Linkpot Updates
Quite a long time ago I took over stewardship of Linkpot from Ben Thorp, with a whole bunch of ideas of stuff I wanted to add to it. Initially though I just got it working again (on Django 1.0) and moved to my hosting.
Today I finally got around to finishing the first batch of changes: namely Django 1.0.2 and moving from using a text file based word list to a database (which was already used for storing the URLs). This improves performance and opens up the possibility for a whole other bunch of enhancements (including using your own words).
At the same time I added some improved error handling & error messages, and the ability to ’shortcut’ previewing a link by suffixing a hyphen (-) to the word e.g. http://linkpot.net/recursive-.
If you use Linkpot, please go kick the tyres and let me know if you find any problems. If you don’t, why don’t you? 
Thy will be done: m2wp.py is released
After dragging my heels for a bit, I’m finally getting around to releasing my code for generating WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) files from Mephisto database.
I agreed with Stuart that it should be released regardless of demand, but it really did need some cleaning up first!
So, without any further ado, pomp, or ceremony I give you m2wp.py!
…
Oh, you actually want to see the code?
bzr branch http://labs.schwuk.com/m2wp
* Why aren’t I using Launchpad? Because I seriously doubt there will be any further development of this. However if people want to submit patches, they are more than welcome to and I will publish them in my repository.
A couple of caveats:
Migrated to WordPress
First of all, apologies for any ‘planet spam’ caused the change to my feeds.
After what seems like an eternity (but is actually just over a year) I’ve switched the backend of this site from Mephisto to WordPress. The main reason for the switch was my overall dissatisfaction with Mephisto coupled with its lack of development (or a least stable releases) along with the fact that I was maintaining a Ruby on Rails production environment for one application. Mephisto frustrated me in many ways, from its inability to handle archives/pagination to not being able to accept pingbacks to not working with external clients. All of these were fixable, but I really didn’t have the patience or the time.
Here is my tale of migrating from Mephisto to WordPress, and how I achieved it.
PyRoom
A while back I was discussing FOSS alternatives for cutting out distractions, and one of the pieces of software that I couldn’t find a decent alternative for was Writeroom which is commercial software for the Mac.
Now Bruno Bord (who’s basically French) has come to the rescue with the PyRoom project. I may have to get involved.
Introducing WebDev Control Panel
Once upon a time there was a little project called the XAMPP Control Panel. An associate of mine had a hankering for a similar application to control specific services used for web development on his local machine, so I looked to adapt Jono’s project to his needs. However, as is often the case in these scenarios, I ended up scrapping the vast majority of his code and starting from near-scratch.
In a very short space of time a working result was achieved, but said associate no longer had a requirement for due to a change of platform. Rather than let it languish, I started adapting it to be more generic and removed some additional (and not fully implemented) functionality to create the WebDev Control Panel.
A project which promptly vanished into the depths of my hard disk and was mostly forgotten about. I fetched it out from time-to-time and tweaked a bit here, changed a bit there, but overall it sat collecting dust. I fully intended it to be released as Free software, but was loath to release in its current form.
Jumping forward to a couple of weeks ago, I needed to re-acquaint myself with Python, so I dusted off the project and started polishing it. I made the code more object-oriented; I converted it from a fixed list of services to a dynamic one (controlled by a config file); and finally I made it ready for translation.
Finally the time had come, and I could find no decent reason for putting it off any longer. I had to release it.
So, after that long introduction, here is the WebDev Control Panel. Enjoy.
RADical Python
I have another article in the latest issue of Linux User & Developer entitled RADical Python.
It is an introduction to Rapid Application Development with PyGTK, and I’m very pleased with the result. Of course real feedback (instead of my own ego massaging) is always welcome.
I am intending to follow this article up with a series on Python development (with a twist) – further bulletins as events warrant.
In the mean time go and pick up a copy!
look good