Rest In Peace: John Hunter, matplotlib author, father has passed away.

I was extremely sad in hearing about this this morning - John Hunter, author of matplotlib and tireless open source/Python community contributor has passed away after an intense and short battle with cancer. He is survived by wife and three daughters.

Many of us - both professionally and personally have benefited from John's work in the open source and Python community. Just a few weeks ago he delivered a keynote at the SciPy 2012 conference, shortly upon his return from that he was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and passed away from treatment complications.

It is, in fact, a sad day for all of us in the community - but most of all, a terrible day for his family. 

Fernando Perez has posted a heartfelt and detailed post on John and his contributions - Gael Varoquaux has also posted a moving statement on John's contributions, quoting:

A man who gave a lot, not asking for anything in return

And:

Many have benefited from the silent efforts of John, and are not fully aware of how he generously invested his time and talent for the benefit of others. Matplotlib, the Python plotting library that he created in 2002, has propelled Python as a major tool for scientific research and engineering. The impact of John’s efforts go well beyond Matplotlib.

And quoting Travis Oliphant from the memorial webpage:

Those who contribute much to open source, as John did, do so at the expense of something - often it is time with family.

I can not add anything beyond that this is a terribly sad day for many. 

Please consider donating to his memorial fund put together by the Numfocus group - All donations will be sent to a fund that will be established for the care and education of Clara, Ava, and Rahel. I encourage companies who have benefited from his works to do the same.

As a parent, and a Python programmer, I have no words except to pass my condolences on to his family and friends. I was never lucky enough to meet John except through his works, but I consider him a friend nonetheless.

Python.org Redesign Proposals: Due in 7 days.

I hope you didn't miss all the posts, but if you did, the Python Software Foundation opened a Request For Proposals for the complete overhaul and redesign of Python.org a little while ago. The deadline for proposals is July 21st 11:59pm - that means you have 7 days left to submit proposals/bids.

If your team/organization is planning on submitting a proposal; and might need a little time, it would be good to let the us know that ASAP - you can send email to jnoller@python.org or the team at psf-redesign@python.org.

PSF Grants, and some additional color

Doug Hellmann and Mike Driscoll put up an excellent post on the Python Software Foundation blog about most of the grant-type work that the foundation performed over the 2011 year. To add some color to it - reviews and discussions about grants and awarding this comprises quite a bit of the board-level work that goes on (excluding individual committees).

You can see from the post quite a bit of the capital spent goes to support other conferences - as I've stated before, money that comes into the foundation in the forms of donations and PyCon "revenue" goes back into the system to be issued out to things like this.

This is why I am so hot to encourage grants around Porting to Python 3 - I think that the PSF can, in the next year, increase grant work for conference and outreach as well as developer work (such as porting libraries and other projects). None of these things should be solely focused on CPython alone - PyPy, Jython, etc should all be recipients of grants.

And therein lies the rub.

The PSF does not "go looking" for places to issue grants - the PyPy grant at PyCon 2011 was a bit of an aberration in that I proposed it to the board directly.

We need applications from the community! We can do things such as cover meetup fees for user groups, or help fund conferences, or development work. Jessica McKellar, I and others recently revamped the PSF grants page to hopefully provide a better outline of how grants work.

If you have more questions - feel free to ask me here or via email - the PSF's mission is happily broad, and we're here to serve and represent the community as best we can. But we do need to hear from you!

2011 In Review: The Python Portion

As I said in my post this morning - "2011 in Review: The Personal Portion" - it's that time where we're all taking stock and reflecting back on 2011.

In this post's case, I'm taking stock of the things that changed for me - things that stick out in my mind and projects I've either started, floundered or run completely into ground.

Design and Experience Matter

Perhaps the biggest shift for me in Python-as-a-whole is a movement more towards the social / management aspects. I'm a Python Software Foundation board member, so obviously me needing to take a "bigger view" isn't that surprising. What has been surprising to me is that everywhere I turn, I see things we as a whole can do better.

Now, before you think I'm about to go off the deep end; let me assure you - I wouldn't trade the community I'm lucky to be part of for anything, as I've said more eloquently before. However, only a fool believes that anything is perfect, and only the insane only focus on the flaws.

Taking a step back, I've seen more and more things that I think we can do a better job at, and these realizations all revolve around my continued "transition" from more back-end to more front-end design and coding. As I've become more focused on the users/community and those who are new, I've grown to internalize the fact that design and experience matter not only in code, and in a GUI, but they matter to a community and language as a whole.

I've spent the better part of this past year focused on issues around this - encouraging people to get involved in the "softer" side of things - helping out with documentation, mentorship and education, trying to get people to think more about one another and those just getting started and introduced to things.

I think that we as a community - and I mean everyone - from Django to Plone, from Twisted to Tornado, from PyPy to cPython can take a look at the "more human" aspects and find things to improve. Sometimes it requires fresh eyes to show you what's broken - people who do code reviews regularly know this.

For an example, look at Kenneth Reitz' Requests module - billed as "HTTP for Humans" - this might be a perfect example of the point I'm trying to get across. Built on top of "less friendly" libraries, it's API is a joy to use. It's simple, it's clear - the documentation is well done and the entire project feels very welcoming. Perhaps "Welcoming" is the best word for what I'm looking for.

I get stuck in wanting to fix "all the things" - and I can't help but get mired down in the details of how we make everything more welcoming and the experience better, how do we lower the barrier and reduce friction. The result is that I've broken my promises to myself and taken on more things than I can possibly hope to do justice.

