Telepods of Doom
It is the year 2112. Telepods have been in use for a decade to instantly transport matter from one part of the universe to another. You are waiting in line with your family at a telepod station to go...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Be difficult. Be compelling. But above all—be contrary.
I had a marvelous idea for a website that combines fairly traditional elements from web applications like bulletin boards with elements from Web2.0 sites. I mulled it over for a while, and explained it...
View ArticleBeing Contrary with Turbogears
I promised to write up a report on my experiences building becontrary.com with Python and the TurboGears framework. An earlier post explains the concept of the site, and what it is intended for.I...
View ArticleConvince Me to Be Contrary
I just came across a site that is remarkably similar in concept to becontrary.com, called convinceme.net. I don't think it existed when I started work on my site. Like becontrary.com, they have dual...
View ArticleCaching Aggregated News Feeds
Did some work on becontrary.com today. The front page was a little dull and had a bounce rate of 49.8% according to Google Analytics, which means that almost half of the visitors that land there don't...
View ArticleTimed Caching Decorator
Here's the caching decorator I mentioned in my previous blog entry about optimizing the front page of becontrary.com. It is pretty simple to use, you supply the same parameters to it as timedelata. So...
View ArticleXML or Text for Python Templates
There are a number of (very good) templating systems and languages available for Python. They fall in to one of two camps; either they are XML based, like Genshi, or they are text based, like Mako....
View ArticleBeContrary out of Beta
BeContrary.com seems to have been well-received. There hasn't been a huge amount of visitors, but I do have some loyal regulars that have made some great arguments. The site was on a few of the social...
View ArticleIs there a CSS expert in the house?
I've noticed that links in becontrary.com that have have a fragment (i.e. something after a #) don't always go to the exact location of the named anchor. I figured this was a Firefox bug originally,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tag clouds look better sorted!
I like the idea of tag-clouds and tags in general, but I had problems making them look good in becontrary.com. I experimented with changing the relative size and blending colors, as well as with the...
View ArticleVirtual Microbes
I hacked together a Facebook application recently. I was looking in to integrating Becontrary.com with Facebook, but I had an idea for a simple app that would help me learn the ropes with FB. Its...
View ArticleWriting a Facebook Application with Python, Pt. I
I promised to write up my experiences developing Virtual Microbes, a Facebook application. Its a lot to get through so I've decided to split it up in to installments. This installment is a lightning...
View ArticleWriting a Facebook Application with Python Pt. II
For the first part series of post, click here for Part I.Writing a Facebook application is in essence the same as writing any web application, only with an additional step where the output from your...
View ArticleWriting a Facebook Application with Python Pt. III
This is the third part in a series of three posts about writing a Facebook application with Facebook. If you have not already ready done so, you should read the first and second parts first.The...
View ArticlePracticality versus Purity for Python Templates
There are a number of very powerful template languages available in Python. Some template languages, such as Genshi, allow complex Python statements and even full Python code within the template file....
View Article
