Writing

Tomorrow I'm giving a talk at EuroPython called Full Stack Python which is named after my Full Stack Python website. I'm stoked to give the talk. I would not have flown... read more

Recently I have been writing content on other places around the Web. Here's a quick summary of what I've been up to.

The majority of my work has been on Full Stack Python, which I update every day with new sections, resources and explanations for all layers of... read more

In case you're trying to get CFPB collab working in your environment, there's a few errors you might run into. This is a quick post to highlight solutions to the issues I came across.

Collab currently requires MySQL for the backend. I do not believe MySQL is... read more

2013 was an incredible and fortunate year for me. The quick highlights:

• traveled the US for 5 months talking to tech startups and software developers
• developed numerous client and open source software projects while traveling
• wrote dozens of blog posts on Coding Across America and this... read more

Pelican is an open source static website generator. While Pelican is written in Python, you don't have to know much about that programming language to get started. In this post, I'll walk through the steps to getting your first Pelican website up and running, including a deployment to GitHub Pages for hosting.

A quick note before we... read more

Every non-trivial modern Django project combines externally hosted third party services with custom code to create a complete web application. The art of discovering, evaluating, integrating, and maintaining these third party services is an important capability for any post-entry-level Django developer. I'm writing these posts as a framework... read more

Every non-trivial modern Django project combines externally hosted third party services with custom code to create a complete web application.

For example:

• Google Analytics for traffic and customer funnel analysis
• Stripe, Dwolla, or PayPal for payment processing
• Twilio for text message... read more

I'm a huge believer in the power of results that accumulate by working on something every single day. This idea obviously isn't new. Nathan Barry's new book Authority is one of the most recent examples that explains the power of writing each day.

My favorite... read more

Lately I've consulted for several clients where I was asked to drop into an existing large Django project code base to triage issues and build enhancements. Working on an established code base is common whether you're a new developer on a team or like me working on consulting projects.

There are many attributes of an existing project:... read more

One of my clients was interviewing web developers and asked me about how I go about performing technical interviews. I have interviewed 15 developers of all experience levels for Excella Consulting in the past year. My style and questions are still developing. This morning when... read more