Tim Keller

Social Media and Your School

Join Umoya Web developer, Tim Keller, and Lanner House headmaster, Arthur Preston, to find out how you can build an online professional learning network, promote your school using Social Media, rethink how your students submit work, and understand what all these buzzwords like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Weebly actually mean to you.

South African Principals’ Association, 19 May at 15:00, Norman Henshilwood High School.

Update: Arthur Preston has blogged some additional thoughts about this talk.

Don’t sit on the bench, get to DevDays 2010 and score with us! Laduuuuuuma!!!!

It’s here! Microsoft DevDays is the premier developer event of the year and is all about learning, sharing and interacting with one another and having fun! DevDays 2010 brings you the best of current developer technologies, along with a preview of soon-to-be-released Microsoft tools and technologies.

I spoke at DevDays 2009 and had a blast. This year, I’ve been invited back to deliver two new talks:

• Getting started with Silverlight development
  Interested in Silverlight development but not sure how to get started? Learn the basics of Silverlight application development – the tools and fundamental concepts behind Silverlight. Find out how to re-use your existing .NET development skills to build exciting new applications. This session will focus on the fundamentals of Silverlight including layout, data binding, data access and styling.
• Open Source and Microsoft – Working Together
  Microsoft AND Open Source? What?! Come and learn how Microsoft platform works with open source platforms like PHP and Java form the server room and into the cloud. Come and learn how Microsoft is opening up and supporting open source development and technologies.

Find out more, and register at http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/devdays/default.mspx

Most importantly, entrance is free! Please join us for a wonderful day of learning and networking.

I had the privilege of speaking at SA Developer Cape Town last night. Twenty-something local geeks turned up to hear about how well the Open Source PHP language runs on Windows IIS, using FastCGI.

For the longest time, the utterance of “PHP” and “Windows” within the same sentence meant the speaker was either temporarily insane, or horribly misguided.

In ‘An Oxymoron’s Guide to PHP on Windows’ you’ll discover just how much the situation has changed in the past 12 months. Thanks to Windows Server, IIS7 and FastCGI, running PHP on Windows finally makes a great deal of sense. It performs admirably and facilitates integration with familiar Microsoft technologies like ASP.net and Silverlight.

Title: Embrace OpenSource on CodePlex
Presented: Microsoft TechEd Africa 2009, Durban, South Africa.
Date: 3 August 2009
Link: View on Slideshare

If you’re a software developer interested in running an open source project or just looking around for a particular tool to download, come check out the latest from CodePlex. CodePlex is the open source project hosting site from Microsoft. Launched in May 2006, CodePlex hosts thousands of open source projects. CodePlex users can start open source projects with support for source control, bug tracking, wiki pages, downloads, forums, and project statistics. Additionally, CodePlex supports the widest range of source control clients. This talk explores the top downloaded projects, outlines the CodePlex feature set, and explains how we build the CodePlex software.

Title: Windows Server and FastCGI technologies for PHP
Presented: Microsoft TechEd Africa 2009, Durban, South Africa.
Date: 2 August 2009
Link: View on Slideshare

PHP is a wildly popular scripting language for the web, and powers some of the largest websites on the Internet. Traditionally, PHP on Windows has been something of an oxymoron. 

Join us and find out why PHP is now highly performant, scalable and efficient when run under FastCGI on Windows Server and IIS. Presented by a local PHP developer, you’ll gain insight into how you can take advantage of PHP on Windows, and integrate it with technologies like PowerShell, ASP.NET and SQLServer.

Well, looks like its a mere 4 days ’til Tech•Ed kicks off in Durban. I’m putting the finishing touches on my two sessions and look forward to delivering them on Monday 3 August and Tuesday 4 August.

• Windows Server and FastCGI Technologies for PHP
• Embrace OpenSource on CodePlex
• Whiteboard: Web Experience

I’ll post the slides here on Tuesday evening, straight after the conference.

I’ve been asked to present two sessions at Microsoft Tech•Ed Africa 2009. Its being staged again this year in Durban and should see 2000 IT Pro’s, Developers and miscellaneous geeks decend upon the outstanding Durban International Convention Centre from 2-5 August.

My sessions are:

1. Windows Server & FastCGI technologies for PHP (DTL204)
   Developer Tools, Languages, and Frameworks
   Mon 3 Aug | 300 – Advanced | Developer, IT Pro

   PHP is a wildly popular scripting language for the web, and powers some of the largest websites on the Internet. Traditionally, PHP on Windows has been something of an oxymoron. Join us and find out why PHP is now highly performant, scalable and efficient when run under FastCGI on Windows Server and IIS. Presented by a local PHP developer, you’ll gain insight into how you can take advantage of PHP on Windows, and integrate it with technologies like PowerShell, ASP.NET and SQLServer.

2. Embrace Open Source on CodePlex (DTL302)
   Developer Tools, Languages, and Frameworks
   Tue 4 Aug | 300 – Advanced | Developer

   If you’re a software developer interested in running an open source project or just looking around for a particular tool to download, come check out the latest from CodePlex. CodePlex is the open source project hosting site from Microsoft. Launched in May 2006, CodePlex hosts thousands of open source projects. CodePlex users can start open source projects with support for source control, bug tracking, wiki pages, downloads, forums, and project statistics. Additionally, CodePlex supports the widest range of source control clients. This talk explores the top downloaded projects, outlines the CodePlex feature set, and explains how we build the CodePlex software.

I’m looking forward to spending time with some great techologists. Let me know if you’ll be attending!

I’ve been asked to speak at Microsoft’s TechEd Africa from 2-5 August. Around 2000 IT pros and developers will assemble at the Durban ICC to hear about some of the latest technologies in the tech space.

As with Microsoft DevDays earlier this year, I’ll be keeping Microsoft honest with two Open Source sessions:

• Windows Server & FastCGI technologies for PHP
• Embrace Open Source on Codeplex

Some vital links

• Agenda
• Register

Hope to see some of you there!

The mention of “PHP on Windows” to a developer is most commonly met with polite but pointed laughter, if not outright disgust. Historically, this reaction wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate. But that has all changed with the advent of Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 and its FastCGI handler.

Coming from a Linux background, I was skeptical about running our mission-critical apps on Windows. We had a lot of infrastructure built around the traditional LAMP stack, and the mention of throwing Windows IIS in its place was somewhat shocking. But, I can tell you that the transition to IIS7 is utterly painless, and brought with it some incredible advantages.

For the first time, we’re able to easily integrate our PHP products with ASP.NET code. We can build Rich Internet Applications with ASP.NET AJAX on the frontend and PHP on the backend. Even Silverlight 2.0 applications can be enhanced with familar PHP code to create something of value.

At DevDays 2009, which kicks off in Durban on the 10th of March, I’m going to be showing developers just how great it is to develop and deploy PHP applications on the Windows platform. Be there, or be PEAR