We process a fair amount of externally-prepared datasets. 40,000 rows of econometric data that we purchased from a third-party. Mostly, the data is in a usable format: .CSV or .XSLX.

Once in a while, we get CSV with |. A few times, we got fixed-format COBOL-style records.

Recently, we got …

Check out this question on Stack Overflow: "Python: replace a string by a float in txt file".

The question is confusing, but it appears to be a longish and confused description of simple formatting or template substitution. It's hard to be sure, but it sounds like one of Those Things …

I don't want the spamilicious email. I'm trying to actually unsubscribe. The footer says "If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of any information contained in or attached to this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message …

Wednesday night. At 757 Labs. Be there. Here's the details on meetup.com Lacking any other agenda, I'll do some more presentation on the supreme coolness of Django.

Someone sent me this: "“Building Skills in Python” – Steven F. Lott".

I had a vague idea that this book would get some traction. This response was surprising. I guess I should get to work on the upgrades.

And focus on the "no-nonsense" comment.

Just saw this for the first time today: http://cwe.mitre.org/top25/ I'd always relied on this: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Top_Ten_Project Both are really good lists of security vulnerabilities. I once had to listen to a DBA tell me that "we don't know what we …

I've been unsubscribing from some junk email recently. The user story is simple: As a not-very-interested person, I want to get off your dumb-ass mailing list so that I don't have to flag your crap as spam any more.

The implementations vary from good to evil. Here's what I've found …

During chapter technical reviews, the question of technical depth has come up time and again. Essentially, in every single chapter. In the older Building Skills in Python book, there are a number of topics that feel "digressive" to the reviewer and editor. Too much depth.

However, there are a number …

Just started learning about "Hackerspace". Without really knowing what I was doing, I fell into the 757 Labs Hackerspace. The 757 Python Users' Group, specifically. What a great idea. Bright people. Interested in the same area of technology. It's like hanging around with sailors at a marina.

Read this: How Ma Bell Shelved the Future for 60 Years.

AT&T firmly believed that the answering machine, and its magnetic tapes, would lead the public to abandon the telephone.

How many good ideas are set aside by managers who simply don't have a clue what users actually want …