For weeks now, especially since the GT5 Prologue came out, I’ve been wanting to purchase a PS3.  I mean, it’s $400 for a gaming system that’s top notch, and it’s a Blu-Ray player as well…but why can’t I pull the trigger yet?  Ugh…

So…today…I was at Target picking up a few things for my buddies wedding tonight, and noticed they have a nice little $50 gift card special with the purchase of the PS3.  Well, I just about pulled the trigger until I found out I had to buy 2 Blu-Ray movies (from a list of movies of which I’d probably only buy 1).  Ugh…yet another foiled attempt at buying the PS3.  Hell, when Forza 2 came out for 360, I went and blew about $700 getting the Xbox 360 Elite (the black one with HDMI), the wireless racing wheel, Forza 2, and Gears of War…like it was nothing…why can’t I just pull the trigger already and get the PS3???  I have a 1080p 24″ monitor to hook it up to…so it’s not like I’m waiting on my new TV purchase.  

Ugh…do want… 

Just a quick reminder to everyone that wants to attend PodCampAZ 2008 - registration for the event is now open!  Brent (@iboughtamac) did the design/layout and I coded up the database and the PHP.  Head on over to the PodCampAZ 2008 Registration Form and get registered as it REALLY helps us out in determining how many people are going to be at the event.  The event is free and is open to everyone!  See you there!

Recently, I’ve had a few projects come up dealing with XML.  I’m a PHP programmer, and I run PHP5 on my server, so my first choice to attack XML in PHP is by using the SimpleXML object in PHP.  This has got to be one of gods gifts to PHP programmers…all you have to do is give the SimpleXML object a valid XML file/stream and it’ll put it into an object that you can easily reference like this:

$xml->customer[0]->emailaddresses[0]->emailaddress;

Makes life WAY easier by having that, however, I am currently struggling with an XML issue using SimpleXML and the XML data I am working on out of a Highrise account.  The thing is, in PHP, a valid variable can not have a hyphen in it, so if you come across an XML element named “first-name”, you can’t directly reference it using the method above.

What I’m thinking I’m going to have to do here is some PHP magic via old school PHP4 programming.  I wrote a quick and dirty XML parsing app for Brent (@iboughtamac) a few weeks back…I think I may use some of that code to scan through the elements and rewrite the element names w/o the hyphens.

Anyone else experience this issue when using SimpleXML?  Any ideas you can throw my way?

I’m sooooo stoked!  Yesterday I picked up my first MacBook.  I got the black MacBook with the 2.4ghz intel chip, 2GB of RAM, and the 250GB hard drive.  I’m officially replacing my desktop with this laptop - I just need to get the mini-dvi to dvi converter cable and a usb hub for my keyboard, mouse, external HDD, and all my other lovely USB devices.

I ordered up my “iBoughtAMac” shirt from Brent the other day, so when that gets in, I’ll take some more pics of myself and my new Mac.  Maybe I can have Adam or Tyson come take some professional pics?  Fellas?  LOL

I’m just wondering how many people out there still use usenet/newsgroups. I still use it quite frequently - then again, I did have a development contract with Highwinds Media (a provider of Usenet streams) for a few years, so that may be why. For some of you that are scratching your head, I’ll explain what Usenet is…briefly…I’m no expert…I just know that it’s still useful today (and very profitable if you are a reseller of a Usenet/Newsgroup service).

What is Usenet?

Well, Usenet started off as one of the first discussion arena’s on the internet. People would post messages to various Usenet groups and others would respond similar to how you would do a “Reply To All” in your email inbox today. Well, that was many many moons ago, but it is still relevant today…kinda. On a given day, the Usenet feed usually only contains about 20% of actual textual chatter - the rest is binaries (music, video, etc) - it’s like the ultimate P2P network (works a bit differently though), and I need to add this - I do not condone downloading any copyrighted material! If you want to know even more, I’ve found that Newsdemon.com has some great information about “What is Usenet?”. If that still has not satisfied you, search the wikipedia!

Who are some of the Usenet providers?

There are MANY Usenet providers out there, but I’ll let you know about the providers I have personally used.

One provider that I frequently use to this day is EasyNews.com, as their “beta” global search (web based tool used for searching newsgroups that have already been organized for you) was pretty much the selling point!

Another Usenet provider that I have used is Newsdemon.com. Like any other provider, when you create your account with Newsdemon.com, you’ll be assigned a few URL’s to use to access the newsgroups, and you’ll need to have a Usenet reader (Newsrover, Agent, or Grabit).

I’ve also used UseNeXT.com - they have an awesome desktop application for searching/downloading that was really easy to use for Usenet n00bs.

Should I use Usenet?

I don’t know - should you? That’s your call. I enjoy using it for various reasons, of which I won’t go into too much detail here, but not so much for chatting, as I do enough of that on Twitter!