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 67551 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

Developer meeting braindump 2007-07-12

I was only there for about half of the latest Western Mass. Developer Group meeting, but here are some of the things we rambled on about. Someone else will have to fill the earlier bits.

Haskell: Should you bother?
That hot new band, Lambda and the Calculus
If you're learning Python, learn to love the interactive shell and the dir command
Good introductory Python books: Core Python, Learning Python
Good intro to Python for experienced programmers: Dive into Python
Just how many tests have you written today?
Web app testing is a pain. Things like Django's test framework make it a bit easier
Ruby testing with RSpec
The iPhone: you want one, don't you? I mean, Ars Technica likes it, what more is there to say?
Are you worried about how your code will be viewed by posterity? Some would say that, paradoxically, your worry itself is a sign that you probably have nothing to worry about.
Lou runs 5.5 miles to work in 14 degree weather all the time.