However I now have to wait 8 hours for the battery to charge
God I hate waiting…!

It's looking very slick and posh. Can't wait to turn it on…

Picking, digging and cutting! Last night I picked a whole box of blackberries from the wild brambles that grow over the hedge. Apparently on the early front too, even my Dad was suprised that they were ready to pick! (My Dad being the king of blackberry pickers!!) Then this morning I dug up two potato plants and cut up four little gem lettuces. We got about 12-15 potatoes, probably around 10 mid size potatoes and a few small ones.

I'm definitely enjoying my first summer of real gardening. When I was younger I remember growing little things in my Dad's garden, as did my brother, but this is the first year that I've really grown real food that we could eat. Now that I've dug the largest potato plant up, I've dug the ground over and it's ready for the next batch of lettuces to be planted when they're ready. I planted up about 15 last weekend, and they're already showing through in the small seed tray, so hopefully in another week or two they should be ready to go into the ground.

We also have peppers starting to show too!

There seems to be a definite difference between the start of the month and end of the month CTR for adsense on our main site. Last month for the last week of the month we were averaging double daily income compared to the previous 3 weeks of the month. This month, again for the last week the income has risen again. This time not due to a surge in visitors, as numbers have stayed pretty level, but CPC has doubled, and more in some places. And we're making around 50% extra than normal.nnThe page I'd rewritten during my Improving PPC Experiment yesterday had an average CPC of 350% over and above the original CPC before my experiment. Other channelled pages had higher average CPCs too.nnSo what does this mean? I'm still wondering if the idea of the fact it's the end of the month and so AdWords advertisers have got the rest of their budget to use up so they up their CPC could be true. Perhaps at the end of the month a new business decided to try out AdWords, comes onto the content network and then on the last day of the month realises it's possibly not beneficial to them and works out how to come off the content network and just stay on the Google search! Daft but you never know.nnHowever there's a been a definite difference this month, so come the 1st of August, I don't believe there are national holidays going on etc. So we'll see if there's a drop in CPC and subsequently income again.nnHowever the good news is we're on course for another $100+ in Dave's adsense which means another payment next month Now I just have to get him to put it into my account and stop keeping it!

No, this isn't about using references in PHP. Even I don't fully understand them yet!

I figured that I write it so often on forums to people wanting to learn PHP that I'd list out some recommended reading (including free stuff) here, with the low down on each. They're mainly free chapters but my argument is to get the free chapters and surely anyone can make up their mind after 150+ pages as to whether the book's worthwhile to buy!! I've linked to the full book on Amazon as well, in case anyone takes my review for granted and just wants to buy the book

Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL – Kevin Yank

This book is from SitePoint which I have to say produces some of the best books out there and offers 4 free chapters on virtually all of their books for you to download. That's over 150 pages for free! The free chapters are very worthwhile for anyone who wants to get PHP up and running on their own computer. It devotes the first chapter to installing Apache, PHP and MySQL for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It then teaches you how to develop your own content management system whilst explaining the various parts of PHP and MySQL as you go along. I own this book myself and find it very easy to read. The current release is also updated to work for PHP 5 as well.
Free Chapters from SitePoint
Buy from Amazon UK

PHP and MySQL Web Development

This is a later version of the book I learnt from. It starts with the basics of PHP and doesn't jump straight into MySQL until you have a good understanding of PHP basics which I think is a good way to learn. I sat and read 500 pages of this book in a week and haven't looked back. Whilst the version I have now is outdated and not really used, they have since released 2 further versions so the current Version 3 is most likely up to date, but still a worthwhile book to try.
Sample Chapter
Buy from Amazon UK

The PHP Anthology: Object Oriented PHP Solutions – Harry Fuecks

Another book from SitePoint, this PHP book is for the more advanced user that already has an understanding of PHP and MySQL. The subject goes into the world of Object Oriented Programming, explaining about classes, how to use them and how they can speed up your scripts and let you write more efficient code. The books also explore more advanced programming methods and requirements such as parsing, generating bar charts and graphs, watermarking images, creating more efficient error handling methods and much more. I own both of these books however I'm still on Vol 1 at present. It is definitely for the advanced user and must be read without distractions!
Free Chapters from SitePoint
Buy from Amazon UK

Php|architect's Guide to PHP Security

Anyone who's seriously considering creating PHP sites and possibly working as a PHP developer professionally, and even for their own projects, needs to be reading this book. Explaining about security, how to prevent injections, attacks and hacks on your code it's a must for anyone who wants to ensure their site is absolutely secure. I've seen (and secured) a lot of code that people naively assumed would be safe when in fact it isn't. If you don't want your sites compromised then I recommend this book for reading and keeping for reference.
Buy from Amazon UK

Sample Chapters

The following are just links to sample chapters from various bookstores. I've not read any of these books and so cannot offer a review, but for anyone who can't neccessarily afford to pay out for a book right now, these sample chapters between them may give you a reasonable amount of information and help too.

Learning PHP and MySQL
PHP in a Nutshell
Learn PHP 5
PHP Cookbook
Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL
Programming PHP
Advanced PHP Programming Sample 1
Advanced PHP Programming Sample 2

Online Resources

Practical PHP Programming – by Paul Hudson

For the past two summers I've been living off Jazz Apples. They're a cross breed and only available between July and September in the UK. So far I've only found them available in a Sainsburys in Cardiff and Marks and Spencers. This summer I've been keeping my eye out in Sainsburys and haven't seen any appear yet, and each time I've gone to the M&S Food shop the shelves have been bare, so today I went in early and left with 3 packs (4 per pack)! Finally I get to eat gorgeous apples that will keep for 2 weeks and taste great. Okay they may not be cheap from M&S (about 50p each) but if it means eating an apple instead of eating icecream then I'll pay 50p for it!