There have been some conversations in the Scientific Python community over the past several months about what, if anything, should be done regarding contributions that utilize code generation tools. In preparation for next week's Developer Summit, Matthew Brett opened an issue to begin drafting a SPEC to help the community navigate this terrain. What follows is my contribution on that thread . Any…
I did some data munging to match the latest release of JFK assassination records to their previously released version to produce a pop-out effect of the newly declassified parts. The resulting over two thousand documents, spanning eighty thousand pages are now all posted on github . As of March 20th, there is a total of 2,343 documents released by the U.S. National Archives and Records…
This is a lightly edited transcript of a talk I gave at Bay Area Drupal Camp in Oakland on October 24th, 2024 to an audience of about 40 people. I will be inlining images, but you can also peruse the slides directly . There's a recording available that has audio synchronized with the slides, but this post leaves out my stumbles, uhs, ums, and other vocal pauses. (Additional context will appear…
I want to shed some light and raise awareness about what's been going on with NumFOCUS. This is a long post that I started writing in late February. The basic gist that I am trying to get across is that From the perspective of many sponsored and affiliated projects, NumFOCUS has been struggling to meet their needs in an adequate or timely manner. At a Town Hall meeting in February, NumFOCUS…
Ten years ago, I made some plots for how much money was contributed to and spent by the various proposition campaigns in California . I decided to update these for this election, and here's the result: --> --> Just in case you didn't get the full picture, here is the same data plotted on a common scale: So, whereas 10 years ago, we had a total of ~$58 million on the election, the overwhelming…
I was chatting with Anthony Scopatz last week, and one of the things we covered was how it'd be cool to have a subcommand launcher, kind of like git , where the subcommands were swappable. If you're not familiar, git automatically calls out to git-something (note the dash) whenever you run $ git something and something is not one of the builtin git commands. For me, ~/bin is in my PATH , so $ git…
This is the first post of what I'm calling a Lazy River of Curious Content. This is a way to review stuff that I've been doing, dealing with, or find interesting during the week recently ( This was originally written two weeks ago, May 3rd, my shoddy internet connectivity kept me from posting it. ). I'm loosely following the format that Justin Sherrill uses with great effect over at…
Looks like we can't inline audio for your browser. That's cool, just find the direct file links below. paul's habitual errant ramblings (on Fr)idays pheridays: 3 2020-04-10: A week ago, I recorded a 5 minute audio segment of some stuff I've been thinking about, but when I started to write it up I stumbled into and kept dropping down a deep technostalgic hole. fall down along with me:…
My poem about a rainy 200k was published in the Fall 2019 issue of American Randonneur (a quarterly magazine published by Randonneurs USA ) I've been doing samizdat poetry for as long as I've had a web presence (since 1999), but I am now officially a published poet! (I am deliberately not counting the embarrasing hackjob that was published in a youth anthology when I was in 8th grade.) You can…
It's been six years since my first ride with The San Francisco Randonneurs and four years since my first 200k . I've ridden 18 rides that are at least that distance since then (3x 300k, 2x 400k, 1x 600k), completing my first Super Randonneur Series (2-, 3-, 4-, and 600k in one year) last year after not riding much the year before that. And this weekend I had my first DNF result on the Fort Bragg…
I'm back in Cleveland for another Pycon . Yesterday was my first full day here. Along with Matt Seale , I was a helper at Matthias Bussonnier tutorial (" IPython and Jupyter in Depth: High productivity, interactive Python ). The sticky system is efficient at signaling when someone in a classroom needs help, and a lot of folks don't know that this practice was popularized by Software Carpentry…
Two weeks ago, Project Jupyter had our only planned team meeting for 2018. There was too much stuff going on for me to write a poem during the event as I had in previous years ( 2016 , and 2017 ), so I ended up reading one of the pieces I wrote during my evening introvert breaks in Cleveland at PyCon a few weeks earlier. Once again, Fernando and Matthias had their gadgets ready to record (thank…
