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 Project

I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

Colophon

This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, 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.

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 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

A Django site.
(Finally!)

Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

Toolbot.com source code available on request

I'm doing a small experiment in open source distribution.

I have a site, toolbot.com, which formerly was a collection of miscellaneous PHP scripts that I had assembled over the years for specific tasks -- package tracking, dummy text generation, link shortening, etc. Those tools are now offline. The original cause of their disappearance was a MySQL failure, but that really just provided an opportunity for me to make a break with that pile of old code.

I wanted to keep the link redirection service running, since I believe that it's incumbent on people who offer such services to keep them functioning as long as possible. So even though it's not currently possible to add new links, all 90,000 old ones should still work, courtesy of a new Django-based front end.

Though I'm not interested in maintiaining most of the other tools I used to host there, I wanted to make it possible for motivated people to keep using them. So I've posted a note on the toolbot.com home page (technically, it's the 404 page) indicating that you can email me to request the source to any of the old tools. I got one request only a few hours after posting the note, and have already mailed out a tarball in response.

If I get many such requests, of course I'll have to pursue a different distribution strategy. But for now I'm enjoying the fact that getting the source code from me involves a bit of personal exchange, even if it's just an email one-liner.

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
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Some related posts: Most boring upgrade ever • Akismet anti-comment-spam • Moving the blog to Django • Open Source Initiative at OSCON

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