jessenoller.com

Why is it, that when­ever I think things will calm down, they do the exact opposite?

Well — you should know by now that the PyCon 2011 Call for Pro­pos­als is up — we’re accept­ing main con­fer­ence talks, poster ses­sions and tuto­ri­als, all at once. The main con­fer­ence pro­pos­als are due by Novem­ber 1st — so I’d rec­om­mend get­ting those talks in! Also, you should know that we’ve announced our first keynote speaker — Hilary Mason! Really, really look­ing for­ward to that.

Over on the sprints side — Brian Curtin has done sev­eral blog posts — the first details the “get­ting started with Python-Dev” guide he’s been shep­herd­ing for the project. I’d rec­om­mend tak­ing a look — you can send feed­back to sprints@python.org. The sec­ond is a note on the fact we have our first com­pany donat­ing actual funds to the project (via the PSF) — Trad­ing Tech­nolo­gies. This is awe­some news.

If you want to do a sprint — and you want some money to help out, please, please, please send an appli­ca­tion to sprints@python.org — we cur­rently do not have any sprints lined up in the near future (We are spon­sor­ing the ?http://www.pymntos.com/ sprint occur­ring tonight — they’re port­ing Mute­gen to python 3). If you need help, or want help send­ing out a call for a sprint, con­tact us too. Our goal is to help every­one get sprints up and off the ground.

Also, if you want to help out with the sprints project — please let me know. We need blog­gers, writ­ers and other peo­ple to help fur­ther “the cause”.

Finally, I’ve been spend­ing the major­ity of my time once again blog­ging for my employer (Nasuni) — if you’re inter­ested, I recently did a series on “The Cloud” (focus­ing on Pri­vate vs. Pub­lic clouds), while Rob (my boss) did a fan­tas­tic post on the real cost of a giga­byte in the cloud:

• Pri­vate vs. Pub­lic Cloud 1: The five key attrib­utes of the Cloud.
• ?Pri­vate vs. Pub­lic Cloud 2: Defin­ing Pub­lic ver­sus Pri­vate Clouds.
• ?Pri­vate vs. Pub­lic Cloud 3: Which option is best for you?
• What is the (real) cost of a giga­byte in the cloud?

Why is it, that whenever I think things will calm down, they do the exact opposite? Well - you should know by now that the PyCon 2011 Call for Proposals is up - we're accepting main conference talks, poster sessions and tutorials, all at once. The main conference proposals are due by November 1st - ...

The com­pany I’ve worked for since July of last year — Nasuni Cor­po­ra­tion (a startup in Mass­a­chu­setts) has gone live! This is the cul­mi­na­tion of a lot of hard, but exceed­ingly fun and excit­ing work over the past months.

The Nasuni team is an excel­lent one — and one I am very, very proud to be a part of. Our prod­uct is called the Nasuni Filer — a simple-to-use, ver­sioned, encrypted and cloud-storage backed vir­tual NAS (net­work attached stor­age) server (click here for more information).

With­out going into all of the fea­tures, our goal in mak­ing this was to make cloud stor­age sim­ple, acces­si­ble and secure — and I know we’ve accom­plished all three. All you do is down­load it, boot it and start using it — once you do so you have access to truly unlim­ited stor­age. It’s an unlim­ited filesys­tem for the cloud. Here’s the ele­va­tor pitch:

Nasuni has devel­oped a vir­tual file server, called the Nasuni Filer, that deliv­ers unlim­ited file stor­age and com­plete file pro­tec­tion for busi­nesses. Work­ing in part­ner­ship with lead­ing cloud stor­age ven­dors, the Nasuni Filer lever­ages the vast capac­ity of the cloud to store and pro­tect com­pany files off­site, while retain­ing the local func­tion­al­ity and per­for­mance of a tra­di­tional NAS.

This tech­nol­ogy allows busi­nesses to use the cloud provider of their choice as a replace­ment for tra­di­tional pri­mary stor­age. Snap­shots, file ver­sion­ing, and off­site stor­age are inte­grated into the file server itself — ensur­ing busi­ness file are safe and secure at all times. No need to man­age com­plex backup and DR schemes — if the file server is run­ning, files are protected.

We’ve launched the Beta of the prod­uct today — any­one can sign up, down­load and use it. Any­one can give us feed­back and sug­ges­tions — I encour­age all of you who might need some­thing like this to down­load and give it a try. If you want — go check out the videos we’ve put together show­cas­ing the Filer (and bet­ter yet — check out the awe­some ani­mated car­toon we have on the front page).

