The SitePoint PHP blog has posted a new book review from editor Bruno Skvorc about the "Practical Design Patterns in PHP" book from author Brandon Savage. The review talks both about some of Bruno's impressions of the content in the book and a bit about self-publishing too.

This review of Brandon Savage’s Practical Design Patterns in PHP will include my own opinions and impressions about both the book, and the aspect of self-publishing. Many thanks to Brandon for giving me a review copy. "Design patterns are about common solutions to common problems. [...] They are concepts, not blueprints; ideas, not finished designs. [...] They add clarity to an otherwise difficult situation."

Bruno starts off with a look at the actual content of the book: its coverage of each of the patterns (17 in all), ones that he sees as missing and some of his "gripes" with the examples provided. He also talks about Brandon's choice around models being where primary functionality lives. He finishes the post talking about what he calls the "curse of knowledge" (for example, mentioning other advanced topics without knowing of the reader understands them) and the thoughts around self-publishing and some of the issues he has with it.

In a new episode of the Voices of the ElePHPant podcast, Cal Evans has taken a break from the normal "Three Questions" format of the podcast so far and has instead posted an discussion about recruiters. Brandon Savage and Scott Gordon talk about the pros and cons of working with recruiters.

Once I read [Brandon's post on why recruiters are bad for your career], I knew that I needed to get Brandon, and another friend of mine, Scott Gordon – a recruiter for Vaco and serious social media bad-ass – together to discuss some of the points Brandon brought out. I shuld probably point out that while Scott is a recruiter, he is not your typical recruiter. He regularly talks about the shortcomings of his industry and he works to make things better.

As always, you can listen to this latest episode either via the in-page player, by downloading the mp3 or by subscribing to their feed.