Andrew Disley's Journal

Last month I mentioned the first PHPNW User Group meeting and this month I’m delighted to tell you about the 1st annual PHPNW conference happening later this year.

phpnw08 is a 1 day event organised by developers for developers to be held on Saturday 22nd November 2008 at Manchester Central and will bring together the North-of-England PHP community for a one-day event of exceptional presentations, challenging workshops, sensational debates and networking events. The conference will have a mix of in-depth and shorter talks and the call for papers is open so go submit a proposal.

There’s been an influx of jobs listed on the GeekUp Job Board recently and I just want to make sure the right people find them. The GeekUp Job board is a grassroots job board for the Design, Development, Technology and Web Industry in the UK. It’s completely FREE and doesn’t cost anything to post a job, and I try my darn hardest to keep it clear of posts from those *evil* recruiters. If your looking for a new job or fancy a change of career take a look at the jobs posted in August:

• Freelance Drupal Developer for Vanilla Storm Limited, Levenshulme (Flexible), Greater Manchester
• Ruby Music Services Developer for Playlouder MSP Ltd, London
• Experienced Director CD-Rom Developer for JP74, Padiham, Lancashire
• Web Developer for Ashley Bolser Agency, Leeds, West-Yorkshire
• Java Software Engineer for Mobysoft Ltd, Manchester City Centre, Greater Manchester
• PHP MySQL Web Developer for RetroFuzz Ltd, Manchester City Centre, Greater Manchester
• Web Designer for Flame Digital, Northern Quarter, Manchester, Greater Manchester
• Web Developer for Conferma, West Didsbury, Greater Manchester
• ASP NET Developer for Secret Volcano Lair Limited, Manchester, Greater Manchester
• Front End Freelance Developer x 2 for Numiko, Leeds, West-Yorkshire
• Junior Web Designer for Peppermint Digital, Hale, Cheshire
• Flash Developer for Russell Grant Astrology, Cheshire, Altrincham
• Web Designer / Developer for Russell Grant Astrology, Cheshire, Altrincham
• Freelance SEO and PPC Specialists for Code-Sign, Manchester
• Technical Lead for smartassess Ltd, Sheffield
• Senior Client Side Developer for BBC Future Media and Technology, London W12
• Freelancers Required for JWT Cheetham Bell, Manchester City Center, Greater Manchester
• Freelance Website Developer for MallmusMedia!, Portsmouth, Hampshire
• CPP MFC Developer for Turtlez Ltd, South Manchester, Greater Manchester
• Lead Web Applications Developer .NET for New Mind Internet Consultancy, Liverpool (City Centre), Merseyside
• Web Developer for Clearview Media, Hale, Cheshire
• Junior PHP Developer for CTISN, Manchester
• Senior PHP Developer for CTISN, Manchester
• Senior Ruby on Rails Developer for Whitespace, Barnsley, West-Yorkshire
• Search Marketing Consultant for PushON Ltd, Castlefield, Manchester
• Junior Web Designer for Peppermint Digital, Hale, Cheshire
• Front-End Developer for Code Computerlove, Manchester

Code Computerlove are hunting for a Front End Web Developer with a passion for semantic MarkUp, understanding of cross browser/platform issues, Accessibly, AJAX, DOM, JavaScript, jQuery, Web Standards and a keen eye for design. The position is full-time and will be based in Manchester. No Recruitment Agents! Send your CV to: andrew+jobs [at] geekup [dot] org and I’ll hook you up!

Superfunk Roller Disco returns to Preston

After the success of our Superfunk Roller Disco Preston launch party at 53 Degrees in May earlier this year, we’re back in Preston on Saturday 27th September 2008 for another round of bump action disco fun.

For full details head on over to the Superfunk Roller Disco Preston website.

Gay City Rollers’ is back and it’ll be bigger and better than ever before!

Make sure you get your skates on for this ‘Over the Rainbow’ Pride Special. It’s new home will be ‘Pure’ nightclub in the Printworks on Wednesday 20th August, 9pm until 2am and it’s an opportunity to have an alternative night, try something new, party the night away at the bar and make new friends while raising funds for the Lesbian and Gay Foundation - the North West’s leading community based charity, working to end homophobia and empower people. Get your skates on!

On Friday night the University of Salford is being invaded by Girl Geeks. Manchester Geek Girl Dinners hosts it’s second event and this time Kerry and I will be going along to join in the fun.

Event details

When: 7:00 PM Friday, July 25, 2008

Where: University of Salford, University House, University of Salford,
Salford, England M5 4WT

Cost: Around £15 (includes 3 course meal, coffee and drinks)

What: For those who haven’t been before, it’s dinner, wine, talks from inspirational women, networking and discussions afterwards.

Currently two talks planned, if you want to get involved and speak about women in engineering, science and technology, please do get in touch.

Who can attend: Girl Geeks! A lady who has an interest, or is involved in the Science, Engineering and Technology industries. Blokes can come too, but you need an invite from a Geek Girl!

The all important links: Manchester Girl Geek Dinner Event Website, Upcoming.org Event Page and there’s a facebook Event Page

This weekend Manchester’s Castlefield Arena will be host to the Nokia Skate Almighty music tour that’s already been a huge hit in London and Birmingham. The rolling begins this Friday 25th and ends Sunday 27th July. There’s a bunch of us from SilverWheels Skate Rink in Altrincham heading over to the Sunday evening sessions (more specifically 2000-2200). I’ll be taking the camera along to get some photographic evidence so keep your eye out for that.

There is a new PHP User Group in town PHP North West (PHPNW), some of you may remember the the old PHP Meetup in Manchester run by Dan Morris which later merged into GeekUp due to low interest. Since then there has been growth of User Groups that are more focused on a particular technology.

What is PHPNW?

PHPNW is a community of web developers, web designers and anyone else interested in PHP, from the North West.

First Meeting

The first PHPNW meeting is on this Thursday 17th July in Manchester, for full details visit the event page at Upcoming.

PHPNW links

• PHPNW Website
• PHPNW Google Group
• PHPNW on twitter
• PHPNW on Upcoming
• PHPNW on LinkedIn
• PHPNW on Facebook
• IRC: #phpnw (irc.freenode.net)

This Wednesday 4th June 2008 is going be the last Roller Disco Manchester until mid September - so get your neons on and your legs out and roll on down to Pure this Wednesday for a night to remember!

Work in or near Manchester City Centre, will you be hungry on Thursday lunch? Then come join me for the first GeekUp Lunch this Thursday 1PM at Taurus, 1 Canal Street, Manchester M1 3HE

Full details on the GeekUp Lunch Manchester event page.

Myself and a few other North West Digital Communities (NWDC) members have been invited to the Big Chip Awards in Manchester by Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA). It’s like the oscars but for the Digital Media and IT Industry outside of London and is certainly the place to be seen. It should be a good night, Code Computerlove have 3 projects shortlisted in the same category so there’s a possibility of a win.

This will be my second awards event after last years FRESH:digital Awards 2007 which I really enjoyed and not just because I won Freshest Digital Young Professional, but because it’s good to see some of the fantastic work that’s produced and see the people involved rewarded for their hard work.

A big hug goes out to the MDDA for invite. I’m looking forward to meeting some new faces and putting faces to people I’ve spoken to via mailing lists like GeekUp but have yet to meet. If your attending and we’ve not met do say hello.

The weekly Roller Disco Manchester returns on Wednesday after last weeks unplanned cancellation due to the violence that erupted following the UEFA Cup Final.

Roller Disco Manchester takes place every Wednesday from 10PM at PURE nightclub in The Printworks, Withy Grove, Manchester. Full details can be found on the event website.

Last month saw the launch of GeekUp Preston which takes place on the third Monday of every month. The first event at Gemma’s flat turned out to be extremely popular so this month it will be at a bigger and public venue. Gemma has also promised to bake some Chocolate Guinness Cake so make sure you get there early to be in with a chance of sampling the goodness!

For those not in the know; “GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the North West. Our socials take place once a month in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Sheffield they are always a lively place to share ideas and spread a little knowledge.”

John Kirkham’s Skate Fever Roller Disco’s are kicking off on the 5th July with the first one being held at Xsite at the Xscape Castleford in Leeds West Yorkshire.

I’m so excited have been for weeks and John’s kindly asked Rachael to DJ so no doubt the music will be fly.

I’ve been looking forward to this day for years, I like many people hate the feeling you get after a night out when you stink of smoke and even after a shower it’s still there inside you. The punishment of a sore throat should be a thing of the past.

Today England goes Smokefree. It’s now a criminal office to smoke in enclosed public places and workplaces from 0600 July 1st 2007. Places include bars, cafes, lunch rooms, membership clubs nightclubs, pubs and shopping centres is against the law.

Individuals lighting up illegally will face a fine of £50 (£30 if paid within 15 days or upto £200 if the case goes to court ). Business owners are liable for two separate offences (’failing to prevent smoking in a smokefree place’ and ‘failing to display no-smoking signs’) and could face fines of up to £2,500.

It’s the responsability of Local councils to enforce the law but you can help by alerting the businiess owners. You can also report it to your local council or phone the Smokefree Compliance Line on 0800 587 166 7.

The law has been introduced to protect people from second-hand smoke which causes and estimate 600 deaths a year. Hopefully the ban will also encourage smokers to give it up. I really hope the ban gets through to people as I’m pretty sick of people lighting up on the train station platfoms. Now that the bussiness owners are accountable we should see an active policing.

It’s the last Thursday of the month and that means GeekUp Liverpool is happening so if your around the Mersey you should pop along for a geeky chat. I unfortunately can’t make this event due to workload but hopefully I’ll make the next Liverpool event.

Event Details

When

6:00 PM Thursday June 28th, 2007

Where

3345 Parr Street, Liverpool, L1 4JN

Description

This Month’s Talk - Unobtrusive JavaScript with Dave Verwer

With every site you visit piling on more and more JavaScript and Ajax, what happens when a user comes along using a screen reader or mobile device that would choke on even a simple alert()? How can we take advantage of the power of these technologies without providing any barriers to users, this session will cover techniques to ensure that you can still serve up rich content without excluding users, all from one code base.

Upcoming

Let us know if your attending on the upcoming.org event page.

Things are extremely busy right now at the office and we are seeking a full-time standards-aware front-end developer who is passionate about writing clean, semantic and accessible HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If that sounds like yours -or someone you knows- cup-of-tea drop me an e-mail and include your resumé and if possible a list of links to examples of your work.

Calling Leeds, Yorkshire based Designers/Developers/Geeks!

I’m really happy to announce that GeekUp has arrived in yet another city, this time Leeds. I’m grateful that Deb Basset has agreed to organise the Leeds events. Debs and her partner Rob have been attending the Manchester events non-stop since I met them at reboot last year. They drive a 3 hour round trip to Manchester how much more dedicated could a GeekUper be?

The inaugural GeekUp Leeds

When

6:00 PM Wednesday June 20th, 2007

Where

The Cross Keys 107 Water Lane, Leeds LS11 5WD

Description

The inaugural Leeds event!

Upcoming

Let us know if your attending on the upcoming.org event page.

I’ve uploaded some more photos from last nights Roller Disco at Billie Rox in Manchester to my Roller Disco Billie Rox Manchester set on flickr. Myself John, Dan, Debs and Rob went over after GeekUp. There are not as many shots as usual I was having too much fun skating so didn’t get out the camera much, but there are a few - enjoy.

I’ve been to the Roller Disco in Manchester at Billie Rox a few times this month and have taken lots of photos, some of which you can view in my Roller Disco Billie Rox Manchester set on flickr.