title: Keeping a live connection with php?
body: <p>I am working on a project has me constantly pinging a php script for new data, so if I understand this correctly that means that the php script being pinged gets run over and over indefinitely. It works but i'm guessing its a huge strain on the server, and is probably considered ugly and bad practice. Am I right about that?</p>
  
  <p>Is there any way I could keep the connection to the script alive and make use of php's built in output buffering to flush the contents I need, but keep the script running for infinity using some sort of loop so when new data is available it can be output. Is this a bad idea as well?</p>
  
  <p>I'm just looking for input form developers out there with more experience.</p>
  
  <p>One last thing...</p>
  
  <p>Are there any other ways to keep a constant flow of data going (excluding technologies such as flash or silverlight)?</p>