Back in March, I gave a new talk at Atlanta PHP: "Top Ten List: PHP and Web Application Performance". This talk is a culmination of my ~14 years of experience primarily as a web application developer, but also as a systems administrator / DevOps-type. After working with PHP and web applications for so many years, I have amassed quite a few tricks for squeezing maximum performance out of web applications, PHP or otherwise.

The tips are presented by various people from around the web development (and PHP) community and relate to things like:

• Realpath cache settings
• Using offline processing
• Optimized queries
• Gzipping responses
• Caching everything
• Using a content delivery network

If you'd like to see Brian present the full talk, there's still time to get your ticket for CoderFaire - they're only $50 USD for the two day event.

PHP developers also have another community-driven treasure trove at their disposal, one which is host to almost 600 high-quality libraries yet never seems to garner the attention it deserves. I'm referring to the PHP Extension and Application Repository, better known as PEAR, and in this article I'll try to shine the spotlight just a bit brighter on this fantastic community resource by highlighting 10 useful PEAR libraries (better known as packages) that have become an indispensable part of my programming toolkit.

Included in their list of "Top Ten" are things like:

• Authenticating Users with Auth
• Cleaning Up Your Code with PHP_Beautifier
• Downloading Files with HTTP_Download
• Enforcing Coding Standards with CodeSniffer
• Managing Git Repositories with VersionControl_Git

database is a fundamental component for most web applications. If you're using PHP, you're probably using MySQL - an integral part of the LAMP stack. PHP is relatively easy and most new developers can write functional code within a few hours. However, building a solid, dependable database takes time and expertise. Here are 10 of the worst MySQL mistakes I've made (some apply to any language/database).

Some of the infamous mistakes that made the list include:

• Using PHP's mysql functions (instead of mysqli)
• Not sanitizing user input
• Not using UTF-8
• Not optimizing your queries
• Using * in SELECT queries

Joomla, the PHP-based, open-source content management system (CMS), has grown in popularity thanks to its wealth of templates, modules and components, as well as its ease of installation. In this article I present the most useful Joomla components I have found in my Web development. They cover everything from e-commerce to internationalization to SEO

Components that made the list include:

• JCE (content editor)
• JoomFish (multilingual features)
• FlexBanner
• AdsManager

Each item has a brief description of what it does and a link of where to find the latest version.

If you want to use the power of the Rails framework without having to learn Ruby, then Symfony is the right framework for you. After spending more than 10 months playing around with Rails, I can say that Symfony is a great alternative to Rails for programmers who already know PHP.

He talks about what a plugin is, how its used by the framework, the simple installation process and a "top ten" list of some of the most popular plugins (including sfGuardPlugin, sfSimpleForm and sfControlPanel).

Coming first, Tobias' post talks about what he considers the "Ten Golden Rules" for starting out in the Open Source community. Included in the list are things like:

• Stick to your level of Karma
• Don't overrate yourself
• Flaming is bad

In a response/continuance of this theme, Greg - his own list of rules developers should take to heart when working in and around Open Source applications. Some selections from his list:

• If you must criticize, criticize with a gentle and humble tone
• Despite the evidence, it's probably your fault
• Assume everything you ever say will become permanent and don't say things that will come back to haunt you

Added to the list were:

• symfony
• Zend Framework
• CakePHP
• Code Igniter
• Prado

• eZ publish
• Krill
• php-booba
• edit-x
• Binary Cloud

The list is a cross-reference between the CNN/Money list of Top Ten places to live and the number of results from simplyhired. Of the top ten, Cary, North Carolina pulled in the most job posting numbers with 97 positions. Close behind it are two others in the 60s range - Ellicott City, Maryland (69) and Eden Prairie, Minnesota (62). The rest fall below the 30 position mark.

For more information on the cities, check out the CNN/Money site. For the job postings (and a great job search site) check out simplyhired.com.

I love Nashville, TN. Well, ok, I really like it. It's a great town but I'm getting a bit restless. The problem I face is that I never know what the environment for programmers will be in a given city before moving there. So when Terry Chay briefly mentioned indeed.com's salary search tool, it sparked my interest. If I, a PHP programmer, wanted to move to another city in the US, how would I fare salary wise? Since I don't want to list every city in the US, I've selected CNN/Money's Best Places to Live in America as my list of cities to compare.

Looking specifically for PHP-related jobs, he made the query, found the cities, ranked them and listed the average salary for the area. He also grabbed the cost of living for each location based on the closest large city and matched them up.

The result?

So it's agreed then, we'll all meet in Columbia, MD.

Check out the post and the lovely graph Cal has put together for more cities and their stats.