Recently at my current job the powers that be (hereafter referred to as "they") decided to go from a progressive coding approach to a more MVC type approach using a framework (either custom made or already built). I'd like to point out that I'm all for using a framework especially on the applications we've got right now. I did suggest CodeIgniter as the framework of choice but my suggestion was received with disgust, so I kept my mouth shut...big mistake.

After attempting to build their own MVC Framework "they" decided to go with Zend Server Community Edition. Now I didn't (and still don't, which is sad) know a lot about the Zend Framework so I was somewhat excited to see it in action, especially since my experience with CI has been so great. And I guess maybe that's one of the reasons I'm posting today.

For anyone out there wondering if Zend is a good match for you, STOP!
For anyone out there who recently implemented the Zend Framework, WHY? It's not to late to turn back.

I've been working with the Zend Framework for about two weeks now, and I don't expect to know everything there is to know about Zend but I do expect to know SOMETHING. Let's just take a trip down memory/nightmare lane.

Please excuse me if I can't remember all the details, I've tried so hard to block some of this from ever resurfacing.

My first task was to figure out how to ajax with zend, seems simple enough right? Shoot zend even created a helper that loads the (almost) latest jQuery libraries for you so you never have to worry about being up to date. Not only that but zend has a way to build your Ajax request so you don't have to know how to do that yourself either. What they don't tell you is that in order for the jquery libraries to be loaded on your page, you DO have to use at least one of their custom php jquery building tools (in other words, you can't make all your jquery by yourself), otherwise the libs just wont load. Instead they let you beat your head against your desk for hours and hours until you finally un-comment a test jquery builder you had previously used only to find out that was the missing piece.

Next our whole team has been tasked with creating a new application using zend, it's been over a week now, I still feel like I don't know anything. Now you might be saying to yourself, "did you try google dipstick?" Yup sure did, and as google does it pulled up all kinds of links. Almost always the top 5 go strait to the official zend documentation which is by far the worst documentation I've ever seen about anything. It's like when someone has a secret and they know you want to know, but they know that if they tell you then they'll lose the leverage they have on you, so they just hold on to it with that smirk on their face and never tell you anything. There's all kinds of words but they don't say much and the examples are horrific at best. One example I was looking at had a variable in it, and they'd conveniently cut out the part where they actually initialize that variable so you have no idea what values it is supposed to hold. Turns out it was an array, but I still don't know if it was a named array or if it can simply be numbered. I actually got a little excited when I stumbled onto the Programmers reference guide, I thought "yes if anything will help this is it", I was wrong to think that and I apologize.

Now here's the kicker, I do need to backtrack a bit. When you install zend there is a GUI that is installed to help you manage how the server works, I've recently lost this GUI, by lost I mean I know where it's supposed to be and the files are all there but the GUI doesn't show up when i put the correct URL in my browser. So I started researching this, only to find that a certain part of the server called lighttpd is not running, the GUI is the only thing that requires lighttpd. So i started googling lighttpd is not running and got a fair amount of hits on that one. None of which helped. Finally I decided to create an account with the zend forums and humbly ask the zend folks themselves what to do about my problem.

To my dismay, when I logged in I found a little counter at the bottom of the page that said "Users browsing this forum: disgruntled and 0 guests" (if you haven't guessed, I'm 'disgruntled'). You have got to be kidding me, I'm the only one on this forum? Now to be fair it was after 5:00 on the east coast so I imagine the 3 people using zend in that part of the world have gone home.

how many people on this forum?

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed, awe who am I kidding? I'm downright furious.

On the flip side, if anyone reading this has any idea on where I can get my hands on some useful examples of zend at work. Please leave them in the comments.

If you've read some of my previous posts, or followed my twitter feed, you'll know that my iMac died.  After running as many hardware tests as I knew how to run, I determined that the hard drive was dead.  It then sat on my shelf for a few months and I finally decided to fix it so I could either use it (to keep the kids off the other computer) or sell it.  I took it to my local mac shop (no Apple store out here), and wouldn't you know it, they claimed that the file system structure was hosed, but that they fixed it.

