Wednesday, July 22, 2009

DFW Pythoneers 4th Saturday Meeting

This Saturday is the usual 4th Saturday meeting of the DFW Pythoneers. We're meeting at the coworking facility Company|Dallas in Richardson at noon. Bring your lunch, they have free drinks. You can find directions at their website.

We'll start with informal discussion about what's happening in Python, along with some "what does this code do" Python examples I found in the unit-testing code for the cPython interpreter. Would you recognize a backtracking generator? How about a lazy list iterator? For a taste, check out test_generators.py

There will also be simple examples for those new to Python.

While we start gathering at noon to talk over lunch, the formal presentation won't start until 2pm. I'll be giving a presentation from PyCon 2009 about Python Namespaces, Code Objects and How They Work Together Under The Hood.

And if there is interest, I'd like to continue sprinting on reimplementing the M.U.L.E. game using the Pyglet OpenGL framework. We can split into teams tackling two pieces reusable in other games:
  1. An Avahi/Bonjour-based network component for detecting the presence of all active games of a certain kind (e.g. M.U.L.E.) on the LAN, determining which are currently open for new players (i.e. in the game start phase) and returning this information for presenting in some kind of GUI. A user can then select which game to join. Because of the nature of the network, this should be implemented in an asynchronous fashion.

  2. A Pyglet-based component for animating a character walking across the screen in all eight directions. It should contain a step generator that controls the rate of walking, and listen to events from the keyboard (or joystick or network) telling it in which direction to walk. It must be possible for multiple instances to exist so that players can concurrently walk their characters around the board. Other components should be able to subscribe to walk events to handle actions based on where the character is walking including slowing or aborting the walk.
We can discuss perhaps doing this in the style of a Code Dojo:

Schedule
12:00 lunch
02:00 "Python Namespaces and Code Objects"

I hope to see you there!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

pyCologne Python User Group, Cologne, Germany, July 8th Notes

The Cologne Python User Group met on July, 8th at the computer centre of the University of Cologne. The meeting was attended by 14 people. German speakers might want to refer to our wiki page http://www.pycologne.de.

Announcements
  • Johannes Huperts: The Linux-UserGroup will hold an Install-Party on August, 23rd. People who like to help are welcome.

  • HelmutSiegert: September, 9th there will be held a Free-Software-Day at Odysseum/Cologne. They ask for participation of pyCologne:

    • General talks about Python topics.
    • Help within a Linux Install Party
Todays Talk: Django (Daniel Hepper)

Django is a framework for creating web-applications which supports the following technologies/approaches:

  • MVC - Model-View-Controller
  • O/R-Mapper
  • Auto-Admin Interface
  • User-friendly URLs
  • Templates
  • User-/Session-Management

Firstly, Daniel gave a general introduction into creation of web-sites beginning with static HTML, over CGI-Scripts to modern web-frameworks .

Secondly, he introduced Django by creating a Django application to manage "Running-Events" like e.g. Marathons.

Django features the semi-automatic creation of applications using manage-scripts, which for example generate database-tables from models written down in Python-code. It is possible to generate Python-code from database-tables as well.

The create-, update-, and view-pages can be created based on templates. However, it is possible to use generic views to display data from a database without programming.

Report vom EuroPython 2009

This year's EuroPython took place in Birmingham (UK). Location was the Birmingham Conservatoire. There were about 450 participants.

From pyCologne AndreasSchreiber, JanUlrichHasecke, Henning und ReimarBauer met in Birmingham.

For EuroPython advance booking for the conference as well as for talks is necessary.

There were 6 tracks in parallel. Therefore, it was not possible to attend all talks of interest. However there are recordings.

Speakers have to apply to EuroPython in advance. New topics are favored over the repetition of older talks.

Furthermore, an Open-Space for free exchange of information is provided. Food, drink and coffee are provided as well.

Participation fee is around 90 Pounds (GBP) für 3 days.

The minutes of the meeting in German language can be found here.

The next meeting will be held on, Wednesday, August, 12th.

Some of the participants enjoyed the rest of the evening in our usual italian restaurant having food, drinks and friendly conversation.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

4th Singapore Python User Group Meeting

When : Jul 16, 2009 from 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
Where : SMU School of Information Systems NSR 2.1

We've got exciting topics lined up for our coming meeting. Mark out your diary guys!

