As usual, Sitepoint Forum Staff wants to recognize our members’ curiosity and helpful and polite manners. As usual, we found someone that, especially the last month, has proved willingness and eagerness to learn and to help others.
Whenever we see someone with such a positive attitude, we get excited. And our way to say thank you is to give him a shiny badge of the Member of the Month.
This month, Drummin is our member. He’s been consistant, helpful, polite and has shown all the qualities required to make it to our list of nominates… and win the badge!
Please, join me and congratulate Drummin for his efforts, for the job well done and his active participation in the forums
Some things are unavoidable, and this question is one of those things. How did you find Sitepoint and what made you stick around?
The WWW is a wonderful source of information. I always enjoyed building websites and writing code. From the very beginnings so many years ago when I wrapped <h1> tags around “Hello” using Notepad and loaded it into my browser and exclaimed “How Cool!” I knew this was something I needed to learn more about. Throughout the years as new ideas or challenges arose I searched for an answer to a specific question on the web. This brought me not only the answer I was looking for but a slew of problem solving questions from the forums. Reading or working through these examples has helped broaden my understanding. SitePoint forum was immediately bookmarked when I came across it and is a favorite place for learning and at times helping someone with a problem.
Why is your name Drummin? Why not Guitarrin or Pianoin?
Playing the drums was a big part of my life for untold decades. After school, after work, weekend gigs in clubs and bars you would find me “drummin”. Back when I got that first PC and setup an email account, my user name was drummin. Though I’m not playing so much these days I still use the name from time to time.
You seem to like PHP… but is it the only language that you speak?
For the most part, yes php is the only language I speak or write freehand. I’ve used jquery/javascript for many menus, slideshows and edited where needed. I’ve worked with XML making Gateway connections for clients and generated XLS file Excel spreadsheets from php data but php is the main language I’ve worked with.
MVC or not MVC… is that the question?
Strictly speaking MCV == false; Most projects I make have a CMS I’ve been developing for several years. I’ve never really liked using GET for calling page content so instead of using something like domain.com/index.php?page=articles&article=MyPage I create a directory structure and call the page by directory, e.g. [URL=“http://domain.com/articles/MyPage”]domain.com/articles/MyPage. I only use GET for pagination, internal links or page related things like “Hide/Show More” etc. I’m sure some will argue that a single page should handle this but it’s just the way I like doing things.
The page creation process from the back-end point of view is simple really; you enter a new page name, select the category (and sub category if needed) and submit. Any spaces or special characters are striped from the name and a directory is made loaded with a default index page. On the page creation and editing pages there is a good selection of page setup options for that project, for example: Short Header, Header with Image, Header with slideshow and a module selection area where you select parts that could be loaded into the page and where, for example, say you wish to list links to the last three blog articles, you select the Links Module, select Blogs as the category and 3 as the number of records to show. This along with General content editing, image upload for slideshow and Meta Tag editing are also part of the Add/Edit pages section. That default index page I mentioned will then take this information and display the page as specified. Anyway, that’s what I’m using for now.
If Drummin => Mars… does it mean that extraterrestrial life exists and that I’m talking to a real Martian? (Note: In one of the questions from another member about arrays, she used this particular value pair)
Lol. No it’s the other way around in that “Mars” is only a part of me and there are many other key value pairs that make up Drummin. I’ve known people who like to classify people based on a value who would say because I have a value of Mars I must be a Martian without considering other values or the percentage of Mars that is part of me. As for being an extraterrestrial, I am from Earth but because I have Mars in me means we probably all have a little Mars (or Venus) in us and that our true origins are yet to be identified. array_search(“Mars”,“Drummin”)
If you’re a Martian… Did you have the chance of meeting E.T.? When you speak, do you say things like “hooooome” or “phoooooone”or “aaaaauch” while your finger lights up and you point to… the air?
It would be formed in a question: E.T. Beeeeeee… gooood? As I’d want to know his intentions. My finger would only light up and point to the sky if it was E.SHE and then it would be a whole different question
How about Yoda, Spock or any other extraterrestrial celebrity?
It is interesting that you mention these two characters not because of their celebrity status but because of the values represented and the ARRAY called Drummin. No I don’t have “The Force” but I’ve always felt a hidden truth that goes beyond what is known by my current being or any literature known to man. Like an old soul who’s been around the block a few times I find myself thinking “There’s more to it than that” when someone talks about the history of Man, science or religion. I tend to think logically and so I can relate to Spock though I don’t block my emotional side
If you’re not a Martian… then are you an array? If so… Are you associative? What kind of association can be expected?
We are all arrays and definitely associative but because we may not know the keys we might define it as sequential or a list of values. Family and Respect for others are values I hold high.
You seem to like the PHP forum quite a bit… Do you like POSTing because there is so many people that will finally stop GETting it and hide their variables?
I am a php apprentice and am learning more with each visit. I like the challenge of figuring something out and so if I’m not busy with a project or need a break I look at an issue and offer a suggestion. I certainly don’t take the attitude of “I know it all and wish they would GET IT” as learning is a process we are all going through.
Is $life a variable? Do we need humanity to INCLUDE CONNECTION.php to solve all the queries of $life? Or is $life a mystery because it is encrypted?
$Life is a Variable that sometimes thinks it’s a Constant and more important than the next Variable. Many unknowing Variables INCLUDE a CONNECTION and because they’ve made a connection and receive Results from their Queries, they believe their data is correct, which often times turns this Variable into another Constant. What is not realized is that the Database being accessed was created by a Class of Constants whose goal is to turn variables into Constants of the same Class. These Class Constants fight with other Class Constants, each group thinking they’re the Class that knows the truth and that THEY should be in charge of the Project Humanity, while Variables are pushed aside or punished for not joining a Class. It’s time for a new connection and to do away with Classes.
In the $end (unexpected or not)… is there any comments, jokes, advice that you want to add to this interview?
When you start a new project think through and define all the required parts of that project and how these will be created, edited and stored. I was talking with a guy that had project in mind and kept searching the internet for “code” on how to make it and wasn’t getting an answer. I explained that if he defined and worked on each part it would be very simple, then any questions you have would be php specific, e.g. “How Do I Get The Key of An Array”, “How Do I Get The ID of A Record I Just Added” etc. These kinds of questions are easy to find answers for. Once all the “Parts” are in place it’s pretty easy to pull the project together.
Thank you, Drummin, for all the help you’re providing others and for your interesting answers to this interview 
