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Normalizing date strings with the Python dateutil module
I recently attended a Python workshop with Jeff Cohen and he answered a ton of random questions from students. One student mentioned that he was overwhelmed with the number of Python modules and Jeff told us that he has evolved his Python skills by learning at least one new module each week. I've started doing this as well and it's been a HUGE help. Each Sunday I find a module I'm not familiar with in PiPY or the standard library and read through the documents…
$ read more →My path to bees and vegetables
A couple years back I purchased our first home. It was a "fixer upper" so I spent a year or two working on various projects. Once those were complete I decided to start raising honey bees and growing fruits and vegetables. This was one of the best decisions of my life and it it just as challenging as designing and troubleshooting complex computer systems…
$ read more →Using a low cost HDTV antenna to gain access to lots of free over the air digital TV channels
I talked previously about how I saved a bunch of money by ditching cable. When I first disconnected my cable, my HDTV's built-in scanner was only able to pick up two two stations. While this was better than nothing, I figured given the size of our city there had to be more content available. So I started doing some research, and came across the Leaf Indoor HDTV antenna…
$ read more →How I saved $80 a month on my cable and Internet bill
I was reviewing my cable bill last month and was floored that I was spending $120 a month for a DVR, cable and Internet access. This blew my mind, and I set out on a quest to lower my bill without losing access to quality content (I like to watch educational shows and documentaries). I had a couple of requirements prior to heading down this road: I needed to be able to view shows on the major TV networks. Internet bandwidth needed to be sufficient to stream movies from Hulu, Netflix or Apple…
$ read more →Slides from my introduction to gluster presentation
I gave a talk on Gluster this evening at our local UNIX users group. I had a good time talking, and enjoyed interacting with everyone that came out. The introduction to Gluster presentation slides are available in the presentation section of my website, and I'll make sure to get them linked to the users group website. I would like to thank everyone for coming out…
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