Lot 49: Greg Beaver's blog

http://tek.phparch.com/mats/slides/greg_beaver-pear_phar.pdf

So I use kubuntu on my desktop, and it works great most of the time.  However, periodically on upgrading a package automatically, the sound just stops working.

Twice I've fixed it after extensive search, but I never remember how.  This post is sort of a public post-it note.  Here's how you fix this thing if you have a system like me.

Open alsamixer in a terminal, use the right arrow key to go all the way to the right, and mute (not unmute) the Audigy A line by hitting "M" on the keyboard.  This works for Soundblaster Audigy

Hope this is helpful to some other person tearing out their hair.

OK, so my selection of puns is not exactly "funny" per se, but it is true: php|tek is all about phar and variant spellings of the 4 letter word, such as "pear".  If you're in the audience for my talk about smart PHP application deployment using phar, PEAR and Pyrus, come say hello, I'm looking forward to meeting just about everyone I've argu^H^H^Hconversed with over the years, and of course you can also check out a copy of my book, I'll stuff a few into the luggage.  In other news, phar is tentatively enabled by default in PHP 5.3, marking the exciting next phase in all of the back-breaking work that has gone into it.  Check out the complete manual at http://php.net/phar.

Although I perform all the time as part of my day job as cellist of the Chiara Quartet, this will be a very different kind of performing experience and I'm looking forward to the challenge of revealing the true dynamism and excitement that I see in app deployment stuff I've been working on the past several years.

See you in Chicago!