Jeff Carouth :: Beta

jcarouth is M.I.A.

Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 20.20

I, like many bloggers in the blogosphere, have neglected my blog; if only I had a real reason for being so scarce. I suppose I could blame it on my new job, my girlfriend moving down here, and my being in a transitional phase of my life--you know, becoming an adult. Wihout further adieu, here are the happenings from the past month:

I started working at Texas A&M University in the Department of Research & Graduate Studies Systems Group. I am a programmer in a team of web application developers using PHP and Python. So far, I've been given some interesting projects and free reign to implement them using my choice of technologies/frameworks/methods. I've taken the opportunity to spend my time harnessing the power and flexibility of the Zend Framework. As of tomorrow, my first beta of a minor project will be released for testing by the department.

A friend of mine, Daniel Cousineau, introduced me to some automation tools that have revolutionized my development workflow: Phing and Xinc. Check out his blog post about how he implemented these tools in his environment. In using Xinc, I began to uncover some of its quirks and the desire to improve it took over me. I think that's the curse of being an application developer. I always think I know the best way an application should be implemented and how it should work. I could be wrong, but I'm the developer. After some banter around the Xinc Google group, I was selected to join the project. It's an honor and a privilige to work on this project.

Tonight was a meeting of the Bryan/College Station PHP Users Group. I didn't know this interest group was in existence, but thankfully I am a card-carrying member of the Agile development movement AgileBCS. Today we had a presentation on beginning steps with the Zend Framework and automating the workflow using Xinc and Phing (Daniel gave the presentation on Xinc as he is also a developer on the project). I'm happy to see the technological community growth in this area.

I'll be spending the next two weekends in Houston. Lisa has an appointment with her eye specialist on Friday, my older sister Cheryl's birthday is on Saturday, and next weekend my family from up north (Maryland) will be visiting.

Finally, I will be actually developing my new website soon. With the new experience I've had with the Zend Framework I am ready to build something fierce.

I should have some interesting technical articles soon.

• Tagged:
• college station
• hobbies
• life