If you code Python already, go somewhere else. I’m only talking to complete and total newbies to the language right now. I want to show them the stuff that I wished someone had put in one nice, neat blog post for easy consumption when I got started with the language. If that’s what you’re looking…
Category: Technology
If You Don’t Date Your Work, It Sucks.
I probably get more upset than is reasonable when I come across articles with no date on them. I scroll furiously for a few minutes, try to see if the date was put in some stupid place like the fine print written in almost-white-on-white at the bottom of the post surrounded by ads. Then I…
Head first into javascript (and jQuery)
So, I had to take a break from doing the Code Katas just as I was getting to the really cool one about Bloom Filters. The reason for the unexpected break from kata-ing was that I had a project thrown into my lap. I say “project” not because it was some huge thing that needed…
2009 Python Meme
Heard about this from Tarek, and you can find more of them on Planet Python (where I found Tarek’s post). What’s the coolest Python application, framework or library you have discovered in 2009? Probably Tornado. Tornado is an interesting application, because it blurs the line a bit between a framework like Django and a traditional…
CodeKata 4: Data Munging
I’m continuing to take on the items in Dave Thomas’s Code Kata collection. It’s a nice way to spend a Sunday night, and it’s a good way to get my brain going again before work on Monday morning. It’s also fun and educational 🙂 CodeKata 4 is called “Data Munging”. It’s not very difficult data…
PyYaml with Aliases and Anchors
I didn’t know this little tidbit until yesterday and want to get it posted so I can refer to it later. I have this YAML config file that’s kinda long and has a lot of duplication in it. This isn’t what I’m working on, but let’s just say that you have a bunch of backup…
A Couple of Python Tools for Tornado or AMQP Users
Hi all, Not lots of time to blog since starting my new gig as Senior Operations Developer at MyYearbook.com (which is pretty awesome, btw), but wanted to let anyone who’s interested know about a couple of tools I’ve released on github: bunny is a CLI tool for doing quick tests and simple operations on an…
Python, Creating XML, Recursion, and Order
I love being challenged every day. Today I ran across a challenge that has several solutions. However, most of them are hacks, and I never feel like I really solved the problem when I implement a hack. There’s also that eerie feeling that this hack is going to bite me later. I have an API…
Python Quirks in Cmd, urllib2, and decorators
So, if you haven’t been following along, Python programming now occupies the bulk of my work day. While I really like writing code and like it more using Python, no language is without its quirks. Let me say up front that I don’t consider these quirks bugs or big hulking issues. I’m not trying to…
New Job, Car, Baby, and Other News
New Baby! I know this is my geek blog, but geeks have kids too, so first I want to announce the birth of our second daughter, Sadie, who was born on September 15th. She’s now over a month old. This is the first time I’ve stayed up late enough to blog about her. Everyone is…