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Like any good project, this one started with a problem: how do I let my wife know I'm in a meeting so she doesn't let the dog barge in? (I work remotely and my office is the only way to get to the backyard.)

The solution: build my own "On Air" light that turns on/off automatically when I'm in a meeting! Sure, there are commercially-available products that do exactly this, but where's the fun in buying something when I have the skills and equipment to build my own? Just how hard could it be? (famous last words)

 

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably seen that I've recently joined Polywork - a new social network unlike any others.

Polywork has a unique concept - instead of focusing on just your personal or professional life, your profile focuses on highlighting you as a multi-faceted individual. There's no commenting, no competing for likes, no recruiters, no politics - just you and your story:

 

The PHP RFC for enumerations just passed a 44-7 vote to be accepted as a new feature in the upcoming PHP 8.1 release!

Enumerations, also known as "enums", are a special data type that can only contain specific, predefined (or "enumerated") values. They behave somewhat similar to constants, in that their names can be referenced in code, but they allow for stronger typing.

The classic use case illustrated by the RFC is of an enum that defines different suits of playing cards: