The PHP Roundtable podcast (videocast) has posted their latest episode: Episode #53: Why I'm Afraid to Admin to Using PHP. In this show host Sammy Powers is joined by Evert Pot and Davey Shafik.

So you spend most of your time programming in PHP. You meet another programmer out in the wild. You begin explaining what you do. Do you find yourself using vague terms and actively trying to avoid the word "PHP?" Do you dread the question, "What language do you primarily code in?" Do you anticipate them scoffing at you when you say, "PHP?"

We discuss why PHP has such a bad rep in the eyes of many and why some of us feel the need to start conversations with, "I use PHP but let me explain..."

You can catch this latest episode either using the in-page video or audio player or directly on YouTube. Be sure to check out the extensive show notes for this one too - plenty of good information there. If you enjoy the show, be sure to subscribe to their feed and follow them on Twitter to get the latest updates when new shows are released.

The PHP Roundtable podcast, hosted by PHP community member Sammy K Powers, has posted their latest episode today: Episode #46 - Character Encoding and UTF-8 in PHP.

If you've ever gotten a number of weird looking characters in your database or on your website like, "?" and didn't know why, then this episode is for you. Those bizarre characters called "mojibake", rear their ugly heads when we don't account for a consistent character encoding. Today we discuss what character encoding is, how to accommodate for it in HTML, PHP & your database, and how we can ensure we'll never encounter an unexpected alien character in our web apps again.

For this episode Sammy is joined by Andreas Heigl and Evert Pot two developers more than familiar with Unicode woes. You can watch this latest episode through either the in-page audio or video player or by grabbing the audio file. If you enjoy the show, be sure to subscribe to their feed and follow them on Twitter for updates when future shows are released.