ZSFA -- 2008-03-16

How I Spent My PyCon Vacation

This was done as a presentation at the lightning talk.

Projects I Did

1) Worked on Zapps

It’s a parser generator that I forked from Amit Patel’s Yapps2 parser.

2) Python Idiopidae

A book building system that will help keep code and book separate but together.

You do this in code:

### @export "A Section" 
class MyClass:
    def __init__(self):
        pass
### @export main
    def main(self, stuff):
        pass
### @end

Then in your book:

This is the class we'll be working on:

### @import "test.py" "A Section" 

This is out main method:

### @import "test.py" main

And some other stuff

3) A Make Thing For Python

Looking around, people kept saying they wanted a make system. So I started one. Got a rough idea that will look something like:

do compile(build, hash="mtime"):
   "Builds a simple thing" 
   [download, untar, test:run]
   { exists("something.txt") }
   > cp /etc/passwd mybackup.txt
   file = open("mybackup.txt")
   > rm mybackup.txt

You could probably get away with doing this without a parser. Anyone interested in helping, let me know, since my Python skill is weak like baby.

easy_fucking_uninstall

Here’s the shell code I have so far:

easy_install -m $1
for i in `find /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ -name "$1*"`
do
  echo "Removing: $i" 
  rm -rf $i
done

Was that so damn hard? Shit.

Great Quotes

“Oh, you’re Zed Shaw! Wow, you’re not an asshole at all. You’re quite pleasant.”

“Oh, you’re Zed Shaw? Please don’t hurt me.”

“You look exactly like your blog picture.”

Things I Didn’t Hear (Thankfully)

“Fuck You”—DHH

You guys are so nice!

“I want you to RAM me in the ass!”—Fanboi

Ok, please don’t try to write like me. It’s weird.

“I got this great idea. Sign this NDA.”—MBA

Moreo n this later.

I Ate Crow

Bear Stearns Tanked 40%

Not Even Banks Are Safe

I Might Need A Job Tuesday

How NOT To Recruit Zed

 

I'm looking for a co-founder/s (not employees, so there's no
money involved until at LEAST a demo is in place).

I supply:

1.  The idea that will give you a smug, warm glow on the inside
knowing you're making a better world for many by outsmarting some
of the "powers that be" at the top of society.

2.  The business model.  Money comes from users, users have the
money and a demonstrated history of willingness to pay for
similar, but vastly inferior type of services.

3.  An awesome identity.  Other people only delude themselves
into thinking their web 2.0 identities are awesome.  Mine
actually is.

4.  At least one solid financial contact who I've know personally
for about a decade and is very close to a lot of money overseas
which wants to invest in many things and couldn't care less about
a U.S. recession.

I AM LOOKING FOR AN ACTIVE, FULL OR EVEN PART-TIME COFOUNDER,
EITHER AS AN INDIVIDUAL OR AS A FIRM, TO HELP ME PUT TOGETHER A
WORKING DEMO; SPECIFICALLY:

1. A "37 Signals" approach to getting work started.  I am not a
bank.  I don't have a huge budget and a huge staff and this is
not a market which changes once every 20 years.  If you can't get
started hacking until you have a spec sheet that takes 8 months
to put together, then I would say I need more initiative and
know-how in a partner.

2.  An entrepreneurial nature, by which I mean the following: The
ability to PURSUE a PERCEIVED strategic opportunity regardless of
tactical considerations.

Action and adjustments, not endless planning sessions.

3.  An NDA - either directly or at first indirectly by someoone
you trust and can use as an intermediary to determine if you
should bother signing one.  

I am not a big fan of the "ideas are a dime-a-dozen, it's all
about execution."  I don't want to get into a debate.  People who
insist on this usually never actually had or came across a good
idea, and usually their ability to execute is far less than their
prima-donna personalities would have onlookers believe.