It all started on Friday as we came back from the pub. I was describing how we've been, twice, on Neil Bauman's Geek Cruises but never been asked to talk or lecture, even in a "lightning session" on them. A little wistfully, maybe, as I'm a "wannabe" - I would love to get up and deliver a talk just as I do here in the UK for a living. We came to the conclusion that Neil's not asked me because (a) I'm not a big name in his customer's world which is USAcentric and (b) I've not written published a book. It could also be that we've not been pushy enough - HEY - NEIL ....

I've written a lot, and I still write a lot. You'll find nearly 1000 articles in this series, about a half of which are technical. You'll find over 1000 pages of technical detail in our course notes which we hand out when you come and learn with us and you'll find over 1000 technical postings in our user forum.

So why have I not been published? Well - it's not because I've not been asked (please excuse the double negative) and it's not because people don't read the stuff I write - they do. On a typical weekday, around 300 read my page telling them about the difference between a JOIN and a LEFT JOIN, a further 300 learn about using PHP and MySQL to upload, store and serve images, and even on subjects as obscure as dynamic mapping hits will be into three figures. No - the real reason is that I've simply never felt I have the time to put a complete book together, and proof it, and get it through all the formal publication stages, that I've always felt there are plenty of competing books out there, and that I've always felt that having published a book on our technologies it would only be a matter of weeks before I felt it was out of date or that I had something I wanted to add.

However, we did come to the conclusion on Friday that I have a book, constantly updated and already written, and it's here on this website. The LAMP Cookbook. A number of longer articles on Linux, Apache httpd, MySQL, Perl and PHP in our solutions centre, then a large number of tips and techniques on each of the topics - PHP, Perl, MySQL and Apache httpd and Linux all indexed under category and subcategory.

A quick Google search doesn't - YET - reveal a "LAMP Cookbook" page, so perhaps there's an opportunity there. But then most of my readers here will know that for every 10 good ideas we have, we only have time to bring one of them through to fruition. So perhaps I'll leave you, the reader of this musing, to pick at the pages on this site as my virtual book ... you'll find that each of the topics (such as PHP) goes down into subtopics (such as arrays in PHP, and within there you'll find numerous source code examples such as this one and a whole load of short tips under unlikely names such as breaking bread


Neil, I might be available for a week sometime next summer ...
(written 2006-11-13, updated 2009-01-01)

Commentator	says ...
Randal L. Schwartz:	Maybe if you stopped playing with MySQL, and started writing about PostgreSQL, you'd get tapped for a speaking role? :) Anyway, by the time you're on the cruise, our schedules are already pretty full. And prior to that, you have to be a big enough name that you'll draw people worldwide. It's purely about business and marketing, and clearly not personal. (comment added 2006-12-18 04:47:14)
Graham Ellis:	Understood, Randal ... possible answer (a) confirmed ;-) Good to see you here ... hope to see more of you! -- Graham (comment added 2006-12-21 07:07:19)

A100 - Web Application Deployment - The Components of a Web-Based Solution
  [3891] The components of an Apache httpd / Tomcat / MySQL stack and what each does - (2012-10-13)
  [2896] LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP - install, configure, administer - (2010-07-30)
  [2099] Should I maintain the programming code on my own website? - (2009-03-23)
  [1496] PHP / Web 2 logging - (2008-01-06)
  [1265] Apache, Tomcat, Jakarta, httpd, web server - what are they? - (2007-07-13)
  [1198] From Web to Web 2 - (2007-05-21)
  [1176] A pu that got me into trouble - (2007-05-04)
  [673] Helicopter views and tartans - (2006-04-06)
  [510] Dynamic Web presence - next generation web site - (2005-11-29)
  [442] How far away is that server? - (2005-09-10)
  [433] FTP - how to make the right transfers - (2005-09-01)
  [367] Ajax - (2005-07-03)
  [166] Acronyms - (2005-01-02)
  [49] Business is the predominant user of Tomcat, Perl and Tcl - (2004-09-15)
  [34] Linux / LAMP course - (2004-08-31)

A601 - Web Application Deployment - Apache httpd - an overview
  [4064] Apache httpd - a robust, open source web server - (2013-04-16)
  [2186] An FAQ on the Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat web servers, and on using them together - (2009-05-17)
  [2077] Why put Apache httpd in front of Apache Tomcat - (2009-03-12)
  [2063] Internal Dummy Connections on Apache httpd - (2009-03-02)
  [2054] Tuning httpd / the supermarket checkout comparison - (2009-02-26)
  [2038] Sticky Sessions with mod_jk (httpd to Tomcat) - (2009-02-12)
  [2016] Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat miscellany - (2009-01-30)
  [1897] Keeping on an even keel - (2008-11-21)
  [1593] Keep the client experience easy - single server contact point - (2008-03-27)
  [659] Web Application Components - (2006-03-28)
  [576] Why run two different web servers - (2006-01-25)