Planned Program

Topic : DigiBanner : An Interactive Multi-Screen Network Application
Speaker : Morgan Heijdemann
Synopsis :
In this talk, Morgan will demonstrate the capabilities of Python in delivering a desktop realtime application. It shows the use of sockets (client/server), (queued) threading, the power of pickle, pyglet and the integration of wiiMotes. The application was developed with help of students in less than a month.

Topic : Using Google Application Engine and Amazon Web Services Together
Speaker : Dr. Chris Boesch
Synopsis :
In this talk, Chris will discuss an application that he has developed using the Google Application Engine (GAE) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The application is designed to leverage the identity, scalability, and availability provided by GAE to implement public interfaces and then utilize Amazon EC2 and S3 where the GAE restrictions are too limiting. Python is used to implement both the GAE application code and code running in Amazon EC2 instances.

Topic : PUG
Speaker : Dr. Liew Beng Keat
Synopsis :
Python User Group (Singapore) is now a registered society. Beng Keat will introduce the members of the Pro-Tem committee and share plans for the society moving forward and in view of PyCon 2010.

Topic : Lightning Talks
Speaker : Open Invitation. Come on guys!
Synopsis :
All (personal) projects that you have done using Python. If you've never given a talk before, Lightning Talks are a good place to start. You don't need to make slides, but if you do, you only need to make three.

Friday, July 10, 2009

PUB - Python Users Berlin, Germany, 16th of Juli, Announcement

Python Users Berlin are meeting again next Thursday (16.07) , 7pm

Since it's summer, we'll have a BBQ at HU Berlin, Campus Nord, Phillipstraße 13, 10115 Berlin, Haus 18 (U6 Oranienburger Tor, S+U Friedrichstraße, Map)
There will be some beers and nonalcoholic drinks. There might be even some steaks, but to be on the safe side, bring in your own stuff for the grill.

Everybody with an interest in Python is invited to come.

See you next Thursday, Stephan

http://wiki.python.de/User Group Berlin

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

GruPy-SP - São Paulo Python User Group, Brazil - July Meeting Announcement

It's time for another meeting of our São Paulo (Brazil) Python User Group, GruPy-SP.

It will happen Saturday, July 25 starting around 2.00 pm at the Tau Hacklab.

Agenda: Python Conference Brazil 2010 (PythonBrasil 2010).

More information (directions, details) in Brazilian Portuguese:
http://www.python.org.br/wiki/GrupySP

Monday, July 6, 2009

pyCologne Python User Group, Cologne, Germany, July, 8th, Announcement

The next meeting of pyCologne will take place

Wednesday, July, 8th
starting about 6.30 pm - 6.45 pm
at Room 0.14, Benutzerrechenzentrum (RRZK-B)
University of Cologne, Berrenrather Str. 136, 50937 Köln, Germany

Agenda:
  • Report from EuroPython 2009 (ReimarBauer, AndreasSchreiber)

  • Django (DanielHepper)

At about 8.30 pm we will as usual enjoy the rest of the evening in a nearby restaurant.

Further information including directions how to get to the location can be found at:
http://wiki.python.de/User_Group_Köln (Sorry, this page is in German only)

pyCologne Python User Group, Cologne, Germany, June 10th Notes

The Cologne Python User Group met on June, 10th at the computer centre of the University of Cologne. The meeting was attended by 11 people. German speakers might want to refer to our wiki page http://www.pycologne.de.

Announcements
Proposals for upcoming pyCologne-Sessions
  • Daniel Hepper offers a talk about the Web-Framework Django
Todays Talk: Mercurial (Reimar Bauer)
  • Version-Control-Systems in General
  • Distributed Version-Control-Systems
  • Introduction into Mercurial (init, update, ...)
  • Clones, pull and push operations
You can find the talk (in German language) at http://wiki.python.de/User%20Group%20K%C3%B6ln/Protokoll%2020090610/mercurial

Books
The minutes of the meeting in German language can be found here.

The next meeting will be held on, Wednesday, July, 8th.

We enjoyed the rest of the evening in our usual italian restaurant having food, drinks and friendly conversation.