Orchestra Blog

Changes to Orchestra Blog and Twitter

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:19:00 +0000

[Update: Although we had the @eyorchestra name reserved to prepare for the switch, Twitter would not allow us to bypass the 30 day waiting period for newly deleted names, so we’ll have to wait a few weeks before this change can take effect.]

Because of our continued consolidation with the Engine Yard folks, we will be migrating this blog over to the main one found at the Engine Yard site: http://engineyard.com/blog. If you’re interested in only the PHP type posts, you can find a PHP category there. This change will take place tomorrow, February 1, 2012.

February 1 will also bring a change in our Twitter name: we will be changing our name from @orchestra_io to @eyorchestra to better represent the fact that Orchestra is a part of the Engine Yard family. Of course, if you’re already following us, you’ll still be with us (and for that we’re really glad!)

Thanks for your continued support of the Orchestra product— we heart our users!

Helping Dallas PHP User Group Celebrate 100 Meetings!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:21:11 +0000

We want to send a hearty congratulations to the Dallas PHP User Group for their upcoming 100th meeting celebration! Running a user group takes a lot of hard work and dedication, and it’s because of guys like Jake Smith, Chris Cornutt, and Daniel Cousineau that the group has continued to grow.

To help them celebrate, we’re helping sponsor an after party at their 100th meeting, on Tuesday, January 10 at The Londoner. If you’re a PHP developer in the Dallas area, you should definitely take a look at this group, and feel free to join us!

Get more info or RSVP at the Dallas PHP Meetup site.

Sponsoring The Winter BBQ at PHPBenelux 2012

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:18:58 +0000

If you’ve not heard of the PHPBenelux conference then you should take a moment and give it a look. This is a fantastic community-run conference in Antwerp, Belgium, that brings PHP enthusiasts from all over the world together. They do an outstanding job every year, and it’s all because of the dedication of the user group volunteers.

That’s why we are thrilled to be sponsoring the event. This community works very hard to make this happen, and we’re so glad to be a part of it. This year we’re hosting an after party — an outdoor BBQ with our very own clubhouse! We hope this will be a great opportunity for attendees to come together, relax, have some food and drinks, and take time to get to know each other. As important as the talks are at a conference, the face-to-face interactions and discussions are often equally as important.

So if you are planning on being in the area on January 27-28, attending this conference should be high on your priority list.

Future of PHP Recordings Available

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:20:35 +0000

Bummed because you missed one of our “Future of” series of panel discussions? Fear not! We’ve saved them all and posted them just for you.

Future of PHP: CakePHP with Graham Weldon, Larry Masters, Jose Lorenzo, Mark Story
Future of PHP: Lithium with Gwoo, Nate Abele, John Anderson
Future of PHP: Zend Framework with Matthew Weier O’Phinney, Rob Allen, Ralph Schindler, Evan Coury
Future of PHP: PEAR/Pyrus with Brett Bieber, David Coallier, Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson, and Till Klampäckel

After the first of the year we will be bringing you a few more, so stay tuned:

Future of PHP: Symfony
Future of PHP: Internals
Future of PHP: Visions from Userland

We’d also love to hear more ideas on topics that affect the PHP landscape in general, so if you have something in mind let us know! We want to know what you think, and we want to talk about the future of PHP with you.

Cloud Out Loud Interview with Authors of PHP Master:Write Cutting-Edge Code

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:24:47 +0000

We’re glad to release this podcast we did with Davey Shafik, Lorna Mitchell, and Matthew Turland, the authors of a new book by Sitepoint called PHP Master: Write Cutting-Edge Code.

You can read more about the podcast, check out related links, and have a listen at the Engine Yard Developer Center.

Thanks much to the authors for participating. You guys rock!

OINK-PUG Holiday Meeting Tonight w/ Engine Yard

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:29:07 +0000

We are excited to be spending the holidays with OINK-PUG (Ohio, Indiana, Northern Kentucky PHP Users Group) and we hope you are able to come join us, and enjoy and adult beverage on our behalf. We will also have some goodies to hand out.

We are meeting tonight at 7pm at the Brazenhead Irish Pub in Cincinnati. A “White Elephant Gift Exchange” will be happening, so bring a small gift (up to $5) if you’ll be there and want to participate. No real white elephants, though.

Please do us a favor and RSVP if you plan on attending, so we make sure to have enough room for everybody. Hope to see you there!

David Coallier Speaking at PHP Benelux User Group Tonight

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:32:48 +0000

Hey all you Belgian PHPers, we hope to see you tonight at the PHP Benelux user group meeting, where our very own David Coallier will be talking about Mobile Cloud Architectures. A little about this talk:

From iPhones, iPads, to Androids and Blackberries, everyone wants to build a mobile application. After having written their applications, many iOS and Java/Android developers find themselves in a pickle because they realise they need a way to gather, process, analyse, share, and distribute the data of their mobile-application users.

This talk provides the developers with alternatives to developing “native-apps” and more importantly suggests some cloud-related architectural concepts that can help companies and developers save time and money whilst keeping in mind the security implications and intricacies of mobile applications.

It’s not about “how” to develop mobile apps but rather some ideas, some little software for building HTML5, etc.

And importantly “THE API!”

For more information about this meeting, visit the PHP Benelux User Group website. Hope you can join us!

Future of PHP: CakePHP Panel Discussion

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:02:13 +0000

We hope you will join us on Monday, December 12 at 5:00 pm EST as we speak with CakePHP project leaders Larry Masters, Graham Weldon, Mark Story, and José Lorenzo. We will be discussing where the CakePHP project is going, and other topics such as the future of the PHP framework landscape in general. We’ll be taking your questions live.

Hello CodeWorks!

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:57:32 +0000

We are very happy to be joining the CodeWorks crew in the Madison, Nashville and Orlando. If you’re not familiar with the CodeWorks conference, it is a traveling PHP conference, that could quite possibly be coming to a city near you (if you’re in the US, that is). At $100 for the one-day conference, it’s a great deal. For more information, go to the CodeWorks site.

If you’ll be attending any of these, we hope you will join us as we host the after parties at nearby locations. Come hang out with us!

php|architect's Virtual Cloud Summit Today

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:13:10 +0000

If you haven’t heard about the Virtual Cloud Summit from php|architect, and you’re interested in learning more about what people are doing in the cloud, then we might suggest you take a look!

With guest speakers like Sean Coates, Jeremy Johnstone, Kirsten Jones, Steve Francia and Marcus Whitney, it’s sure to be a great day of cloud goodness.

From the php|architect site, the high points to be covered are:

Learn how cloud computing can help you today from those who actually use it—not from those who want to sell it to you
See how the cloud makes it possible for small companies to be successful in big ways
Get valuable tips on how you can get started right away
Find out how you can “cloud proof” your development even if you are not in the cloud today
Discover where the cloud is going, and why you can’t afford to ignore it

It’s from 12:00-4:30 Eastern Time today, and you can buy your ticket at the php|architect site. We’re proud to be sponsoring this event and we know it’s going to be a good one.

Future of PHP: Lithium Podcast Announced

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:45:40 +0000

We are excited about the next edition in our we have the next in our “Future of PHP” panel discussion series. This time, we’ll be talking to some of the core developers of the Lithium Framework about its future and what things are coming down the line. We really hope you will be able to join us for this live panel discussion!

The Future of PHP: Lithium
When: Thursday, December 1, 2011, 12:00 pm EST
Panelists: Nate Abele, Garrett Woodworth, John Anderson

Note: This is a free event, but you must register for more information and to participate.

Future of PHP: Symfony Panel Discussion Announced

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:44:00 +0000

UPDATE: This panel discussion is being rescheduled for some time after the first of the year. Stay tuned for more info!

We are thrilled to announce the next in the “Future of PHP” series of Panel Discussions hosted by Engine Yard: Future of PHP: Symfony. We’re bringing together some of the brightest Symfony minds on the planet to discuss where the project is going.

When: ~~Wednesday, November 23, 12:00 pm EST~~

Where: Register for more details

Who: Fabien Potencier, Kris Wallsmith, Stefan Koopmanschap

As before, we will be taking questions live, so if you would like to participate in the discussion, by all means, come join us!

Future of PHP: PEAR/Pyrus Panel Discussion

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:12:35 +0000

We hope that you will join us in a live panel discussion on the Future of PHP: PEAR/Pyrus. This marks the first in our series, where we talk with project and community leaders in the various areas of PHP about what’s in store for the future.

When: Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm EST

Where: Register for details

Who: David Coallier, Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson, Brett Bieber, Till Klampaeckel

We will be taking questions live, so we hope that you can join us! As a reminder, you’ll have to register beforehand in order to receive the login information.

