About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. 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

This runs on Django, served by Apache and mod_python. 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 59052 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

Dabble DB

I can't remember the last time a software demo made me involuntarily say "holy crap" so many times. In a good way, I mean.

Dabble DB, in case you haven't heard of it, is a browser-based database exploration/development tool. The interface alone is inspiringly clear, elegant, and rich. And then there's what it actually does with the data. We've all done these things, but we've had to do them in much slower, more laborious ways.

I can see how this demo has sparked interest in Seaside, the framework it's built on. And I can see why web application programming challenges should all have an "Except Avi" clause.

If you develop web applications that use databases, you absolutely must watch this. It's inspiring, though it's also a little depressing. If you make it all the way through the demo without seeing a feature you want to steal, either you're a web app demigod or you're deep in denial.

Monday, April 24th, 2006
programming + web development
2 comments