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1.12     About me

This is NOT the latest copy of this book; click here for the latest version.

I'm a full-time IT journalist working for Future Publishing in Bath, England - you might see my name in Internet Works, Linux Format, Mac Format, PC Answers, PC Plus, PC Format, or Windows XP Magazine. I'm very passionate about the Free Software movement, use Linux both at work and at home (if you must know, I prefer Vim to Emacs and C++ to C), and like to program in my spare time. I think Mono is cool.

That said, please let me make it quite clear: I'm not a programming expert - I don't even consider myself a good programmer. The code presented here might do nothing, do the opposite of what I say it does, or even crash your computer and/or others. Having said that, it's much easier to improve on something that's written already than to write something from scratch, so I'm rather hoping some kind souls out there will let me know of any errata so they can be fixed.

I own two young cats, am happily married, play the guitar and the piano when I get the chance, and like books by George R.R. Martin. At work I have an Athlon 64 3400+ that runs Mandrake, a 400MHz G4 that runs OS X, an 1.8GHz P4 that runs Debian, and an 800MHz Pentium 3 that runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. At home I have a dual-1GHz Pentium 3 that runs Debian and an 800Mhz Athlon that runs FreeBSD and Windows XP.

This site was made to the merry tunes of Nine-Inch Nails, Cypress Hill, the various Lord of the Rings soundtracks, OPM, and Dido. The really crazy chapters were written listening to Atari Teenage Riot, and I think it shows. Still, there's a huge bunch of CDs on my wish list - if you find one you think I should listen to while writing, please do send it over!

You're welcome to email me at paul.hudson@gmail.com - I usually respond, but can't promise anything.





<< 1.11 Give something back!   1.13 Acknowledgements >>
Table of Contents
Want to see this stuff in print? PHP in a Nutshell takes the core topics covered here, adds in thousands of edits from the editorial team and myself, and combines them to make an unbeatable reference for PHP programmers at all levels.



My latest book has hundreds more tips on how to use PHP, Apache, and MySQL, plus Perl, Python, shell scripts, performance tuning, and more!



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Comments from other readers
Bruce chester4b@twcny.rr.com - 24 Jul 2008

I am a blind PHP user and want to play sound files using PHP and can not find how to do so. Play all types and how to do it. Please send me some scripts and explanation

Mads - 24 Jul 2008

uhmm Atari Teenage Riot is great.....

busmile@yahoo.com - 24 Jul 2008

Hi everyone I have many free ebooks for programmer.Download
and read before buy.

http://yimp.6te.net

cumbia@mail.com - 24 Jul 2008

Hello, Paul, I've just started reading your book, and from what I have seen, it looks fantastic already. You seem to be a knowledgable programmer, and a talented writer to boot; a rare and very nice combination. :D

I can't wait to read the rest of your book, and I would like to say thank you ahead of time. It must have taken a ton of effort to put this all together, and there aren't many people in the world who would do something like this for others. I have nothing to offer you but my thanks, sadly, but I hope tha means something, as I really mean it. :)

Christine - 24 Jul 2008

Hi Paul...just a few lines to say..."what a relevation!!!!". Your fantastic tome has been an eye-opener for me. I stumbled into it via the Freelancers site / emails yesterday and have spent hours pouring through it. I am a PHP virgin... in fact I had not even heard of it or MySQL at all until I again stumbled around the Freelancers site a couple of days ago. I have been a freelancer db developer since 93 using Access/SQL Server and really quite a luddite/ignoramus in terms of website development - I havent even built one with FP!!!. So when I saw these web development projects listed on the Freelancers site mentioning PHP and MYSQL, I thought what the hell is this??? I then did google search on PHP and had a look for PHP programming how-to books on amazon and was umming/arghing on which one to buy to learn these subjects and then, I found your on-line book and...WOW!!! I think that this is going to give me a new lease of programming life and I thank you very much :)) (thats a big grin).

A NEW PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

Just wanted to say that this book is great and I respect the effort you have put in to give people such a great free resource.

