Paul Jones' Blog: Sending Mail with Solar
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Paul Jones has posted a new tutorial about using the mail functionality of the Solar framework - the Solar_Mail and Solar_Stmp packages.   While each of these [PEAR Mail, PhpMailer, SwiftMailer, Zend_Mail] will work with Solar, the new Solar_Mail and Solar_Smtp packages work "natively", in that they support automatic configuration, locale and exception inheritance, and so on. Read on for some examples on how to use them.   In his example he sets up and sends a simple message, setting the contents of the email (sent as an HTML message). Since there's been much talk about the safety of a lot of the mailing systems in frameworks, Paul talks about how it's been secured from header injections, through safe attachments, and from a transport dependency-injection for SMTP.    There's even a method included that lets you take the SMTP information out of the script and put it into the Solar configuration file to use in the entire application.
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Company outsources e-mail for small to medium businesses.
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A small booth at the back of the show floor is attracting a lot of attention.While I stood around, two people exchanged business cards with the man working the stand, promising to place orders for the product. It was nothing related to the iPhone or the latest mobile social-networking service -- topics that are consuming this year&#39;s CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco.Instead, the booth was stocked with a relatively simple device: the Solio, a small solar-powered charger that can power up any mobile phone as well as MP3 players, GPS devices, and digital cameras.A key feature of the Solio is the battery. The solar cells charge the battery, which in turn charges the device. That means you can leave it outside during the day, when you might be using your phone, and bring it in to power the phone overnight. One charge of the Solio can power two mobile phone batteries.The Solio also can be plugged into an electrical outlet so that&#160;people can use whatever power source is available and think of it as their universal charger, said Mike Levin, vice president of business development for Better Energy Systems, the company based in Berkeley, Calif., that makes the Solio.Various models cost from $79 to $199, depending on durability and the speed that the solar panels can charge the batteries. They&#39;re available currently in the United States at outdoor goods store REI and will also soon be available in T-Mobile USA stores, Levin said. The company is working on getting them stocked in the big-box electronics retailers.Solios have been on the market already for a couple of years and a few hundred thousand have sold, Levin said.The most expensive model is made of magnesium oxide and can withstand very hot temperatures. The company is targeting government users and other people who might travel to locations with extreme temperatures for that one.According to research commissioned by Better Energy Systems, an average person who uses the solar capability of the Solio to charge their phone 60 percent of the time would pay off the $100 unit in about 10 years, in terms of electricity savings.While Solios might be a neat gadget for many people, Better Energy Systems has some interesting prospects in the developing world. The company&#39;s sustainability officer is exploring several potential applications, Levin said. One is using the capability of the Solio to power a one- or three-watt LED light. People in developing countries could use the Solio to replace their kerosene-powered lights, which aren&#39;t kind to the environment.In addition, Better Energy Systems is working with the Grameen Foundation&#39;s Village Phone project. The project offers small loans to people who can then buy a mobile phone and rent it on a per-call basis to their neighbors. The project currently relies on batteries to power the phones, but Better Energy Systems is hoping to offer users Solios instead.
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Heavy users of mobile phones, iPods and other portable devices may want to try on a new coat lined with solar modules and a battery to charge their gadgets on the fly.
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Also: USPS service kiosks taking pictures of customers. [News.com Extra]
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Blog: Solar installer SolarCity develops software to monitor and report on solar panel output through an Internet connection.
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Paul Jones, developer of the Solar Application Framework, has posted the latest version of said software. Details for the release can be found in this blog posting over on his site.    Last night, I released version 0.24.0 of Solar, the simple object library and application repository. Solar is a PHP 5 framework for rapid application development.   You can read the change notes for a full run-down, but there are a few changes in particular that I want to highlight.    He points out changes in the form of two major packages:  Solar_Request - a new class developed to handle the request information for a script (get/post/cookie/etc) Solar_Session - a new class to handle the sessions in an application, complete with read-once "flash" support  He also mentions a small change to the built-in Ajax support for the handling of the "edit" view.
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Distro dysfunction junction Sun Microsystems has moved one mailing list posting closer to explaining how it plans to mimic the Linux distribution model with OpenSolaris.â¦
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Sun has a laudable vision of the future of utility computing, where organisations with extra processing power can sell it back to a computing grid in the same manner that homes with solar panels can sell power back to the electrical power grid.
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ISP's customers have a new option for obtaining their e-mail on the go.
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By Carla Anderson, Philadelphia Daily News  Feb. 26--IT CAME IN THE MAIL -- the old-fashioned mail with an envelope and stamp delivered to a box outside your home or through a slot in your door -- and sounded like it could be a good deal.
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And prevent global warming Letters Lots to cover today, so let's get right to it. We start with a dig at Scott "The Green" McNealy, who described this week how he and Sun could stop global warming armed with nothing more than a bic biro, a used washing-up liquid bottle and some sticky-backed plastic (OK, maybe that wasn't quite what he said, but you know what we mean):â¦
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By Dnichols@recordnet.Com, The Record, Stockton, Calif.  Sep.
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The Zend Developer Zone has posted the latest podcast in its PHP Abstract series. This time it's hosted by Paul Jones, developer of the Solar framework project, who talks gives an overview of the project and its place in the PHP community.   Today's special guest is Paul M. Jones. Paul is an internationally-recognized expert PHP developer and technical consultant living in Memphis, TN. On his blog, he writes mostly about his software projects, but also touches on management, business, politics, and culture.   You can grab the show directly or subscribe to the feed to get this and more great shows from the podcast (with topics covered like PHP & Java, CodeIgniter, Security and much more)
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Friday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on a controversial decision by Missouri's Secretary of State: the state of Missouri will be allowing soldiers stationed overseas to cast ballots via e-mail. Their absentee ballots will be scanned and converted to PDF files, which will be emailed to the Defense Department, printed out, and then faxed to Missouri.  I'm in favor of helping soldiers vote; this is a democracy, everyone should be able to vote. Yet I'm deeply skeptical of this proposal, for two reasons:  The plan depends on e-mailed ballots being printed out and faxed by the Defense Department but does not provide any safeguards against soldiers being sanctioned for how they have voted;  The transmission method is inherently technically insecure
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In space, no-one will let you heat... An overwhelming majority of EU MPs this week voted for a ban on patio heaters, calling on the European Commission to set a timetable for the withdrawal from the market of these and other "very energy-inefficient items of equipment." But despite what you might read in the popular prints, there are just a few obstacles standing in the way of the immediate death of these planet-wrecking engines of doom.â¦
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An alternative take on the week so far... Letters In the postbag this fine Tuesday, we discovered a multitude of mail on the subject of cutting the cost of the ID card scheme. You had much to say about minister Liam Byrne's suggestion that using existing government databases might help trim the budget a little:â¦