E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

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

Python Web Development with Django 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

ajax apple blogs browsers business design django ebay fp fun google hardware haskell intellectual property iphone javascript linux media mobile open source os x oscon oscon2007 palm php programming python rails rants reading risks ruby site spam textmate the well tips tools unix vcs web development web frameworks webservers wmassdevs

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 59047 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

Open source bounties

Most readers are probably familiar with the fact that companies or organizations sometimes post "bounties" for open source products, or features, that they would like to see developed. Implement the thing to their satisfaction, you get the bounty -- and the community gets the code. Sweet.

A while back I started gathering references to these things, thinking I'd start a site that listed them, made connections between coders and sponsors, etc.

I'm never going to build that site, so here are all the links I gathered. Some will probably be dead or irrelevant now; some seem to be doing something similar to this central-index idea and may want to just slurp all these up. Go for it!

Bounties and bounty lists

Interesting to consider

Success stories

Cautionary

About brain crack

"Brain crack" is a term coined by internet personality Ze Frank to describe the addictive nature of holding tightly onto ideas instead of sharing them. I'm at risk. I have lots of notes and ideas for side projects sitting around, and a very busy life and day job.

So this is the first in what I hope is an occasional series of posts designed to get these things out of my head (or, in this case, my private Trac) and out into the world. I'm just glad to be getting that brain crack monkey off my back.

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
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Some related posts: Latest iPhone SDK bug reports • Microsoft steps up FUD campaign against Linux • Uncovering dirt with Google code search • Eudora goes open source • International Freedom From Stupid Software Patents Day • Neelie Kroes vs. Microsoft • Why Tucows bought Kiko • Rails security hole hullabaloo • Dangerous installers • Burn all JPEGs?

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