Most of you know that my blog is mainly Python ori­ented. Suf­fice it to say, Nasuni — and the Nasuni Filer make use of Python for a wide range of tasks. We use Python, Django and as much of the Python ecosys­tem as we can to drive every­thing from the web­site, to the GUI on the appli­ance itself — Python is part of the DNA of the com­pany, and it has served us well. With­out Open Source and Python — I don’t think it would have been pos­si­ble to build what we have built in as lit­tle time as we have.

We have a strong ded­i­ca­tion to not just Python, but open source in gen­eral (and a fair num­ber of us will be at PyCon this month). As time pro­gresses, now that we’re exit­ing stealth mode we plan on pos­si­bly open sourc­ing stuff we feel would ben­e­fit the com­mu­nity. Some of us already push patches back where and when we can, but as I said — as time pro­gresses this involve­ment will only increase.

So not only am I proud to announce the prod­uct, be part of this team and to see what we’ve made, I’m also happy to thank so many peo­ple in the Python and OSS com­mu­nity which have helped us reach this point.

So go — check it out, let us know what you think.

The company I've worked for since July of last year - Nasuni Corporation (a startup in Massachusetts) has gone live! This is the culmination of a lot of hard, but exceedingly fun and exciting work over the past months. The Nasuni team is an excellent one - and one I am very, very proud ...

I don’t talk pol­i­tics or cur­rent events here — mainly because I’d come off a a Lol­ber­tar­ian whack-job, but I just had a seri­ous “what in the crap?! moment when I checked my 401k:

Per­sonal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 10/09/2008 is –41.9%

This is one of the moments I look at my daugh­ter and think about the future and get really sullen, so instead, I’m going to go back to solv­ing tech­ni­cal prob­lems as I can’t even ratio­nally dis­cuss this in my own head.

I don't talk politics or current events here - mainly because I'd come off a a Lolbertarian whack-job, but I just had a serious "what in the crap?! moment when I checked my 401k: Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 10/09/2008 is -41.9% This is one of the moments I look at my daughter and ...

For the past year I’ve had the excit­ing oppor­tu­nity to be a father — it really is fan­tas­tic, espe­cially now that new parts of her per­son­al­ity is com­ing through and she’s in the “crazy abo­rig­i­nal where are your pants” stage.

How­ever, on the flip side, it’s a lot of work — tir­ing work. It also comes with a side-effect. Dis­ease. I’ve been sicker the past year than I ever have been in my life. I think I end up with a cold or some­thing else every month. I’ve had sinus infec­tions, colds, Hand-Foot-and-Mouth and lack-of-sleep induced insanity.

Good times. At least I got to see the new bat­man movie, which was amaz­ing. I’m going to go blow my nose again.

For the past year I've had the exciting opportunity to be a father - it really is fantastic, especially now that new parts of her personality is coming through and she's in the "crazy aboriginal where are your pants" stage. However, on the flip side, it's a lot of work - tiring work. It ...

In addi­tion to the Python sprint day work I am doing (as well as pymag stuff) I’ve been edit­ing the oblig­a­tory “zomg baby is walk­ing” video, which is below.

It’s funny — she’s been close, and doing short spurts, but last night it was like her walk­ing switch just “came on”.

In addition to the Python sprint day work I am doing (as well as pymag stuff) I've been editing the obligatory "zomg baby is walking" video, which is below. It's funny - she's been close, and doing short spurts, but last night it was like her walking switch just "came on".

Ear­lier this week — I made the rather dif­fi­cult deci­sion and resigned from my cur­rent job. Yes — I have a new one in the bag.

The job I resigned from has been one of the best, most reward­ing jobs in my career. I’ve had the lux­ury of work­ing with some of the best engi­neers I have ever met, on a problem/solution that is, by far, the best in it’s class.

I’ve been work­ing with what I count as my sec­ond fam­ily for close to five years. You don’t walk away from some­thing like that lightly, or with­out good reason.

My rea­son was sim­ple: I enjoy star­tups. I love blaz­ing trails, explor­ing tech­nol­ogy. I love push­ing bound­aries and mak­ing some­thing tan­gi­ble and new where there was noth­ing before. It’s why I love software.

Some peo­ple would say that soft­ware is not a paint­ing — and to an extent, they are right. But the pride you feel when you see your soft­ware come alive, get adopted and grow day after day is much the same feel­ing of accom­plish­ment and pride you get when you do fin­ish a work of art.

Per­son­ally, I feel that star­tups engen­der the wild west — all ideas are open and ready to be explored, much of the ter­ri­tory is uncharted, and you remain (in many cases) unen­cum­bered by processes, bureau­cracy and history.

