Davey Shafik's Pixelated Dreams

After lots of thinking, I've decided that I'm going to move all my sites to Mosso cloud hosting.

Frankly, it's just too much work to maintain my own systems, and Mosso is $30/month cheaper than my dedicated server. In addition, as things grow for me, I think Mosso will prove to be a much more scalable proposition; including being able to have them handle support and billing of my clients.

I moved the ZCE Guide site over there last night and it was just so easy, I figured, what the hell may as well do the big move and push over my blog.

I was able to use the mysql command line client to push a SQL dump directly from my current server to Mosso's server(s) and after a lengthy (30+MB) upload and a config tweak, it just worked. Very impressed with Mosso so far

Just need to find a way to combine all my mailboxes into one. It looks like forwarding might be the best option.

If you're seeing this post, then your DNS already updated and you're looking at the new site, yay for you!

- Davey

Well, on May 31st, I'm turning 24; going from early-twenties to mid-twenties. So. old.

To combat the aging, I've bought myself an awesome birthday gift, well, several:

• A Giant Boulder SE 2008 mountain bike (Aluminum frame, 21 gears/quickshift shimano, v-brakes, front suspension.)
• A Nashbar Adjustable Fluid Trainer to allow me to use it inside during the heat of the summer/thunderstorms/hurricanes
• A Polar F5 Heart Rate Monitor Watch
• A Planet Protégé Cyclocompter w/temperature monitor and rear-wheel mounting kit (necessary with the trainer!)

I also bought myself the first (?) four books in the Ender's Game series.

Why did I buy this particular set of equipment? First, I had a 1999-2000 Boulder Giant back in the UK, and I absolutely loved it for my school commute (~2miles/day) and for messing around on (ever seen a mountain bike on a half-pipe? yeah... did that).

Secondly, I was looking at exercise bikes, because I honestly didn't think I'd be inclined to cycle out in the FL heat (~105F in the summer) but was unhappy that with an exercise bike I wouldn't be able to go out with it at all. My co-worker mentioned I could get a trainer, and it seems to be the best of both worlds, though I'm spending ~$600 instead of $350-400 with the separate cyclocomputer/HRM etc, I think being able to just unhook it and go out when I want to is worth it.

Also, many thanks to the folks on IRC, particularly Emma from #phpwomen for the advice over the last week

My goal (which I am stating publically in the hopes that it will motivate me to stick to it) is to be riding 10 miles/day by the end of the summer, and to lose at least 60lbs, preferably 80lbs (though not necessarily by the end of the summer . In contrast, my personal best, is 330 miles over 5 weeks, when I was still in high-school, which averages to ~9.5miles/day.

- Davey

(pssst; my wishlist is publicly available. nudge nudge.)

So, I'm sorta back. I found an ancient backup of this site from October 2006. I also have a copy (thanks Helgi!) of anything that hit Planet PHP, so when I get some time I'll push that stuff back into the DB.

My other sites (zceguide.com, for example) will slowly but surely come back online as time goes by.

- Davey
P.S.
Hard drives suck. Royally.

For those of you who want to participate in the ZCEGuide.com Zend Framework Proposal competition, the deadline of October 31st is fast approaching.

So be sure to enter today!

- Davey

php|architect has announced the php|tek 2007 conference which will be held in Chicago, May 16th-18th, 2007. php|architect conferences, if you have never been, are an absolute blast. I went to php|works in Toronto in '05, and php|tek in Orlando this past April, and the people and the facilities, and of course the talks and the beer are first rate

If, like me, you haven't been to Chicago, you might be wondering "WTH is in Chicago?!", well, it is the third largest city in the US (population) and apparently has a wonderful selection of Museums, a great Zoo, and the the highest density of "Frank Lloyd Wright" homes in the US. On top of that, its on Lake Michigan, and is accessible via the second most busy airport in the US, "Chicago O'Hare Airport", so you can probably get a direct flight from most anywhere in North America (2.5hrs from Tampa -> Chicago, $193/per adult; American Airlines @ expedia.com).

I will be submitting papers, and hopefully be presenting there, if not I will most likely go just to hang out anyhow

- Davey