As tech professionals and enthusiasts, I’m sure we all have drawers and closets full of broken or outdated equipment. Here’s a chance to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way. Plus, anyone who drops items off will get a scratch card for prizes or $10-$1000 off merchandise.

They’re located at 234 West Roosevelt Road in the Villa Oaks Shopping Center in Villa Park, Illinois (by Burlington Coat Factory and the Chuck E Cheeze).

I’ll be presenting my “Facebook for Business” presentation again this month, and hopefully we’ll have more time for questions this time.

Early bird pricing technically ended last night (I got in just under the wire), but their system is still charging the early bird rate, so you might still be able to get that discount. But, wait, it gets better! Members of our meetup can save an additional $100 on registration; put in “The West Suburban Chicago PHP Meetup” as your company, and click the button for the discounted rate for PHP/MySQL/Linux user group members.

All registration packages include a complimentary 1 year subscription (Print & PDF) to php|architect magazine, a $29.99 value.

Sessions on this year’s schedule that caught my eye include:

• AJAX Testing: Tools and Techniques
• Of Haystacks and Needles (integrating search into your site)
• Untestable Code
• ORM in the PHP World
• PHP 5.3 – Hot or Not?
• Design Patterns in PHP
• Seven Steps to Better OOP Code
• Everything You Need to Know About mod_rewrite
• Coping With Cyber Monday (scaling)

I hope to see you there!

Cost is $20 to cover costs of meals.

You won’t want to miss this, register now!

Now isn’t that better than staying home all day?

From their announcement:

The Place:

MacSpecialist, 234 West Roosevelt Road, Villa Park, IL (In the Villa Oaks Shopping Center behind Guitar Center)

The Time:

Saturday April 19th, 2008 from 10:00am – 3:00pm

The Event:

MacSpecialist, Chicagoland’s largest Authorized Apple Reseller, Service Provider and Training Center, will be hosting Reboot: A Consumer Electronics Recycling Event. During this free event you will be able to drop off any consumer electronics equipment to be recycled and/or disposed of properly. Any person who drops off equipment will receive a coupon toward an in-store purchase. Coupons will be valid for that day only.

During the event MacSpecialist will also be taking monetary donations, 100% of which will be given to the Conservation Foundation of DuPage County and the National Resources Defense Council. The minimum donation will be five dollars. Each person who donates will be entered into a raffle to win a green iPod Nano. You do not need to be present to win.

In addition to the raffle donations, a portion of the day’s profit will also be donated to the Conservation Foundation of DuPage County and the National Resources Defense Council.

Reboot will also feature free seminars on various topics with speakers from MacSpecialist, The Conservation Foundation of DuPage County, Apple and Canon. Concessions will be available courtesy of Sweet Baby Ray’s from 11:00am until 1:00pm and Q101 will be broadcasting live from 12:00pm until 2:00pm.

Free Electronics Recycling Event

Saturday, April 19, 2008
SIMS (formerly United Recycling Industries)
1600 Harvester, West Chicago
8:00 am – 2:00 pm

What is accepted?
· Computers and computer systems
· Printers
· Ink jet cartridges
· CDs
· Diskettes
· Data cartridges
· Cassette tapes
· Video tapes
· Cell phones
· TVs (no consoles)
· Small home appliances
· Scrap metal
· Telephones
· VCRs
· Fax machines
· Scanners
· Answering machines
· Electronic games

For more information call Sara Hochhauser at 630-231-6060.