Scott A. Wilburn » PHP

My Blog has a new look and feel

scott — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:35:00 +0000

My long-neglected blog now has a new look and feel, plus I have added new social networking features so that it better integrates into Facebook and Twitter. I plan on doing more posts about PHP and Zend Framework to make my blog more interesting to read.

ZendCon 2008

scott — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:46:47 +0000

I’m just about to fly home after spending the week at ZendCon in Santa Clara, California. It was my first trip to ZendCon and was glad to get the chance to interact with other PHP developers and other industry leaders. Nearly 700 attendees, including other PHP developers, managers and other professionals were on hand for the four day event. The hot topic for the conference seemed to center around the Zend Framework.

I had evaluated the Zend Framework about a year and a half ago, just shortly after it’s version 1.0 release. At that time, I was disappointed with the performance of the MySQL adaptor in the framework and decided not to use it as my MVC framework. But now Zend Framework has had some time to mature and I am again looking at using it for all my future development. Since it is very modular, I can choose which components to use and which components I can extend on my own. The other tool I plan on using is Zend Studio for Eclipse. I don’t currently use an IDE, and I think it is time that I start using one.

All in all, it was definitely a worthwhile convention. I hope to return for ZendCon 2009.

Spokane Salaries: Why so low?

scott — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:36:40 +0000

I recently came across a problem. I was really in need of consulting with a qualified PHP/MySQL developer close to home to discuss a problem that I needed to solve. I only know of one in the area and it got me thinking about where these mid-career professionals might be. Did these qualified developers leave the area?

So I started thinking about salaries. The bulk of my work comes from Seattle, so for me personally this is not a concern, but what about the people here who work for a Spokane-based employer? I went to payscale.com to get some salary comparisons, not just between Seattle and Spokane, but also from cities closer in population to Spokane.

When I did a search on software developer salaries between Spokane, Boise and Seattle, I found that salaries are significantly lower for software developers in Spokane. This could be why there’s few qualified software developers in the area.

The big question is, WHY?

Median Salary by Job – City: Spokane (United States)

CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser

Median Salary by Job – City: Boise (United States)

CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser

Median Salary by Job – City: Seattle (United States)

CAREER TOOLS: Salary Calculator, Career Path Tool, Cost of Living Calculator, Meeting Miser

My Lastest and Greatest Web Project

scott — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:01:24 +0000

If you’re wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I’ve been working on one of the biggest sites I’ve ever helped launch: www.pchquiz4cash.com. The site is written using PHP/MySQL and offers quizzes which users can answer questions and win cash if they ace the quiz. The site was launched at Christmas and if you visit the site you can see how many people have taken quizzes. As of this post, it’s nearing 300,000!

That’s the good news. The even better news is that I launched this site not as a small employee of some large corporation, but as part of a business partnership. If all goes well, I will be able to say that I am successful in business and don’t have to depend on working for someone else for my livelihood.

I’m on the market

scott — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 07:16:48 +0000

In my last post, I mentioned the large number of contacts I’ve gotten from job recruters this summer… well, this is a good thing because I was laid off from my job on Monday. So, I’m looking for contract or full-time positions as a PHP/MySQL developer in Seattle. Some technologies I have to offer include XML, CSS, HTML, PHP, MySQL, MVC frameworks (using Object-Oriented PHP). My resume can be found here.

New Smarty Extension for Dreamweaver

scott — Fri, 12 May 2006 17:16:00 +0000

I recently packaged a Smarty template extension for Dreamweaver which allows web designers who are working with Smarty templates to work on templates using Dreamweaver’s Design View. You can download the extension here. To install the extension, simply use the Macromedia Extension Manager. I offer no support or warranties for this extension, but welcome feedback about it.