lennys September 01, 2024

Nothing to write about

Like the title says, I haven't got much of anything to write about. Things are going along okay. I went to the Python meetup last Tuesday, where some guy showed off his stock research website he had built and discussed the code that makes it work. This coming Tuesday they'll be building a HTMX web server application. This is new territory for me, so I don't expect I'll get a lot out of it but I'm going anyway. I Started working my way through a new Python book recently. It's titled "Python Distilled", and so far I feel like I'm getting a lot out of it. It does a good job of summarizing the material without going overboard with the explanations. I've only made it through to chapter 3 so far, but it feels like I'm learning something. I'm working through the examples using Jupyter Lab, which is a pretty handy tool. I've just started to learn what can be done with it, you can write Python code or Markdown with it and it will display the results inline with the code, which is pretty neat. Until now I've been using a text editor and running the Python interpreter in a terminal, which is more difficult to use so the new way of doing things is definitely an improvement. I'm still working on painting my toolbox. I have started laying on the red paint on the interior, and I'm painting several light coats to avoid getting runs in the paint. It's slow going as I have to let the paint dry between coats, which takes hours, so I go out on the patio, spray it for about ten minutes, then have to let it sit until the next day, so it's taking a long time but I'm working on it. I'll get it done eventually.

lennys August 23, 2024

Nothing much going on...

So it's been a week and a half since my last post. Nothing much of note has happened in that time. I went to a Python meetup again, which this time was enjoyable somewhat. The talk was about Pandas vs. Polar, which are both software packages for crunching data. Pandas is written in Python and is something I'm familiar with, whereas Polar was new to me. Polar is written in Rust but apparently can be used in Python scripts, and the consensus was that it's an improvement over Pandas. It's faster to run and can get more done in less lines of code, so it's something I'm going to look into in the near future. It's out of scope to what I've been studying, but sounds interesting enough that I think it would do me some good to know more about. In the next Python meetup they are going to build an HTMX application, so we'll see how that one goes. My toolbox project has stalled out. I haven't done anything with it in a week at least, it's still sitting on my patio waiting for me to finish. I've got the primer coat all sanded down and ready for painting, I just need to clean up the sanding dust a bit more before I move forward with it. I still have to sand down and paint the drawers, so it'll be a while before it's finished. I'm hoping there won't be any rain in the near future so I can work on the thing without it getting wet. I went over to a friend's house to work on a workbench project of his a week ago yesterday. We didn't accomplish a whole lot, we just planed down a section of countertop and glued together a bunch of boards. That was as much as we could do since we had to wait on the glue to dry, but I hung out with him and his dad for about an hour and a half which was nice. I hadn't had a lot of interaction with other people in a while. Barring unforeseen circumstances I may be going over there again next Thursday. Not much else to report, other than that I started using a new fitness app on my phone recently. It's got some body weight exercises I've been doing in the morning before work. So far, so good with that. I'm still going to the gym at least twice a week, but I decided to add this app to hopefully help me lose a little bit of weight more quickly than otherwise. I'm getting older, so the bodyweight exercises help with mobility too which I need. We'll see how it goes.

lennys August 11, 2024

Not so fast...

It seems I spoke too soon when I said I had the DNS amplification problem solved. Last Thursday I got another nastygram email that told me the attacks were still occurring. I had to log back into my router and turn off a setting in the DNS controls that allowed outside requests - I thought I had done this previously, but the change must not have taken effect. But this time I noticed a sharp drop-off in traffic as soon as I applied the change, so I think I got the issue resolved now. I just checked my traffic graph and it looks good, so hopefully that will be the end of it. I guess I was being a bad netizen without knowing it, which gives me the sads. I didn't get much out of the last Python meetup I went to last Tuesday. This time they talked about HTMX, which I don't have any experience using and don't really know anything about, other than it's easier to use than React. I'm all for that, because I've used React on a couple of side projects I've made in the last year or so, and it was a pain in the ass to work with. I'm not really a front-end developer guy, so working with any kind of JavaScript framework is a struggle to understand. But this coming Tuesday the meetup is supposed to be about Jinja2, which is also a new one for me. It's used with Flask to develop websites. I haven't built anything with Flask yet so we'll see how this meetup goes. Hopefully I'll get something useful out of it. The last few meetups I've gone to I haven't participated in the discussion at all, which I'd like to change, but the subjects discussed aren't anything I have experience with so far so it feels a bit awkward. I might try introducing myself to a couple of the guys who run the presentations this coming Tuesday, we'll see. This past Thursday I went over to a friend's house after work and helped him work on a project he's doing. We made a Home Depot run to get some lumber, brought it back to his place and cut and planed a bunch of boards for a workbench. I had a good time doing it, but my eyes were watering for 2 days afterward from all the sawdust. I might be going over there again next week to work on it some more. Not a lot else going on right now. I have my toolbox project sitting at home waiting for me to finish sanding. I might work on that a little bit today. Hopefully I can get it prepped and ready for paint this coming weekend. I should have some free time available, but we'll see how it goes.

First Previous 6 7 8 9 10 Next Last