Archive for November, 2008

Insight, Facts and Hmmms

November 30th, 2008

I’m a big fan of Google Insight.  Mainly because it burns time when I’m bored and provides lots of “hmm” moments.  Its a service Google provide that lets you see search volume against a range of other factors such as geography, time, etc.  I thought I’d put a few together that may be of interest to you all.

Django is HUGE in Russia

I have no idea why this is.  Maybe because Django sounds slightly Russian?  No thats ridiculous.  But just look at those numbers – compared to the US and the UK (doesn’t appear) its huge!

Why do the Russians Love Django?

Why do the Russians Love Django?

Rails is in Decline

The Google searches tell no lies.  It seems that Rails is in decline while Django is on a steady and solid incline.  Vive le Django.

My Heart Bleeds

Everyone Forgot How to Use PHP’s substr Function

A collective dose of amnesia seems to have struck the world as the search term “substr” seems to have had an 80% increase in recent years.

Surely its Not Hard?

Surely its Not Hard?

Scala? Don’t bother.

Scala was big a few months back with a sudden influx of tutorials and discourse posted to dZone.  Unfortunately looking at the graph its pointless bothering with it.  On top of that Guido doesn’t think much of it either – and he knows his languages.

See that Bottom Feeder?  Scala.

See that Bottom Feeder? Scala.

Canadians Love Merb

I like Canadians.  They were never quite so anti-British as the Americans.  They still have our Queen as their head of State and have none of the beligerant crankiness of republicans in America and Australia.  Its no suprise then that they like Merb – a lot.  Merb is of course ‘Rails-that-works’.

God Save the Queen

God Save the Queen

Well I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed these stunning eye-openers.  If I find anymore then I’ll be sure to let you all know.  In the mean time – have a good day.

Saturday Code Quote: 3

November 29th, 2008

Step away form the computer…

newlocation must now be the absolute path on newhost.
If not we’ve been redirected to somewhere totally stupid
(oh yeah, no offsite linking, go to our fucking front page).
Say goodbye to the webserver in this case. In fact, we don’t
even say goodbye, but just drop the connection.

From the source of Liferea – A Linux RSS/news aggregator

What a Suprise – Even D2H’s Rails Crashed

November 29th, 2008

The man who created Rails can’t even keep his Rails site from going down when Digged.

I’d like to suggest he use a framework that just works.

Top 15 Python E-Books (legal & free)

November 29th, 2008

I’ll not soil this posting with talk of copyrighted works and will keep it to strictly free, ebooks available to all.  These are the top 15:

  1. Dive Into Python – The original but not the best anymore.  It taught me Python so I’ve got fond memories and a special place in my heart for it.
  2. How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning With Python – A newly revised edition of this book is due out in Feburary 2009 but its still worth taking a look at the original.
  3. Text Processing in Python – I haven’t read it but I thoguht I’d add it for the sake of completeness.
  4. Start Programming With Python – Its a relatively new project started by an enthusiast.  A hell of a lot has already been produced and its due to be finished by Xmas.
  5. PLEAC Python – Its like a rapid-fire Python Cookbook with short, concise examples of how to solve a variety of low-level problems.  Form string manipulation to database access.
  6. Non-Programmers Tutorial for Python – Its for non-programmers but its sometimes useful to read form a different point of view.  I find the perspective refreshing.
  7. Python 101 – Part of a university course this goes through the fundamentals as well as providing exercises.
  8. Thinking in Python Design Patterns and Problem-Solving Techniques – A mammoth title written by the great Bruce Eckel.
  9. Python Standard Library – This is seriously showing its age as it was originally written for Python 2.0.  Although there’s updates they’re incomplete.  Its still worth a look though to get a good idea of the Python core.
  10. Python Programming Tutorial – It looks okay, though nothing ground breaking.
  11. Django Book – A book on Pythons greatest web framework.
  12. Pylons Book – A book on Pythons 3rd best web framework.
  13. Sockets Programming in Python – I found this over at Scribd which is fast turning out to be a great little site.  I recommend you look at some of the other books on offer once you’ve looked at this.
  14. Python Network Programming – Heavy on theory and light on practice.  Still a worthy read when you need to sleep.
  15. Advanced Python Programming – This is actually a 126 slide lecture given by a Chicago University lecturer.  Some good stuff in here.

If I’ve missed any off you think are worthy then let me know.

If you’re after something in paper form then I’d recommend one of the books below.

Django and PayPal

November 25th, 2008

Found a nice snippet at the DjangoSnippets site that shows how to integrate your Django app with PayPal.

See the magic here.

Metasploit Framework

November 25th, 2008

Its been a while since I did security related but today I came across an interesting platform – with much of it written in Ruby:  Metasploit.

Its basically a framework filled with exploits, payloads, auxilliary modules for port scanning, etc.  You need to know how to use it obviously but what makes it cool is:

  • It uses Ruby.

Check it out and have a play around.

Script OpenOffice Using Python

November 24th, 2008

Looks like Python is everywhere – even OpenOffice.  The PyUNO Bridge enables you to interact with the OOo API to extend its functionality.  Its feature complete but undergoing testing – get involved.

Saturday Code Quote: 2

November 22nd, 2008

NOW!

/* get me out of this shitbag loop */

From the source of Part-ND which is a “Unix-based, ANSI C, arbitrary-dimensional, stand-alone particle system and fast gravitational simulator”

The Brits Did It

November 21st, 2008

This picture from XKCD works if you’re British.

Mercurial Integration

November 20th, 2008

I’ve mentioned in a previous post about Mercurial integrations being fewer but I thought I’d actually put together a list of the decent ones…

  • NetBeans – Its managed using Mercurial so you’d expect it to have integrated support for it.  Its also the best Java IDE in the world.  So say I.
  • TortoiseHg – Ah yes the wonderful Tortoise.  You may have heard of TortoiseSVN.  Well this is the Mercurial version.
  • Mercurial Eclipse – If you’re a fan of the Rubbish IDE then this will come in handy.
  • Mercurial Bundle – For Textmate people.
  • VimVCSPlugin – A plugin for the best text editor in the known universe.  It also handles all the other SCMs.
  • Eric – Python people are intelligent.  That’s why this Python IDE has Mercurial support.

Tell me if I’ve forgotten any worthy members of this list.