I’ve decided it’d be fun to go through the Code Kata put together by Dave Thomas, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer, and co-founder of Pragmatic Programmers, LLC (publishers of the finest tech books on the market right now; they can’t expand their selection fast enough for me). Anyway, the first Code Kata, while being truly…
Python, PostgreSQL, and psycopg2’s Dusty Corners
Last time I wrote code with psycopg2 was around 2006, but I was reacquainted with it over the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to make some notes on a couple of features that are not well documented, imho. Portions of this post have been snipped from mailing list threads I was involved in….
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…
Way Better Python Indentation In Vim
Just wanted to share this tip I just stumbled across: If you code in Python, and in your ~/.vimrc file you have ‘set smartindent’, change that to ‘set nosmartindent’ and add the following two lines (I’m told it can be combined into a one-liner, but I use two lines, so…) filetype plugin on filetype indent…
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…
It’s so much easier now
The information superhighway’s construction has benefited me in ways I’ve only been made conscious of this weekend. I’ve had a lot of time to myself this weekend, and decided to spend a few solid 1-hour blocks playing guitar. Oh, I still play around the house here and there, but usually if I can get in…
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…
Sys/DB Admin and Coder Seeks Others To Build Web “A-Team”
UPDATE: There’s no location requirement. I kind of assume that I’m not going to find the best people by geographically limiting my search for potential partners. 🙂 Me: Live in Princeton, NJ area. Over 10 years experience with UNIX/Linux administration, databases and data modeling, and PHP/Perl. About 3 years experience using Python for back-end scripting…
If You Code, You Should Write
The Practice of Programming Programmers are, in essence, problem solvers. They live to solve problems. When they identify a problem that needs solving, they cannot resist the temptation to study it, poke and prod it, and get to know it intimately. They then start considering solutions. At this point, the programmer is not often thinking…