2400 miles later (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by michaelb

It has been a busy last couple of months for me with a cross country move and a new job.

I drove across the country (the third such road trip this year) from Frankfort, KY to Alameda, CA to move in with girlfriend, Bay Area photographer Lane Hartwell. Who I’ve had a wonderful summer with driving twice together cross-country, including driving through parts of Route 66. Driving 2400 plus miles with two cats was a test in patience requiring a stop every four or so hours to give both the cats and me a break.

The new job is working as the systems administrator with Crowd Science at their new office in Mountain View ( I do get to telecommute too). It is a great opportunity with plenty of technical challenges to sort out and I’m getting to work with some really sharp people who genuinely believe in their product and work. Like making real changes in the way online research is done. If you are an online publisher and looking for an audience analytics service take a look at Crowd Science Demographics.

The new job included a new MacBook Pro maxed out on memory which makes running some Solaris VMs in Fusion a breeze for testing. Being a Python shop this is letting me get up to speed on it and Django. I’ve always had the opinion of eating your own dog food so I’m planning to build a site using BluePrintCSS as I have it laid out here as a template and migrate over to Django here very soon.

Elisa [ma.gnolia] (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by MichaelBiven

Saved By: Michael Biven | View Details | Give Thanks

Tags: Elisa, python, video, media, htpc, fluendo, audio

Python, refined rollDie() (RawCode) by RawCode

Thanks to luthe over at the Arstehnica forums and Collin for their input.

I have fixed the following items:

#!C:/python25/
#filename:rollDie.py
#Version 0.6 - Improved error checking of sides, a improved retry loop and formatting operators!

import random

def rollDie():
    #DocString
    '''\nUses a random number generator to guess a user specified number.

     Uses two user defined integers (one to define the set, and one as a target number) and then tries to guess at random using random.randrange.\n'''

    #rollDie intro
    print 'Welcome to the Lucky Number Program!\n'
    run = True

    while run == True:
        #query for sides and error check
        sidesCheck = False
        while sidesCheck == False:
            sides = int(raw_input('Enter the number of sides for the dice:'))
            if sides >= 2:
                sidesCheck = True
            else:
                print 'Impossible to roll a die with %s sides!' % (sides, )

        #query for luckyNumber and error check
        luckyNumberCheck = False
        while luckyNumberCheck == False:
            luckyNumber = int(raw_input('Enter your Lucky number:'))
            if (0 < luckyNumber <= sides):
                luckyNumberCheck = True
            else:
               print 'You will never roll %s with a %s sided die!\n' % (luckyNumber, sides, )

        #Input is valid, now to guess it at random
        value = random.randrange(sides) +1
        count = 1
        while value != luckyNumber:
            print value
            value = random.randrange(sides) +1
            count += 1
        print 'Finally got the number %s! It only took %s guesses!' % (luckyNumber, count, )

        #We guessed the lucky number, query for retry
        retryLoop = True
        while retryLoop == True:
            tryAgain = str (raw_input('Want to try again? Type yes,no or explain\n'))
            if tryAgain == 'yes':
                retryLoop = False
            elif tryAgain == 'no':
                print 'Ok we are done!'
                retryLoop = False
                run = False
            elif tryAgain == 'explain':
                print rollDie.__doc__
###########################################################################

rollDie()

Python functions and modules (edit: now with more input checking and comments) (RawCode) by RawCode

I am progressing (albeit slowly) in python, but I seem to have a decent grasp on functions.

In this sample rolldie function, I had an issue with random.randrange. If I specified a range of 6, it would roll 0-5 which is fine. Initially I mistakenly tried to correct for this by adjusting the input provided to random.randrange. A much better solution was to adjust the output of the random.randrange function by doing random.randrange +1.

It was a simple problem with a very simple solution, but it is an important lesson:

If a function is not giving you the output you desire; adjust the function, not the input.

(cue “The More You know” music)

#!C:/python25/
#filename:rollDie.py
#Version 0.5 - Improved error checking of luckyNumber and added comments

import random

def rollDie():
    #DocString
    '''\nUses a random number generator to guess a user specified number.

     Uses two user defined integers (one to define the set, and one as a target number) and then tries to guess at random using random.randrange.\n'''

#rollDie intro
print 'Welcome to the Lucky Number Program!\n'
run = True

while run == True:
    #query for user input and setup variables
    sides = int(raw_input('Enter the number of sides for the dice:'))
    luckyNumber = int(raw_input('Enter your Lucky number:'))
    count = 1
    value = random.randrange(sides) +1

    #Error checking the luckyNumber variable
    while luckyNumber <= 0:
        print 'Impossible to roll', luckyNumber,'!'
        luckyNumber = int(raw_input('Enter your Lucky number:'))
    while luckyNumber > sides:
        print ‘You will never roll’, luckyNumber, ‘with only’, sides, ’sides!\n’
        luckyNumber = int(raw_input(’Enter your Lucky number:’))

    #OK luckyNumber is good, now to guess it at random
    while value != luckyNumber:
        print value
        value = random.randrange(sides) +1
        count += 1
    print ‘Finally got the number ‘, luckyNumber, ‘! It only took’, count, ‘Guesses!’

    #We guessed the lucky number, query for retry
    tryAgain = str (raw_input(’Want to try again? Type yes,no or explain\n’))
    while tryAgain == ‘explain’:
        print rollDie.__doc__
        tryAgain = str (raw_input(’Want to try again? Type yes,no or explain\n’))
    if tryAgain == ‘no’:
        print ‘Ok we are done!’
        run = False
    elif tryAgain == ‘yes’:
        pass
###########################################################################

rollDie()

Python (RawCode) by RawCode

Well instead of playing with LFS, I have started toying around with Python, and so far I am loving the readability and ease of use. Here is the very basic program I wrote that calculates the perimeter and area of a user defined square. This is only after about 6 hours of reading and playing around so I think I am doing pretty good:

#!/usr/var/python
#filename: flow_control

debug = 0
repeat = 'yes'

print 'This application calculates the perimeter and area of a user defined square.'

if debug == 1:
    print '**begin user data collection function** \n'

while repeat == 'yes':
    width = float (raw_input('\nEnter the measured width: '))
    length = float (raw_input('Enter the measured length: '))

    if debug == 1:
        print '**Begin caculation function** \n'

    perimeter = 2 * (width + length)
    area = (length * width)

    if debug == 1:
        print '**Begin display of calculated measurements** \n'

    print '\nI have calculated the perimeter as:', perimeter
    print 'I have calculated the area as:', area

    repeat = str (raw_input('\nDo you want to try again? Type yes or no. \n'))

else:
        print 'Ok, we are done here. Thanks!'