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I've been thinking about the role that programming has in the world today, and the role it will have in the future. As a disclaimer, I'll mention that anything I write in this post is purely speculative, and not based at all on any form of research. This is just what I feel in my gut. As such, I'll try to keep it short, without ranting like Gene Ray.

Code for causes is a new project that is currently in the planning stages. It will allow programmers, designers, and other IT professionals to donate their time, knowledge, and experience to charities, NPOs, and good causes without having to contract to them directly. This will mean that charities can get work done without being dependant on a single person, and the people who help won't feel like they are forever attached to the charity for future work.

URL: www.code-for-causes.org
Blog/further information: blog.code-for-causes.org

PHP has pretty flexible types. This is (usually) a good thing. It also has some rather handy functions to force types. Arguably the most useful of these is intval. When it comes to working with AJAX (in particular), or user generated input (in general), these functions are a godsend. The only one that seems to mysteriously be missing, though, is 'boolval'.

PHP is a popular programming language. Much of the web is running on it, and many Open Source projects use it. This is because PHP is a very easy language to use. Everything about the language is designed to make life easier for the developer. It lets you make quick applications without having to sweat about syntax, or compiler errors. For an inexperienced developer, or a small project, this is great. If you have to maintain the code, however, this can cause problems.