Unfortunately, they were full of hot air and I was left (again) with an iMac-shaped paper weight.  I ran a few more tests and found that yes, I was right, the drive was toast. So I did what any rational technologist would do, I googled the ever-loving goodness for how to run OSX from an external hard drive.

What I was left with was rather disappointing, a deluge of how to put the installation of  Snow Leopard on USB drives and install from them (yes, I know it's not actually disappointing , it's really a rather cool thing, and a good solution to backing up your installation DVD, but that's not what I needed). So taking a blind stab in the dark, here's the method I came up with.

What you'll need:

• Your Leopard or Snow Leopard Installation DVD(s) - "Your" implies a legal copy! (I used Leopard because I misplaced my Snow Leopard copy)
• A size-able USB drive (minimum 20GB, and no it doesn't matter if it is currently FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, etc. and seriously, use at least a 60GB drive. I tested successfully with both a 60GB and a 160GB drive)
• 1-3 hours (I recommend having a kindle/nook/kobo/ipod/kids to cure your boredom while you wait for the install to complete)
• Intel-based Mac (I used an iMac (circa late 2007-2008), but any intel mac *should* work)

Lets get it started:

Plug in your USB drive, insert your installation DVD and turn on your mac. Hold down the 'option' key and wait for the boot loader to appear.  Choose your install dvd to boot from and wait for the OSX installation screen to appear.

OSX Installation Welcome Screen

Select your language and click the next arrow button.

When the pre-installation environment has loaded, click on Utilities -> Disk Utilities

When Disk Utilities opens, click on your USB drive and then on the menu to the right click on the "Partition" button.

Choose "1 Partition" from the drop-down menu, then label your drive (or don't), and make sure you choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".

Set up your partition, label, and click options (Not Apply yet!)

Before you click the "Apply" button, click "Options".

This part is very important, if you pick the wrong type you won't be able to boot from the drive, so make sure you choose "GUID Partition Table".

GUID == Intel, Apple == Power PC. Hint: This tutorial is for Intel

Click "OK", then click "Apply". The partition should not take too long.  When finished, close Disk Utilities and lets start the installation!

If you did everything correctly, after you click the Continue button you should be able to choose your newly partitioned USB drive as the installation target.

w00t! Choose the USB drive and let's get to puttin OSX on it.

Click the drive, and click Continue, then sit back and enjoy as OSX is lovingly installed onto your USB drive.

The time fluctuates a bit, but it's gonna run at least an hour.

When all is said and done you will be gifted with the glorious Welcome to OSX screen/video and you can begin setting-up/registering your mac.

There's my iMac, and on the bottom right you can see my WD 160 External HDD

Registration and Network have been set up, all that's left is to click OK

Final Thoughts:

Running an entire OS from a USB drive is not ideal, you are going to lose speed, and you are going to lose bandwidth.  Think about it, you are forcing everything through that little Universal Serial Bus.

That being said, I was able to watch Hulu (it did bug at first, but stabled out), fire up iTunes, use Photobooth, and more importantly I was able to install Mac the Ripper and rip 3 DVDs to my hard drive, yes I ripped them to the same drive that OSX is running from. Each movie had a running time of about 120 minutes and it ripped them in about 30 minutes per movie.  I could also watch DVDs without skips (in the default DVD player program) and even watch them in VLC (again without skips).

Oddly enough I could not get Handbrake to rip the movies that I had decoded with Mac the Ripper. Which brings me a little off subject for a moment.  I found instead another program called Winx DVD Ripper for Mac.  Oddly enough while the free version can't rip from disc-to-mp4, it has no problems what-so-ever of ripping from drive-to-mp4 (the free version does not remove copy protection).  It's a little more "windows-y" of a design, but if you can use handbrake you should be able to get around in it.

Alright, well I hope that helps at least a few of you out there, if you have any questions or think I missed something, shout out in the comments.

This Post features plenty of images (icons, textures, etc.), a large selection of jQuery goodness, some php, fonts, and plenty of tools, resources, and tutorials. I even threw in a few links for our growing mac-user community (yeah, you can't see it, but I'm patting myself on the back).