That all being said — it’s not with­out an aching heart that I say good bye to my friends, col­leagues and the prod­uct I helped usher into the world. Both the prod­uct, and the peo­ple remain best-in-class, and I wish both the com­pany, and the peo­ple the best in the future.

The great (and some­times bad) thing about star­tups though, is the fact that if you live in a place where star­tups are always com­ing and going (i.e: Boston) then sooner or later, you’re going to end up work­ing with many of the same peo­ple again. Due to this, I’m ulti­mately OK with say­ing good bye to many of the cowork­ers I have today, because I will see them again in due time.

That all being said — I have a new job (obvi­ously). Later this month I will begin work­ing for an Acton, MA startup called Black­wave. I’ve had the plea­sure of meet­ing the peo­ple there and explor­ing the tech­nol­ogy, and I have to say I got that old spark back in my head. The spark that keeps you up at night think­ing about how to solve The Prob­lem and how to test The Prob­lem. The one that makes you get up early to write notes down to your­self like “if we sim­ply change x here and here, then in the­ory we can cut our test­ing to y…” and so on. It’s the spark of inspiration.

In speak­ing with them — I wanted to solid­ify some­thing that’s been chew­ing at me for a lit­tle bit — and that’s hav­ing some amount of free­dom to con­tribute to open source — in my case, Python-Core and python-related projects. I’m happy to say, Black­wave was more than will­ing to express their sup­port and open­ness to con­tribut­ing to the com­mu­nity. I can’t go into details — but with any luck, I should be able to be a lot more open with much of my work, and also give a lot back.

Again — with that all being said — I will take this one oppor­tu­nity to say — yes, Black­wave is hir­ing. If you’re a python/java/c/c++ per­son, or you just love doing QA and test­ing and are look­ing for a small, fast mov­ing team — and live in the Boston/Metrowest area (south­ern New Hamp­shire is OK) — go ahead and drop me an email. I’m def­i­nitely putting feel­ers out for any Python­istas in the area who are look­ing around. I’m dou­bly inter­ested in Python­istas with a QA back­ground to help focus on test engineering/automation.

Send your resumes to me (jnoller at gmail dot com)!

I’m look­ing for­ward to the upcom­ing months with excitement.

Earlier this week - I made the rather difficult decision and resigned from my current job. Yes - I have a new one in the bag. The job I resigned from has been one of the best, most rewarding jobs in my career. I've had the luxury of working with some of the best engineers ...

Dear Pre­vi­ous House Owner,

The least you could have done is told me that any­time it rains, the nicely fin­ished tiled base­ment area, the one hold­ing my com­put­ers and liveli­hood floods. I real­ize, that had I known that the nicely fin­ished base­ment with the tiled floor gets flooded every time it rains because of the half-assed code vio­lat­ing instal­la­tion of the sewage pump in the garage allow­ing water into the house, I would not have bought the house.

In addi­tion to the hid­den plumb­ing issues, the veneer you added to the area (which floods any­time it rains for more than 10 min­utes) to hide the fact there is a flood­ing issue was a nice touch.

I under­stand I have only myself to blame — after all, I should have torn up the floor and pulled apart every­thing to find out the fact it floods (every time it rains) and that the upstairs bath­room has a rot­ted floor, a bum toi­let and issues with the sheet rock (rotted).

I have no recourse against you, the inspec­tor, or any­one. Instead, you, a cou­ple with a small child sad­dled another cou­ple (with a small infant child like yours) with this house.

When I started the pur­chas­ing process, I began it with excite­ment. Now I sit in a house I have lived in for less than a month, but spent most of my money on, with my feet in a stand­ing pool of water as I type this — the gen­tly splish splish of my feet in the ice cold water remind­ing me of how much I wish you were here so you could help me mop, for the fourth fifth sixth time.

Oh, but mop­ping doesn’t help — but you knew that. You knew that the rea­son there were tiled floors in this part of the house is so that there was “no long term dam­age” to the area (which floods every time it rains).

So thank you for not telling us the house floods every time it rains. You’ve helped us build up so much char­ac­ter know­ing never to trust any­one, even if they are another young cou­ple with a small child — just like us.

Unlike you, I’m hon­est and respon­si­ble, and I’m going to fix this mess you’ve left me with, so my wife, daugh­ter and I can live hap­pily here in our first house which floods every time it rains.

I’m quite cross with you right now.

–Jesse

Dear Previous House Owner, The least you could have done is told me that anytime it rains, the nicely finished tiled basement area, the one holding my computers and livelihood floods. I realize, that had I known that the nicely finished basement with the tiled floor gets flooded every time it rains because of the ...

