Sometimes it may seem like a well-kept secret, but ONLamp has (and has had for just about a year) a comic strip that has run once a week, The Watering Hole. I’m happy to announce that as of this week, we’ve shifted from one strip a week on Tuesdays, to two strips a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This means twice the geeky humor per unit time!

If you haven’t see the strip, it’s the exciting adventures of the animals who grace the covers of the O’Reilly books. In the past year, they’ve gotten lost in the desert due to a sabotaged GPS, handled incursions by the RIAA and a patent troll, and much more. You can think of it as User Friendly with animals, or Bambi with computers.

I’ve been hinting and offering teasers about it practically since day 1, but at long last the comic strip is here! We plan to publish every Thursday for the time being. You already know who I am. Randy Silverman is, in addition to being a friend, a talented comic book artist in his own right. I feel privileged to be able to work with Randy on this project, and hope you enjoy the quality of his artwork at least as much as the (alleged) humor of my words.

I am always amazed by artists, especially since i have little talent in that area. Some day, if I’m feeling masochistic, I’ll upload some of the blocking sketches I gave to Randy at the start of the project. They’re not a pretty sight… But the ability to say “in panel 3, I want Pearl standing in front of a computer with her hand on the mouse”:, and have Randy turn it into a work of art, continually amazes me.

In any event, enjoy The Watering Hole!

I mentioned a new ONLamp feature in last week’s Linux Newsletter (and if you don’t get the newsletter, full of my sparkling wit and charm, as well as a summary of the articles and blogs for the week, why don’t you?). The ONLamp Ombudsman will work to resolve those pesky questions to the Ombudsman (which is my secret identity…), and he’ll work to track down the answers.

Had an annoying PHP bug that no one on the mailing list seems to have an answer for? Been trying to figure out how to do something in MySQL, but no one has a clue? Tired of rhetorical questions? Send those problems to the ONLamp Ombudsman (in care of turner at oreilly.com, with OMBUDSMAN in the subject, guess it’s not much of a secret identity, eh?), and I’ll… I mean he’ll try to find the answers to a select few. Let the awesome power of the ONLamp Ombudsman, second only to the Israeli Army, work for you!

Earlier in the week, I said that we wouldn’t be running an article this week because I was getting up to speed and didn’t have one ready yet. I was wrong…

It turns out that hidden way in the back, behind the camel chow and under the orbital death ray spare parts, we had an article that’s been waiting to run. Please enjoy the PHP Search Engine Showdown with our compliments.

You may notice that no articles are going up this week on the ONLamp / Database / SysAdmin time-space continuum this week (at least I think there aren’t any, I’m still getting used to our content management system…) This is mostly due to me settling into my new job here, but rest assured there are plenty of articles in the pipeline, and you’ll be seeing two of them next week. Stephane Faroult will have the first half of an excellent piece on how to emulate Analytic Functions in MySQL, and Raju Varghese continues his look at how to visualize server log files using Gnuplot.

In addition, you may recall that I mentioned last week that there might be some new and fun things coming to ONLamp in the near future. In fact, the first of these has made significant progress over the last week, and is now looking likely to appear in mid-April, a weekly ONLamp-themed comic strip. If things continue to go as planned, I’ll be writing the strips and a good friend and outstanding comic book artist, Randy Silverman, will be doing the art. Look for some sneak peeks in the near future!

Initial response to my call for articles has been amazing, I already have several writers committed to upcoming features as a result. I’m still looking for more interesting writing, especially on the topics of Perl/PHP/Python/Ruby and Databases. This is a great way to get your name out into the world, and earn some money besides!

I’ll have some more geeky things to talk about later in the week, I’ve just returned from a 3 day corporate (day job, not O’Reilly) tech summit, and getting my bearings back.

As chromatic alluded to in his newsletter on Monday, there’s been a changing of the Guard here at ONLamp. After many years of faithful service to the LAMP community, he’s moving on to greener pastures inside the O’Reilly family. I’m honored to have been chosen to take over for him here, and know I have some large shoes to fill.

A few brief words about myself: I’ve been a software engineer for almost 30 years now, and have worked all over the industry, from Artificial Intelligence to desktop publishing to e-Commerce. I’ve worked in huge (Xerox-sized huge) corporations and tiny little startups. In addition, I’ve been an active member of the open source community, including working as a committer on Apache Struts.

About a decade ago, while working as the web site manager of the Christian Science Monitor, I started to write professionally, first for the paper itself and then branching out. I’ve written for WIRED, Processor, Linux Journal, LinuxWorld Magazine (where I was Senior Editor), Linux Today (where I am still a Senior Contributing Editor), CPU, Developer.com, InfoWorld, CMP Tech Pipeline and many others. I’ve reviewed PDAs, and covered the 2000 NH Presidential Primary. I’ve also written two books (for, as they say, another publisher…) on Java Web Development.

When I’m not programming or writing or editing, I’m an avid science fiction fan, a private pilot, a scuba diver, a videographer and a cat herder. I believe in Heinlein’s motto that specialization is for insects.

Anyway, that’s who I am, now a little about what’s upcoming in ONLamp’s future. I intend to continue the tradition of in-depth technical articles that ONLamp and it’s sister sites are known for. But (you knew there was a but coming, didn’t you?) I also intend to bring some more introductory material to the sites. Not dumbed down, just more approachable for someone who wants an overview of a technology rather than a plunge into the deep end. You’ll see that in some of the articles I’ve got out with authors right now, and which should start showing up in April.

We’re also planning some new features for the site. One thing we hope to roll out quickly is the ONLamp Ombudsman. This will be a once-a-month feature where we’ll take a particular user problem or complaint, one that’s languished in the support forums or mailing lists of a given technology, and chase down a solution or explanation. So get your most aggravating problems ready to submit, maybe yours will be the one we go after.

We’re also going to have a little fun on the site. Believe it or not, there’s potentially a comic strip in the works, one that would star characters that O’Reilly readers will be very familiar with. We’re also hoping to improve the layout and user experience, although this will have to wait on the next generation of our content management system to roll out to ONLamp, probably midyear.

I’d also like to hear from you. I’m a big believer in the open source methodology in all things. No one knows what you want to read more than you do. So drop me a line with a suggestion, a constructive criticism, or just a friendly hi. At the end of the day, I work for you as much as I do O’Reilly, so let me know what would make the site better for you. And of course, if you have an itch to write on any of the broad range of subjects that ONLamp and its sisters cover, definitely drop me a line. The beast always needs to be fed.

Hunting for a Perl guru? Or maybe you’re one yourself and are ready for a “change of scenery.” Whether you’re on the prowl for great people or are looking to be found yourself, Perl.com can help.

We’ve just added jobs to Perl.com through our partnership with the folks at Simply Hired. If you want to reach a community of Perl gurus, you’ve come to the right place. Post your job now and land the kind of Perl talent that will make you dance in your cubicle.

Or perhaps you’re ready to give yourself a raise. We’ve got plenty of jobs to choose from with some pretty cool companies. Come on in and take a look.

If you have any suggestions or comments, leave them as comments here or send email to ideas {at} oreillynet.com.

Please do not post your links to other job boards, I’ll toast them if you do.

Here are the links: