I have used the basic mysqli functions everyone uses in past projects but for my latest I started using mysqli prepared statements. I don't have benchmarks but they're supposed to be faster and more secure:

http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/686

I've heard of the famed 'Y-Scraper', where in SF is it?

It's the Crystal Tower Apartments - Lombard and Taylor I think.

North Beach, IIRC. Google around and you'll find it.