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. 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. 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 70644 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

To Infinity Ultra and Beyond

This post is not about any of my usual software or hardware topics, but it still is nerdy.

The flashlight.

Parliament's classic song on the subject tells us that "everybody's got a little light under the sun." It's good to have a little light, especially when the sun isn't around. But some little lights are better than others.

The best thing that has happened to flashlights in recent years, especially little ones, is the rise of the LED. Compared to their predecessors, LED lamps are smaller, more efficient, more durable, and much longer burning.

My mainstay pocket flashlight for years was a "CMG Infinity Ultra". The dumb name was forgivable because of the overall greatness of this light. It's a little cylinder of machined aluminum with an AA battery inside and a bright white LED on the end. Sealed, waterproof, incredibly rugged, and 10 or 20 hours of light on a charge.

One day, after years of reliable service on camping trips and other adventures, it went dark. Via email I asked Gerber (who had bought CMG) what to do. In short, they said, "send it in." I did.

A couple weeks later I came home to an envelope from them containing a brand new replacement light in retail packaging. Very nice.

This particular style of light -- durable, simple, waterproof, LED, long hours on a rechargeable single cell -- is not easy to find. Big credit to Gerber for keeping it going and keeping me equipped.

Sunday, October 26th, 2008
fun + hardware