wide thoughts

I’ve recently started a new project, called LayerCache. It’s an easy-to-use caching framework for PHP5, which allows you to cache items in multiple layers. When a requested item isn’t present in one layer, the framework reads from the next layer in the stack. If the item isn’t present in any layer, it’s retrieved from the source and stored in all caches in the stack.

An example of usage would be caching user profiles in Memcache (bigger, slower, global to all webservers) and APC (smaller, faster, local to each webserver). It also offers a mechanism called prefetch, which aims to reduce the database hit when an item is removed from the cache because of age (ttl).

Currently, the framework offers interfaces to Memcache, APC, file caching and local caching (PHP array with LRU, caching in a request scope). I’ll probably add more caching interfaces support as the project evolves. There is no documentation, apart from examples (see link bellow) and unit tests (yes, that counts as documentation). The current code is fully tested with PHPUnit, but no stable package is currently available.

For more, visit the following links:

• Project web site
• Introduction
• Examples
• Browse SVN
• LayerCache Ohloh profile

Slovenian government decided that Linux and open-source aren’t appropriate for government usage. The reasons being (a recap from the source):

1. Using open-source browser instead of horrible MSIE is inappropriate because “MSIE is free anyway, and using other browsers can cause problems with existing applications”. The facts that MSIE is the least secure A-grade browser on the market, and that in Slovenia Firefox has the biggest share apparently aren’t important.
2. OpenOffice is a viable option (wow!)
3. “Linux isn’t appropriate for workstations because it’s code is too open and it can become too vulnerable in case of mass usage.” I’m speechless.
4. Linux is already used on most servers. Impressive.
5. “Security is an issue with OSS, because the source code is available to general public.” Just as for #3, I remain speechless.

Source: slo-tech.com (in Slovene)

This is what you get if uninformed people make decisions. It’s utter non-sense with no solid arguments. Some of the points can in all fairness be called STUPID.