Merry Christmas to all, especially to those I can't make the wish in person for.

I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at the Vancouver PHP conference this February. I’m currently slotted for three talks but will probably only be doing two once the schedule settles out a bit. You may not know this but I’m actually from Vancouver (born in a suburb oh so many years ago) so I’m quite thrilled to be returning “home” to speak at the user group’s conference.


Registration is open now, if you live on the west coast it’s an easy trip, register now. There’s a great list of speakers scheduled, hope to see you there.

When someone provides you with sample code demonstrating... anything. It’s appropriate to change the email address(es) within even if the author left them in. Many people (myself included) prefer to provide code as close to functional as absolutely possible, since every change since the tested & working code introduces opportunity for error and confusion.


FedEx emailed me many many times last night, letting me know that my shipment to the little nook under the stairs had been accepted and scheduled for pick up. This was quite confusing until I remembered the source code for the FedEx chapter in my book. The customer service rep who accepted my calls had aparently read Harry Potter and got a good laugh out of that one.


No harm no foul, I just don't need more email.

1999 Mazda Protoge SE


Automatic, 4 door, 1.6L, 4 cyl., front wheel drive,

Green exterior, Tan cloth interior

New JVC AM/FM/CD stereo with remote,

145,000kms, 100% accident free, Driver & Passenger Airbags, e-tested.

Asking $5,495CDN, or best offer.

Makes a great Christmas gift!!!!

Pictures attached and an ad will be printed in the Autotrader and online at www.autotrader.ca on the 15th of December.

Currently located in London, Ontario, Canada








If you're interested drop me a line and I can set you up with my brother (who owns the car). (paul at preinheimer dot com)

I recently had occasion to spend two weeks in Sweden, and this being the Christmas season I was exposed to many of their Christmas traditions, quite different from the ones I’m used to, but a lot of fun. While examining their Christmas traditions (glogg, christmas table, etc.) I stopped to think about what actually makes something a tradition, and I think I’ve come up with a pretty basic framework: The tradition must be started AND It must be either expensive OR difficult to accomplish OR it must not be all that great to begin with. I’ll examine those one at a time.


The Tradition must be started

Simple eh? In order for something to become a tradition it must get started, perhaps something as formal as a first harvest on a “new” continent, the birth of a savior, or something that began on a whim or coincidence that just worked out well such as wearing those Christmas popper hat’s at the table, or me desperately trying to remember to make a Christmas stocking for my mother.


Expensive or Difficult or not all that great

Aye, here’s the rub. This is what truly separates traditions from things that become pervasive consistent elements of every day life, the challenge involved. Think about it for a moment, if there was a tradition that was cheap, easy to do and really good, it wouldn’t be a tradition anymore, it would be something that you did with great regularity. We eat turkey’s at Christmas and Thanksgiving because they’re great tasting and share well with the whole family. We only eat them at Christmas and Thanksgiving because they take hours to cook, are compared to most elements of modern cuisine are difficult to prepare. Modern factory farming techniques could easily provide us with a turkey for our oven every day of the year if the market demanded it, but it wont because we’re too busy. Our other family tradition of forcing all to wear those paper hats during dinner works out well for christmas because while mildly amusing, isn’t exactly thrilling, it remains a tradition because it’s a neat thing to do once a year, and because while cheap it’s not quite worthwhile to do it every night.


Leaving me with two questions, what are your thoughts on what makes an event or practice into a tradition, and what are your traditions this holiday season?