January 2011 archive

Jan 18

Running (on a treadmill) with Node.js

What I didn’t say in my last post about the NodeTuts video tutorials was how I have been watching the episodes. Yes, indeed, I’ve been watching them while running or walking on our treadmil… this morning I ran 4 miles and went through two of the Node Tuts episodes (11 and 12):

nodejsontreadmill.jpg

As you can see, I just place the iPad in the tray of the treadmill[1] and then have a 1/8″ audio cable going from the iPad audio output to the audio jack on the treadmill which then sends the audio out the treadmill’s speakers. It’s an okay setup, although the iPad screen is off-center and down a bit. You don’t see it in a picture, but we have a 27″ flat panel TV to the left of the treadmill. I may at some point get the VGA connector for my iPad which would let me then output the video to that TV and gain the use of its speakers as well as the larger screen. But so far it’s working well.

Fun, fun, fun…

[1] The treadmill is a new NordicTrack c900 for those wondering.

Jan 16

Node Tuts – a video podcast tutorial on learning Node.js

In my continued interest to learn more about Node.js, I was recently pointed to an enjoyable set of video podcasts called “Node Tuts” and available at:

http://nodetuts.com

In each episode, host Pedro Teixeira walks you through how to perform some task using Node.js. He uses a combination of the command line, TextMate (to view the code) and his web browser. I have only started working through the series, but so far I have already picked up a few tips and learned about a few new modules to check out.

These episodes are recordings of Pedro hacking away and do include mistakes he makes (and corrects). This actually was okay because it helped me check my own knowledge. There was one show where I thought “he didn’t declare that module” and sure enough he had to go back and correct that. The rawness of the recording, though, was helpful in understanding how you could debug code in Node.js.

I do also like that each episode builds on the previous one (so far). It provides a useful way to expand your knowledge based on what you just learned.

As I mentioned, I am only starting to work through the recordings, but so far I have found them quite helpful!

Jan 15

Git Immersion – A New Tutorial Site About Git

Git Immersion - Brought to you by EdgeCase.jpgWant to learn more about the Git version control system? I recently was pointed to a new site called Git Immersion that provides some great, simple, step-by-step tutorials to get you started with using git. I love the premise:

Git Immersion is a guided tour that walks through the fundamentals of Git, inspired by the premise that to know a thing is to do it.

For those of you wanting to learn more about git, Git Immersion s definitely worth a walkthrough…

Jan 05

Setting Up a PyPI Account – And Uploading the Tropo WebAPI Library

Python logoIt’s funny… I’ve been writing small python programs for 10 or 15 years now (makefaq being perhaps the one most widely used), but in all that time, I had never set myself up with a PyPI account. PyPI, for those not in the python world, is the “Python Package Index” which lists all the uploaded packages and makes them easy to install onto systems. It’s sort of the python version of Perl’s CPAN, PHP’s PEAR or Ruby’s gems.

However, as I wrote about over on the Tropo blog, thanks to a developer suggesting we upload the Tropo WebAPI library to PyPI, I now finally have a PyPI account. My first (and currently only) submission is naturally:

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/tropo-webapi-python/0.1.0

Now that I’ve done that, I may take some of my other modules and upload them as well.

The cool part about this is that developers can now very easily install the Tropo WebAPI library and use it with their free Tropo account to start creating apps that use voice, SMS, IM, or Twitter for real-time communications (or near real-time, anyway). All they have to do is use one of these commands:

easy_install tropo-webapi-python


pip install tropo-webapi-python

depending upon whether they prefer easy_install or pip to install packages.

Cool stuff... and I'm glad I'm finally on the PyPI train! :-)