An article, titled " Social Media Authentication and Authorization Using PHP", which I recently wrote for Peachpit Press has been posted online. In the article, I explain how to use the HybridAuth library to perform authentication and authorization against common social media sites. I specifically demonstrate the code for interacting with Twitter, but the library works for other sites too.

This is the fourth article I wrote in support of my " PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming" book.

If you’ve got time to kill, or if you’d rather just not work, then check out .net Magazine’s list of the top 20 Web conference talks of 2012. There’s a range of topcis covered and the slides or video for each is also provided. This one page is an easy and rewarding way to lose a day!

In conjunction with my " How to Become a Web Developer" presentation, given to the Boston PHP user group on December 12, 2012, I’ve composed this page of Web developer resources. Such lists can quickly become overwhelming, and therefore less useful, so in compiling it, I’ve tried to stick to resources that meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Are de facto standard resources
• Contain information not found elsewhere or not explained as well elsewhere
• Present a unique perspective

So while the Web is happily overrun with useful resources, those listed here are ones I considerable most notable. If you have your own recommendations, please post those as comments!

I should also add that this is essentially my first draft. I’ll undoubtedly think of more things that should be on this list and update it later on. I’ll also need to flesh out some sections once I’ve thought about it more.

Ernie and Matt over at Boston PHP have already managed to post the unedited video from my " How to Become a Web Developer" presentation given on December 12, 2012. You can find it on Vimeo. I’ve not looked at it myself yet (and am not planning on it), but Matt said that my part begins at about the 3 minute mark. In a couple of weeks, perhaps after the holidays, the edited video will be posted, which will be a combination of the video and the slides together. My sincerest thanks to Matt and everyone at Boston PHP for hosting me, and to Ernie for handling the video.

Also, I had promised (in the presentation) and do promise (in the video) a page of resources to go with the material. I’m working on that now, but it’s a bit more work than I expected, so let’s plan on that going live on my Web site on Wednesday, December 19th. Thanks!