Madabar.techblog

I am writing this post in MaemoWordPy running on the Nokia N800 tablet.

Edit: It lacks the ability to make new categories or to retrieve drafts from the web for editing. Other than that it works fine.

Today I discovered, sadly, that Firefox lacks support for MHTML. MHTML is useful for sending HTML data along with images, etc. in a single HTTP response. I was hoping to use the output of the odfpy conversion modules to make OpenDocument files viewable within the browser on an intranet.

Even sadder, Internet Explorer has had this feature since version 5!

Somebody on a mailing list requested suggestions for introductory texts on the Python language. I figured it was worth cross posting my reply here…

I’ve been working with Python regularly for about the last five years. Over that time I haven’t found the need to buy any books on the subject, as there are ample resources online and they tend to be more concise and up to date.

Here is my recommended reading list:

• The “Official” Python Tutorial by Guido van Rossum (the author of Python) - This should get you up to speed in a day.
• The standard library module index
• The Python Style Guide - also by GvR (style matters!)
• The Python Quick Reference - This is the main place I turn to these days; everything on one page and shows differences between Python versions.
• Dive Into Python - if you want some more tutorials
• And don’t forget:
  $ python
>>> import this


Beyond this, comp.lang.python is a good place to search and ask questions. Especially keep an eye out for posts by any of the ‘bots’: Tim Peters, Alex Martelli, Fredrik Lundh.

An Australian is extradited to the US over copyright infringment in Australia. From the article:

BEFORE he was extradited to the United States, Hew Griffiths, from Berkeley Vale in NSW, had never even set foot in America. But he had pirated software produced by American companies.

Griffiths’ case — involving one of the first extraditions for intellectual property crime — has been a triumph for US authorities, demonstrating their ability to enforce US laws protecting US companies against Australians in Australia, with the co-operation of the Australian Government.

Is Australia no longer a sovereign nation?

And what next? Will someone be extradited for playing a DVD on a Linux system?

This is my new blog for geek-specific topics. Anything on this site is likely to change without notice while I try to get this site into shape.

I plan to jot down thoughts on Linux, Python, the Nokia N800 and the maemo platform along with general computing and programming topics.

Enjoy!