How do we make things more welcoming, how do we help the new people, how do we help those of us growing stuck in our ways to find and explore new things? How can we do this as a community to lift us all up? What I think we need is a series of small, positive changes. Little things like, say:

• User friendly READMEs and Documentation. Yes - I said friendly - don't assume your users are magical super smart engineers and users. While the article is more web focused, I enjoyed "The Myth of the Sophisticated User" - please don't assume people are running bleeding edge version of everything, and please don't assume everyone knows 20 years of Python package development.
• Mentorship! Set up something within your project or team that is focused on mentoring people to a point where that person is comfortable to be a contributor.
• Stop the vitriol. If you find yourself angry when you're typing that reply to a mailing list; walk away. If you see others being hostile or just flat out rude, call them out on it (privately first, no reason to be a jerk). Aim to be polite and welcoming.
• The next time you're putting something up on the web? Take a moment to think about or learn about making something - yes - pretty and usable. Even if it's something simple, take a moment to realize that you're building something that may be your future user's first experience with you. It may be as simple as picking up "Design for Hackers" (which I quite liked) or just going with something with sane defaults - like twitter bootstrap.
• Speaking of sane defaults - please be opinionated. When a new user wants to install something, don't give them the complete history of packaging, just gently explain to them how to do it. Even if I don't agree with the way you do that, it's a far cry from 20 years of development history being dumped on someone when a simple pip install <blah> could work. The same goes for your software: Pick sane, rational defaults and abstract away as much as you can. Put examples of usage before the API in documentation.
• APIs and syntax matter: your communications channels to your users are APIs and syntax just as much as your actual code and libraries.

Moving on - I hate to say it this way; but think of the Users and target audience. Remember, you - the person reading this - and I - are in a tiny minority of the population where software (for the most part) isn't magic, we understand history and we're very tolerant of unfriendly things and failures because that's how we "grew up".

Not everyone knows how to build an interpreter; or a web framework - it doesn't mean they still can't contribute.

The Python Software Foundation

As most of you know - I am one of the directors of the Python Software Foundation, and have been the past two years. 2011 was another year where the PSF got to do some pretty cool things. I've been stressing and pushing more and more that the PSF has to be focused not just on the "IP" of Python, or just on cPython development - we have to take a larger view of the entire community - this means encouraging projects such as PyPy, outreach workshops, conferences, etc via grants and support.

You should really take a look at the Python Software Foundation's blog - Doug Hellmann, Brian Curtin and others have done their best to document and showcase what the PSF has been up to, and where we're trying to help.

My primary focus has been encouraging things such as the Outreach and Education committee, and working behind the scenes with a lot of people to improve the Python.org infrastructure. More recently I've been working on a project which should hopefully become public soon - but is tied to my first point about Design and Experience and the PSF.

I want the PSF to grow in the good works it performs - more grants as we can afford it, getting better hosting for things as needed, helping out projects like Read The Docs or helping push forward Python 3. The PSF is the Python Software Foundation - we need and should be supporting and helping everything from PyPy to PyPI, cPython to Scipy.

I think the best way for me to help here is to pick up where I left off documenting the PSF. Once again - the design and interface matter.

The Sprints Committee

As part of my board work back in 2010 I helped start the Python Sprints project - and under Brian Curtin's guidance in 2011, it has continued to make small donations in places it matters. In 2012, I'd like to see if I can spin back around and help it grow more and flourish, perhaps even be able to provide more money where it's needed. It's growth has been slow - but that's also due to us seeing less sprints overall it seems.

GetPython3.com

Started as a side project (yes. another one. sigh.) Get Python 3 is meant to serve as a pile of information and resources about Python 3 - and as many of the aspects of Python 3 as possible. Where to get funding, how to port, what is ported. I've actually gotten some excellent help from others (see github) and I'm hoping to grow it more. I've gotten pretty good feedback on it - and I never turn down a patch!

Python (Core) Mentorship

Driven from my experience with the first point about being welcoming, I've done my best to spin up the Python Core Mentorship group, a team / list focused on mentoring new people into contributing to core Python. To quote the home page:

The mission of the Python Core Mentor Program is to provide an open and welcoming place to connect students, programmers – and anyone interested in contributing to the Python Core development. This project is based on the idea that the best way to welcome new people into any project is a venue which connects them to a variety of mentors who can assist in guiding them through the contribution process, including discussions on lists such as python-dev, and python-ideas, the bug tracker, mercurial questions, code reviews, etc.

While traffic is low, I think it has done it's job - as with everything else on my list, I'd like to see growth - as it is, due to everything else on my plate, others have stepped up to help lead and guide the group. As it is, I've run into a case where as I've found with many other projects like this - people are already "tapped out" - myself included. More on resource contention later - and I should really do a poll and gauge the list for the relative level of success they feel the group has engendered.

Python Speed Project

Another side-burner project is the Speed.python.org project - this one makes me sad(der) than my other time-starved projects. While we have finally been able to set it up as a PyPy build slave and have it feeding results to speed.pypy.org (see the speed-python results), it has not taken off as much as I hoped. We have a beast of a machine (see my initial announcement) - but we've hit the resource wall like everything else. Not enough people with enough time and the right skills.

The Elephant in the room: PyCon 2012

My single biggest project this year has been getting PyCon 2012 ready to fly - everything from getting the new website launched, the staff assembled, writing a code of conduct, and providing white-glove service and support (and getting) our amazing list of sponsors.

I can't really estimate how many hours I've "worked" on Python - but I can tell you every hour has been worth it. Even though it's sucked my time from other things and projects, it looks like it's going to be an amazing conference. We have robots, we have amazing talks, amazing keynote and plenary speakers (Paul Graham and Stormy Peters for starters). We have awesome tutorials and even more to come.

PyCon represents the single biggest "community act" that the Python Software Foundation performs - not only does the PSF fund PyCon, but it manages it, assumes the risk, etc. I wrote about it in detail in my post "Making the Case for Sponsorship" and in the "Everybody Pays" post. I'm hoping to continue to write up more and more of the details of the inner workings of PyCon, as I think it's an important series of data points and lessons. Remember - any funds "left" from PyCon go the PSF which allow the foundation to issue grants to other conferences, to developers, groups and workshops. It helps us help you.

PyCon 2012 is the thing I am most proud of; we have 80 sponsors and partners (Such as OpenHatch and PyLadies), we have a solid team of organizers working together to bring PyCon 2012 to fruition. We have a robust financial aid program as is tradition. I can only hope that I have the tenacity and will to see it come together and be able to look at a sea of 1500 Pythonistas - new and old in Santa Clara.

ps: You can register here. :)

Blood from a Stone

How do you get more time from people who are busy? Time and Time again, I've found myself asking that question. Each one of the projects I've listed has hit the same issue over and over again. How do you get the volunteers necessary to help? Heck, even my call for help with multiprocessing in August fell on a mostly flat note - probably due to me.

