RSS Feed Change

I've changed the RSS feed for this site to use Feedburner. The new location for the feed is:

• Voidspace RSS Feed

If you already subscribe, and can be bothered to switch to the new feed location, cheers.

By the way, I realise that some of you would prefer full feeds rather than the partial ones I currently serve. At the moment Firedrop strips images and links from RSS, I'll fix this sometime and switchover (but I wouldn't hold your breath, sorry!).

---

Python and Bazaar Meetup this Friday

The Bazaar boys are in town this week, so there is a meetup this Friday [1]. It's a Python / Bazaar / Linux meetup, so it should be fun. I just hope they don't hate us Resolver folk for developing on Windows.

The venue is Hamilton Hall [2], in the city, and the meetup starts at 8pm (Organised by Pete Ryland, who will be delighted to give you directions if you need them!). See you there...

[1]	Friday 18th May 2007, just to be clear about this.

[2]	Google Map

---

OLPC Production Ramping Up

Preparations for OLPC manufacturing are ramping up. Engadget quotes Michail Bletsas, "a network design executive for the project", saying that "40,000 XOs a month from September 22nd" could be churned out - possibly rising to 400,000 units a month by the end of this year! (With the aim of producing three-million units in the first round of production!)

Another engadget article shows the delighted faces of children in Uruguay receiving the devices.

---

A Piece of History: Python 0.9.1

Back in 1991, the sources to Python 0.9.1 were posted to alt.sources. Until recently they were thought to be lost to the 'quagmire of time', but recent archaeological discoveries have uncovered an archive:

• http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/archive/alt.sources/volume91/Feb/

Apparently it doesn't compile out of the box because it uses Kernigan & Ritchie prototypes which are no longer supported by modern compilers. Python 0.9.1 pre-dates classes, and Andrew Kuchling has managed to get it working:

$ ./python
>>> 2+2
4
>>> def f(): pass
...
>>> f()
>>> class C: pass
Parsing error: file <stdin>, line 1:
class C: pass
        ^
Unhandled exception: run-time error: syntax error

It's now checked into the Python repository and preserved for future generations.

---

Laptop and Digital Camera for Sale

Ah... another benefit of having a blog, I can try and sell you my second-hand gadgets (and excellent they are too!).

I'm currently selling a laptop and a digital camera on ebay (UK only - sorry guys).

The laptop is an IBM Thinkpad T30 with lots of accessories. The reviews are generally very good. It's an extremely reliable laptop and was fast enough for all the things I've used it for. All the reviews cite different specs, the ones for this model are:

• Pentium 4 Processor-M 2.00 Ghz
• 512MB Ram
• 40GB Hard drive
• 2 USB Ports
• ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 Graphics Card (fine for watching movies)
• 1024x768 14.1" LCD Display
• CD-R/W / DVD Drive
• AC Charger
• Full UK Keyboard

It comes with the following set of accessories:

• Belkin Laptop Carry Case

• 80GB External USB Hard Drive (USB Powered)

• Wifi Card

• Firewire card (unused and still in box)

• Legal versions of the following software:

  • Windows XP Professional SP2
  • Nero Enterprise 6, CD Burner
  • Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc)

• IBM Docking station (port extender) - for plugging in mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc. This will drive two monitors.

The digital camera is a Polaroid PDC 3050, 3.8 Mega-Pixel camera, with a 3x digital-zoom. The specs and extra goodies are:

• 16MB Internal Memory
• Genuine Polaroid soft case
• 64MB SD memory card included
• 3x Digital Zoom
• 1.5" Color LCD Display
• VGA Video Camera (video and sound recording)
• 2272x1704 Pixel Maximum Resolution
• TV-out
• f=6.21mm, F/3.3, F/8 (whatever this means)
• Close-up mode
• Takes two AA batteries.
• Many display mode, including slideshow

The auction is on for another week, happy bidding.

---

A Simple HTTP Server with IronPython

Serving data over an HTTP server is a common programming task, and useful for simple proof-of-concept implementations. Today's (!) IronPython article is an example of creating a simple webserver using the .NET HttpListener class.

• A Simple HTTP Server with IronPython

This article also touches on text encoding, asynchronous callbacks, URI and XHTML escaping, the system message box and creating a simple Windows Forms dialog. If you are new to .NET, this is a valuable tour of parts of the .NET 'standard library'.

---

The Joys of Extreme Programming

Extreme Programming is not without its downside:

On a completely unrelated subject, I've found several interesting IronPython related blog entries. They're posted up on the IronPython URLs Blog.

They include a new Microsoft project called Jasper for "iterative and agile development" with databases. The interesting thing is that it is a Microsoft project which targets IronPython (and VB) and not C#.

There is also a chap who has got Silverlight applications running as Console Applications rather than in the browser, so that it is easier to unit test them.

---