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Forums back online

February 2, 2016

After a four-month hiatus, my support forums are officially back online. I’m also working on getting through the backlog of “things I need to investigate and give a definitive answer to”. That will be a continued work in progress for some time.

The forums are free for anyone to use, whether or not you’ve purchased a book (although supporting the books is the primary role of them). Understand that I do answer every forum posting, but do so as I have time. Assuming I’m not traveling or otherwise swamped, this means I answer questions 3 days per week, so it could (and likely will be) 2-3 days before you get a reply from me. (It’ll be longer if you email me directly, for the record.) Other people do help out as well, for which I am eternally grateful.

Finally, please remember that you’re asking for free help from strangers in these forums. Be patient and appreciative when people that don’t know you are giving up their time to try to help.

Thanks, as always, to those that help in the forums, those that share what they’ve learned, and to everyone interested in my books.

I just posted the first update for the second edition of “The Yii Book”, covering version 2 of the Yii framework. The release notes are lengthy, but a couple of quick “I’m aware” thoughts up front…

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Howdy, hey! This newsletter is about two months late in coming…but that’s how it’s going for me lately. On the other hand, the price (for you) is right, no? Anyway…

This is the final issue in my three-part series on the business of freelancing. The first part spoke about starting out. Part two focused on working with clients. The most important concept explained in that newsletter is to rethink how you think about clients.

In this newsletter, I’m going to speak to what freelancing is in actuality, while you’re doing it. Well, what it was like in my experience anyway. (For context, I freelanced for 14 years before stopping in 2013 when I joined Stripe).

As always, questions, comments, and all feedback are much appreciated. And thanks for your interest in what I have to say and do!

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My Forthcoming Books

April 5, 2015

For those of you interested in such things, here’s an update on my forthcoming books for 2015-2016 (spoiler alert: they’re all revisions of existing books).

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I’m going to be speaking to the Frederick Web Tech group, in Frederick, Maryland, on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. The event is free, and if you’re in the greater Maryland-Washington, D.C.-Virginia-Pennsylvania-West Virginia-Delaware (why not?) area, I encourage you to come out. It’s going to be a cozy affair, with pizza and beer!

The specific presentation I’m doing is “How To Get There”, first given at the Northeast PHP 2013 conference, and revised as a keynote for php[tech] 2014 in Chicago. This is a motivational-type speech, in which I lay out the attitudes and behaviors you need in order to achieve your personal and professional goals. The official talk description is below.

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