I'm helping with next year's SciPy conference , so here are the details: July 9-15, 2018 | Austin, Texas Tutorials : July 9 - 10 , 2018 Conference ( Talks and Posters ): July 11 - 13 , 2018 Sprints : July 14 - 15 , 2018 SciPy 2018, the 17th annual Scientific Computing with Python conference, will be held July 9-15, 2018 in Austin, Texas. The annual SciPy Conference brings together over 700…
After missing it for a couple of years, I am happy to be back in Austin, TX for SciPy this week! Always invigorating and exhilarating, Scientific Computing with Python (SciPy) has remained a top quality venue for getting together with fellow Pythonistas, especially the academically-bent variety. As a graduate student eight years ago, I was fortunate enough to be one of receive sponsorship and…
We had another biannual Jupyter team meeting this week, this time it was right nearby in Berkeley. Since I had read a poem at the last meeting , I was encouraged to keep that going and decided to make this a tradition. Here's the result, as delivered this past Friday, recorded by Fernando Pérez (thanks, Fernando!). June 1st, 2017 We struggle -- with ourselves and with each other we plan -- we code…
What's missing -- feels like there's something missing -- The capacity is there -- the job's not stressful but I somehow fail at the ignition stage - all this fuel just sitting around -- un-utilized potential How do I light that fire? Set it ablaze in a daze caught up in the haze of comfort I need to challenge myself, raising tides lift all boats, but they also drown livestock cows, horses, and…
Two weeks ago, I went down to San Luis Obispo, California for a five day Jupyter team meeting with about twenty five others. This was the first such meeting since my return after being away for two years , and I enjoyed meeting some of the "newer" faces, as well as catching up with old friends. It was both a productive and an emotionally challenging week, as the project proceeds along at breakneck…
I'm switching jobs. For the past two years I've been working with the great team at Disqus as a member of the backend and data teams. Before that, I spent a half-dozen years mostly not working on my thesis at UC Berkeley but instead contributing to to the scientific Python ecosystem, especially matplotlib , IPython , and the IPython notebook, which is now called Jupyter . So when Bloomberg reached…
Standing impatient, platform teeming, almost noon Robo voices read off final destinations But one commuter's already at his He reached for life's third rail There is no why in the abyss There's only closing credit hiss The soundtrack's gone, he didn't miss Reaching for life's third rail We ride on, now, relieved and moving forward Each our own lives roll forth, for now But now is gone, for one…
Yesterday, I rode my longest bike ride to date - the El Cerrito-Davis 200K - with the San Francisco Randonneurs . A big thank you to all the volunteers and randos who made my first 200k so much fun. First, for the uninitiated, an aside about randonneuring: I discovered the sport because I'm a cheapskate. I had gotten more and more into cycling over the past 2 years or so, and though I was riding…
I walk in monologue through Berkeley's Hills Feet pressing into sidewalk firmly I eat the pensive mood solitude brings And bite into the juiciness of self-reflection I write, first time in years, free verse impromptu Taking few dozen steps between each pair of lines I yearn, on tip-toes stretching high, to be expressive A mode of being longtime self-denied I'm walking home - from job I'll soon be…
I am starting to look for a job in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since many recruiters ask for and presumably look at GitHub profiles, I decided to give mine a little facelift: In case you aren't familiar, that banner was motivated by Joel Spolsky 's Smart and Gets Things Done , which is a book about hiring good developers . So I decided to tweet it out, mentioning @spolsky and he favorited it!…
** This post was written as an IPython Notebook. You can view it on nbviewer , or download it . ** Greg Wilson asked on the IPython mailing list: Subject: easiest way to insert a literal tab character in a code cell? Greg Wilson, on 2014-04-03 18:37, wrote: > Hi, > I'd like to put literal tab characters in cells, but of course tab means > "indent" to the editor. What's the easiest way to do this?…
the boldly indiscriminate python interpreter "...because you shouldn't have to choose." PROLOGUE Two interpreters, both alike in dignity, In fair Pythona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil code makes git commits unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A newer kind of stranger's given life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with its…
Summary: I describe stem plots, how to read them, and how to make them in Python, using 140 characters. My friend @JarrodMillman, whose office is across the hall, is teaching a computational statistics course that involves a fair amount programming. He's been grading these homeworks semi-automatically - with python scripts that pull the students' latest changes from GitHub, run some tests, spit…