Enough drivel, time to give the peoples what they want, the links!

-= Images, icons, brushes, tools ==-

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/01/clever-jpeg-optimization-techniques/ - Make your jpegs super awesome
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/design/tutorials/design-your-own-icons-25-tutorials-and-articles-designers-must-have.html
http://pelfusion.com/freebies/30-free-resources-for-background-patterns-and-textures/ - Tile and textures and patterns oh my!
http://www.backgroundlabs.com/ - Backgrounds, patterns, and the like sorted by color (which is kinda nice)
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/15/clever-png-optimization-techniques/ - Good read.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/25/png-optimization-guide-more-clever-techniques/ - PNG optimization part 2...
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/30-awesome-textures-for-creating-subtle-grunge-designs - Nice texture packs
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/200-free-exclusive-vector-icons-primo/ - Free icons for personal and commercial use.
http://www.graphicfetish.com/37-places-to-get-free-stock-images/ - yep, 37 places to get free stock photos... booyeah!
http://www.softalize.com/2009/06/01/22-excellent-photoshop-brushes-to-spice-up-designs/ - Here's some more ps brushes
http://all-silhouettes.com/ - All the free sillouettes you can shake a stick at... trees, people, etc.
http://pelfusion.com/awesome-graphics/freebies-for-designers-icons-vectors-photoshop-brushes-stock-images-templates/ - Free stuff round-up!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/07/50-fresh-useful-icon-sets-for-your-next-design/ - Who doesn't love icons?
http://www.noupe.com/photoshop/photoshop-brushes-and-how-to.html - ps brushes and how-to's, what's not to love.
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/a-set-of-500-quality-icons-led-web-icons/ - 500 icons for you!
http://www.texturelovers.com/ - Textures and tutorials, good site
http://pixelmixer.ru/basic_set/ - More icons
http://www.colorexplorer.com/default.aspx - Color explorer a nice tool for color schemes, palletes and the like.
http://vectips.com/tutorials/turn-any-font-into-a-sketch-font/ - Some people are cooler than me and have illustrator, for those that are cooler than me, here's a fun little tutorial.
http://freestocktextures.com/ - Free textures for the taking.
http://www.minervity.com/features/photoshop/the-ultimate-collection-of-the-best-ornament-photoshop-brushes/ - Who doesn't need more brushes.
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/80-fresh-new-textures-for-creating-web-site-backgrounds - More textures, cos textures are pertiful.
http://www.seeklogo.com/ - Almost every logo in ai, pdf, or tiff format for your medling

