Tuesday, October 28, 2014
A little behind on posts
This blog has been rather inactive, partly because of the lack of Community contributions that I have done, and partly because I just haven't been doing a blog post for every week. The real issue that I have with getting one put up every week is mostly not having anything to talk about. I am hoping to change out that paradigm for the future as my workload gets a little more involved. I will be adding discussion about what the class I am teaching assistant for as well as work that is going on with the current projects. This should make things a little more lively. I thank you for reading
RocPy Meet-up - October edition
We once again set out on our way to RocPy. This time without our illustrious leader, DeCause. This meant that we had a new set of carpool leaders. The only annoying thing about the carpooling was that it had started to lightly downpour. I normally don't mind the rain, but is a little disheartening just standing around waiting in it. Regardless, we left for the University of Rochester right on time. The car I as riding in was full of complete strangers to me, so conversation was rather non-existent.
Once we got to U of R, we made the long trek up to the 4th floor corner that is the ever drab home of the meet-up. We had a surprising amount of people there, not counting the merry band that was coming from the FOSS classes. One thing that I am learning is that public speaking is not the forte of many of the organizers for the meetup, which is a little surprising as they seem to be teachers. This was most prevalent in the first portion where they were going over Python in the news.
Following that, we got a rather lengthy lecture on how to bridge Python into other languages. Despite that being the main premise of the lecture, the only thing that I really came away from it regarding bridging Python with other languages is that Python is a very slow language. The actual bridging was sort-of glossed over. It was almost like a cooking show, with all of the bridging done before hand and just showing off the results of the bridging on sample code. Ironically enough, certain examples didn't actually prove to be that much better, namely the Haskell implementation.
The thing that ended off the meeting was another of the organizers talking about His Raytracer which was being implemented in Python. What I found to be most interesting was the justification being used to use Python for the program despite being so slow. "It can be used as a teaching tool, because it is easier to read." I find that to be a remarkable sentiment. While it is true that Python can be made to look like almost psuedocode next to something like C++, a decent amount of that can be written off as the person writing the code in the first place. Programming languages are like tools, you use the tool best suited to the job, and Python is not that language for something like this thought experiment.
Overall,, RocPy was far more dull this month than it was last month. I hope that the November and December meet-ups are a little more lively.
Once we got to U of R, we made the long trek up to the 4th floor corner that is the ever drab home of the meet-up. We had a surprising amount of people there, not counting the merry band that was coming from the FOSS classes. One thing that I am learning is that public speaking is not the forte of many of the organizers for the meetup, which is a little surprising as they seem to be teachers. This was most prevalent in the first portion where they were going over Python in the news.
Following that, we got a rather lengthy lecture on how to bridge Python into other languages. Despite that being the main premise of the lecture, the only thing that I really came away from it regarding bridging Python with other languages is that Python is a very slow language. The actual bridging was sort-of glossed over. It was almost like a cooking show, with all of the bridging done before hand and just showing off the results of the bridging on sample code. Ironically enough, certain examples didn't actually prove to be that much better, namely the Haskell implementation.
The thing that ended off the meeting was another of the organizers talking about His Raytracer which was being implemented in Python. What I found to be most interesting was the justification being used to use Python for the program despite being so slow. "It can be used as a teaching tool, because it is easier to read." I find that to be a remarkable sentiment. While it is true that Python can be made to look like almost psuedocode next to something like C++, a decent amount of that can be written off as the person writing the code in the first place. Programming languages are like tools, you use the tool best suited to the job, and Python is not that language for something like this thought experiment.
Overall,, RocPy was far more dull this month than it was last month. I hope that the November and December meet-ups are a little more lively.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Hack Prop 1(2): Tic-Tac-Pi?
Hack Title - Tic-Tac-Pi
Description:
This will be a Tic-Tac-Toe board game made using PyGame and meant to be played on the Raspberry Pi. Ideally we want it to be able to be played by two people on seperate Pi's using networking, but we will have a Computer player regardless.
Libraries:
We will only really be using PyGame and writing our own net code.
Upstream Repository:
We will be pushing it to PyPi
Hardware:
We will be using the Raspberry Pi, a keyboard, a mouse, and an internet connection (for the newtowrking).
Team Members:
I will be working on mstubinis for this project.
