We're holding a technical seminar weekend at our Melksham, Wiltshire training centre on 27th and 28th November 2004 (Missed the date? Can't make it? Want these talks in-house at your office?) - for past trainees and friends who want to catch up with the latest technology, meet fellow geeks and have a good curry.

Link to discussion
Link to more admin details for 27, 28 Nov

Topics include:

Perl 6 - Why?, What?, When? and How?
We've been hearing about Perl 6 since late 2000, and the release of this next generation language is getting closer. Graham Ellis has attended a variety of seminars given by the development team, and will be giving an overview of Perl 6 and answering the Frequently Asked Questions.

"No more 404", "Don't template in a template" and other PHP wisdom
Like many eclectic open source languages and systems, you can write something really nasty, or something of great beauty, with PHP. In this presentation, we'll give you some thought provoking ideas to improve your PHP to make it that much more tailorable, maintainable and re-usable. And while you're at it, you'll see how to use PHP to turn your web site from a mere application to a service provision to your customers.

Why do people have a love/hate relationship with Python?
Attend a Perl conference, and you'll find the protagonists taking "cracks" at Python only second to the cracks they're taking at Microsoft - and yet listen to the Python users and you'll hear that it's the best thing since sliced bread. In this session, Graham will explore why Python brings out such strong support and such strong negative feeling too. We can promise you an interesting hour, as we know we have several strong supporters from each side of the divide joining us; past experience tells us that everyone will leave with a better understanding and appreciation, but that we're unlikely to change too many views.

MySQL - a cost effective rival to Oracle?
MySQL has grown in facilities and stature, able to handle some of the most intensive requirements around, for example "slashdot" where one of their systems handles nearly 500 enquiries per second. And if you want it to go further, you can use replication servers and further tuning, with cluster tables in the pipeline. At the same time, the originator's goal of a database that can be installed and tried in 15 minutes still holds good. In this session, we'll look not only at how MySQL manages two achieve what appears to be two opposite extremes, but we'll also look at cost-of-ownership issues to see how it stacks up against other databases such as Oracle.

A Web (PHP/MySQL) application on CD for Windows use
Scenario - you've written a web application in PHP and MySQL, then some twit who doesn't know the technology asks you if you can produce a demo version he can send out on a CD. Turns out not to be such a "twittish" idea - it's perfectly possible to cut a Windows version of your application on CD for distribution; we'll show you the "how" and help you avoid the pitfalls of this interesting application

Talks Contributed by attendees
You won't want to hear Lisa and Graham talking all the time and indeed our customers have a great deal to contribute. We hope to be able to offer the following, but the program may change due to availability and other commitments of these speakers:
Using Open Source Applications by John Moylan
Perl - Objects and OO Design by Bruce James
Also ... possible talks on "Simple Machines" and data exchange protocols which should be very exciting but I can't say too much about just yet.