Richard Jones' Log

Don't

app.REQUEST = DummyRequest()
.... do stuff, but forget to remove REQUEST ....
get_transaction().commit()

ever again.

Fortunately, truncating the Data.fs fixed the problem.

Wow, there's over 100 entrants (that's teams and individuals.) Voting for the theme has started, but there's still time to sign up if you're still interested!

Scanning through the Daily Python-URL just now, I noticed that all the package-release links are to freshmeat. None are to PyPI. What's also interesting is that the set of packages noted on the Python-URL list is not the same as the set recently annouced on PyPI. Hurm.

Just a sampling of what I've read in the last few weeks:

• Orb issue 6. A collection of Australian short speculative fiction. Some pretty cool stuff in there, some so-so. Dance schools were already weird enough, thankyou :)
• Marvel 1602 -- Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove. A very cool adaptation of the characters from Marvel's super-hero universe, transposing them into England in 1602.
• Ministry Of Space -- Warren Ellis, Chris Weston, Laura Martin. What if the Brits had gotten to space first? What needed to happen for Dan Dare to be real?
• Assassin's Apprentice -- Robin Hobb. Dark and interesting fantasy story. Starts out a bit awkward, but builds up steam and is ultimately quite satisfying in the end.

Currently I'm reading The Algebraist and Marvels, with the first trade issue of Alias sitting off to the side. And another compilation of Aussie speculative fiction. And then there's a bunch of other books on the shelves that are on my list to read...

What's quite cool is that 1602 and Marvels both came from the local library. Both are hard-cover and 1602 in particular is printed on beautiful paper which really shows off the artwork. I really hope this doesn't happen to our libraries.

For the curious, I've written a short history of the development of de_lab. It's not particularly detailed, but includes some development artwork :)

Fate has a solid lineage of Diablo and Roguelike games, with some interesting ideas of its own. I can see it'll be a great game for just jumping into casually. Or wasting hours on ;)

I've had to update the de_lab release due to a couple of problems with the map as released. Turns out my custom glass material wasn't included automatically as I assumed it would be, so people saw white lines instead of frosted glass. Also, there were some warning messages in the console that I'd missed which I've cleaned up now.

For the last month or so, I've been tooling around with creating maps for the Counter-Strike: Source mod for Half-Life 2. I enjoy playing the game a lot*, and figure creating a map couldn't be too hard.

Designing a map, that's easy. Creating the initial version, that's easy (really, it took me about an hour of planning and then an hour to create the structure and be testing it with bots). Putting in all the bells and whistles (props, sounds, bot nav hints, 3d skyboxes, ...) that's a lot of work.

But I made it! Yay me :)

*: I've found a good server with nice people on it who don't put up with the antisocial behaviour that's prevalent on most servers. That changes the whole online gaming experience.

The Python Cheese Shop!

Big thanks to everyone who helped get this thing going, including AMK for his help this morning getting the finishing touches made.

Please help spread the word.

Update: Interesting, the slashdot announcement didn't make the front page. After all this time with people asking where Python's CPAN is... ho hum. The post did generate this nice spoof by TripMaster Monkey:

Customer: Now, then, some packages, my good man.
Owner: Certainly, sir! What would you like?
Customer: How about some nice bitbake?
Owner: I'm afraid we're fresh out of bitbake, sir.

Customer: No matter...have you any testoob?
Owner: Not...as...such, sir.
Customer: Well then, perhaps some SiGL?
Owner: Normally, yes, sir. Hard drive broke down.
Customer: I see...do you in fact have any packages?
Owner: Certainly, sir! This is The Cheese Shop, sir! We have -
Customer: No no no...don't tell me, I'm keen to guess...