PHPBuilder.com has an overview of Zend, the next generation engine for PHP. One question that’s not answered in the article is whether PHP 4.0 will provide a better layer of abstraction between the scripting engine and the database. As it is now, there are different functions for every relational database, so if you move to a different database, you have to change lots of code. I’d like to see that change so that you use the same set of functions no matter which database you’re using, a la ODBC, JDBC, or DBD/DBI for Perl.
There are interesting rumors floating around that Wal-Mart is building the mother of all e-commerce sites. If you’re not interested in that, you should still read the article, just for a classic example of analyst stupidity that is buried within. I’ll ruin the surprise by providing the text of the quote here, from a (no doubt well paid) Forrester analyst: “Can Wal-Mart be the Amazon.com of the Web? The key to their success lies in their execution.” In case this analyst didn’t notice, Amazon.com is the Amazon.com of the Web.
Looks like Jorn Barger (over at the Robot Wisdom Web Log) got suckered. Today, he links to this Usenet article, which discusses George Bush, Junior’s “radical stance” on corporate crime. Where did they find the quote? http://www.gwbush.com. That’s right, the parody site I linked to a couple of weeks ago. I see people talking about articles from the site all the time, apparently unaware of the fact that it is a media hack perpetrated by the clever guys at RTMark.
This page provides an overview of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which regulates telemarketers. The most important sentence to know when a telemarketer calls: “Please place me on your do not call list.”