On the Ibuildings techPortal site Stefan Koopmanschap has written up some thoughts on one of the eternal struggles development shops face - whether to buy or build the software they need (either for themselves or their clients).

One of the biggest struggles in any software development company is "Buy vs. Build". How do you strike a balance between writing custom software and purchasing off-the-shelf solutions. This is something that is very hard and everyone gets it wrong every once in a while. In this article we will explore the way that Ibuildings approaches this issue, in the hopes that it helps others in getting it right more often.

He talks about considerations made on both sides - how flexible is the application, what is on-hand that could be adapted - and how the base product they might have purchased can act as a based to work from (like a content management system). There's no overall recommendation, though - too much of the decision depends on what's needed at the time and the capabilities of the technical staff employed.

The PHP Unconference group (putting on the meetup in Hamburg, Germany in September) has announced that tickets are now officially on sale for the event.

The PHP User Group Hamburg and the Department of Computer Science, University Hamburg, Germany are delighted to invite you to the third PHP Unconference. The main focus of the unconference is PHP and related web technologies. There is no official agenda; anyone can suggest a session. The PHP Unconference 2009 will take place on September 12, 2009 and September 13, 2009 at the Geomatikum, Hamburg University. See the location on Google Maps: http://tinyurl.com/bu5mom.

The tickets cost 25 Euro for both days (Sept 12th & 13th), but students of the Hamburg University can get in for free. You can find out more about the event on the unconference's site and you can reserve your spot now by purchasing your ticket.

Stefan Mischook has made his entire video series detailing the creation of a simple shopping cart in PHP available for download:

After teasing you guys for a week or so, I've released the entire video tutorial course on building a PHP based shopping cart. There is a small charge ($19.99) to download the entire course, but it is more than worth it since you get 140 minutes of top notch nerd training...and we include the source code too.

The course walks you through the creation of the cart - what technology you'll need, building the simple catalog page, making the "add to cart" page, as well as the cart itself (including calculating the costs and shipping costs). It also includes an integration method for hooking into PayPal's IPN setup to change the customer for the goods.

Rich Zygler asks in one of his recent blog posts, if Microsoft purchasing a 240 million dollar chunk of Facebook is a good thing for the language it's written in - PHP.

Microsoft is buying a piece of Facebook. What do we all think this means for PHP since Facebook is one of the "web 2.0" leaders built on PHP? The way I see it, [there] are [six] options.

Among the possible outcomes he lists are things like Microsoft rewriting the site, Facebook continues as it is or (next to impossible) Microsoft sees the error of its ways and fully embraces open source.

Rich Zygler asks in one of his recent blog posts, if Microsoft purchasing a 240 million dollar chunk of Facebook is a good thing for the language it's written in - PHP.

Microsoft is buying a piece of Facebook. What do we all think this means for PHP since Facebook is one of the "web 2.0" leaders built on PHP? The way I see it, [there] are [six] options.

Among the possible outcomes he lists are things like Microsoft rewriting the site, Facebook continues as it is or (next to impossible) Microsoft sees the error of its ways and fully embraces open source.

Damien Seguy and company have developed a brand new plush toy based around the PHP elephant idea set out by Vincent Pontier a while back:

The elephant is a community project. It was started as a crazy idea that I used to suggest to a number of people. I managed to draw a lot of happy smile, but I suspect that half this happiness was due to sheer craziness of the project. [...] Of course, it was impossible to prototype this mascot without involving Vincent Pontier. The rest is history. We started prototyping, and within a month, we got this excellent looking plush toy (we'll tell you about the manufacturer once we get the full load of them).

Check out the post on Nexen.net for lots of product shots (including the obligatory cute kid shot) and details on how it was developed and the answer to the important question - where you can get your hands on one.

Some groups have already ordered a large number of them for themselves and their members, but an online shop is coming soon to Nexen.net where you can pick up your own fuzzy bit of PHPness.

Damien Seguy and company have developed a brand new plush toy based around the PHP elephant idea set out by Vincent Pontier a while back:

The elephant is a community project. It was started as a crazy idea that I used to suggest to a number of people. I managed to draw a lot of happy smile, but I suspect that half this happiness was due to sheer craziness of the project. [...] Of course, it was impossible to prototype this mascot without involving Vincent Pontier. The rest is history. We started prototyping, and within a month, we got this excellent looking plush toy (we'll tell you about the manufacturer once we get the full load of them).

Check out the post on Nexen.net for lots of product shots (including the obligatory cute kid shot) and details on how it was developed and the answer to the important question - where you can get your hands on one.

Some groups have already ordered a large number of them for themselves and their members, but an online shop is coming soon to Nexen.net where you can pick up your own fuzzy bit of PHPness.

Christian Wenz has posted this new item on his blog today with a report relating to the Oracle/Zend rumors that have been floating around.

Well, the rumors (that also made it into blogosphere, including Toby's post) obviously could not be ignored by Zend any longer. Therefore, the German division of Zend just sent out an email to a couple of people officially stating that Zend is currently not negotiating a sale to Oracle.

I suppose only time will tell on the deal, but it seems for now that the sale is not going to happen (and that there never was a sale in talks at all).

Christian Wenz has posted this new item on his blog today with a report relating to the Oracle/Zend rumors that have been floating around.

Well, the rumors (that also made it into blogosphere, including Toby's post) obviously could not be ignored by Zend any longer. Therefore, the German division of Zend just sent out an email to a couple of people officially stating that Zend is currently not negotiating a sale to Oracle.

I suppose only time will tell on the deal, but it seems for now that the sale is not going to happen (and that there never was a sale in talks at all).