This Blog is Inactive

Hi Everyone,

This blog was never an "official" part of DFW Pythoneers; it was just idea for the group to have a shared blog. This site in particular is outdated with many dead links.

If you're interested in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Python community, please visit the active Meetup sites for DFW Pythoneers and DFW PyLadies. And of course, please do attend the meetings, and make plans to attend the annual PyTexas conference event.

Review of DFW Pythoneers Sat Aug 13 Meeting

Jeff Rush stepped through the slides of a David Beazley PyCon UK 2008 presentation titled "Generator Tricks for System Programmers".

It was fantastic; we went though the whole presentation and had a lively discussion to make sure everyone understood each slide. Personally, I gained a whole new perspective on the usefulness of generator functions and coroutines. It gave me a lot of ideas for the ETL stuff I sometimes work on.

Ralph Green also gave a walkthrough of the code he has written to produce secure barcoded raffle tickets for PyTexas prizes. He has put together a program which will allow us to use a barcode reader to quickly look up the name of each person associated with the unique ticket id, and display that on the screen for all to see.

Thanks go to Fish Technologies for generously hosting our meetup.

Python SIG for Healthcare IT

For those seeking to work with Python-based tools in the healthcare IT industry, this new SIG ("special interest group") can provide a forum to discuss challenges and hopefully foster knowledge sharing and tools development. Relevant topics include tools for working with healthcare standard data formats, industry news items, professional development, and success stories about Python and open source in the healthcare industry. Along the way, this SIG page can be updated with links to relevant projects and resources.

If this interests you, please join this discussion on the mailing list. This is a new mailing list so there are no archives yet.

If you're attending PyCon today, please join us in a face to face meeting at 1pm in the Hanover A open space room. As with all open space meetings, all are welcome, including those with no healthcare IT background interested in joining the industry.

Expanding Universe contest

Steve Miller and Sharon Lee have a new book coming out. It is not about Python, but their books are fun to read and full of great characters. They are having a contest and you have a bit more time to enter. You can win an electronic copy by posting on Sharon's blog at: http://sharonleewriter.com/2010/07/expanding-universe-contest/
The contest is open only to people who have not had the pleasure of reading one of their novels yet.

PyTexas survey

If you live in the Texas region, please help with PyTexas 2010 planning by filling out the new survey. This will tell us things like whether the planned Aug 28 date works for you, whether you have a user group in your area, and more importantly your t-shirt size :-).

P.S. We need Python teachers for our beginner track!  This same survey is planned to reach a large number of area students, and they will likely be interested in learning Python fundamentals, web development in popular frameworks like Django, BFG, etc. Please watch for the upcoming call for proposals, and feel free to contact me directly.

PyTexas 2010 t-shirt

Take a gander at this primo swag item we're planning for PyTexas:

I'd like to put this on a plain white t-shirt with black ink, so that the image is part of the fabric (not stuck on top like some t-shirts). Maybe that will cause it to fade a bit after many washings, but that's ok. Faded t-shirts are kind of cool in their own way.

Credit goes to Kat Metzger of the DFW Python user group, who sketched out several great PyTexas t-shirt ideas when the discussion started last Friday night. We voted on the sketches during the Saturday afternoon DFW Python meeting, and by Saturday night the graphic was done. On Sunday, we tweaked some details about text size and placement, and it was good to go. That was a lot quicker that I had expected, and I'm grateful to Kat for having the idea, and delivering this excellent design on such short notice.

This is not a done deal yet. Since PyTexas has no money, we'll have to brainstorm some ways to pay for the t-shirt manufacture. I've started speaking with one manufacturer, and soon we'll have a cost estimate for 200 shirts.

PyTexas offers free sponsorships!

An oxymoron, you say?

Maybe, but free sponsorships make sense for PyTexas. After all, none of the organizers have time to mess with money; we just want our attendees to have plenty of swag! We are especially voracious for t-shirts, free books, mugs, and stickers.

This event will consist of a mix of Python veterans, newbies, and university students.

So, if you want your company or organization name advertised at PyTexas, please contact me and I'll provide a shipping address for your boxes of swag.  We'll also post your logo on the wiki if you send swag. You can find my contact info here.