Project Milestones:
- Get a working Server and Client application
- Set up base game using PyGame
- Integrate client with game
- Package up the game
License:
We will be going with the MIT license for this project.
Final Thoughts:
Since neither of us is really all that familiar with networking in general (mostly due to the GDD program offering little inside the major itself), it will be interesting working on the subject. Even if we can't get it working, we always have the regular game to fall back on. Here's hoping!
Advanced FOSS Guest Speaker - Google
During class on Thursday, we were greeted by a very special guest that DeCause had asked to come down to talk with our class. As it turned out, Google had been at the Career Fair and doing interviews and such. While they were there, DeCause asked one of them to swing by our class and talk to us if they were able. To our good fortune, they were able to do just that. I am deeply regretful that I don't remember the man's name. It was a truly enlightening talk that helped to really put perspective on what I was doing and working towards for the past few days.
The man started off by introducing himself, telling us what he did at Google and some things that he worked on. Right away I could tell that the man far outdid anything that I even thought about doing for a job. After introducing himself he asked us if there were any questions that we specifically had for him. We chose to ask him about what it was like working at Google and what this 20% work was. As it turns out, while working at Google, you have projects that you choose to work on for a main project and a secondary project that you do sort of on your own time.
Afterwards, DeCause asked a few simple questions as it related to the Advance FOSS class. The main important questions were the use of file revision systems and the use of IRC channels for communication. While I never doubted that it was used, it was interesting to see the reasoning behind their use.
The last thing we asked about was how it was that he managed to find himself working at Google and if he would ever think about leaving. He told us about how he wasn't exactly the best student, though far above my level, and he more or less lucked into getting internships at Microsoft and Apple, which gave him the chops to be put up for consideration by Google in the first place.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the talk. It was slightly disheartening to see just how far I am from being a competent hacker by any stretch of the imagination, but it has also given me some inspiration to try that much harder in the upcoming future.
The man started off by introducing himself, telling us what he did at Google and some things that he worked on. Right away I could tell that the man far outdid anything that I even thought about doing for a job. After introducing himself he asked us if there were any questions that we specifically had for him. We chose to ask him about what it was like working at Google and what this 20% work was. As it turns out, while working at Google, you have projects that you choose to work on for a main project and a secondary project that you do sort of on your own time.
Afterwards, DeCause asked a few simple questions as it related to the Advance FOSS class. The main important questions were the use of file revision systems and the use of IRC channels for communication. While I never doubted that it was used, it was interesting to see the reasoning behind their use.
The last thing we asked about was how it was that he managed to find himself working at Google and if he would ever think about leaving. He told us about how he wasn't exactly the best student, though far above my level, and he more or less lucked into getting internships at Microsoft and Apple, which gave him the chops to be put up for consideration by Google in the first place.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the talk. It was slightly disheartening to see just how far I am from being a competent hacker by any stretch of the imagination, but it has also given me some inspiration to try that much harder in the upcoming future.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
PyTalk - Final Thoughts
This was an interesting experiment. The entire class is weird due to the fact that I have nowhere near as much mojo when it comes to all of these tools we are using like coding in python and using the Raspberry Pi. Especially after seeing all of the other projects in the class. PyTalk works, though it is a little rough when being used on a Pi, although that portion needs a little more testing when it comes to making statements like that.
Our demo for the class was a little rough since it was on a Pi that we had never used before. It managed to connect up to the IRC chat and post a few things, but the speech recognition was a little off, much like the first builds of the project. That said, we are hopefully doing another demo today which should go much smoother.
The only thing that we have left to do is upload the project up to Pypi, which is my job and overall it has been going horribly. I would never have expected that the issues I'm getting. What is a little more impressive is that there doesn't seem to be anyone else who understands the error either. Hopefully uploading from the Pi itself might work better, although that will probably end up taking a long time.
Regardless I am looking forward to the next project s that we will be having. I don't really have any thoughts on what I want to do, so I'm just going to try and stick with mstubinis with whatever project he wants to do for this milestone.C'est la vive
Our demo for the class was a little rough since it was on a Pi that we had never used before. It managed to connect up to the IRC chat and post a few things, but the speech recognition was a little off, much like the first builds of the project. That said, we are hopefully doing another demo today which should go much smoother.