I love mak­ing up words.

A recent post on the pycon blog has me rethink­ing using Twit­ter or Jaiku for “micro blog­ging” (espe­cially dur­ing a con). I’ve per­son­ally not used either one of them, but my pref­er­ence would be to try out the now-not-accepting-new-users Jaiku.

How many peo­ple out there in the #python­web are using these?

Edit: I’ve signed up for both twit­ter (user­name: jessenoller) and Jaiku (user­name: jessenoller). Now I have to write a python app that dual-posts to both. Who knew social sites would be such a pain? :)

Edit2: I signed up for pownce too. God. That’s face­book, linkedin, pownce, jaiku, twit­ter, and a blog.

I love making up words. A recent post on the pycon blog has me rethinking using Twitter or Jaiku for "micro blogging" (especially during a con). I've personally not used either one of them, but my preference would be to try out the now-not-accepting-new-users Jaiku. How many people out there in the #pythonweb are using these? Edit: ...

It’s been a nutty last few weeks. The work in the salt mines has been espe­cially busy, and well — overly salty. Some would say it was too salty for consumption.

Wife, Baby and I are set­tled into the new place — yes, the var­i­ous sundry prob­lems includ­ing flood­ing, floor­ing, bath­rooms and other cruft was resolved post-haste and sat­is­fac­to­rily, albeit expensively.

In other news, things should hope­fully start calm­ing down — so I can pick up on the non-salt-mine-or-parenting work (i.e: more deli­cious Python goodness).

In addi­tion to all the crazi­ness — Abby is crawl­ing, and climb­ing now. Both of these new devel­op­ments in addi­tion to the new digs means “lots of stuff to get into” — you know you’re going to have a prob­lem when you see her make a bee­line for a power cord.

Lots of changes: I’m look­ing for PyCon as a chance to meet some peo­ple I’ve met before (although briefly) and meet a lot of new peo­ple. Hope­fully, while I’m there I’ll be able to jump start a few “non salt mine” projects that have been sit­ting in the queue, and get some more arti­cle fod­der over to Doug and Brian.

Of course, I can’t wait for sum­mer. I think there’s going to be some­thing inspi­ra­tional about cod­ing from a hammock.

In other ran­dom thoughts — in his note about the Sun+Jython announce­ment Tim Bray had a choice quote:

Quick Python trivia ques­tion: Near as I can tell, Guido works half-time on Python over at Google. Is there any­one in the world, aside from Frank and Ted, get­ting paid to work full-time on Python?

As a guy who gets obsessed about the ham­mer he uses to build a house — I won­der what it would be like to design ham­mers for a living?

It's been a nutty last few weeks. The work in the salt mines has been especially busy, and well - overly salty. Some would say it was too salty for consumption. Wife, Baby and I are settled into the new place - yes, the various sundry problems including flooding, flooring, bathrooms and other cruft was ...

I’ve men­tioned this before — on Jan 4th, I ended up clos­ing on my first house. The pri­mary dri­ving force of course being my now nearly seven month old daugh­ter, the sec­ondary dri­ving force is well — own­ing a house.

Both my wife and I were excited, ecsta­tic even. I mean, it’s not a pala­tial man­sion by any stretch — but it was ours.

Then, things went side­ways. After clos­ing, after we start paint­ing — we find a prob­lem. A big, glar­ing prob­lem. That prob­lem hap­pens to be a leak­ing toi­let — that has appar­ently been leak­ing for some time (mea­sured in poten­tially years) into the sub floor­ing. This means all the wood beneath the tile floor under the toi­let it rot­ten and moldy, and that damp­ness and mold may have spread to the rest of the floor­ing and areas.

We found this pulling the toi­let to put in a new one — now, instead of a cheap plop-in-a-new-toilet, we’re star­ing down the bar­rel of a much larger “strip to the walls due to rot and mold” deal. We can’t move in, and we didn’t even imag­ine this would happen.

Rot­ten wood, mold. The works. And no, it’s not cov­ered, and it is no ones respon­si­bil­ity (or rather, no one is liable). Nope, we just get left hold­ing the bag. The inspec­tor found a tan­gen­tal issue: but not the pri­mary issue, so no one was tech­ni­cally the wiser.

Stu­pid toi­lets. From now on I’m only buy­ing houses with­out run­ning water, in non-flood plains in areas with no ter­mites. Also the house will be made of stone.

I've mentioned this before - on Jan 4th, I ended up closing on my first house. The primary driving force of course being my now nearly seven month old daughter, the secondary driving force is well - owning a house. Both my wife and I were excited, ecstatic even. I mean, it's not a palatial ...