It seems like tons of great applications utilize PHP for scripting and MySQL for data storage. Perhaps you could do some technical discussion of each, with emphasis on how they can be effectively coupled together. I think that this would help a lot of us better understand the systems that are commonly in use on the web today (i.e. Drupal, Wordpress, etc.). As I suggested with the Javascript libraries, this might be something better suited for a screencast or videocast if it's too difficult to cover with just audio.
PHP and MySQL teamup
There is a reason PHP and MySQL are used in so many apps. It's simple, they are all over the hosting world. Most hosts have both of these available on their servers from the most basic of solutions up through the top of the line setups. What better way to build something that people will use than to write it in a language almost everyone can use it in.
I'm not sure how we could effectively do an episode on this. Is there something specific you would like to know? Do you see something we could talk about with this that would be useful for churches or ministries?
Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mattfarina.com
Specifics
Maybe the specific functions that are commonly used in PHP to access MySQL information, effective database structures for sites, etc., etc...nothing too in depth but maybe some "best practices" and general concepts. I think that if people could understand how the two interact on a very simple level then they could understanding CMS backends better, write Drupal modules that may be effective for churches, pimp out their church's sites with custom code, etc.
Maybe you're right that it would be hard to do an entire episode on it, and I don't have any real specific topics to suggest. I just know it's something that's intimidating to try to learn when you're starting out (like me) and any guidance might enlighten people to all the possibilities.
-Mike Goodwin
Elston Family Church
http://www.elstonfamily.org
a start... the drupal dojo
I'll prayerfully consider how to tackle this.
In the meantime check out the drupal dojo at http://groups.drupal.org/drupa.... Start with the first episode/session and you'll learn a lot.
Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mattfarina.com
Maybe an overview of concepts?
He could give an overview of the concepts involved... maybe. But to really understand PHP or MySQL, I think you need an explanation in writing so that you can stop and mentally process each bit of information as it comes at you, and also go back to re-read things when you forget certain details.
I don't know your level of technical competency, but it sounds like what you'd want would be episodes covering the topics:
-"introduction to programming concepts"
-"introduction to databases and queries"
-"PHP-specific programming concepts"
-"MySQL-specific concepts"
Past that I think you would need to search for a written tutorial. I'm not sure that even the stuff above could be learned from an audio recording.