The /Dev/Hell podcast (hosted by PHP community members Chris Hartjes and Ed Finkler) has posted its latest episode - Episode #33 - Pol Pot-level Sucks.

Back in the saddle for the double-tres, Chris and Ed rap about the loss of trust in Google and how that affects their perception of the Go language. Then Ed babbles for way too long about vintage gaming and computing. Chris wonders how you could be truly private on the Internet in the light of widespread government surveillance. Finally, we talk about the importance of automation and repeatable processes.

You can listen to this latest episode either through the in-page player or by downloading the mp3 directly. You can also subscribe to their feed so you'll know when the latest episodes are released.

Chris Jones has a new post to his OTN blog today pointing to two new articles by Eli White about managing malicious website use:

The techniques Eli covers will always be applicable in one form or another. They should be a fundamental part of any website architect's bag of tricks.

The first article focuses more on methods for preventing and dealing with the inevitable spamming that comes with running a larger site. Eli's experience at Digg has provided him with recommendations like creating hurdles for spammers to get past and evaluating the content (services like Defensio or Akismet are useful for this).

The second article talks about something a bit harder to deal with - when users "game the system" and find the loopholes. His recommendations to combat this sort of abuse include rate limiting, pattern matching and leaving "traps" by tracking user usage.

The NETTUTS site has a tutorial posted today that's part one of a series looking at the Gamepress theme for WordPress and how to customize it to your needs.

GamePress is a "Gaming News & Reviews" theme for WordPress and currently one of the most popular themes at ThemeForest. It is the most advanced theme I've created so far, and really pushes what the WordPress engine can do!

This first of two parts introduces you to the template and the various components/content blocks it contains like the Features Slider, Latest Headlines, Older News and the Reviews page. You can check out a live demo of it in action to see what you think.

In thie new post to the Zend Developer Zone, Cal Evans caught up with three guys from the Athlon Sports web team - Bryce Wells (manager), Corey Snyder (lead Flash designer), and Mike McCracken (lead game PHP developer).

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to visit one of Nashville's hidden gems, Athlon Sports. Athlon Sports is tucked away in a non-descript building near downtown Nashville. Inside is a 40 year old company, well respected in their field that has been, not so quietly, moving into the world of on-line games.

Traditionally, they publish Pre-Season Annual sports magazines. Before your favorite sport's season begins, Athlon probably publishes a magazine on it. These days however, their interactive division publishes their web site along with many private label on-line games.

They talk about topics like why Athlon decided to get into the web, some about the Pepsi Racing Project (and related technology choices), as well as why they went with PHP to "be the P in LAMP" for their Flash based application.

In thie new post to the Zend Developer Zone, Cal Evans caught up with three guys from the Athlon Sports web team - Bryce Wells (manager), Corey Snyder (lead Flash designer), and Mike McCracken (lead game PHP developer).

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to visit one of Nashville's hidden gems, Athlon Sports. Athlon Sports is tucked away in a non-descript building near downtown Nashville. Inside is a 40 year old company, well respected in their field that has been, not so quietly, moving into the world of on-line games.

Traditionally, they publish Pre-Season Annual sports magazines. Before your favorite sport's season begins, Athlon probably publishes a magazine on it. These days however, their interactive division publishes their web site along with many private label on-line games.

They talk about topics like why Athlon decided to get into the web, some about the Pepsi Racing Project (and related technology choices), as well as why they went with PHP to "be the P in LAMP" for their Flash based application.