I no longer feel "ok" asking for help with new projects simply due to the fact that I know everyone is busy - it's insane of me to ask people to take their time away from their projects or families or jobs.

What that means however is that I have completely failed in the not-taking-on-new-things department - and I don't see this changing much without me flat out learning to tell myself "no". I believe in this community - I believe in the people, the friends I have, the language and everything involved. It's not just another tool for me; it never has been. I'm still learning, and mostly failing (or flailing, depends on where I'm standing).

Finishing this one off

Looking at the list I've typed out above, I suddenly have the feeling that I didn't actually do much last year, I know thats wrong (a nasty look from my family members would easily remind me of that). I have been able to help out where I can making things more friendly, more welcoming and to reach out when and where I can to offer help, and support.

I've watched the community change in some dramatic ways, I've looked on as PyPy has gained amazing momentum, more and more vendors and companies have come out with Python support and stating that they're using Python (and are hiring). I've gotten to work with PSF members, the board, and many, many others - all I can do is keep at it, and hope I do things justice.

Quick example of extending UserCreationForm in Django

I just banged my head against this, and with no good answers floating around out there, I thought I'd share. In my case, I just wanted to extend the basic django.contrib.auth.forms.UserCreationForm in order to make it so when a user was added, an email address had to be supplied in addition to the username and password fields.

Here is a working example (forms.py) - just so I don't forget it:

from django import forms
from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm

class UserCreateForm(UserCreationForm):
    email = forms.EmailField(required=True)

    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ("username", "email", "password1", "password2")

    def save(self, commit=True):
        user = super(UserCreateForm, self).save(commit=False)
        user.email = self.cleaned_data["email"]
        if commit:
            user.save()
        return user

You have to modify the save method on the form to add the email to user object returned by the super call. You can use this to expose other fields on the User object as needed.

Porting to Python 3: An offer for you.

Recent posts and discussions around porting of existing libraries and frameworks to Python 3 have been pretty interesting. I think that there have been a lot of good points brought up in the discussion (See: Armin's Post (and followup), Nick's entry on Python 3 and Nick's email to Python-Ideas).

On a personal level; I've felt frustrated that there's not much that I can do myself - I do believe that 2.7 is the proper end of the road of Python 2, and I do think that Python 3 is the future of the language. Does that mean Python 3 is perfect? Oh hell no. Does it mean that we can do work to make Python 3 the "Python 3" we all want and need?

Yes it does.

So; while there is nothing I can do directly other than continue to work on the site I've been slowly building - GetPython3.com with help from the community - there is an aspect I can help with from a Python Software Foundation / Grants level. That means money (well, not unlimited).

As some of you might know - the PSF has actually issued grants to developers who have applied to port important libraries to Python 3 - as I say on the GetPython3 page:

In short: yes - there's a bevy of information, videos and blog posts out there that can help you on your way. Python 3 is the future of the Python language, and entities such as the Python Software Foundation strongly believe in supporting the porting effort.

For example, the Python Software Foundation has issued developer grants to port projects such as the email package, PyOpenSSL, and WebOb. It has also provided developer grants for other general Python development work, such as to Brett Cannon that allowed him to completely revamp the Python developer's guide.

The Python Software Foundation is here for not just CPython, or python-core, or python-the-language. It is here for Python - the community, it's efforts, its developers, designers and people.

Certain projects - most notably PyPy - have already started donation programs to help fund large-scale development efforts to Python 3. Others may soon follow.

Additionally to the grants-to-developers aspect - the PSF Sprints project has been issuing grants for Python sprints in general, which means you can apply / ask for a grant for a port-to-python3 workshop or sprint any time!

But; back to where I was going...

My offer to you, the community is this - I can not guarantee you will get a grant, or funding - but what I can do, and what is within my power as a fellow member and PSF Director is offer to help write, and review applications to the PSF Board of directors for grant applications.

That's right - I will assist you in writing an application that will be submitted to the PSF Board for approval, for grants aimed at porting libraries or frameworks to Python 3; or doing specific documentation / core work for Python 3. I can help you write it; provide templates, discuss it with you (I may have some elves help me) and ultimately help you put it in front of the board for approval.

Obviously; the PSF does not have unlimited funds; nor can it spend funds irrationally. Python 3 is important however - critically so - and while we can not fund everything, we can do what we can. I am aiming at libraries/frameworks which are in widespread use (e.g. notable) and that other projects/libraries/frameworks depend on heavily (for example, see the Py3k poll).

Before getting started, you should read the basic PSF Grant guidelines and you should look through the information on http://getpython3.com/.

If you are interested in this; drop an email to jnoller@python.org - I don't promise immediate up-to-the-second turn around - I've obviously got a lot on my plate right now, but I will do my best to help.

PyCon 2012 Sponsorship - Making the case for sponsorship.

PyCon 2012 already has a record-breaking 52 sponsors! I can not thank every one of them enough (but I will give my thanks again at the end of this post individually), and we are always looking for more sponsors to join the ones we have.

I wanted to take a moment to explain what makes sponsorship good for the community, and a sound investment for sponsors new and old, prospective and future.

This year, as chair, I've taken it upon myself to push and manage PyCon sponsorship (corporate, non profit, media, etc) for a variety of reasons. First, as someone who has been a sponsor in the past (and present) and as someone who spends a lot of time "selling" the Python Software Foundation, and the community to others - I feel very closely tied to PyCon and sponsorship.

Not to mention - corporate sponsorship is what allows us to keep this probably one of the least expensive international technical conferences you could possibly attend this upcoming year. Without sponsorship - and the array of sponsors we have right now for PyCon 2012, the conference could simply not happen at the size it has reached, or have a robust financial aid program, keep tickets and tutorials cheap, etc. We have, once again intentionally capped attendance at a level to allow for this, and to help keep PyCon's community feel and closeness.

