10.31.2007

Open source twitter clone anyone?

Does anyone know of an open source twitter clone?  Preferably in PHP or Python.  Not a client mind you, but the server guts of receiving IMs and doing something with them, enabling followers, public viewing, etc.  I want to implement this on an intranet inside a corp network and obviously not display our tweets for public consumption, but only internal consumption.  If this doesn't exist, what do you all think is the easiest way to create this?  An instance of jabber or something else?

10.25.2007

Is Microsoft buying Facebook a good thing for PHP?

Microsoft is buying a piece of Facebook. What do we all think this means for PHP since Facebook is one of the "web 2.0" leaders built on PHP? The way I see it, here are the options:
  1. Facebook continues on its merry path, taking only funding from Microsoft
  2. Facebook continues on its merry path, taking funding from Microsoft in addition to some development "resources." Resources here could be people, equipment, and technology. The free people, equipment, and technology probably won't fit very well in a LAMP environment. Pressure to move infrastructure to MS-friendly environment mounts.
  3. Microsoft rewrites the whole thing in C#
  4. Microsoft learns how simple and scalable PHP is and freaks out, unleashing a FUD campaign the likes of which we've never even dreamed of.
  5. Microsoft learns from the open source environment, partially embraces it, and creates PHP.net, a half functioning version of PHP for .net framework.
  6. Microsoft learns from the open source environment, fully embraces it, and abandons Windows by creating their own GUI for the next version of Linux.

In reality, I can really only see #1 or #2 happening. Your thoughts?

10.10.2007

Zend Studio for Eclipse Beta

As my part time job (for no pay) is spent being a shill for Zend, I thought I'd mention that the new Zend Studio for Eclipse Beta is out and ready to be test driven. I've got a few deadlines both professional and personal to take care of over the next few days but I'm hoping to kick the tires next week. Let me know of your experiences so far.

UPDATE - since the beta period is over, the new url is now http://www.zend.com/en/products/studio/downloads