This post originated from an RSS feed registered with PHP Buzz by Chris Shiflett. Original Post: In Toronto for php|works Feed Title: Chris Shiflett's Blog Feed URL: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/static/error.html Feed Description: Author, Consultant, Programmer, Speaker, Trainer Latest PHP Buzz Posts Latest PHP Buzz Posts by Chris Shiflett Latest Posts From Chris Shiflett's Blog

I'm sitting in the atrium of the Holiday Inn Yorkdale in Toronto, enjoying the free wireless access. I'll be here all week for php|works, a conference hosted by the fine folks at php|architect. I'm giving a talk on PHP Session Security on Thursday, and I fly back to New York on Friday.

When filling out the card for customs, I paused when it asked whether my trip was for business or pleasure. It's pretty nice to do something you love - I felt like checking both boxes. Technically, I suppose this is a business trip, so that's what I went with. When I got to customs, the lady there inquired about the purpose of my trip:

What sort of business are you on, Mr. Shiflett?

I replied that I was attending a computer conference, which seemed descriptive enough, but she persisted:

What's the conference aboot?

(Yes, I misspelled about, but that's not how it sounded to me.) I explained that it was about PHP, a programming language. Then came the awesome question:

PHP? What does that stand for?

As you can imagine, the term recursive acronym came up shortly thereafter. I found it pretty amusing, even if she didn't.

(PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.)