Background: Text editing in the IPython Notebook is provided by an excellent JavaScript-based CodeMirror text editor. This might be more detail than you want, but I'm a vision scientist so I hope you'll indulge me. The cursor is meant to tell the user the current location. The human visual system has a pre-cortical lag of roughly 50-90 ms ( read more about P1 ). That's how long it takes from…
I'll be in Austin, TX for SciPy next week, and I'll be giving an updated talk about tools for reproducible research . What follows is the abstract of a talk that I really wanted to give and submitted to the general track which did not get in. I care deeply about this topic, and I'm hoping to have conversations with others about it. The talk was deferred to a poster, so if you don't bump into me at…
So, following up on my transition to pelican , here's a little help for navigating a pelican site. If you've ever wondered why sometimes there's a highlighted menu item at the top, and other times there isn't, read on. Categories With Pelican, every post belongs to exactly one category - that category is 'misc' if one is not provided (and you can override that named by setting DEFAULT_CATEGORY =…
Well, it's happened again, I've jumped (back) on the static blog engine bandwagon. Early versions of my site were generated literally using #define , #include , gcc , and a Makefile ...). Back then I was transitioning away from using livejournal , and decided to use WordPress so I wouldn't have to roll my own RSS feed generator. I tolerated WP for a while - and the frequency of my posts was so…
A page about cycling in the East Bay (and the San Francisco Bay Area in general). This started off as the sort of resource that I wish I had when visiting a new town: so hi there, out-of-towner, welcome to our corner of the world. Hope you enjoy your stay and find these resources helpful. Routes 20-40 km 50 km and beyond Centuries Routes to avoid Local Bike Shops Resources You need a bike, a water…
This is a pretty good book - though it's more of a set of short little blog posts combined into a book. It's nice to read the very opinionated thoughts of someone who's been dealing with bicycles for a very long time. The whole time I was reading this, I felt like this is the type of stuff that my pal Jon G would have said, and in a similar style to the way he would have said it. I look forward to…
Why do I keep a log? Read here . This log is terse, if you want longer descriptions of the rides, read my advice for cycling in the East Bay . 2018-06-17 Bay Trail to Mountain View I <3 the Bay Trail - especially the gravel portions which Jon had introduced me to almost two years ago (2016-08-07). Had a coffee and waffle at Blue Bottle in Jack London Square near the beginning, and took an eggs…
John Hunter, the author of matplotlib , passed away on August 28th, 2012 . He will be dearly missed. Please donate to the John Hunter Memorial Fund . A giant in our community, John lead by example and gave us all so much. This is one small way we can give back to his family. what follows are excerpts from my paper journal over the past week: John Hunter passed away this morning, Oh my god. John…
pheriday 2: termcasting overview (2012-08-03) from Paul Ivanov on Vimeo . paul's habitual errant ramblings (on Fr)idays (2012-08-03) show notes: http://pirsquared.org/blog/2012/08/04/termcasting/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/ivanov/pheridays/2012-08-03 (yes, gopher!) try to not say "uuuuhhhhmmnn" BAM/PFA Summer Cinema on Center Street http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/summercinema SciPy 2012…
Here's pheriday 1, another edition of p aul's h abitual e rrant r amblings (on Fr) idays pheriday 1: software carpentry, digital artifacts, visiting other OSes (2012-07-27) from Paul Ivanov on Vimeo . 2012-07-27.mp4 (28 MB) 2012-07-27.avi (71 MB) 2012-07-27.ogv (321 MB) show notes I had three topics I wanted to cover today, and ended up spending about an hour thinking about what I was going to say…
Hey everyone, here's pheriday 0, the first of p aul's h abitual e rrant r amblings (on Fr) idays pheriday 0: scientist-hacker howto (2012-07-20) from Paul Ivanov on Vimeo . Berkeley Kite Festival (510 Families) Merlin Mann's Most Days (specifically the travel day one on 2009-01-11 ) Sad that I missed SciPy Conference this year . One of the things I like doing at scipy is nerding it up with my…
In case you didn't know it - today is Ada Lovelace Day! Now, as any self-respecting Computer Science degree-wielding person should, I, too, think it's important to celebrate the day named after the world's very first programmer. For me, the first math teacher I remember making a big difference was Shirley Theis - who taught me Algebra in 8th grade at McKinley Middle School in Redwood City, CA. Mrs…
I'm very pleased to share with you a demo the forthcoming vim-ipython integration which will work with IPython 0.11(trunk). You can either use the Flash player below, or download the OggVorbis file (14MB) update: vim-ipython 'shell' demo (9.6MB) . The blog-free form of this post is here . If you like what you see and want to try it, you can get the details from the vim-ipython github page and it…
Since tomorrow we'll be having another one of those practice democracy drills here in California, I thought I'd put together a few bar charts. There are five propositions on tomorrow's ballot. In researching them, Lena came across the Cal-Access Campaign Finance Activity: Propositions & Ballot Measures . Unfortunately, for each proposition, you have to click through each committee to get the…
So I probably don't need to tell you this since you already know, but Arizona sucks! It turns out that even documented immigrants agree, and I have the graphs to prove it! You see, it all started when I took a great Visualization course this past term which was taught by Maneesh Agrawala. Maneesh gave enough structure for the assignments, but also left some aspect of each open ended. For example,…
So I finally got around to quitting facebook. I came to the HackerDojo tonight, and Waleed was working on sending out notifications for users of his app, because Facebook is disabling notifications as of March 1st. Notifications was the way I was planning to announce my departure, because the "app" I created for that purpose would still be around after I deleted my account. But I was only able to…
One of the reasons I find it so difficult to get more than a couple of entries in per year, is that I know they aren't going anywhere after I post them. They're sticking around for a while, and if they're full of trivial crap then that doesn't reflect very well on me. Posting about trivial stuff was ok when I was still trying to establish a sense of identity. These days, when I write something…
My labmate Tim sent me an email on Wednesday (April 15th) saying that Amy Goodman " Democracy Now! fame, and my heroin" [ sic ] was speaking on campus at noon. The place was packed, and it's the best way I could have imagined to snap back out of the Qualifying Exam bubble I've spent the last several months in, and re-engage with the world at large. One of the excuses for the tour is the paperback…
Let me ask you a question: Do you think that the two-party system is good for the United States? I find it very difficult to engage in debates about national politics because the average citizen has so little influence over these matters. I think that it's much more worthwhile to get informed about and involved in local politics, because that's where someone like me can actually have influence.…
I want to thank Curt Siffert for granting me permission to use his song "All Aboard (v2)" which you can download (for free) here . This is the first video ((yes, okay, it's more of a slideshow with an intro, but my brother Mike told me that Ken Burns would be proud)) I've ever made, but I've wanted to make films for as long as I've been writing ((creatively, which would be 1999 - warning: link…
I'm about to give this Lightning Talk at SHDH20 .
Here's David Weinberger talking about Everything is Miscellaneous (the book I reviewed here and many others did here ). The hour-long talk stands on its own and covers much of the book, though I don't recommend watching it if you're planning to read the book. I went to Linux World Expo today and played with one of these upcoming One-Laptop-Per-Child project's XO-1 laptops at the Creative Commons…
From my paper journal: 23:37 May 10th, 2007 Thursday So what good is all of this if we don't engage one another - on a very real level? "Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes," man - so let's get off the condescending trips and the polarizing anti-discourse. Let's use our full range - zero, one, two, five, seven, eight, ten, etc and not just on or off - there's an infinitude of wonder in between and…
I just finished reading ((In three evening sittings at Moe's Books)) David Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous and I find it to be a pretty engaging description of how the state of knowledge evolved with time, and now it has given me a chance to write down some thoughts. The basic gist of the book is that knowledge is no longer tied to the physical (e.g. books), which used to limit how one…
So I finally bit the bullet and put up my own blog. It was just one of those wait and see things for a while, but now I find myself reading most things via rss feeds, so I really had no excuse not to move on from my livejournal . I was afraid of abandoning my lj-friends - but Yuan found a happy medium with cross-posting back to her lj (though now that she has an rss feed I read her entries first…