I stumbled across the site when looking for resources on how to make games in PHP and your site is the only useful one I have found. Also as I am new to PHP and have never used XML for anything, it has helped me realised the power of XML combined with PHP.

Thanks again.

l_padmapriya@rediffmail.com - 24 Jul 2008

Thank you for writing such an excellent book

Attila - 24 Jul 2008

Hi
this is the only resource for developing a parser in PHP.
Thank you!

Wafa - 24 Jul 2008

Dear Sir,
I haven't study your book yet, but I wished to talk to you after reading the two instructions at the top of the book's contents.

You are giving your intellectual property at no cost, and still requesting to be read at freedom; of course your order to not using site-downloader must be accepted and respected.

Secondly, you are well aware about the ease of use and printing out commercially your material for reaping the benefits. But, still you have put it to reader to decide that whether you deserve the credit or not. It really amazed me.

I am pretty new to PHP, in fact I don’t know about it all, yeah, I can't progamme in HTML as well. But, I want to make my project related to BANKING ONLINE. I want to integrate PHP with MySQL.

So, I am very optimistic about the material available for the beginners.

Thanking you for your attention.


Respectfully yours,

Nazim Wafa AMBCS

Branko Bognar, Croatia - 24 Jul 2008

You did great job with this site. I congratulate you!

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

Hi!

This is the most excellent book I've ever read.

Thumbs up! :)

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

hey... just started to read it... i, too, am interested in a pdf, ebook, or some kind of printable reference (print it at kinkos :) )... I'd pay for it, not too much but ya know. What would i need to do to get permission to get a version without the side bars and only one whole page and ability to print it out for reference?
-luper
suppawok-at-hotmail-dot-com

husain - 24 Jul 2008

Thank you for writing such an excellent book.

netlsu - 24 Jul 2008

HI paul

I am absolute newbie to PHP(though i know it is a scripting lang).

Just got your Tutorial on the web & ended up with bookmarking

Hope this wil guide through my process of learning good stuff in PHP

Thank you very much for you time & patience in building this tutorial.

netlsu

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

Thanks for this site, its very cool somebody did this, i'm new to php but program in C, C++, and it easy to read and follow, and good examples.

<a href="http://www.deadlydesigns.net" target="_blank">cDizzle</a> - 24 Jul 2008

Nice job, havent read much but from what I read... your a pretty good scripter. I am a scripter myself, I am 15 and really dont know what to do haha. I need money, a job, or somethin. Well I have a site http://www.deadlydesigns.net and well, I try my best :)

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

Hi Paul i am a beginner and is so amize that have a book witch teach me so much. Thank you so much the book is great i read only chapters for OOP programing and now will read the rest :)))

With best regards
BBakov - b.bakov@gmail.com
Bulgaria

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

jjjj

azteczro@hotmail.com - 24 Jul 2008

Hi paul just want to say your book is great. I am new to php and finding it a bit hard to understand i have bought a book recently learning php5 but still finding it hard but since reading your book its much more easy to understand. I am just curious if you are planning to creat a download of your book or one that i can buy from shops just so when i am working i can read through it as im not conected to the net all the time.

andi - 24 Jul 2008

Paul I have read up on your security section and it was very indepth and useful to me. Thanks very much for providing such an informative guide. Keep up the good work.

A PHP User - 24 Jul 2008

Paul, I have read through several chapters in your book. I like the way it is written and I have high hopes it will be instrumental in enlightening me in the ways of php. I want to thank you for sharing it this way, I have come across no other resource so complete other than the php manual itself available for free on the internet.

Whenever I come here to read I always make sure the first thing done is to notice the google ads. I would suggest though you might consider only putting the ads on the main page. I have found on my own sites showing them too much doesnt help, those who will click on them will find them and the rest will either block them using software or mentally so essentially you end up cluttering your site and gaining no profit from it.

Best regards and thanks again for sharing you knowledge and clear writing style with the rest of us. Also, as mentioned above a download of this book would be great. I know I would gladly pay 5 bucks for it.

cordova.jorge@gmail.com - 24 Jul 2008

Hi Paul your online-book is great but are u planing to create a download of your book i use it for reference but i am not always conected to the net



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