New York Times Features Elance and Odesk

In a society where people are losing their jobs, many have turned to self-employment. Companies who see outsourcing as a viable strategy for their business hire these independent contractors.

In today's New York Times, two communities that I'm part of were featured: Elance and Odesk. These were not the only ones, and the article says a lot about the growth in the freelance communities because of the economic crisis. To read the whole article, click here.

These are my profiles in Elance and Odesk, respectively:

My Elance
My Odesk

php | architect: Order Accepted

I was able to contact phparch.com's toll-free number and talk to a customer service representative. I contacted them to inquire about the shipping address that was registered in their database because I was being charged 11.90 USD for shipping even though I selected a US address for the shipping address. It turns out that the shipping address was indeed the US address, but since the billing address was a Philippine address, their system automatically charged shipping (this is apparently a bug). The lady on the line asked me to send a refund request once the order is accepted. At this time my order wasn't accepted yet since they manually had to check my credit card for validity.

I now know why my credit card was manually checked. It's a policy that they have right now, to check credit cards that have an overseas billing address. After that conversation, my order was accepted and I was able to download the soft copy of the book on my online account:

After they sent my receipt by email, I replied to them that they charged 11.90 for shipping and that I'm requesting a refund.


Now I'm waiting for the refund. They promised it will take about three days to credit back to my credit card.

Credit Card Manual Check

Today I tried to purchase the 2nd edition of Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide at phparch.com's online book store.


When I first tried to order the book by my saved credit card in my online account, it generated an error saying the number is invalid. So I entered my credit card details manually.

After the order, the site gave me this page:



It seems that I'm now suspected for credit card fraud. They will review my purchase manually. This is weird. It's not the first time I made a purchase from phparch.com.

You might also experience this, and note that this link will show on top of that page:


Is it because there was an error the first time I tried to use my saved credit card details and when I entered my credit card details manually they now get suspicious?

If you have any experience with phparch.com similar to this, do leave a comment.

Ubercart for Drupal

A few months ago I was able to set up a shopping cart for Drupal. I made it using Ubercart, a module you can easily install. It looks very seamless with a wide variety of payment methods. It emails you your invoice. It even has shipping cost calculations.

If you want to test it, you can check out this dummy site I made for testing the shopping cart. When calculating shipping costs, I set the pick-up address to a California 95262 zip code, so that's the origin of the package. Go ahead and try it at

http://cart.site40.net/

It's 2009!

Happy New Year to everyone! It's the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. I also just turned 28 on January 1.

For the previous year, it was met with a lot of challenges for many of us. The recession has affected first-world countries such as the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Singapore. There's less effect on us here in third-world countries but nevertheless the effect is there. Many Filipinos working abroad have returned to their motherland. Some have gotten laid off because of the financial crisis. Even my job hunt was not successful in Singapore, a first-world country that has a suffering economy as well.

As I'm writing this, I'm back in my motherland the Philippines. I'm currently a freelancer who's hopefully a future shareholder in a new business venture. The economy here has not changed much. Generally, companies pay as low as possible, and it seems that it's not easy to find employment that pays well based on experience, skills, and education. We just haven't reached that level in our job culture yet (my humble opinion).


Anyway, for the latest technology I've been exploring -- I recently got back to Drupal and learned more than I had at first. Drupal is viable for creating social networks, shopping carts, and point-systems (e.g. rewards for shoppers). I've tested all three features and they work. It's a growing active community with lots of modules to choose from. It's good to use for seamless integration that reduces the need to hard code. All you need to do is install the modules and activate them.

To a great year ahead...

Brainbench Shape-Based IQ Test

On July 16, I received an email from Brainbench asking for help on the beta testing of their new Shape-Based IQ test. All I had to do was enter the promo code and take the test. If I got 20% or more and answered all questions, I get a free certification worth $49.95 and a chance to win an Apple iTouch.

So I took the test. I made it to 98%. Now I have a free test and have entered into the raffle draw for an iTouch.


I wanna take the PHP 5 test. After all, it's free now for me. =)

Zend PHP 5 Exam: Failed

June 6, 2008. I took the real test for the Zend PHP 5 Certification. My test center was MISNet in Makati, Philippines.

I got to the test center with time to spare which I spent reviewing with my friend who accompanied me to the venue. I took the test which lasted an hour and a half (90 minutes). I was able to review most of my answers, and was confident of all the answers I gave. None was left incomplete.

Still, my best wasn't enough. Some of the questions were very tricky. For example, you are given four possible answers and you have to choose the best one. None of them would be considered "wrong" in terms of code usage, but only one is the best and correct answer. Another example is that there are four correct answers and you have to choose two of the best answers. There's also subtle differences I saw with regard to the choices, and even when looking at code, it seems that they deliberately placed a syntax error in one of them that I overlooked somehow. I will not be disclosing any of the questions here since there's a non-disclosure agreement that I promised to follow.

They don't give you the raw score or even let you know the passing score. But they do print out the areas where you can see your level of strength. I got a high score for Streams and Network Programming, as well as Strings and Patterns. I scored medium in Functions, Arrays, and Web Features. I got a low score in Security, PHP 4/5 Differences, Object-Oriented Programming, PHP Basics, and Databases and SQL.

I read somewhere that the practice tests were harder than the real test. But in this case, I don't find that to be true. I passed two practice tests (via the Vulcan engine) and failed the real test. You can read my previous posts regarding my practice tests.

Zend offered me a discount for a retake. Instead of paying $125, this time I can take the test for $100 only. But I doubt I will be doing that anytime soon. This test has shown me that to pass the exam I need to know PHP inside out, and not just in its practical usage in web development but its architecture and configuration as well. I may need more time to study. And I don't really need that kind of knowledge if I'm just gonna work as a PHP programmer starting out in the industry, at least not in the junior and mid-level. Besides those, PHP 6 is scheduled to come out in August this year, and they might change the exam altogether. So I'll wait and see.

