Photo: CFAGELNYC

The following post is a follow up to an original entry returning to the question “should single employee small business owners refer to the company’s work as an I or a we?”

I before We, except after…

Alright. You’ve decided to jump into the world of small business ownership. Whether you’re a C-Corporation, S-Corporation, Limited Liability Company, or just a sole proprietorship, if you’re the sole employee you’re going to have to face a tough question: is the work my company does the work of an I or a we?

At first glance this question may be simple, and borderline preposterous. After all, if the work is a collaboration, then it’s a we. Otherwise its an I. Right?

Unfortunately, the more you start to think about it, the murkier the water becomes: what if part of the work was subcontracted? What if you’re looking to expand in the future, start with a we now or later? What if the company doesn’t carry your name, will it confuse clients to use an I?

Ultimately there isn’t a one-size-fits all answer. But in the following article I’ll outline some of the important considerations for both, from a few different perspectives. So read on, and let’s start clearing things up.

Read the rest of Small Business - To use an I or a We?

Photo: Chris Laskey

A new site has been added to my portfolio, Rhino. Rhino is a portfolio piece showcasing some recent graphic design and javascript work. The content is more filler than anything else; rhino currently houses my winter 2008 resume.

The Design

The background image was created in Photoshop CS2. (for a full list of image credits, see below). Its astonishing how much my skill has increased since spending time with paths and the pen tool.

Credits: the background was created by me in Photoshop Creative Suite 2, utilizing a sunburst brush by blazter[JavierZhX], a stain brush by PhotoshopRanger, rhino photography by Mister-E, and background picture by Niconectado.

The Code

I’ve been a long time user of MooTools (almost all effects on this site are written with MooTools). But since I’m also a big believer in stretching your knowledge and learning something new, I decided to spend some time playing around with jQuery.

Read the rest of Site News - New Site: Rhino

Image courtesy of Zend

Welcome to Part 2 of Learning PHP. If you’ve come here directly, be sure to check out Learn PHP - Introduction for an overview of the entire series!

So who exactly is Zend?

To answer that, let’s go back to 1994. In the infancy of the internet as we know it, Rasmus Lerdorf created the first lines of PHP. Three years later, PHP was in its second revision/release when Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans arrived on the scene.

Read the rest of Learn PHP - Part 2: Zend 101

Photo: Ian Broyles

Welcome to Part I of Learning PHP. If you’ve come here directly, be sure to check out Learn PHP - Introduction for an overview of the entire series!

PHP lives on the server-side of town

Every programming language has many unique qualities, but they all share one common step - they need to be processed. Processing, or parsing in the case of PHP, takes the raw lines of code and converts it into useful data.

PHP is a server-side language. What does that mean? It means the server is the one responsible for processing the PHP code. In other words, when you write in PHP, the web server reads the code, parses it, and sends the result to the web browser. The web browser takes the information and displays it for everyone to read. You can see this process in the simple chart I made:

Read the rest of Learn PHP - Part 1: Setting up your AMP