Scott Johnson, co-founder of Feedster, has been doing a series of podcasts and I’ve been listening all morning. They are quite excellent. Among the best geek podcasts I’ve heard.
For instance, “understanding search engine issues” is useful to any business who needs to be listed on search engines like Google/Yahoo/MSN. Or, he’ll teach you how to learn PHP.
Other topics? PHP vs. Rails. Advice for startups. Really great stuff.

Where is the text version?
Where is the text version?
Sorry, if you want to pick Scott’s brain you gotta listen.
Sorry, if you want to pick Scott’s brain you gotta listen.
*Blush*. Why thank you so much Robert. Appreciated.
And Al the text version is, well, just FuzzyBlog itself. http://www.fuzzyblog.com/ but there isn’t a text version of the podcasts themselves all the time. Sometimes but not always by anymeans.
*Blush*. Why thank you so much Robert. Appreciated.
And Al the text version is, well, just FuzzyBlog itself. http://www.fuzzyblog.com/ but there isn’t a text version of the podcasts themselves all the time. Sometimes but not always by anymeans.
Fuzzyblog is awesome, thanks for the hookup.
Fuzzyblog is awesome, thanks for the hookup.
Thanks for the link, I’ve just downloaded and getting ready to listen!
Thanks for the link, I’ve just downloaded and getting ready to listen!
Reading a book is not the second best way to learn PHP as Scott claims in his podcast (with the very, very annoying sound in the background). And this comes from somebody who does commercial PHP development and has written multiple courses on the subject and interviewed the creator of PHP.
The second best way to learn PHP is to follow a (free) online course — and there are several good ones out there — that actually has you build real world scripts, step by step, as Scott says is how his brother does it. Build scripts to do simple things. You won’t get that in many books although I haven’t read the one from Sam’s that Scott recommends.
For example, a one liner to change the background color randomly of a webpage on each visit in one line of code: http://www.php-scripts.com/20060714/89/
Reading a book is not the second best way to learn PHP as Scott claims in his podcast (with the very, very annoying sound in the background). And this comes from somebody who does commercial PHP development and has written multiple courses on the subject and interviewed the creator of PHP.
The second best way to learn PHP is to follow a (free) online course — and there are several good ones out there — that actually has you build real world scripts, step by step, as Scott says is how his brother does it. Build scripts to do simple things. You won’t get that in many books although I haven’t read the one from Sam’s that Scott recommends.
For example, a one liner to change the background color randomly of a webpage on each visit in one line of code: http://www.php-scripts.com/20060714/89/
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I do wholeheartedly agree with the last thing that Scott says on the podcast about too many programmers making the profession out to be a black art. I have been writing and saying that for years. Scoble, you could be a programmer, if you wanted to spend the time and energy to learn. Don’t let programmer ego-types get in your way of expanding your knowledge
The first step in doing so would be getting on your own server (virtual hosting fine) and running your own copy of WordPress. This way you could build some plugins that you’ve always wanted to build. I’ve seen you mention several ideas before that you could whip up without too much programming knowledge as WP plugins.
I do wholeheartedly agree with the last thing that Scott says on the podcast about too many programmers making the profession out to be a black art. I have been writing and saying that for years. Scoble, you could be a programmer, if you wanted to spend the time and energy to learn. Don’t let programmer ego-types get in your way of expanding your knowledge
The first step in doing so would be getting on your own server (virtual hosting fine) and running your own copy of WordPress. This way you could build some plugins that you’ve always wanted to build. I’ve seen you mention several ideas before that you could whip up without too much programming knowledge as WP plugins.
Nice to see Scott get mentioned here. Not only is he the “geek’s geek,” he is also a good sport about answering questions from accidental geeks (like me) about tech stuff. Go listen to his podcasts. He knows stuff.
Nice to see Scott get mentioned here. Not only is he the “geek’s geek,” he is also a good sport about answering questions from accidental geeks (like me) about tech stuff. Go listen to his podcasts. He knows stuff.