Archive: September, 2008 @ Irrational Exuberance

archive / 2008 / September

Title: Suffer Less By Using Django Dev Server as a Proxy
Tags: django prototyping
A quick look at how to use Django (and specifically the development server) as a proxy to remove some pain in your life when developing static media changes to an existing site quickly.
Title: Writing for Consumption
Tags: writing
We write for audiences, we write for vanity, we write for some Adsense profit. Are we abandoning something precious when we begin writing for others, rather than ourselves? Or does writing depend upon an audience?
Title: Starting Again, Keeping It Simple
Tags: reflection
A bit of rambling on life in general, and thoughts for living simple in a complex system. Like most stuff in the Life flow, written more because I wanted to write it, and less because it fits into a strategic plan for the blog or other agenda.
Title: As-You-Type Slug Uniqueness Validation
Tags: JQuery django python
Series: Django, jQuery & Ajax
This final entry in the Django, jQuery & Ajax series takes a look at implementing as-you-type validation for slug uniqueness. It's a bit briefer than the first three, but leaves the tutorial's Notes app with a bit of Ajax charm.
Title: Layers of Authentication
Tags: django
Series: Django, jQuery & Ajax
This third entry in the Django, jQuery & Ajax series looks at the two layers of authentication (indicating authentication via the user interface, and performing authentication via the api and templates), and how to handle authentication in Ajaxy applications.
Title: Custom Django Views for Happier Ajax
Tags: JQuery django javascript
Series: Django, jQuery & Ajax
This is the second part in the Django, jQuery & Ajax tutorial series, and takes a look at improving our first stab at Ajaxy functionality with something a bit... how shall we put it... less awful, by using custom Django views to respond to Ajax requests.
Title: Using Automator to Scale Images Horizontally
Tags: OS X
With ten minutes before bed and 35 megs of images to scale, I had my first encounter with Automator. It was a good encounter, and I heartily recommend it to others for--at minimum--batch scaling images.
Title: Redesign of Lethain.com
Tags: design
I spent a fair bit of the day sketching and implementing the new layout of lethain.com. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, and think it does a much better job of showcasing content (which is... the point of a blog). I am waiting comments with bated breath.
Title: Intro to Unintrusive JavaScript with Django
Tags: JQuery django javascript
Series: Django, jQuery & Ajax
The steps of the novice web developer are fraught with peril. They begin with HTML, then move onto CSS. They learn a web framework or two, and they finally start to wrangle with JavaScript. This tutorial aims to help the developer who has taken their first steps with Django, and wants to begin experimenting with adding JavaScript and Ajax to their webapps.
Title: A One-Stop AYM CMS Solution
Tags: aym-cms
I spent this morning designing a simple homepage for the AYM CMS project. It contains a somewhat more in-depth tutorial to getting started with AYM CMS, hosts the current version for download, and has some suggestions on how to best take advantage of its functionality.
Title: Making Static Dynamic Again; AYM CMS
Tags: aym-cms django
A few lines of code and a few minutes of refactoring and my previous blog post evolved into a full-fledged static content management system based on the Django templating system. It aims to facilitate the creation of complex static websites quickly and with minimal human effort. Welcome to AYM CMS.
Title: Intricate Static Websites With Django Templates
Tags: django python
Over the weekend I needed to create a slightly complex static website, and decided to make a go at using Django templates to build it. I was not disappointed.
Title: Sparklines.js Port to Python
Tags: Sparklines.js python
Here is an incomplete and imperfect port of Sparklines.js to Python, extracted from an incomplete project that has lost much of its momentum.
Title: Yes, You Do Care About Cappuccino
Tags: Cappuccino
This entry takes a look at the reasons why you do care about Cappuccino (even if you don't know it yet). Although I doubt you'll end up using Cappuccino on the job anytime soon, it gives us a glimpse at a more flexible and exciting future.
Title: Extending Mahou; Gotchas and Snippets
Tags: BOSS Cappuccino Google App Engine Mahou
A few thoughts and code snippets from further extending Mahou. Written in a rambling style with little purpose or direction. You've been warned.
Title: Extracting Data From Google Analytics Reports
Tags: python
Today I'm releasing a Python library I put together a few months back, which supports extracting data from exported Google Analytics reports into simple Python data structures (dictionaries, lists, and datetimes). Using it you can easily run custom analysis of your GA data without any hassle.
Title: Extending Classes in Cappuccino
Tags: Cappuccino
A brief look at a simple example of extending the CPTextField class in Cappuccino. Breaks down the extension process into six steps, walking through them with the example.
Title: Writing Mahou; a Cappuccino Image Search
Tags: BOSS Cappuccino Google App Engine Mahou
I spent much of the day writing Mahou, which is the Japanese word for magic, and is now also a Yahoo! Boss Search Mashup Framework and Cappuccino (and Google App Engine, while we're at it) powered image search engine. It's a pretty interesting application, and even the least technical readers might enjoy playing around with it a bit.
Title: Startups and Assembly Lines
Tags: entrepreneurship essay framing
After reading George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant I spent a long time trying to apply his idea of framing to my own life. One deeply rooted but flawed mental model that kept occurring to me was that of "businesses as assembly lines." Beyond the dubious morality of treating workers as cogs, this assembly line frame also encourages excess production as Good, and profit as God. Worse yet, the model erroneously conflates profit with utility, and leaves us all worse off for it.
Title: Migrating the 'This Week in Django' Concept
Tags: django
This Week in Django had a fantastic site design, and pausing to examine the new layout I wondered: why hasn't the TWID concept spread to other projects?
Title: Poor Wireless Connectivity for MacBook
Tags: OS X fail
Quick posting of my solution to extremely poor wireless connectivity on my MacBook.
Title: Naming and Casing Convention in PyObjC
Tags: PyObjC
PyObjC does an excellent job of merging together Python and Cocoa, but sometimes the resulting merge creates grey areas. Casing and naming convention is undoubtedly one of those foggy spots. This article takes a stab at defining a pragmatic naming and casing convention.
Title: Introducing Kappa, a Twitter Client
Tags: Kappa OS X
After beginning work yesterday, I believe that there is the raw material for an useful Twitter client in this application (OS X 10.5 required), although there is certainly a good bit of cruft remaining as well. Give Kappa a whirl and let me know how it goes.
Title: I Live in New Jersey
Tags: NJ
Well, I've gone and moved to New Jersey. It's a bit different from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Japan, but not the end of the world. Some people might even say its quite nice. Other than people who use their horns. That's just unnecessary.