Changing the World with Open Data

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:25:46 +0000

A few weeks ago, I attended a conference called Brooklyn Beta. In its second year, the conference is basically a collection of designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and crazy ne’er-do-wells. This conference usually leaves me feeling inspired, excited, intimidated, and ready to conquer the world, and this year was no different.

While there were a few underlying themes running through the conference, the main theme was “Make Something You Love.” An intriguing and simple statement, but how many of us really are making something we love? How many of us are using our powers for Awesome versus just Meh? Creating something different, listening to your heart when all others think you’re doing it wrong, helping society and others around you, and changing the lives of others, were all common mentions at this conference. Whatever tools you choose or language you code in, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that at the end of the day, you made a difference. You left your mark on society. You made the world a better place to be in. You created something that wasn’t there the day before.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a data geek so when I saw a wonderful speaker named Todd Park give a talk on healthdata.gov, it really got my attention. (As well, Todd is a superbly dynamic speaker who can make even the topic of healthcare in America interesting and engaging.) Healthdata.gov is an open initiative that takes data from Medicaid/Medicare, hospitals, pharmacies, doctors offices and other related agencies, and releases it out into the public. To clarify, of course they aren’t releasing personal, private information about you and your medical history. That is illegal. But they have been able to release aggregated information such as:

And this is only a sampling. Currently, there are 248 sources of data at this one site, just waiting for you to have a look. The best part is, they’re working hard to encourage people to do cool things with the data they provide. Check out the Apps Expo on their site for some amazing apps that have been written so far, and their list of developer challenges and Code-A-Thons.

You might think some of this data sounds kind of boring. But what if you took it one step further and cross-matched it with other, unrelated data? Are there trends, connections, or correlations? For example, could a hospital prepare in advance for flu cases based on weather reports and trends? Could you track cost of living expenses with where there is a shortage of health professionals to help nurses in school figure out where they should live?

What other kinds of seemingly unrelated data could we cross-match? For that matter, what other data is out there?

When we think of open data, we usually think about commercially released APIs from sites like Twitter and Facebook. But, there are hundreds of terabytes of other data just waiting for us to twist and turn and mold into something that wasn’t there before. Like a sculptor creating a masterpiece from a block of stone or clay, we have a block of raw numbers that we can put together in new ways. For instance, did you know that besides the government’s health data, we also have at our disposal data on the following?

There are over 100 XML feeds, APIs, and other data sources at http://www.usgovxml.com/, including other topics such as court findings, treasury information, social security data, etc. The list above is just a sampling.

Besides data available at the government level, let’s not also forget public records data at the state and county levels. Publicly available information includes:

Abandoned and Unclaimed Properties
Grants
Criminal records and data
Real estate sales, transfers, and deeds
Marriage/divorce/childbirth records
Most Wanted and Fugitive data
Obituaries
Stolen vehicles/boats data
Historical Newspaper Headline data
Missing persons
Economical data (exports, demographics, property values, salaries, etc.)
Tourism data

A link to each individual state government website can be found on USA.gov.

What happens if we cross reference traffic patterns with age of people driving, or motorcycle licenses with crash reports, so we can better educate our motorcycle riding population and reduce the number of injuries? What kinds of motorcycle crashes are the most common? What part of the country has the lowest motorcycle fatality rate? Does average age of riders or weather have an effect on this? What makes them successful? What can we learn from that?

What happens if we overlap sports statistics with education? Or what if we look at health records and divorce records versus marriage licenses? Does a population with a high divorce rate also die earlier? Does it go to the hospital more? Are there diseases that are more common in married people versus single people? What if we referenced dog ownership with divorce rates? Or use health records as an indicator of where dog therapy programs should be?

What if we wanted to write an app that would help veterans or homeless advocates find abandoned and unclaimed properties, and match them with available grants? Or what if we wanted to help photographers get that perfect shot by matching up sunset times and beach locations with weather patterns, so they know when and where they can find a perfect cloud-free beach sunset?

What things can we predict? What correlations can be made? How can we help people do their jobs better or live better lives? How can we use our skills to make data available to others? What other data should we have access to, and who can we talk to about that?

