so I may not be able to address all three major content areas — images, video, and audio — but I’ll do what I can. The focus of the issue will be “graphic manipulation,” so focusing on the image portion may end up making the most sense given the word limitations. You don’t want to read more than 3,000 words worth of my ramblings anyway.

So, keep your eyes open for that issue later in the year! Also, special thanks to Elizabeth Naramore, Beth Tucker Long, and Marco Tabini for the opportunity to grace the pages of their fantastic publication with my words, ideas, and experience.

Also, another special thanks to my co-workers JP Crevoiserat and Joseph Jorgensen who worked with me on a project that inspired the talk and this article. And as always, a special thanks for Schematic for always supporting the community-related efforts of its employees.

Factory Method pattern; ATLPHP tonight!

I’ll be giving a “mini-talk” on the Factory Method pattern at Atlanta PHP this evening.

Who doesn’t love the Factory Method pattern, right? Good stuff. A link to a PDF of the slides is below. I struggled to come up with a cool example, but an one related to cars was the best that I could do. You’ll find some PHP-specific example code in the slides, too.

Grab the slides (PDF)

For further reading on the Factory Method pattern and other classic design patterns, you can always grab a copy of Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Enjoy!

Seven Things

I’m getting in on this “Seven Things” deal by way of being “tagged” by Ben Ramsey. And yes, Ben, while I am technically your “boss,” we’re all still on vacation, so…that doesn’t count now. Or something. Cut it out.

So, here are my seven things, which have been rolling around my head all day. Here we go:

• I’m a triplet. My other two brothers, Brad and Brent, live in Baltimore and Kansas City respectively. We were born one-minute apart. Brad is also in the IT industry working for the government, while Brent is working for my Dad at Midwest Towers in estimating, sales, repairs, etc. for cooling towers.
• I started coding in BASIC on an Apple IIe around 4th or 5th grade. I later expanded into GWBASIC on DOS, and took Pascal and other programming classes in high school. Around age 14, I released various shareware applications written (and compiled!) in QuickBASIC under the name Untitled Software. I received a handful of registrations for my “most popular” product, “Master Menu III,” which was a DOS-based application launcher (complete with VGA mode screensavers!). My most distant registration was from the Netherlands, so I just gave him a free license in order to not deal with currency exchange stuff.
• While working at Best Buy from Summer 1997 to December 1998, I had the opportunity to wear the Idea Box costume during a holiday season. You can’t see them, but I’m wearing blue and yellow elf shoe covers over my shoes. I also couldn’t talk, would just have to wave and shake hands with people. My friends would come in the store, so I’d see them outside the mesh on the “B” in “Best” and break the no-talking rule. Occasionally I’d roam around the store being goofy, while trying to not knock things over. It was a great time! Normally, I worked in the Media Department, which sold music, movies, and software. Loved that job!
• I moved from the suburbs of Kansas City, MO to New York City at the ripe old age of 19. I was offered a job with VitalAging (now BenefitsCheckUp.org) as a Systems Administrator. I had nothing to lose, so…why not? Then I stayed there seven years before moving to Atlanta. Brooklyn, represent!
• After moving to the NYC area, I continued and completed my undergraduate education at Baruch College, CUNY by going to school in the mornings and evenings, while still working full-time. It was tough, but worth it. I got my degree in Computer Information Systems (more business-, accounting-, and management-focused), which has turned out to be very practical. I wish I had algorithms, compilers, and all of those other low-level Computer Science courses, but the practical things have served me very well.
• I met my wife, found my job at Schematic, and my last Brooklyn apartment on Craigslist (NYC).
• I have a long family history of being a huge fan of Hooters (the restaurant). I’ve been going there since I was pretty young. Whenever we’d travel as a family, we’d stop at locations during our trip. My Dad actually collects the menus for all of the ones be visits — he must have 50 to 60 at this point. I once drove from Boston to NYC via Rhode Island just to be the first DeShong to visit a location in that state. And yes, I took a menu and mailed it to my Dad. I go for the food, though — I’ll even get takeout (when my wife refuses to go), which proves my devotion to the food.

And here are my lucky seven!

• Robert Swarthout because I want to see if he’ll actually step up and write this blog post…and because he’s a co-worker of mine and a fellow Atlantan
• Graham Christensen, one of the youngest dudes in PHP, for having just visited Georgia, the state I now call home
• Shawn Stratton for being another fellow Atlantan, and for that time we randomly bumped into each other at the Envelope Building downtown
• Brian Moon for being my PHP Appalachia 2008 “Team Haystacks” teammate, and a fellow southerner
• Jason Sweat for attending my talk(s) at php|tek 2008, and having some awesome feedback. And for having an awesome last name?
• Lars Strojny for proving some comments and feedback on my Zend_Log_Writer_Mail proposal
• Nate Abele for being the CakePHP and OmniTI dude, and for that time a handful of us went drinking and to the Comedy Cellar in NYC

And, of course, the rules:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.