Which PHP framework?

A developer has to contend with a multitude of options when choosing a PHP framework to develop web applications. There are many excellent open source PHP frameworks that are currently being actively developed, such as:

• CakePHP
• Zend Framework
• Symphony Project
• Prado Framework
• and many others!

Many of the frameworks were modeled after Ruby on Rails, and others (actually only one so far) such as Prado is based on the ASP.NET framework. I haven't had the time to look at all of them in detail but personally, I prefer the OO and event-based architecture of Prado (given that I've done a lot of .NET stuff). In fact, I intend to take a serious look at Prado for my future projects.
This page presents a rather detailed overview of some of the popular frameworks.

Databases that learn

"A new generation of security software studies the way people normally access a database to identify hackers."

Now, this sounds cool. Symantec is developing software that could enable databases to differentiate data access patterns that could help to identify hacking attempts and alert administrators.
But I wonder if this is necessary, and how would this impact the performance of the database? One would have thought that by implementing proper software design principles, most problems would be solved without having to resort to this. Nonetheless, this is an interesting proposition.

Joomla! 1.5 Beta released

The long awaited Joomla! 1.5 Beta was released on 12th Oct, a few days ago. I've downloaded it and given it a try. I must say the user interface for this release is a great improvement over the 1.0.x releases - slick design, well thought and fast loading. Notice that the rounded corners for the admin interface are not images, they are constructed using CSS!

From a coder's point of view, I think the code is much cleaner, given that much of the internals has been refactored to use the MVC pattern. And patTemplate is very much used. I think it would be good for 3rd party developers to start using patTemplate for their components and adhere to the MVC pattern.

An overview of the features of Joomla! 1.5 can be found here. In short, I think Johan Janssens and team have outdone themselves again! Go download a copy and play with it.