Yak Shaving

Guess I should have mentioned it earlier: I can haz new job!
I am currently happier than a pig in muck. Still bedding in but I have a Ubuntu desktop and 2 HUGE monitors! Best of all its Python. I have made the change from hobbyist to professional!

A little script to create an alert box on gnome whenever you get a message on pidgin.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import dbus, gobject
import pynotify
from lxml import etree
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop

def my_func(account, sender, message, conversation, flags):
    if pynotify.init("Hi there!"):
        xml_data = message
        root = etree.fromstring(xml_data)
        output = 'ooops'
        for element in root.iter():
            if element.text is not None:
                output = element.text
        n = pynotify.Notification(sender, output)
        n.set_timeout(2000)
        n.show()

dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)
bus = dbus.SessionBus()

bus.add_signal_receiver(my_func,
                        dbus_interface="im.pidgin.purple.PurpleInterface",
                        signal_name="ReceivedImMsg")

loop = gobject.MainLoop()
loop.run()

Just fixed up my App Engine application to be all standards compliant, gives you a nice warm feeling inside. Check out W3C Checker.

I got my Google App Engine library featured on the list of entries for bit.ly’s competition see bit.ly competition. Admittedly its a small bit of code but I hope someone might find a use for it.

But I`m still waiting for swag

A handy hint from an on the ball App Engine fella: how to extend the StringProperty class so that it will render as a password field

Came across this picture (thanks Alex S) of me on stage at LUG Radio 2007:

Myself and Becky Hogg of ORG

I had mentioned the previous night to Stuart Langridge I had some experience regarding DRM. While minding my own business watching Nat Friedman’s talk in the other room I got asked to come up on stage and answer a few questions. Come to think of it I never found out how Nat’s talk finished…