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.

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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

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At least 67556 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

More mobile Python options

As a Palm-wielding Python guy, I took news of the Python port for the iPod as another cruel slap. I use Pippy, but being Python 1.5.2 it's pretty limited. The increased power (and screen real estate) of the TX over previous Palms I've had has made me more desirous of having an actual programming environment. There are ports for Zaurus, EPOC, and Nokia Series 60 phones (which I mentioned last summer). It's sinking in that things aren't likely to change until the faraway Linux-based PalmOS arrives.

Time to start looking for a used Zaurus 5500 on Ebay...

Update: I was incredibly heartened to later come across this handhelds.org page which led me to this page of screenshots. Sweet! True, the screenshot does show a kernel panic, but you've got to kernel panic before you can run, as the saying goes.

Monday, February 6th, 2006
palm + python
5 comments

Some related posts: Python 2.5 Library Reference for Plucker • Django Docs in Plucker format • Python Library Reference for Plucker • Mobile Python

• Comment from Kevin Dahlhausen , 1 day later

That's great news. I've been a little depressed over what appears to be a slowing down of palm development ( let alone python on the palm). Progect and PDesk, the latter written in python, are two palm-related applications I use almost every day.

• Comment from Winchell Chung , 1 day later

Nokia just came out with a Linux based PDA-like gadget called the Nokia 770. Python has been ported to this device. The big selling point is the screen is an amazing 800 x 480 resolution.

http://www.nokiausa.com/770
http://pymaemo.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/

• Comment from Mike , 1 day later

I have to say I recently bought a Sharp Zaurus SL C-3100 so I could fill my "python on a PDA" need. I put python-2.4.2, tcl/tk, tkinter, numarray, and matplotlib on it. Pricey, but quite a nice pocket workstation!

• Comment from Paul , 1 day later

Excellent, thanks for the comments. From the little I know about the Nokia and the Zaurus, if money were no object I'd go for either one. I imagine at some point falling prices and rising desire will intersect.

• Comment from Jeff , 2 days later

Python 2.4 on a Nokia770 is goodness

http://www.teemuharju.net/2006/01/26/coding-for-nokia-770-using-python-part-1/