The only thing that we have left to do is upload the project up to Pypi, which is my job and overall it has been going horribly. I would never have expected that the issues I'm getting. What is a little more impressive is that there doesn't seem to be anyone else who understands the error either. Hopefully uploading from the Pi itself might work better, although that will probably end up taking a long time.
Regardless I am looking forward to the next project s that we will be having. I don't really have any thoughts on what I want to do, so I'm just going to try and stick with mstubinis with whatever project he wants to do for this milestone.C'est la vive
PyTalk woes
This has been an interesting experience. It honestly has. I have learned a lot more about using Python than I originally did and also doing some interesting things with IRC. my partner, mstubinis, who is a pretty awesome hacker, is responsible for writing the greater majority of our code while I was working on more of the management side of things, documentation and packaging. This project would probably not have gone nearly as well without all the work Mst put in.
That said, packaging is really weird. As I am not really fluent in python, using it in the shell is still a little weird to me and the errors that it throws make it a little hard to discern. It has certainly been a humbling experience as it shows me how little I know when it comes to my own field. I think the greatest challenge has been trying to keep up with everything that has been going on as far as the project is concerned. The time frame for the project really made this interesting. I would never expect something like this to be done in five weeks.
The current crossroads I am stuck at is getting the project up and hosted on pypi. I have everything setup and ready to be put up, (although as it isn't uploading properly, it means something is missing...somewhere).
At current, I am testing out different methods of getting the file uploaded onto Pypi. I hope this whole process will go much smoother later...
That said, packaging is really weird. As I am not really fluent in python, using it in the shell is still a little weird to me and the errors that it throws make it a little hard to discern. It has certainly been a humbling experience as it shows me how little I know when it comes to my own field. I think the greatest challenge has been trying to keep up with everything that has been going on as far as the project is concerned. The time frame for the project really made this interesting. I would never expect something like this to be done in five weeks.
The current crossroads I am stuck at is getting the project up and hosted on pypi. I have everything setup and ready to be put up, (although as it isn't uploading properly, it means something is missing...somewhere).
At current, I am testing out different methods of getting the file uploaded onto Pypi. I hope this whole process will go much smoother later...
Thursday, September 18, 2014
September 16th: RocPy meet-up
So this was a new experience. I had never been to RocPy before, but I was moderately aware of what happens at the events because of what DeCause talked about regarding it during class. I knew that it would be over at the University of Rochester, and I knew that people would be giving talks about the various works they had done in the last month while working with Python. What I was not expecting was that we would be in a classroom off hidden in a corner of one of the buildings. It was a little jarring and made it easier to see why they didn't have many people outside of the people that DeCause had brought with him.
The actual information presented was pretty interesting. RyanSB gave a presentation on the general make up of the course website and what goes into it. There was also a large portion dedicated to being able to create things using OpenShift. At least I believe that was the premise, what was happening while RyanSB was talking was a little over my head for the majority of the technical aspects.
There was a few lightning talks, with the first one being by a fellow classmate who presented on why you shouldn't include the .git folder where you host your website. It was rather interesting overall. DeCause also gave a lightning talk which was over a tumbr blog that he came across which mashed up a programming book and the King James bible. DeCause ran with this and made wupotus, which is a mash up of speeches from President Obama and lyrics from the Wu-tang clan. He showed it off, but then quickly remembered it was very NSFW.
Overall RocPy was an interesting experience and I am looking forward to going back again next month, though I do wish the accommodations weren't so...sketchy? Just my thoughts.
The actual information presented was pretty interesting. RyanSB gave a presentation on the general make up of the course website and what goes into it. There was also a large portion dedicated to being able to create things using OpenShift. At least I believe that was the premise, what was happening while RyanSB was talking was a little over my head for the majority of the technical aspects.
There was a few lightning talks, with the first one being by a fellow classmate who presented on why you shouldn't include the .git folder where you host your website. It was rather interesting overall. DeCause also gave a lightning talk which was over a tumbr blog that he came across which mashed up a programming book and the King James bible. DeCause ran with this and made wupotus, which is a mash up of speeches from President Obama and lyrics from the Wu-tang clan. He showed it off, but then quickly remembered it was very NSFW.
Overall RocPy was an interesting experience and I am looking forward to going back again next month, though I do wish the accommodations weren't so...sketchy? Just my thoughts.
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