About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. I teach photographers web design and professional skills. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

Book

I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Its strong points include an introduction to Python, and better coverage of Django 1.0 than nearly anybody else. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

Pile o'Tags

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

Spam Report

At least 67570 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

OSCON Playtime

I have a hunch that the OSCON crowd has more than its share of people with nostalgia for classic arcade games. If that's you, check out the list of classic video games and pinball machines at Ground Kontrol, "the Pacific Northwest's best collection of arcade and home video game classics." It's just a stone's throw from Powell's Technical Books (who are offering a 20% discount with your conference badge, if you haven't heard). And it's cool -- hell, they use a private wiki to keep track of work on the machines. Play some games, have a beer, and reconnect with the world of proprietary software. I'll see you in the pinball loft.

Sunday, July 31st, 2005
fun + oscon