The Zend Developer Zone has a new post with links to two interesting Zend Framework related articles:

Ok, ZendCon is over and I'm back to surfing for things you will find interesting. Two articles posted that I didn't cover but feel they are content rich enough to mention are "Create a productivity package with the Zend Framework V1.5 and Google Apps" and "How We Built a Web Hosting Infrastructure on EC2". Click on in and I'll give you details and links.

The productivity package is a series of articles (three) where John Mertic shows how to integrate your ZF application with the many tools Google offers.

In the infrastructure and EC2 articles Mike Brittain talks about an EC2-driven Zend Framework application (the "why" not really the "how").

If you're a subscriber (or reader) of the German publication "PHP Magazin", be sure you read up on some comments that Christpher Kunz has about some issues around a SQL injection article in the current issue (October/November).

It is not usually my custom to comment negatively or nitpick on other people's articles in magazines, especially not in magazines I have written for. This time however, I really must raise my voice to point out a couple of (well, actually a lot of) issues in an article about SQL injection in the current (October/November) issue of the german "PHP Magazin".

He points out a few problems (like the fact that there's no multi-selects in PHP's mysql support) and things that it would require special permissions (like root) to run on a system.

In response to some of the claims made by CNet about the security of PHP, Ken Guest has made a few comments on his blog hoping to correct a few wrongs.

What are featuring in IBM's top ten of vulnerable that makes the report insinuate that the PHP language is a security risk are Jooma, Wordpress and Drupal. How PHP would feature in a list of "vendors" is beside the point.

He illustrates with an allegory that it's not the tool's fault if it's used improperly. Pointing out software like WordPress and Drupal is not the same as pointing out issues with the language that powers them (no matter how trendy it is). The burden is on the developers to use the power the language offers to create more secure, flexible, stable applications. Does PHP have its share of problems? Sure, but get it right next time CNet - don't blame the tool if the builder's not up to spec.

With PHP4 out of the way, it's time to make way for PHP5. To get the ball rolling, Gennady Feldman has posted some links to PHP5 resources that can get you on your way.

After posting previous item on the end of PHP4 I thought it would be beneficial to put up a number of pointers for those who are still using PHP4 and are looking for information that will ease the pain of migration to PHP5.

Links include:

• http://www.php5.org/
• Why are you not using PHP 5
• Migration to PHP5

The PHP Women have officially announced the winners of their "Best Practices" article contest:

Well its been an exciting few weeks on the phpwomen forums as we've been running an article contest for new articles contributed to our "Best Practices" section. We've been overwhelmed by the quality of the submissions and of the follow up comments added by other users - thanks to everyone who has joined in!

The winners are Akrabat for his look at recursion and gerard for his article on CLI tips and tricks. They both have won their own copies of Zend Studio for Eclipse, a 1 year subscription to Linux Pro magazine and a chance to have their article published on the magazine's site.

Daniel Cousineau posted copies of his submissions to the PHP Women group's Article Contest (Best Practices) that finishes up today.

I made a few posts to the PHPWomen.org Article Competition and felt I should share them here.

His three submissions are:

• Flash Your Errors: It's Illegal In 28 States! on combining flash messages and error reporting
• David Copperfield Wasn't This __magical: __autoload() is Awesome! on using the __autoload functions and PEAR style namespacing
• Path Secrets Of The Most Awesome on making your path operations indestructible across operating systems.

There's still (a little) time to get your own submission in to the contest to get over and submit your article for your chance to win a copy of Zend Studio and maybe get your article featured in Linux Pro Magazine.

As a reminder, if you haven't gotten your entry in for the PHP Women article competition you only have a few days left - the contest ends on the evening of July 31st.

Not sure what the contest is about? Here's the rundown - to enter all you need to do is write up a best practices type of article and post it to the forum. That's it! You'll be entered to win fabulous prizes. The best two entries (as judged by the PHP Women themselves) will be awarded licenses for their very own copies of Zend Studio for Eclipse as well as one year subscriptions to Linux Pro Magazine. One of these two winners will also get a bonus prize - to have their submission featured on the Linux Pro Magazine's website.

So what are you waiting for? Write up your article and submit it - time is running out!

We've mentioned it before but we just wanted to remind you again about the article contest that the PHP Women are holding with fame and glory going to the winners (oh, and there's prizes too).

The topic is "Best Practices" and all you have to do to enter is submit an article - long, short, good or bad - over in the Best Practices forum on their site. Want an example? Check this one out.

Now for the good part - there'll be two winners: the best two entries will get the top of the line prizes, licenses for Zend Studio for Eclipse) and, of those two, one will get inclusion of their article into a future issue of Linux Pro Magazine. The other will be gifted with a one year subscription to the same publication.

Others have already posted their articles - why haven't you? You don't have to be female or an expert in your field to contribute, just get out there and write something up for your chance to get in on the goods.

Lorna Mitchell has posted some great news about the article contest that the PHP Women are running - prizes!

The article contest running on PHPWomen.org through July just got more exciting. We have asked people to post entries to our Best Practices forum. The authors of the best two entries will win copies of Zend Studio for Eclipse.

Besides the possibility of winning one of these licenses, entrants will also be entered into the running (two winners) to get a 1 year subscription to Linux Pro Magazine and have the opportunity for their article to be featured on the magazine's website.

The PHP Women have started up an article competition of all of those aspiring technical authors out there. All you have to do to enter is whip up something for their Best Practices section:

To enter the competition all you have to do is submit a short article to our Best Practices forum before the end of July 2008. This area of the site is dedicated to little tips and pointers of how to improve your PHP coding - here is a good example which covers using constants. The competition is open to everyone, regardless of gender, age, location, or any other criteria I haven't thought of.

At the end of July, they'll take their two favorites out of the articles that've been submitted and hand out perpetual licenses for the Zend Studio for Eclipse software to the winners. Remember, you don't have to be female to participate - they're happy to take in content from anyone and everyone. Just sign up and add your topic to the Best Practices forum to submit - it's that easy!