-=Tools & Resources & Tutorials=-

Fiddler2 now integrates with firefox (and the masses rejoice!)
http://astuteo.com/slickmap/ - Nice little stylesheet for sitemaps, me likey
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Noupe/~3/Q1PEz3CydLE/50-best-of-designers-free-resources.html - noupe saving the best for now.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/13/css-3-cheat-sheet-pdf/ - I've resisted the whole lets jump on the css3 movement, but now that multiple browsers support it. It's something that can't be ignored too much longer...
http://www.noupe.com/css3/css3-exciting-functions-and-features-30-useful-tutorials.html - 30 tutorials on using css3
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2009/07/15/the-importance-of-wireframes-in-web-design-and-9-tools-to-create-wireframes/ - I call it 'block level' design, but it's how I get things going even when handed a visual design, so here's a post about it.
http://www.webdesignbooth.com/15-useful-firefox-seo-tools-for-serious-bloggers-and-web-designers/ - SEO tools for everyone!
http://www.iepak.com/30/topicdetail.aspx - Useful, upload video, use php to run ffmpeg to convert to flv and then throw it on the page.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/30-handy-cheat-sheets-and-reference-guides-for-web-professionals/ - I've probably linked most of these before, but always nice to have a list of cheat-sheets
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/tools/tools/35-extremely-useful-free-online-tools-for-web-developers-and-designer.html - Explatives a'plenty, this list is useful, and I haven't even been through the whole thing yet.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/massive-compilation-of-designer-tools/ - More of the same, but with some new content
http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/15-php-regular-expressions-for-web-developers - Yay for regex and people that understand it.
http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/css-text-rotation - wow... it's like the jQuery tutorial, only with css instead of jQ.
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/5-tools-to-increase-accessibility/ - good tools for accessibility testing
http://creativenerds.co.uk/news/best-of-the-web-july-for-webgraphic-design/ - Someone elses link post
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/01/essential-guide-to-regular-expressions-tools-tutorials-and-resources/ - Regex'ing will save you time and lines of code, so brush up here.
https://browserlab.adobe.com/index.html - Awesome multi-browser rendering engine from adobe. It's screen shot based, so not wicked helpful, but shows you if you're lined up correctly.
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/10-essential-sql-tips-for-developers/ - Always nice to brush up on your SQL
http://ajaxian.com/archives/page-speed-new-open-source-firebug-performance-extension-from-google - The ajaxian article
http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/ - The official Google Code site.
- Google caught up to Yahoo on pushing out a web performance util. I wonder if I run both at the same time if worlds will collide and I'll cause a catastrophic failure, or maybe a headron collider, or possibly an event horizon.  UPDATE: Turns out that it just eats up more ram... a shame really I was looking forward to opening pandora's box.
http://webstandard.kulando.de/post/2009/04/30/best-of-parallax-effect - get your parallax on with these examples
http://tester.jonasjohn.de/ - Test everything (well just about) on a website, SEO, proxy, spell checking
http://supportdetails.com/ - Cool simple way to get lots of info about a compy you are sitting at.. (oddly enough I was building the same thing, and now I don't have too).

-=AIR=-

http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/blog/build-an-adobe-air-rss-reader/ - Building an Air based RSS reader tutorial.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/07/40-great-adobe-air-applications-for-designers-and-developers/ - Air apps for designers!
http://flexmonkey.gorillalogic.com/gl/stuff.flexmonkey.html - Flex/Air developers, this is a tool for you, it helps you test your apps before you release'm.

-=PHP=-

http://61924.nl/blog/e/00010-prevent-xss-and-sql-injections.html - A good article on stopping xss and sql injection (seems to be all about the php... so it may or may not apply)
http://designreviver.com/tips/php-security-guidelines-to-lock-down-your-website/ - always good to be reminded to lock down your xss.
http://dev-tips.com/featured/5-more-quality-sites-to-help-you-become-a-php-rockstar - Rock on you PHP Magician, rock on.
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/how-to-create-an-api-10-tutorials/ - Mostly php, but there's some Ruby/Rails and a vb.net version in there too.

-=jQuery=-

http://www.w3avenue.com/2009/07/01/list-of-really-useful-plugins-for-jquery-developers/ - More help for the jQuery file
http://www.marcofolio.net/webdesign/advanced_keypress_navigation_with_jquery.html - Handling keypress events with jQuery
http://www.happyworm.com/jquery/jplayer/ - a nice mp3 jQuery player (highly configurable, but docs are deplorable)
http://webdeveloperplus.com/jquery/15-jquery-tutorials-for-more-interactive-navigation/ - Navigation Tutorials
http://evanriley.xiaimix.com/using-jquery-to-play-media-files-mp3wmaetcetc/ - All your media, played with jQ and Flash
http://www.gcmingati.net/wordpress/wp-content/lab/jquery/minizoompan/ - Cool little zoomer util, no pre-loader.
http://boedesign.com/2009/07/11/growl-for-jquery-gritter/ - jQuery Growl like notifications
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/javascript-ajax/creating-a-keyboard-with-css-and-jquery/ - Awesome little onscreen keyboard with jQuery and some css.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-advjquery2/index.html - Longwinded, but always nice to see a jQ tut on IBM.
http://speckyboy.com/2009/07/17/25-fresh-and-new-jquery-plugins-and-tutorials/ - Always nice to see new jQuery tuts.. some of them I have already linked to.
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/22/how-to-develop-a-jquery-plugin/ - Sitepoint takes a stab at making jQuery plugins
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/tools/developer-toolbox/60-must-have-jquery-toolbox.html - Many of these I've linked to, but the page is good (thanks to the find feature in your browser)
http://css-tricks.com/date-display-with-sprites/ - Simple, but awesome, thanks jQuery
http://www.devirtuoso.com/2009/07/beginners-guide-to-using-ajax-with-jquery/ - jQuery and ajax...mmmmm
http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/post/2009/06/01/Advanced-docking-using-jQuery.aspx - Add docking to your project/webapp/site with some jQuery goodness
http://www.noupe.com/tutorial/drop-down-menu-jquery-css.html - Nice jQuery drop-down menu, it's very nice...
http://jquerylist.com/ - my new favorite jQuery hangout (:o) (mega props to umutm@twitter for this one!)
http://www.gayadesign.com/diy/puffing-smoke-effect-in-jquery/ - jQuery making animation and special effects wicked easy. Cool idea, nice execution.
http://flowplayer.org/tools/ - A pretty sweet suite of jQuery tools from the flowplayer developers
http://www.pierrebertet.net/projects/jquery_superbox/ - We had FancyBox, then nyromodal, is this the new jQuery modal window of choice? (nah, probably not, nyro is still king, but hey it's good to have competitors)
http://upsidestudio.com/web/splitcol/ - Have a list that is too long for a section, but would fit if you split it in two? With this and some jQuery goodness, you can do that.
http://www.distinctcorp.com.au/jquery/spritemenu.html - Normally I don't post links to things like sprite effects, but this is pretty good, and easy.
http://www.iofo.it/jquery/fonteffect/ - Some text effects with jQuery magic (I like mirror the most, but that's just me)
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/tutorials/53-jquery-tutorials-resources-tips-and-tricks-ultimate-collection/ - Still haven't tried jQuery? what are you waiting for! start here for lots of goodies, tutorials, and tricks

-=Javascript=-

http://sixrevisions.com/javascript/10-impressive-javascript-animation-frameworks/ - javascript animation libs (pretty cool, yo)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/glow/docs/articles/what_is_glow.shtml - Glow, the Official BBC js lib (like YUI, jQuery, etc...), nice idea, I mean, I'll stick to jQ, but hey if you ever need to build a site that works on pure chaos, I mean ie5 and safari < 2, this is the show for you.
http://www.webdesignbooth.com/14-javascript-resources-and-plugins-for-creating-a-stylish-chart/ - charts...nom nom nom

-=Misc=-

http://www.jolicloud.com/ - a replacement netbook os (for you netbook users)
http://listen.grooveshark.com - My new favorite of all online music listening/streaming services
http://code.google.com/p/safire/ - a framework for building iPhone apps
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/14-most-visually-appealing-free-wordpress-themes - Some nice WP themes
http://www.pulptunes.com/ - Access your iTunes library from anywhere (in your web browser), works on mac, windows, and linux.

-=Mac=-

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/04/30-must-have-tweaks-for-your-mac/ - If I had known some of these tricks when I got my mac, the transition would have been soooo much easier. Although I did stumble onto many of these by myself
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/05/25-open-source-mac-apps-that-will-boost-your-productivity/ - Yay for free mac apps (because there seem to be so few...)
http://desizntech.info/2009/06/40-mac-freewares-and-open-source-softwares-for-web-designers/ - I have a mac, now I have free tools.

-=Fonts=-

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/design/design/60-free-fonts-for-big-bold-and-beautiful-headlines.html - 60 fonts for your desiging happiness.
http://www.unionroom.com/blog/21-fonts-that-shouldnt-be-free-but-are/ - Some of these I've already linked, but an pretty good list
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/52-really-high-quality-free-fonts-for-modern-and-cool-design/ - More fonts!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/05/beautiful-high-quality-free-fonts-for-your-designs/ - Yay more free fonts!
http://www.webdesignbooth.com/60-awesome-grunge-font-that-every-designer-should-collect/ - more grunge fonts

One last thing.  I didn't really proof read this or check the links, so I'm sure there will be some that are wrong.  Let me know what needs to be fixed in the comments and I'll get it taken care of, thanks!  Happy Summer everyone!