Are you ready to take the test?

Joomla! Day Philippines

Joomla! Day Philippines is on its way!

Mark June 14, 2008 on your calendar. It's the 1st ever Joomla! Day in the Philippines.

The Philippines is set to witness the next biggest event for the month of June besides Independence Day. On June 14, 2008, Filipino webmasters and amateurs alike will converge at the Engineering Library and Computer Science Building, Velaquez Street, UP Campus, Diliman, Quezon City to liberate not just Filipinos but every single individual in cyberspace. The event is dubbed as Joomla! Day Philippines.

Since knowledge in computer technology assures individual a competitive edge in the 21st century, Joomla! Day Philippines is indeed as remarkable event for Filipinos as Independence Day (June 12). Joomla! is an award-winning free open source content management system (CMS) enabling professionals and amateurs to build and administer feature-rich, powerful web sites without having to have an extensive knowledge of web programming languages. It is designed to power simple personal homepages as well as complex corporate web applications.

Come June 14, 2008, Filipinos online will once again express its commitment to the free software movement with the holding of the first-ever Joomla! Day Philippines – a great opportunity to learn and network with other Joomla! users and developers in the country. The conference will be attended by representatives from the Joomla! Core Team and Working Group, representatives from non-governmental organizations, local government units, and the business sector. Joomla! Day Philippines is another good reason to celebrate freedom after Philippine Independence Day. Don't remove the Philippine flags just yet until June 14.

Personally, I will not be able to go. There's just no budget and time for this right now. But if I was to go, I think this will really be a great opportunity.

For more information, visit http://www.joomla.org.ph/

Zend PHP 5 Exam Preparation - Part 2

At this time, it's three days before my actual exam.

A friend bought me a voucher for the Zend PHP 5 Certification exam, and I received it through email from zend.com. I also was able to book my exam online at Vue, and confirmed it by phone that the test center has received my booking. My test center is MISNet Inc. in Makati, Philippines. They require you to have two valid IDs with signatures when you walk in, along with the voucher. But I had to verify if I can use my passport since the new passports only have an electronic ID system and no longer store the handwritten signatures of the passport owners. MISNet said it was okay. So I'll be bringing my company ID and my passport to the test center.

I also bought Cebu Pacific round-trip plane tickets online, so my flight is booked and confirmed for June 5. Another friend is gonna help me get to the test center -- I've never been to it, and I don't live in Makati.

I took another practice test online using the Vulcan simulator. This time, there were differences to my last practice test results:


I have less excellent scores now. In Arrays as well as PHP 4/5 Differences, I failed this time where I was once excellent. But I also have less failing marks this time. I passed Database Access and XML & Web Services this time around, where I failed the last time.

I studied in the areas I was weak in, and by God's grace I know I'm ready to take the test.

PHPUGPH Event: tri{php}letreat@USAutoPartsPhilippines

A triple treat! The PHP User Group Philippines, Inc. (PHPUGPH) in cooperation with US Auto Parts Network (Philippines) Corp. has organized an event that focuses on web development, security, and marketing. It will be held on May 24, 2008, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, at the US Auto Parts Network (Philippines) Corp. (formerly MBSTek) Training Room, 6/F RCC Center, 104 Shaw Blvd., Pasig City (Near Jade Palace), Philippines.

Topics:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Riz Sanchez, SEO Manager, US Auto Parts Network (Philippines) Corp.

Model-View-Controller (MVC) 101: A Web Development Architecture
Reynold Lariza, Web Development Supervisor, Glocorp IT Solutions, Inc.

Web Application Security by Example
Richard Peter Ong, Lead Developer, Internal Projects, SysIQ Inc.


Event Fee:

PHP 350.00 for early birds paid and with resume.
PHP 450.00 for early birds paid without resume.

* all inclusive of snacks and lunch *

Note:
Limited seats, good only for 35 slots. First come, first serve basis. Registration is open until May 22, 2008. Your registration expires if no payment is made within 2 days.

Payment Details:

All payments must be made within 2 days after online registration through bank deposit.
Bank account details are listed below:

Bank: BPI Family Savings Bank
Account No: 6006-6267-67
Account Name: Cherrie Ann B. Domingo

Scanned deposit slips should be sent to chean_AT_phpugph.com for payment confirmation.

Contact Us:

For more details or any other inquiries, kindly contact Cherrie Ann B. Domingo at: +639178652412(Mobile), (632) 7253053(Office), chean_AT_phpugph.com(E-mail).

Registration:

While waiting for official PHPUGPH.COM registration page please register on this temporary link

Zend PHP 5 Exam Preparation

For a few months now, I've been preparing and studying to take the Zend PHP 5 Certification exam. That's the official PHP test. I even bought my personal copy the Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide. My copy is at home, while I also have the PDF on my laptop and another hard copy at the office that were bought by my boss as the company's copies. These you can get online from Zend as well as from Amazon and php|architect.

I've read through the study guide twice, discovered a lot of errors, even with the errata, and tried to remember all that I have read. I even tried out most of the codes in the book. Last I checked, they recently released a second edition.

Finally, I bought practice tests from php|architect. Some I sold to my friends, but some I reserved for me. The practice tests are simulated by Vulcan, and below you will see what Vulcan looks like. This is the page that displays before you start the practice test:



I was able to answer the practice test before the time ran out. I made a lot of errors but managed to pass. This is a joy for me since the practice test is actually more difficult than the actual test. Still, I've discovered the areas I need to review on and perhaps do some practice coding on. Below are the results of my practice test:


90 minutes, 70 questions. Just like the real test. ARE YOU REAADDY?