Premature Optimization

I went with a few guys I’m working here in Oslo with to the first meeting of the Norwegian PHP users group – although I didn’t understand much (I don’t speak Norwegian) I kind of got what was going on – and it was lots of fun.

It’s always nice to meet PHP enthusiasts and drink some beers. Derick Rethans was also there (apparently he lives in Norway) and it seemed that we were the only “foreigners” (although he does speak Norwegian quite well as far as I noticed).

There was also a PHP Quiz and we won – the prize was a bag of M&Ms which we kind of shared with everyone else – mostly because the questions were pretty much taken from the Zend Certification sample questions – so I pretty much new the answers without really understanding the questions

Pictures from the event are available – I also have a couple of pictures I might upload later during the weekend.

After something like two months at home, I went out on another journey for Zend, and this time it’s quite hectic.

I’ve spend last week road tripping the UK (I wasn’t driving thank god, but we did cover several hundreds of miles). Then, unexpectedly, I was called in for a weekend in Paris – so I took the Eurostar (first time) which was quite disappointing (maybe because it was night) and arrived at Paris on Thursday night.

It was quite nice getting back to Paris after almost 4 months of not visiting it, and our French teem seems to be getting to be quite a team, so it was quite nice – and short. Unfortunately it meant I missed spending St. Patrick’s Day in the UK – which could have been quite an event.

On Saturday evening I flew back to Heathrow to catch my original flight the next morning to Oslo – which is where I am now. I’ll be spending the next week and a half here, delivering training, and then head back to stickey-moist Tel-Aviv, and move into my new appartment.

Oslo seems to be an exciting city at first glance (most cities are!) so I hope it’ll be fun. I’ve read about the first meeting of the local PHP Norge users group on Thursday – so I might just pop in, after some sniffing around (it’s not always a good idea to barge in to these kind of meetings without asking first…)

I have to say the highlight of this trip so far was the fact that I met a new colleague in Paris, who apparently was reading my Blog without even knowing I’m the author. This means people read my Blog! Yey!

The Israeli office of Zend had a Purim party on Sunday. For those of you who don’t know (most of you?) Purim is a Jewish festival where we celebrate (just like any other Jewish holiday) the fact that some other evil-doer was out to destroy us but failed. The difference is that on this festival, it is a custom (and to some a religious  obligation) to “be happy” – or in other words, dress up in silly costumes and get so drunk you won’t recognize your friends anymore.

I’ve picked up a few pictures of me and my team members from the party, I think they pretty much speak for themselves:

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A small fact I’ve learned today about server farm cooling: In Finland, they don’t cool server rooms.

They just ventilate, or open a window.

Thanks to the miracle of Wifi, I can share the fact that I’m stuck in London Heathrow airport, waiting for my flight back home. It’s crazy as hell in here. It takes something like an hour just to get into the terminal, not to mention check-in and board.

My first leg to Frankfurt should have left an hour ago, and will probably delay at least an hour more.  This of course meens I will miss my connection to Tel-Aviv.

Anybody knows a good bench in the Frankfurt Main airport?

Just safely got through my first day in London.

It’s gray and rainy, and people are driving on the wrong side of the road. I almost got myself killed twice. But you just gotta love the British lingo, with words like “quid”, “bugger”  and “tosser”. People are actually using these words

I’ll be spending the entire week here, and fly back home on Friday night. Hopefully I’ll have some time to do some sightseeing, and if I will, I’ll post the pictures.

Happy Hanuka! (although it’s kind of merry Christmas here…)