It should also be known that there are hundreds of other data sources for other countries, not just the US. Some other resources for you, if you’re interested in looking at international data:

Knowledge is power, especially when it can be backed by looking at data in a new and exciting way. It’s open and waiting for all of us. What will you do with it?

(Cross-posted on the Engine Yard blog)

Join Us in Orlando, FL Tonight

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:28:03 +0000

Our very own Davey Shafik will be presenting at the Orlando PHP User Group Meetup where he will be giving a talk entitled “Get Soaked: An in-depth look at PHP Streams”. The group will be meeting at 6:00 pm and there are only a few slots left, so you should probably RSVP.

We will also be buying food for the meeting, so we really hope you can join us!

Hello, San Francisco and Nashville!

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:36:05 +0000

Just a heads up— we will be hanging out with the San Francisco PHP User Group and the Nashville User Group this evening. If you live in the area of either of these two Meetups, we’d love to have you join us for an evening of education, fun, food, and beer. The drinks are on us!

The San Francisco PHP User Group meets tonight at 6:30 pm at 625 Second Street (IGN Entertainment) and the topic is “Living without Your Linemen: The Programmer Becomes System Operator in the Cloud.”

The Nasvhille PHP User Group meets tonight at 6 pm at 4322 Harding Pike (ESpaces) and the topic is “Dropping jQuery into Your Next Project.”

Hope to see you there!

Eamon Leonard\'s Interview on Building Tech Communities

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:47:00 +0000

In case you missed it, Eamon Leonard was interviewed a few days ago at the Dublin Web Summit on the importance of building a tech community, how open source communities contribute to real innovation in the industry, and why the sense of community is so important to Engine Yard and the Orchestra team.

Take me to the video!

Time Lapse of the "24 The Web" Event in Dublin

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:12:01 +0000

Last weekend, the Dublin Engine Yard office hosted a 24 hour web design challenge called 24 The Web, wherein participants donated their time and expertise to help charities. We wanted to share with you this very cool video- all 24 hours summed up in 01:47. Enjoy!

24 the web from Matt Finucane on Vimeo.

Orchestra Users: We Want to Hear From You!

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:05:13 +0100

Hello! I’m Elizabeth Naramore, the new PHP Community Manager for Engine Yard/Orchestra. I started coding PHP back in 2002, and since then, I’ve been a pretty active member of the global PHP Community, my local PHP user group (OINK-PUG in Cincinnati, Ohio) and with PHPWomen.org, where I’m President. I also recently came from SourceForge, where I was the Community Development Manager. I’m an author, speaker, coder, and I am so happy to be back in the PHP community once again. It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart, and it’s where I belong.

I’m also excited about getting to know the Orchestra community, which is why we’re running this contest. We know you guys are doing awesome things on the Orchestra platform, and we want to hear your stories. We will pick 5 lucky winners who will not only get a write-up on our blog, they will also get a copy of Sitepoint’s recently released PHP Master: Write Cutting Edge Code, co-authored by our very own Davey Shafik.

So tell us your story! What cool project are you working on? What does it do? How is the Orchestra platform helping you? What challenges have you had, and how have you overcome them? What was the inspiration for your idea?

We want to hear it all. Send your stories to me by November 15, to enaramore@engineyard.com. Looking forward to getting to know you!

SHAFIK. DAVEY SHAFIK.

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:05:26 +0100

We’ve been quiet since our last post. It seems that merging your team and operations with another company doesn’t happen over night :)

The last month has been amazing. Becoming part of the Engine Yard family has been lots of fun. We’ve been on a hiring spree, and we’re excited about the imminent expansion of our team. It’s good news for us, and it’s good news for our users — it means new and long-awaited features will start to appear in near future.

The first of the new wave of Orchestrons are starting today. His name is Davey Shafik, and he’s a PHP badass, as you can tell by the “movie” poster below.

Davey is well know in the PHP community as an author and a contributor. In his time he has

initiated PHAR, the PHP Archive, now included in PHP 5.3 core
written books on PHP, including the Zend PHP5 Certification Study Guide, The PHP Anthology and the soon to be released Elite PHP.
co-created (along with Matthew Weier O’Phinney) SOAP, WSDL and REST web services components for Zend Framework

We’re excited to have Davey on board, his deep expertise of PHP and his love of the PHP community and Open Source is perfectly aligned with our core values and culture.

Watch out for him at the upcoming slew of PHP confs, make sure you say hi, and tell him to buy you a beer :)