A few months ago I began using jQuery Mobile for a couple of Web projects. If you’re not familiar with it, jQuery Mobile uses CSS and JavaScript to make an HTML5-based site look and act much like an iOS app. No native programming required; nothing for the user to download and install. It’s a pretty amazing little package, which is not unexpected given how great jQuery is. If you’re curious to learn jQuery Mobile, check out this excellent tutorial written by C. Enrique Ortiz and posted at IBM’s developerWorks.

The only thing I’ll add, which is not mentioned in the article, is that jQuery Mobile is a logical choice in situations where you’re making a mobile version of your Web site that’s separate from the main version (and, presumably, redirecting mobile clients to it). Whether or not that’s a good policy is of much debate these days.

I cannot state this more clearly: you should be thinking about using Stripe for every e-commerce project you do. Period. Exclamation mark. Although Stripe has only been around since 2011, it’s quickly made a name for itself as an excellent payment solution that is dead-simple to use. I first heard about Stripe in the winter of 2012, when a client wanted me to use Stripe for his e-commerce project. And I’ve since used it on a couple more projects.

Although Stripe is easy to use, I believe that more documentation, specifically a series that puts together the whole Stripe workflow, is warranted. In this first part of an exhaustive series, I’ll introduce Stripe for those not yet using this great service. In subsequent posts, you’ll learn everything you can ever possibly need to know to use Stipe today. Well, almost everything.

Note: As of August 2013, I am employed by Stripe. However, this entire series was written before I was employed by Stripe and no content has been significantly altered since my hiring. Also, I work for and write about Stripe because I’m quite impressed with their product, not the other way around.

I’m hoping to be able to start selling " The Yii Book" in the next couple of weeks. By that time, I should have the introduction plus Part 1 of the book completed. I’ll be selling the book as I write it, and anyone who buys a copy will be able to download the book at that point and get free updates of the book as updates are posted.

The book will initially cover version 1 of the Yii framework (the current version). When version 2 of the framework comes out (probably production ready in the first half of 2013), I’ll update the book for version 2. If you bought the first version of the book, you’ll be able to get the updated version at no additional cost.

Right now the expectation is for the book to be 26 chapters long, broken into four parts. It will probably be around 500 pages or more. The book will be available in DRM-free PDF and ePub formats.

So you’ve finally done it: you’ve written and published a book. Congratulations! That’s excellent news. Of the many things I’ve figured out when it comes to being a writer, none is more true than this: It’s much, much better to have written a book than it is to be writing a book. Writing a book is hard, but having written a book is great.

But your life, and your job, as a writer isn’t over now (whether or not you ever do another book), it’s just beginning a new phase. If you’re unfamiliar with the mechanics of actually writing a book, then what happens next is going to be even more of a surprise.

In this edition…

• About This Newsletter
• On the Road => Speaking at Boston PHP
• On the Road => True North PHP Conference
• On the Web => Bootstrap, from Twitter
• On the Web => The impress.js Presentation JavaScript Library
• On the Web => Great JavaScript Resources by Addy Osmani
• On the Web => JavaScript Style Guide and Beautifiers
• On the Web => JavaScript Best Practices
• On the Web => JavaScript Resources from Peter Cooper
• On the Blog => Testing for Strict Mode in JavaScript Using this
• Book Giveaway => “PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming: Visual QuickPro Guide”
• Larry Ullman’s Book News => “PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming” and “The Yii Book”

I forget who, exactly, on Twitter shared this, but I recently watched a YouTube video titled " John Cleese on Creativity." In the 36 minute video, the British comedian talks about what creativity is and how one encourages it. Although you might be inclined to think about creativity as an artistic endeavor, much of what we do as programmers, designers, and developers requires creativity, and so I found the video to be well worth the time.

Early on, Cleese clarifies that “Creativity is not a talent, it’s a way of operating.” He then discusses, based upon cited research, the two modes of how people can operate: open vs. closed. There’s a nice suggestion that Alexander Fleming would have been unable to discover penicillin had he not been operating in an open mode.

The bulk of the video is Cleese explaining how one sets up an environment that encourages creativity. Those suggestions could also apply to productivity in general. I’ll leave you to watch that, but I want to highlight this quote: