So, I really should say a little more about PHPTek (aka TekX) that will be held in Chicago next month (May 18-21).

I’ve been doing PHPTek for, I think, three years now, and it’s quite growing on me. It has the energy that tech conferences used to have back in the 1990s, without the absurd over-hyping of everything. The talks are always high-quality, and relevant, on actual useful technical subjects, containing practical advice that you can go straight back to work and implement.

Over the last few years I have switched back and forth between Perl and PHP in my work place, but PHPTek has continued to be relevant, due to the quality of the talks, and the huge knowledge of the speakers which lets them generalize their subject sufficiently to be applicable.

Oh, yeah, and a lot of my friends go there, so I get to hang out with them.

This year I’ll be giving a brand new talk (so new, in fact, that I haven’t even finished writing it yet) with an old name (Apache Cookbook) in which I’ll be talking about a dozen or so things that you can immediately apply in your Apache HTTP Server to make your job easier, more efficient, and quite possibly more fun.

So, come and hear my talk, and the other awesome talks at the conference, and hang out with some very cool people. If you’re planning to come, you should sign up for the TekX Attendees Google Group so that you have a head start by the time you get there.