G208 - Well House Consultants - Library
  [3440] Research is exciting. But should routine be automated? - (2011-09-14)
  [3259] Our library in Melksham - (2011-04-23)
  [2943] Our facilities to support Well House Consultants Courses - (2010-09-02)
  [669] The best Open Source library in town - (2006-04-04)
  [167] Upgrade to the Library - (2005-01-03)

G901 - Well House Consultants - Talks and lectures
  [4284] Talk and walk to promote train service - Melksham Carnival - (2014-07-11)
  [3834] Geekmas 2012 - celebrating open source languages such as Perl, PHP and Python - (2012-08-11)
  [3351] Research and development with the help of your tutor or guide - (2011-07-09)
  [3221] How long is a speech? - (2011-03-29)
  [1459] Interactive training, and advancing techniques further - (2007-12-05)
  [1422] Wiltshire - speaker / after dinner talker offer - (2007-11-05)
  [1419] National Speaker - now to get the talk ready - (2007-11-02)
  [1242] Speaking at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University - (2007-06-24)
  [1101] Mushroom Curry and Perl Courses - (2007-03-07)
  [310] Just in time - the talk is writ - (2005-05-13)
  [247] Extreme training - (2005-03-16)
  [134] Geekmas - a brief review - (2004-11-29)
  [128] Technical Weekend / Geekmas - (2004-11-23)
  [99] Should we call it 'Geekmas'? - (2004-10-25)
  [62] Technical Open House - (2004-09-25)

H101 - Introduction to PHP
  [4118] We not only teach PHP and Python - we teach good PHP and Python Practice! - (2013-06-18)
  [3025] Learning to Program ... in PHP. Course examples. - (2010-11-01)
  [2097] PHP Course - for hobby / club / charity users. - (2009-03-22)
  [1958] PHP - Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end ... - (2008-12-23)
  [1753] Perl v PHP, choosing the right language - (2008-08-14)
  [1717] Q - Should I use Perl or Python? - (2008-07-23)
  [1050] The HTML++ Metalanguage - (2007-01-22)
  [949] Sludge off the mountain, and Python and PHP - (2006-11-27)
  [917] Syntax checking in PHP - (2006-11-07)
  [846] Is Perl being replaced by PHP and Python? - (2006-08-27)
  [795] Remember a site's non-technical issues too - (2006-07-07)
  [789] Hot answers in PHP - (2006-07-02)
  [712] Why reinvent the wheel - (2006-05-06)
  [691] Testing you Perl / PHP / MySQL / Tcl knowledge - (2006-04-19)
  [646] PHP - London course, Melksham Course, Evening course - (2006-03-14)
  [629] Choosing the right language - (2006-03-01)
  [624] It's REALLY easy to add a little PHP - (2006-02-26)
  [577] Learning to program in Perl or PHP - (2006-01-26)
  [382] Central London Courses - Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, MySQL - (2005-07-18)
  [380] Bridging to the customer requirement - (2005-07-16)
  [341] Happy Birthday, PHP - (2005-06-09)
  [317] Programming languages - a comparison - (2005-05-20)
  [135] Too many Perls - (2004-11-30)
  [132] Portrait of the author - (2004-11-27)
  [124] PHP v Java - (2004-11-20)
  [93] Case Sensitive? - (2004-10-19)
  [55] Evening classes to learn PHP - (2004-09-19)
  [48] PHP - onwards and upwards - (2004-09-14)

P201 - Perl - Introduction
  [2832] Are you learning Perl? Some more examples for you! - (2010-06-27)
  [2812] What is Perl? - (2010-06-15)
  [2070] Converting to Perl - the sort of programs you will write - (2009-03-08)
  [1852] Perl and Blackberries - (2008-10-23)
  [743] How to debug a Perl program - (2006-06-04)
  [604] Perl - multiprocess applications - (2006-02-13)
  [594] Twice is a co-incidence and three times is a pattern - (2006-02-07)
  [25] Release numbers - (2004-08-23)

S151 - Introduction to SQL and MySQL
  [3928] Storing your intermediate data - what format should you you choose? - (2012-11-20)
  [3269] Files or Databases? MySQL, SQLite, or Oracle? - (2011-04-28)
  [2786] Factory methods and SqLite in use in a Python teaching example - (2010-05-29)
  [2567] Extra MySQL course dates (2 day course, UK) - (2010-01-08)
  [2561] The future of MySQL - (2010-01-03)
  [2134] Oracle take over Sun who had taken over MySQL - (2009-04-21)
  [918] Databases needn't be frightening, hard or expensive - (2006-11-08)
  [591] Key facts - SQL and MySQL - (2006-02-04)
  [515] MySQL - an FAQ - (2005-12-03)
  [444] Database or Progamming - which to learn first? - (2005-09-13)
  [175] Worthwhile - (2005-01-11)
  [85] Present and future MySQL - (2004-10-12)
  [84] MySQL - nuggets - (2004-10-11)

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