If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to watch this; make sure you check out ALL the features too!

CLICK HERE to check out the Pomegranate Phone!

English is fluid and changes are swift. We all just try to keep up.

Our collective financial woes have spawned words like “frugalista” and “furcation”.

If you are a lover of wordplay, you’ll love this.

From Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE52P5IZ20090326

This is a fascinating interview that David Pogue had with Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place, which has an incredible idea for putting electric cars all over the world. Great reading:

Read the Article

As I’ve said many times, the best and worst thing about FileMaker Pro is its ease of use.

On one hand, anyone can dive right into FileMaker and create a database in only 5 minutes. Dress it up, add another table, spend another hour and find out how to relate the two tables together, and now you’re a FileMaker guru… you think…

I see these databases all the time; some of them are more functional than others, some more artfully laid-out without an overabundance of colors–and then there are others that look like a Mardi Gras parade at 3 in the morning, whose fields are lined up, fonts mixed, and so on.

We all started from zero with every piece of software we’ve ever used; anyone over the age of 30 was born into a world that did not yet have ubiquitous Internet, the web, relational databases. My personal entry into the world of computers started in 1984, when I got my first Commodore 64; I started learning how to program in Basic on that computer, and was on CompuServe (I know there are some out there who also remember it–my ID number was 76556.2012, still remember it), and then got a Mac Plus in 1986.

So no one knows FileMaker from birth. Some are quicker to pick it up than others, some need more guidance from books, FIleMaker gurus, templates, and so on. I try to pull new ideas from everywhere–I read books on the technology that I use, I visit websites, I read tips from the cogniscenti…

Here’s my list of resources for FileMaker; I’ve included a couple of sites that are membership-driven, but in some cases you can get a lot of free help at these sites as well. Most of these books can be found on Amazon, my bookseller of choice (if you don’t belong to Amazon Prime, look into it–I use it all the time for 2-day shipping, and love it). Where available, I’ve linked each entry to its website or to Amazon for purchase.

If I’ve left something off this list, please let me know, and my apologies to the author or webmaster.

BOOKS

FileMaker Training Series

This is the book I review before taking the FileMaker Certification test. It’s the book to read if you want to get a complete overview of FIleMaker from start to finish. The new release for FileMaker Pro 10 is supposed to be released in April, and I’ll be grabbing one as soon as it’s available. Highly recommended.

FileMaker 9 Bible - Ray Cologon & Dennis R. Cohen

What can I say about this wonderful book, except that I’ve already pre-ordered the update for version 10. Not for the novice, this book digs into FileMaker and reveals superpowers that are hidden beneath the calm cool manners of FileMaker Pro. A must-read for anyone who is serious about FileMaker Pro.

FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual - Susan Prosser & Geoff Coffey

I’ve read the last 2 versions of this book; sure, I skim through some of the more rudimentary parts of the book, but always find tidbits of information that I didn’t know about FileMaker in these books. This is a big read, but if someone wanted to go from 0 to 60 with FileMaker and only wanted to read one book, this would be a great place to start. You’re not going to learn to code in a book like this–you’ll have to experiment and hack out your coding concepts like the rest of us–but if you understand an IF statement or a LOOP, you’ll be off and running with FileMaker after reading this book. The latest version is written for FileMaker Pro 10, and is a very thorough book.

Web Publishing with PHP and FIleMaker 9 - Jonathan Stark

I read this book after having spent 6 or 7 years with PHP and FileMaker, but thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve also watched Jonathan’s presentations at FileMaker Developer’s Conference, and found them extremely useful. If you want to get started with PHP and the FIleMaker API, this is a good place to start.

FileMaker Web Publishing: A Complete Guide to Using the API for PHP - Allyson Olm, Stephen Knight, Michael Petrov

I learned FX.php from Allyson many years ago, so I’ve known these folks a while. Among the three of these writers, they have generated a prodigious amount of software and utilities for FileMaker and web publishing.

When I wanted to learn the API a few years ago, I read this book and still use some of the hints that were offered in this book.

FX.php in 8 Hours - Allyson Olm & Stephen Knight

This is the book I used to learn FX.php; I went to 2-day seminar (8 hours, to be exact!) and learned FX.php from Allyson Olm, one of the writers of the book. If you read this cover to cover, you can write a PHP site–I did the day after returning from the seminar, and have written dozens of web apps since.

BOOKS I HAVEN’T READ

Since I haven’t read these, I can’t comment on them, other than to say that I tend to believe that any new knowledge about FileMaker is bound to useful.

Special Edition Using FileMaker 9 - Jesse Feller

Learn FileMaker Pro 9 - Jonathan Stars

FileMaker Pro Design & Scripting For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

FileMaker(R) 9 Developer Reference: Functions, Scripts, Commands, and Grammars, with Extensive Custom Function Examples - Bob Bowers

I’ve got this book, have looked at it a little, but need to spend some time with it. A TON of information in this book.

FX.php for FileMaker

I use FX.php more often than the API, only because I learned it first, so I’m partial to it; this book will certainly help get you started. Not read it, but I suspect it’s very thorough.

FileMaker Web Publishing: The Ultimate Guide to FileMaker and PHP - also from FMWebSchool

WEB SITES

There are a lot of sites that I recommend for your consideration:

Longterm Solutions LLC - my site. I don’t post a lot of programming tips, but can certainly help with a project, a web application, or with hosting your databases.

FileMaker Magazine - I love this site. Matt Petrowsky presents some amazing videos here, and I try never to miss one. Really sharp guy.

FM Web School - When do these people sleep? They’ve turned out an amazing array of products related to Filemaker on the web, as well as FMTouch for the iPhone.

FMPug - Find a FileMaker Users Group near you… or not, in my case, sadly.

FMForums - all sorts of information here in the forums, from lots of folks on all levels of the FileMaker learning curve.

FIleMaker Custom Functions - this list on Brian Dunning’s site is extremely useful…

FileMaker Collective - Great articles about FileMaker. Not for the beginner, but dive in anyway…

MAILING LISTS
There are many great mailing lists related to FileMaker. If you belong to FileMaker TechNet, you can subscribe to their list; the FileMaker Business Alliance has one as well.

In addition, there are others that are well-attended and offer lots of free assistance:

RealTech - from FMPug; not a huge amount of traffic, but a good list

FMPexperts - a very busy list, well-attended, highly recommended

FX.php LIst - the best source for help with FX.php; I’ve been a member here for years and have gotten lots of help from the guys who wrote FX.php (Chris Hansen and others); highly recommended.

comp.sys.filemaker - I haven’t used this resource in quite a while, but I would suspect there is usefulness here as well…

If you know of more resources, please let me know and I’ll add it to this list. Happy FileMakering!