FluxHQ - Rambings of Beings from a Parallel Universe

Django & Me

It’s been a while since I’ve been using the python web framework named after the Jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt, Django. I’ve been meaning to blog about it for quite a while now, but lack of time and laziness have prevailed. Django is still relatively unknown when compared to one of it’s rival* frameworks, Rails. Rails has been the darling of web 2.0 and is a framework for Ruby based web application development. A couple of years ago I was confronted with a project that required rapid development, relatively complex data handling, robust interface development and an administrative side. The time constraints placed on the project took me on the hunt for a suitable framework which would enable us to achieve our goals. I came across both Rails and Django along with a host of other frameworks. These were the two that stood out though. Django for it’s brilliant website and example application (Chicagocrime.org), and Rails for the people behind it and the applications they had created from it. Both communities seemed friendly and active, as well as the active involvement of the actual founders of both projects. Familiarity with python, the killer Django Admin interface, the fact that Django was created for a newsroom with different data handling needs, the fact that the scalability of Django at production was already proven and the loose coupling provided by Django, made the choice for me pretty simple. Though I still think there are instances where Rails is a better choice, for me picking Django was almost a no-brainer.

Starting Out

Django makes it pretty easy for newbies to get their feet wet. They have a good four part tutorial on their website, and they also have a book coming out, the book can also be viewed online currently, until it gets published. Other solid places to go for help, are the mailing lists, the wiki and on IRC. Usually your question gets answered pretty quickly by someone knowledgeable in the matter. A simple google search will also bring up a list of blogs and other websites offering tips and good info. Recently there has also been a glut of “middleware” applications for Django, apps you can plug into your app, which can be found on Google Code.

*rival in terms of Web Application Frameworks, not Python Frameworks.

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I thought it would be a nice idea to list some of the apps for Tiger that I find useful, perhaps others can benefit from them.

AppZapper - Great little app for uninstalling apps, it finds all the related config files and other garbage and the interface is awesome.

TextMate - What all the other text editors want to be.

MarsEdit - Blogging tool, the latest version is super nice, but I’m told version 2 thats coming out soon is supposed to be a lot better.

ByteController - A little menubar app to control your iTunes, it’s not fancy but very functional.

Cue-Splitter - An app to split up all those long mp3’s you have, with the help of a cue file. Works for most of the files I’ve tried it on. Look at Cuesheet Heaven for creating cue cheets.

Awaken - An alarm app for Tiger, nice interface and good alarm options.

CompressFiles - A compression app which enables you to leave out mac specific system files during compression, that way when you send the compressed archive over to your Windoze brethren they don’t have all the HFS silliness.

Delibar - Access to your del.icio.us bookmarks from your menubar.

KisMAC - Cool tool for checking out the wifi world around you, with some expertise you might even be able to crack a few networks. Sadly this project has been temporarily halted due to some new laws in Germany.

UnRARX - A RAR application for OS X.

memtest - Command-line application that allows you to comprehensively test your memory chips.

Adium - IM client, supports pretty much any IM with a unified interface.

iScrobbler - Sends out your iTunes now playing track info over to Last.fm

Transmission - A really good BitTorrent client.

Transmit - The best FTP client I have come across, across platforms. I’m glad it’s a Tiger app and that I have a Mac.

Billings - A quote, invoicing and time tracking application. Very cool interface and generates some of the most beautiful invoices/quotes I have seen. Well worth the money spent.

Cha-Ching - A personal finance manager, sorta like Money or Quicken but a lot more intuitive and pretty.

VLC Player - an alternative to quicktime, and it’s free.

Yep - An iPhoto like organizer for PDFs. Nice concept if you have a lot of paper in your life, you can get rid of all the paper and just Yep the whole thing.

Yojimbo - Yep, but for all kinds of files. Maybe a little overkill, but it’s on my wishlist.

XSlimmer - This app analyses your system and gets rid of all the unnecessary source code, application localizations and other bloat.

That’s the list! If anyone out there has any suggestions or would like to add to this list, please use the comments to let me know.

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I caught a snippet the other day about a Silicon Valley startup, Data Robotics, on the BBC, and upon further investigation, I came across their product, Drobo. It’s essentially an external disk storage system, which makes all the configuration of multiple disk systems completely trivial to the user. All the user has to do is plug in Drobo to the USB port and plug some disks into the system. Disk removal and upgrades are also made completely trivial. I absolutely love the concept of not having to fuss with RAID settings, stripe size etc. Some of the other factors I like are the fact that there is no need for homogenity in disk sizes, mixing & matching is ok. Add to that the fact that there is no client software required to run this device makes it a win. Real-time swapping of disks without causing any downtime is also a cool feature. Data Robotics has a demo of the entire working of the Drobo on their website and for more in depth information check out the Arstechnica review.

One of the downsides is the relatively high price, $500 for just the unit sans any drives makes it a little out of the average consumer’s reach. I would also like to see other interfaces such as Firewire or eSata be an option. USB2.0 does not really make me want to run out and get one. But future iterations of the product are something I will look forward to.

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Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered. TV has come to my screen… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you too should check out Joost. I’ll let you guys watch their cool intro video. I like that old guy and the whole setup is very Matrix-y. I will report back once more TV has been watched and I can form a sufficiently coherent opinion, which is based more on facts and less on exhilaration.

In other news, this blog has finally caught up to WP updates and is sporting teh latest bling. Along the blogging lines, I have also finally started using a third party blog tool, MarsEdit, which I seem to like so far.

I’ve also got some Django-isms to report, but those will have to wait a little longer.

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