Running a conference is, frankly, a dangerous game. As I noted in my blog post several months ago discussing some of the financial workings of PyCon and its financial philosophy. It is very easy to lose a lot of money, very quickly. PyCon is held / financed / backed by the Python Software Foundation. This means lack of sponsorship, low attendance, etc could - with a simple misstep - bankrupt the foundation. Sponsorship helps shore up the gamble you make signing contracts on catering, room bookings, rental of the space where the conference is held, audio/video costs, etc. Although, if you make a big enough mistake - nothing will prevent things from going south. This means careful planning, budgeting and negotiation.

Also, while PyCon has always been, and will continue to be a community focused and therefore, low cost and inclusive conference, not really focused on profiting from attendees, any revenue that comes out of PyCon (profit, if you will) goes directly to the Python Software Foundation. This money, in turn, is used to improve infrastructure of Python resources, provide developer grants for programming work, provide grants to conferences all over the world and many other community projects.

In the last few months alone the PSF has issued grants to PyTexas, EuroPython, Python Ireland, PyCon India, and many, many others. We have issued grants for porting modules to Python 3, service such as Read The Docs, etc. Any revenue/profit is flipped back into funding PyCon, and the community as a whole.

PyCon provides a very tangible entity for corporate sponsors - it's an easier "sell" than direct PSF sponsorship, and therefore is a fundamentally better conduit for funds into the PSF.

That's all fine you say: those are great things for the community, and conference - but why would a company want to sponsor PyCon? Sponsors receive tangible benefits such as recruiting at the conference, advertising and marketing, getting community involvement known (call it community karma), etc. Sponsorship isn't just a matter of asking a company to fund the conference because "it's good for the community" - it's a matter of showing them that not only is it good for the community - it's good for their goals and needs.

PyCon is an excellent recruitment tool.

If you're looking for Python programmers, a venue filled with 1500 Python hackers of all types - from web developers, to designers, to distributed systems engineers and operations people is an excellent place for you and your company to find "that special someone". I know a lot of Python hackers out there who have been hired by companies they "met" at PyCon. I also know a lot of speakers and tutorial teachers who have received jobs or job offers after speaking/teaching at PyCon.

Just as PyCon is an excellent venue for companies looking to hire, robust sponsorship allows people at the conference know what companies out there could be hiring Python hackers. Companies like Walt Disney Animation Studios, Google, Dropbox, and others as well as companies that aren't well known for being Python shops. It's a great venue for job seekers to find employers.

The Jobs Fair page we added this year for sponsors, and those looking for jobs is a logical extension of this. Anything we can do to connect people and companies is great.

PyCon is an excellent marketing tool.

If you are looking to sell something - an editor, hosting, a service, etc - PyCon's 1500 attendee pool provides an amazing cross section of people. Not just hard core developers - entrepreneurs and startup founders, IT business people and leaders. Python is a language that as time goes by - I am less and less surprised where it pops up - and more surprised when it isn't being used somewhere within a company.

It is literally everywhere - a frequently unsung hero for many companies. Sometimes, companies use it without even knowing it.

Python - and it's community - and therefore PyCon is amazingly diverse. This means when you sponsor PyCon, you are advertising to an amazingly diverse group of people. Skill sets from all walks of technology - and a surprising number of people to whom Python is a tool they use prolifically to get some other job done (like say, video rendering or controlling robots). PyCon's attendees reflect the stunning makeup of it's community. You can't go wrong getting your companies names on attendee's lips.

PyCon is a great way to raise visibility.

This is as much a sub-point of my previous note on marketing as anything else but it deserves some attention. If you're a company who is trying to get the word out, trying to spread the news about your new product or service, people notice PyCon sponsors. Not only are you listed on the website, you get signs, booths and entries in the program guide at the conference. It can be en excellent tool for buzz and discussion about and launching a new product or service.

Even if you're not selling something - and you just want to get the word out about your company's open source efforts, opinion and ideas and use of Python - PyCon is a fantastic platform to do so. It can literally be a platform you use to launch you name and brand into the community's shared mind.

PyCon sponsorship breeds good will.

I wish I had studies to show it, but people within the community and at the conference itself see companies sponsoring PyCon and understand that while those companies might be selling, marketing or recruiting - are still doing the community a huge favor by acting as sponsors. As I said before - the community benefits are many, just as the sponsor benefits are. I can not stress this point enough - the companies that help PyCon via sponsorship or attendance do it for many reasons - some of them financial, but the social aspects are something all of our sponsor from the past can attest to. Python is an open source language, with a strong open source ethos running through its community - and seeing companies give back both through code and financially means a lot to everyone in the community - even other sponsors.

PyCon sponsors help set an example for the community in terms of involvement and support.

PyCon sponsorship is a good, simple and cost-effective investment.

I wish all conference had sponsorship packages as cheap and as robust as the ones PyCon has outlined in it's prospectus. Heck - a good recruiter to find talent can cost a company $30,000 or more alone - by comparison, the sponsorship levels and prices PyCon has are fantastic deals (especially when you factor in that companies under 25 people can get a 50% off discount on two of those levels). For less than a price of a good computer and monitor - you can be a Silver sponsor. For less than the price if you include the desk and furniture or software licenses? A Gold sponsor. For less than the price of a good recruiter, or Google Ad campaign? You can be a Platinum or Diamond sponsor and reach out to not just PyCon attendees but to the entire Python community.

PyCon is a professional event.

I swell with pride standing in the shoes of the conference chairs that have come before me. PyCon, while focused on the community, the language, learning, teaching, being a ton of fun for all of its attendees, and excellent location to hack and network is one of the most friendly-yet-professional conferences I have ever had the privilege to attend.

PyCon is backed by the Python Software Foundation - but it is run by volunteers - even I, as chair, am not paid. For all of us involved, it's a labor of love. It is a way for us to give back to the community, ecosystem and companies and sponsors attending or sponsoring. And while it may be volunteer based - it's 100% professional. From the website, to the program guide, from talk selection and booth assignment - everything is treated with sincerity, respect and trust.

Sponsors can look at PyCon not just as a good investment, or platform - but as a safe one - and if they can not, I have failed as chair of the conference. The same applies to every single attendee.

But too much of a good thing?

As with all things, there is a flip side to this. Sponsorship is great for sponsors, and the community - but PyCon is fundamentally community focused, and hence we must walk a line between having robust sponsorship packages, and going the "full sponsorship monty" so to speak. This means that to this day, I hold firm on the policy that sponsorship does not guarantee or provide tutorial or speaking slots to any sponsor.

At PyCon, we are all equals, especially when it comes to talks. Joe developer from nowhere, Antarctica can submit a talk, tutorial or poster session as can Bob the developer from a Diamond sponsor and they have equal chances of being accepted. If the talk is good, if the speaker is known to be a good speaker, if the content and subject are compelling, a proposal will be accepted on its merits (but even then we can not accept all the deserving ones).

Other conferences guarantee speaking slots for sponsors - I feel this runs counter to the PyCon ethos and community philosophy. Not only are we open in our source, we treat each other as equals and with respect. Ours is the meritocracy of ideas and work - and this point can not get lost or forgotten in our - my - work on our sponsors' behalf to increase the value and return on investment they see.

We also try to keep the advertising and visibility at the conference tasteful - limiting banner sizes and locations, focusing on the vendor area experience while also giving sponsors free admissions to the entire conference so they too can partake in the learning, hacking and networking. We find this to be a good balance between the needs of the attendees and the needs and desires of the sponsors.

Trust me, if I thought walking around in a NASCAR-like track suit covered in logos would help our sponsors, I just might - ask the other staff! But that's just me.

In closing - I want to encourage you and companies you know or work for, to take part in PyCon and get involved. Even if you can not, or do not want to be sponsors, I encourage you to submit proposals, lightning talks when the conference comes, attend the sprints, and recruit on the "down-low" by just talking and hacking with everyone.

I encourage you, and will work with you day and night to join us as sponsors - but I value your involvement in the community, and the conference more. Even by just attending, you are enriching us all. If you have suggestions on how to make sponsorship better for sponsors - or general comments or concerns, feel free to email me.

Giving thanks

Finally, I'd like to thank all of our current sponsors - and an a yet-to-be-named mystery sponsor:

• Diamond Level: Google and Dropbox.
• Platinum Level: New Relic, SurveyMonkey, Microsoft, Eventbrite, Nasuni and Gondor.io
• Gold Level: Walt Disney Animation Studios, CCP Games, Linode, Enthought, Canonical, Dotcloud, Loggly, Revsys, ZeOmega, Bitly, ActiveState, JetBrains, Caktus, Disqus, Spotify, Snoball, Evite, and PlaidCloud
• Silver Level: Imaginary Landscape, WiserTogether, Net-ng, Olark, AG Interactive, Bitbucket, Open Bastion, 10Gen, gocept, Lex Machina, fwix, github, toast driven, Aarki, Threadless, Cox Media, myYearBook, Accense Technology, Wingware, FreshBooks, and BigDoor
• Lanyard: Dreamhost
• Sprints: Reddit
• FLOSS: OSU/OSL, OpenHatch

And of course, if you want more information on sponsorship - visit the PyCon 2012 Sponsorship page.

The Standing Desk Experiment, 5 Months in.

My original standing desk post - "Switching to a Standing Desk" has garnered a lot of attention - and a lot of questions. I've also seen a rise in the number of people trying out standing setups due to that post and the near onslaught of new articles and people converting to a standing setups in the months since. It seems to be quite the trend now. More studies have been coming out citing that sitting as long as we (programmers, writers, etc) do is fundamentally harmful - for me, switching to standing was less driven by those facts, than needing a change - leg pain, back pain - I needed something more. I sit enough throughout a normal day.

Studies and articles:

• Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
• Leisure Time Spent Sitting in Relation to Total Mortality in a Prospective Cohort of US Adults
• Physiologists And Microbiologists Find Link Between Sitting And Poor Health
• Can’t Stand to Sit Too Long? There’s a Desk for That
• "Why your desk job is killing you slowly" - Men's Health (HN Link)
• "Your Office Chair is Killing you" - Businessweek (HN Link)
• "Sitting all Day: Worse for you than you might think" - NPR (HN Link)

I figured since I'm rapidly approaching 6 months into the "experiment" - I should post a followup along with my current thoughts as well as even more information on how to setup your own rig, new studies, and other articles that have come up.

My original setup was a bit of a rig: I stole (borrowed) a table from one of the kitchens in our building and hacked together something that while serviceable, had a few obvious problems - the key one being it was wobbly (I'm not a light typist). Wobbly, while annoying, was still tolerable and preferable to the back pain, lethargy and other things that drove me to try it out in the first place. Other problems included not being at the optimal arm-height (it was close) and well - lack of desk space.

Several months ago, I was lucky enough to have my employer (Nasuni) notice my experiment and we made a deal - if I stuck to the rig for a month, and still wanted to stand, they would get me an official standing desk. I exceeded the goal a bit - not only did I stand at the setup for a month - I completely ditched sitting the first week. I haven't sat in a chair in my cube since I started standing months ago. So work pitched in and got me a GeekDesk 2.0 - victory!

Here's the "perfect" setup:

The transition itself from sitting to standing was pretty easy for me - given the number of changes I've made in the past year in terms of weight loss, exercise, etc at this point I'm probably in the best physical condition I have been in my entire life. So ultimately I didn't have many of the transition issues people sometimes cite (foot / leg pain, tiredness, etc) with moving to a standing desk.

The minor issues I had mainly revolved around:

• Feet: I had to find a non-bulky, well made pair of shoes. In my case, I started wearing New Balance Minimus Trail style "minimalist" shoes - they're form fitting (meaning no socks) and have almost no sole to them. Additionally, I had already picked up a good comfort mat to stand on - that way I had something more giving than the carpet covered concrete.
• Getting things at the right height: I chose the Geekdesk because it's got hydraulic legs that allow you to set a perfect height - one where your elbows are at a 90 degree angle when your hands are resting on the keyboard, or slightly lower than that. This, plus my standard Microsoft Ergo keyboard means my typing posture is probably the best that it's ever been. Additionally, while I have a height adjustable monitor - I used an additional monitor stand to get my monitor position at roughly eye level (I prefer the horizontal center of the monitor to be slightly below eye level - use what's comfortable). This way I'm not looking down/tilting my head an extreme amount, in most cases I'm only looking slightly down.
• Switching positions: When we hack/get involved in something we all have a tendency to hold dead still except for our hands - instinctually even though I was standing, I would sometimes find myself standing rigid, feet shoulder width apart with my back straight. While fundamentally not bad this can just cause your body to get tired/sore/whatever. I had to start letting my more rational brain allow my body to move, force yourself to gently shift your position. In my case I've even found myself dancing to music slightly, even when deep in coding or writing because my body now knows it can move freely.
  • I've actually found myself standing with one leg bent and my foot against the inside of the opposite knee. This means standing on one foot - I didn't notice it until someone asked me if I was doing yoga in my cube. Between this and the dancing at my desk, I think the weird-o-meter is maxed out.
• Allowing myself a break: I set boundaries for myself - I'm no superhuman and genetic aberration. My body needs rest. My agreement with myself was this - if I stand during work sessions, I will sit during lunch and take an afternoon break of 15 minutes and sit, have a snack, something. This way I give my body a chance to relax.

Nothing groundbreaking, really. Allow yourself to move/change positions (my default is back straight, feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent) - get something nice to stand on / some good shoes and set expectations. Revolutionary science and advice, I know.

After just a few weeks I noticed a change - I had more energy, I felt more active and alive, I breathed better (not hunched), I was actually calmer, more reflective and able to focus when needed. My body felt great - my legs felt stronger, my back a thousand times better, my neck better, etc. I've had all the upsides and few downsides. I lost more weight/gained more muscle in my legs and back - good times!

I will say that people get confused - people walking by, when they see a programmer/hacker hunched over a keyboard in a chair, deep in thought see a giant "do not disturb" sign. When you're standing, hacking away deep in thought people tend to have the instinct that you're more approachable. And they like to pop in for a quick chat. Nothing bad in and of itself - a break never hurt anyone. But coworkers who don't notice your earbuds in your ears might get confused when they have an entire conversation with someone who is completely checked out, standing there.

No, I'm not being rude. While I do do yoga, I have not quite reached the level of being able to sense a disturbance in the force.

Approachability works both ways though: I find myself more approachable/less hostile to people dropping in to talk. I'm more relaxed, less aggressive and ultimately more at ease when someone interrupts me, or catches me in between things to talk. I enjoy white boarding with them more, I don't spin around in my chair and snarl at them because I was elbow deep in an epic yak shaving. I just take a breath, turn around and start talking.

I feel more refreshed; and switching "into work" and "out of work" (meaning, in and out of a task) is easier/more approachable. My body feels better - so much better that sitting actually feels awkward to me. Ask my wife, any time I work at home I whine because I end up sitting. Sitting has become something I do when I want to relax, or because I have to - not something I do automatically. Not to mention, you simply burn more calories standing than sitting still. It will help you pay down that debt you had for lunch!

Don't get me wrong - I like kicking up my legs with my laptop in my lap, and beating away on my keyboard. It's just those times are different now - almost more special and valuable to me rather than the default-of-lethargy that I had before sitting all the time. I can say sitting here on a plane typing this may quickly drive me insane however.

My two second review of the Geekdesk? It's awesome - it's the perfect height, and it can carry enough weight my four year old can ride it like something at a carnival. I've stacked my mac pro/books/etc on it and the hydraulic legs don't even flinch. I can set it at any height, or drop it down to sit (although I never have). It's well build, sturdy, and had a little cable runner thing attached to the bottom of the desk where I can squirrel cables away (but as you can see in the picture - I'm much to lazy for that). The desk space is enough for me to have my notebook to one side and my laptop to the other and keyboard on the center with room to spare. It really is great.

That said - is the Geekdesk for everyone? Yes!

Is it prohibitively expensive, hence why I don't have one at home right now? Also yes!

Most people (myself included) can't find it in our budgets to finance something like this - heck, it's the same thing with good chairs - they run serious cash. Most people will look to put together a more economical solution. In most cases, you can avoid building something yourself if you live anywhere close to an Ikea - the cheapest option I've found for something that comes close to a basic set of specs:

• Decent amount of desk space
• Doesn't look like crap
• Can have the main work area set to the optimal height

Is the Ikea Fredrik desk - this used to be called the "Galant" desk, and its setup allows you to put together a standing rig approaching a rational price for your home. It's also ok for proposing to bosses who would beat you with a rolled up newspaper if you suggested spending 800$ on an ergonomic desk (although - why are you working for someone like that, Stockholm Syndrome?).

The Fredrick is the best option I've found that's "off the shelf" - there are plenty of plans out there that describe how to build one - and I applaud those who have the wood working skills needed. Here are some of the various plans and pre built desks floating around out there that I cite when asked:

• Pre Built
  • Anthro Adjustables
  • The GeekDesk
  • Table Legs MD
  • Ergo Depot
  • AdjustTables
• DIY Solutions
  • Build an Adjustable standing desk with a pipe and a eke clamp
  • The 5 second standing desk
  • Hacking together a standing Ikea desk
  • Another Ikea Solution
  • DIY Standing Desk
  • Standing Desk for 20$
  • Of course, the google image search will give you a billion ideas
  • Holy Moly Electric plans

Otherwise, if you're stuck in a cube or office where you can't chuck the existing decor for something more civilized (meaning, it's bolted to the walls or the cube farm would collapse like a hobo village built out of cardboard boxes if you removed your L shaped cube desk) here's a set of the best "hacks"  or attachments I've seen (feel free to share your own:

• Ergotron Workfit - a review is here
• Sit-Stand additions for cubicles
• Trying the Standing desk
• Standing Desk in a cubicle
• Tell me about your standing desk - paleohacks
• Standing Desk: Cubicle edition
• DIY Standing Desk Cubicle

Now - remember, even if your stuck in a cube in most cases, the height of the main desk area can be changed/raised - you just need an office manager willing to listen. Most desks in cubes can easily be moved lower, or higher depending on needs. Sometimes you may have to get rid of your shelves - but what do you put there other than pretzels and books you don't read? Stability, stability, stability!

For the home? I'd start trolling craigslist for podiums or lecterns if you aren't good with tools or you lack an Ikea. Or, if you can forgo aesthetics you can go the home-depot-cinderblock route. This is the easiest if you just want to experiment. Just measure what height your current desk is, then measure the height from your bent-90-degrees and standing on a comfortable mat elbows to the floor. Subtract the height of your current desk and either go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy cinderblocks and a piece of nice, sanded and pre-finished or stained hardwood to stack on top of your current desk to raise your keyboard, mouse and monitor to the needed heights, or just buy the same to place under your desk legs to move it up.

In the latter case, if you have a desk with a keyboard tray, this works in your favor as you can get the keyboard at the 90 degree angle and give your monitor a quick boost. Cinderblocks or bricks, while not looking cool, are obviously sturdy and stable. Of course, if you have a glass-topped desk at home (as I do) I would recommend against putting it on top.

Me at my setup recently:

Fundamentally, it's just a matter of getting your hands and eyes at the right heights while standing. Everything else is aesthetics and noise. Switching has helped me immensely and for the better. Will I never be a "a sitter" again? Never say never. I will say that it's definitely not for everyone, and while I might sound like a card carrying cultist - even I realize it's a tough thing to swallow for most hackers.

As for the now notorious study that came out recently that stated that you would suddenly develop varicose veins and die if you stood all day? The data the researchers cited disagrees with them (take a look at the hacker news thread). While I don't disagree with the fundamental message: move regularly, stupid - I don't agree with the breathless results and reporting and age-old rehashing of "perfect keyboard angle and age old ergonomics". No one listens to ergonomics experts anyway, and most companies put +ignore on basic ergonomics. Standing while you work is a perfectly good way to improve yourself in a variety of ways, not just improving how long you can sit staring at a screen all day.

Try standing - seriously. It may not be for you, but you might be surprised. I didn't think I'd be doing yoga, didn't think I'd be standing at a desk, didn't think I'd be a dad, eating Paleo/Keto and listening to heavy metal. Sometimes a change or trying something out that seems crazy or daunting is just what you need.

Other good standing desk reads:

• My Standing Desk Experiment (zenhabits)
• Standing at work: Mark's Daily Apple
• Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk
• This podcast (Build and Analyze Episode 21) has a good bit on standing desks vs. exercise balls
• "How Do you avoid sitting down all day" - Lifehacker
• "Standing Desk Tips" - Boing Boing
• "Sitting down makes you fat" - Treehugger
• Standing Desk - 1 year later

Help needed: multiprocessing

Originally, this post was going to be much more different than what is has become - the original title was "Failing in Public" - but I don't think "failing" is fair to me personally, or to anyone who has ever helped me, or contributed a patch or a fix to the multiprocessing module.

Yesterday, I made a statement on twitter:

I am officially looking for someone to take over multiprocessing maintenance from me. http://bugs.python.org/issue6721

Ignoring any comments in that bug; I maintain that a later tweet is still true:

Sometimes good points and poignant criticism can be buried in a pile of crap.

In hindsight; I could have worded the original message differently "taking over maintenance" means that I am, and always have been the sole contributor to the multiprocessing code base, which is patently false. Antoine, and many other python core developers, and people within the community have submitted bug reports, patches, tests and documentation. My words were intentionally harsh - but the direction of that harshness was to me; I feel that as the "leader" (for some measurement of "lead") I have been remiss in my responsibilities and leadership.

Sure; I could be less harsh on myself - but the level of expectational debt that I've incurred against myself for the module and the maintenance has grown, and grown. Even if I find myself leading PyCon, busy as a PSF Director, pushing the core-mentors program, the sprints program, and a lot of other community projects, I am still responsible for the care and feeding for the creature I helped create and birth. I've committed the sin of "going dark".

For some history, see:

• Multiprocessing in Hindsight
• Python 3.0, some multiprocessing info, administrative notes.
• The 2.6/3.0 Multiprocessing todo list
• Programmer Insecurity and Mea Culpa

Months ago - I spun up the multiprocessing-sig mailing list, in hopes to engage more people - highly active users, interested people, etc to help me pay down the debt. Of course, in retrospect; it's unfair for me to expect anyone but me to help me pay down the debt I've incurred. On the other hand, the responsible thing for me to do - the mature thing for me to do - is to ask for help - not to "wash my hands" of anything, but rather to take this as an opportunity to look as multiprocessing as something greater than what I originally envisioned and submitted to core.

I hear from people every day who are using the module - every day, something I helped birth helps people get things done. Multiprocessing has grown up by virtue of becoming part of Python core, and daily - despite the bugs, the debt and the quirks - it helps developers achieve something they might have otherwise been unable (or at least, had a more difficult time) to do.

The module is expansive - it has pools, tools for distributed programming via managers, pipes for interprocess communications, it's feature set is both large, and ultimately complex in its underpinnings. That complexity - that feature set - is the reason why that debt, the bugs, the quirks has grown over time. If it wasn't being used - I wouldn't have so many emails about it - or bugs filed against it.

So where are we/it today?

Today, multiprocessing has widespread usage - in Python 3, there's actually a new module named concurrent.futures that builds on the building blocks of multiprocessing and threading. Packages like Celery use it extensively (and work around internal quirks). For Python 3 - the sky is the future for what multiprocessing could be - additional functionality, moving parts of it (such as the pool abstractions) into the concurrent namespace, extending and improving the Manager classes, etc. For Python 2.7 - bug fixes, doc fixes only.

If you search the Python bug tracker for the word "multiprocessing" regardless of assignee, you'll get 119 hits. That's right; 119 - not all of them are multiprocessing bugs - and many of them are dupes, or fixed in recent versions. What that query gets you is an idea of the debt that has to be paid down and resolved. Each one of those bugs needs to be looked at, reproduced, de-duped and patched. Some of them may be documentation issues, some are pretty hairy (like the aforementioned http://bugs.python.org/issue6721 as well as http://bugs.python.org/issue4106 and http://bugs.python.org/issue8713).

What I asking for - rather than washing my hands of anything, or any attempt to absolve myself of responsibility, is for help. I am stretched thin - too thin to do this myself, or to be the only person who can maintain, understand or work on this module. It's too big for that, it's too important for me to be the arbiter of it any longer. It's bigger than me.

Aside from the bug queue; there's a short list of things that need to be done - the docs need to have a fresh, hard set of eyes on them, there are things (behaviors, features) that are undocumented. The test suite needs a complete overhaul - when I inherited the code, this is the first thing I should have done - but I didn't. The problem is that the test suite is mired in magic and complexity, and without an expansive, maintainable test suite, I don't feel confident that the bug list can be addressed with confidence.

So, I come to you with my hat in my hands, a humbled man. It's unreasonable for me to ask for others to "pay down" the debt I've incurred; but it's irresponsible, immature and misguided of me to think that I alone, or any single person can go at this alone. So I need your help - and, if in time, someone choses to be the "leader" for the module, then I will gladly step back. Until then, I will try to continue to be a guiding hand and at least point people in the proper direction, commit patches, etc.

If you are interested; please speak up - or just wade into the bug queue. You can sign up to the multiprocessing-sig list, and ask questions there, or if you're new to core Python, and want some additional mentorship, check out the Python Core Mentorship program - that list serves as a gentle and polite, welcoming introduction to core development. No question - no matter how green - is off limits, and it's already got an excellent track record of helping people get up to speed.

In closing; I'm going to apologize - we all know lives change, careers change, and interests change. All of these things have happened to me, but in changing so quickly and taking on different roles, I left something important behind. In doing so, I have done a great disservice to you, the community and users.

I will also thank you; without you - the users, current and future helpers, multiprocessing wouldn't exist or be relevant in any context. Without you, I wouldn't have the drive to even write this post, fight to get multiprocessing into the std lib to begin with, or perform any of the other roles I do.

So; thank you.

Quick Python/Developer tips for OSX Lion

Yes; of course I upgraded to OSX Lion on day one. To quote myself from twitter:

I am happy in the warm coziness and stark whiteness of Steve Jobs' monoculture.

Regardless of that though, I had very few hiccups with Lion itself - but a few things you need to deal with going in:

• Be on a high bandwidth connection. The downloads you have to make are huge.
• XCode 4.x is now free in the App Store - you need this - the first thing you need to install after Lion is the latest version of XCode from the App Store, if you do this, all your virtualenvs, your homebrew environment (at least mine) just Keep Working. Save yourself some pain.
  • Side note: @kennethreitz, gentleman scholar, has actually done a custom osx-gcc-installer - this contains a system install of GCC and all the goodness you need (such as install_name_tool) for Python hacking. So you might be able to skip the massive XCode install.
  • When installing XCode, for some unknown unholy reason, if you have not quit itunes, and itunes helper (see activity monitor) prior to starting the XCode installer, the install will hang. Do yourself a favor and kill it with fire.
  • Remember; the binary directory for the dev tools is in /Developer/usr/bin/ - this includes gcc-4.2
  • Do yourself a favor, drop "export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"" into your .bash_profile.
• If you're running homebrew; after the upgrade, I recommend a brew update && brew upgrade
• If you use mercurial - you need to install the updated version found here.
• Just for good measure, do a global (sudo) reinstall of virtualenv, virtualenvwrapper and pip. Make sure they're pointed at the right default Python (in my case the system one).
• If you are using VMWare Fusion: You really need to be running the latest version of 3.x.
• If you are using Bootcamp, and plan on turning on full disk encryption, see this note from Hacker News (this is why I confine windows to VMware images)

Other than the above; my dev environment pretty much just kept rocking - Lion's default Python install is a healthy Python 2.7.1 - double nice++ - MacVim, editor of choice just kept plugging away, although I have not tried the "official unreleased" version they have for Lion. I have a slight aversion to running beta builds of my editor.

Some of you are going to run into some annoyances; I can't help you with all of them, but I can help you with the two interface changes I could not deal with (I actually like all the other ones).

• First; go into system preferences > mission control and uncheck "Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use" - trust me, you'll thank me.
• Second, there's this ... annoying animation when you make new application windows (See the Ars Lion Review | kindle version). The animation offends me on a cellular level. You disable it by running this on the command line:

  defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO ; killall Dock

• Show hidden files in finder:

  defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES

• Show full paths in finder:

  defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

• Note: Don't like mucking around with the command line, or want to have something with a birds eye view that can control just about anything, check out "Secrets" from blacktree. I'm fine with magic PLIST hacks, but this does put a nice UI on all the hacks.
• Also, if you're a power user, or want tiling behavior for windows - see SizeUp or Divvy (I use Sizeup) both of which are excellent additions to window management, even in Lion. I tend to be anal about window coordination on the screen even with mission control/expose.

Other than that; I'm a happy camper. The new scroll behavior on the trackpads is amazing, if not jarring when using a mouse. Everything just pretty much kept working for me. But then again, I'm pretty easy to please.

See also - "Four Lion Terminal Hacks" from Macworld and "Top 10 Secret Features in OSX Lion" from Lifehacker - if you really, really hate the UI changes, see "How to de-IOSify" from Lifehacker. More cool tips and tricks: "Miscellaneous Lion Tips and Tricks" and also "Miscellaneous Lion Tips and Tricks part two".

p.s. I originally forgot to mention this - but the full disk encryption in Lion is implemented damn well - it's easy for users to "get" - seamless, and transparent. In my honest opinion, this is worth the price of upgrading alone if you have a laptop. It's so well done, and it simply shows how crappy filevault was - it also goes to show that if you make crypto easy and transparent for users, they might actually use it. See the Ars Review for a deeper dive. See also "PGP WDE vs. Lion Disk Encryption"

p.p.s. See this ArsTechnica article about how to create a bootable copy of the Lion install disk you can use to do offline installs for other machines. I'd recommend doing the same for XCode if you have more than one mac to upgrade (or you lack FiOS).