Bio
Christopher Flynn
Webdeveloper, husband, dad, surfer, ameteur photographer, tinkerer, 2nd amendment advocate, brewer, chef, libertarian, atheist, UNIX Geek, troublemaker.
Virtualenvwrapper
by Christopher Flynn — Friday, August 27, 2010
I use virtualenv all the time to help keep python packages separate. This allows me to know what packages are required for any app I develop (by doing a simple pip freeze within a virtualenv) but also I can experiment with newer versions of packages for one application and not affect the others. It's great! What could make it better? Virtualenvwrapper.
Virtualenvwrapper by Doug Hellmann offers additional functionality for interacting with virtualenv. I'm not going to go over setting it up because he does a good job describing that on his site. Instead I'm going to offer some tips on how I use it.
First let's create a virtual environment:
$ mkvirtualenv myenv
New python executable in myenv/bin/python
Installing setuptools............done.
If everything is setup right you should see (myenv) in front of your prompt letting you know what virtualenv we are working in. You should also see messages about creating some activate/deactivate scripts. Let's edit one and add some stuff.
$ vi ~/.virtualenvs/myenv/bin/postactivate
Now this shouldn't have anything but some comments in it. Let's cd to our working directory and run git pull.
cd /path/to/code/
git pull
Save and exit and type 'workon myenv.' You should (assuming all the paths are correct and all) be changed into the directory and have git pull run for you. Type 'deactivate' to leave the environment. You could also add things to any of the scripts and this would largely depend on your workflow. The main advantage is you can type 'workon myenv' and you should be in your directory ready to go.
Also one final quick tip, typing 'workon' with no arguments will give you a list of your environments. This way if you forgot what you called it, you can easily see a list.
SSH config file
by Christopher Flynn — Friday, August 20, 2010
I use SSH all the time. It's primary role is to allow you to securely log into remote computers and it does this extremely well. You can also use it (via scp or sftp) to transfer files and you can also use it to route traffic through. However remembering ip addresses, especially for machines you rarely use, or typing in domain names can be a chore. Fortunately there is an easy way to specify shortcuts, the config file.
In your ~/.ssh/ folder, create a file called config that looks like the following:
host abbr
port 1234
hostname 192.168.0.5
user myusername
Now you can just type 'ssh abbr' and it will try to log you into 192.168.0.5 as myusername and port 1234. You can also use it with scp: 'scp abbr:filename .' which would transfer the file 'filename' to your current directory from the server. You can do a lot of other things such as specify a compression level, port, identity file (useful if you use EC2 and need to specify a .pem file), keepalive and more.
This combined with key files makes using ssh effortless.
My iPad Review
by Christopher Flynn — Monday, July 19, 2010
When apple first announced the iPad I thought it looked interesting but wasn't sure if I would get one. I defended it from naysayers because I new that for a certain niche, it would work well. My primary thought was for those with a long commute (like me) who don't want to carry around a laptop. After it was released, the reviews were in and everyone, for the most part, loved it.
Obtaining one wasn't as difficult as finding a 3g iPhone when they first came out but it wasn't exactly easy. The 3 apple stores in my area did not have them but then I remembered Best Buy was also carrying them. The first day I went they were out but I was told they would have a shipment in the next day. I went back the next day and didn't even have to wait in line!
The first thing I did was test the netflix streaming. It works beautifully, I just wish I had wifi on the train in the mornings to stream movies. However, I had been converting videos to view on my iPhone using Handbrake so now I just modified the presets to use the apple universal preset and the videos play great on the iPad.
The other reason I love the iPad is to read books. Apple's iBooks is great for reading ePub formatted eBooks. The free download of Whinny the Pooh is an excellent example of the benefits of the iPad over one of the e-Ink devices. The color illustrations within the book really do improve the experience. However, iBooks is limited to the ePub format and I have a lot of PDF books. For these I use an app called "Good Reader." For the introductory price of $.99, it is an absolute must have.
The news apps are actually a disappointment. The New York Times app is great, but they limit the number of stories to a select "Editors Choice" list. Some of the other news apps try to do unique things with the interface but it just doesn't work that well in my opinion.
Taking notes on the iPad is also a disappointment. I've tried a few of the apps but nothing has really stood out. The keyboard works ok but is no substitute for a real keyboard. Trying to scribble notes with my finger like I would with pen and paper does not work as well.
A surprise app, "iAnnotate PDF" shows some potential. There are some real usability bugs that should get fixed in the next release or so but it allows you to annotate a PDF. You can add text bubbles, draw, highlight, etc... It's a really nice way to comment on a PDF document.
Pandora also makes a nice app for the iPad. If you are unfamiliar with the online music service, go check them out! If you are familiar with them, there's nothing really new on the iPad, just a nice interface and worth downloading.
Of the weather apps, I think I like WeatherBug the most. It's simple and to the point with a giant radar map.
As for games, I haven't downloaded many. My kids love the Toy Story and Cat in the Hat books. The game I love is X-Plane-9. I have the iPhone version but the iPad version is much more detailed. Of course I like flight simulators, I know it bores some people. There is no shooting or anything so it may or may not be for you.
So is it worth it? YES! I have a long commute in the morning and I used to use my iPhone but reading books on the iPhone is not a very good experience. Videos on the iPhone work but the larger screen, larger hard drive and larger battery of the iPad is nice. Being able to watch a south park episode and then quickly open up any one of the hundreds of books on my iPad to finish the commute is really nice. It is a little heavy as others have pointed out but I usually rest it on my bag and haven't really found it to be a big deal. It's also quite a bit lighter than my laptop.
So what don't I like? Well for starters, you're mostly locked into iTunes to get data onto it. I realize they are trying to make it easier for people but I had to do some hacks in iTunes to be able to load stuff on my iPad from my work machine. iPhone only apps either look too tiny (with the giant black background) at the 1:1 scale and they look horrible zoomed in. I took off all but a few apps that don't have a native iPad version.
I'd also love to see an actual USB port or even an SD card on the device. While I don't think it's a deal-breaker like some, being able to load content from an SD card or USB device (photos, books, movies, whatever) would be nice. Fortunately it's still the standard iPod connector.
My big gripe though is really an issue with the iPhone. I have an iPhone, I pay for a data plan on my iPhone, why can't I just share this with other devices? I don't want to spend another $130 + $30/month to use the internet on my iPad with 3G. I want to be able to use my iPhone as a gateway and then be able to connect my iPad to my iPhone and have internet wherever I have access to the 3G network.
My final gripe is that books in the iBooks store are too expensive. They are roughly the same as buying an actual hard cover book. I don't know if this is apple or the book companies setting the price but I will continue to get my books other places that are DRM free.
I'd recommend it for anyone who has a long commute on a train or bus and has the time to read. I also presume it would be great to take on vacation. It really fits in between a laptop and an iPhone. It's more useful than an iPhone but not as useful as a laptop. Of course it doesn't take up as much space or weigh as much as a laptop either. It's easy to use but it is not a replacement for a regular computer as you still need one to put information onto the iPad.
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