Blog Posts in "django"

If this works

Posted at 18:58:16 on Sun, January 18th 2009 by graham
in: django huzzah new site

Then this site has finally been updated to be compatible with Django 1.0.2.

Let joy be unconfined.

Edit: Okay, almost everything worked. Fixed now.

Feeling the WSGI love

Posted at 17:44:19 on Thu, December 11th 2008 by graham
in: apache django

This site is now running on Apache + mod_wsgi. Win.

If you're seeing this...

Posted at 15:19:42 on Sun, June 22nd 2008 by graham
in: blog code django new design news new site postgres writing

... then the DNS records have propagated correctly and your RSS feed reader is now slurping from the new grahambinns.com server, which is just hunky dory as far as I'm concerned.

I've been working on this version of things for a while. Besides a re-skin - which taught me a lot about how I should be designing my templates and CSS, so it should be a bit easier next time - I've also tidied up the codebase a bit and added some new features. Most of them are under the hood, but here are some of them for those of you that care:

  • Each piece of content on the site has its own license. For example, all my photos are CC-BY-NC-SA, as is all the content here so far. But when I start adding stories here (and it will happen within the next few months, I hope) I'll be able to license them as I see fit.
  • I can now make posts using markdown syntax. This might not seem like a big deal but over the years I've come to loathe sites that simply turn linebreaks into <br />s (yes, Wordpress, I'm looking at you. You still do it, even with valid HTML posts). On this site I used to use TinyMCE as a WYSWIG HTML editor, which worked fine but was pretty horrendous to load on a slow connection. Now I just use markdown and let Django's markup app do all the work. Fantastic.
  • You can now post comments using markdown syntax. No more trying to post a link and having Django eat it!
  • I can now post to the blog by email. I thought about using gpg signatures to validate my emails but realised that it was too complicated (we do it in the Launchpad email interface and one look at that code a while back persuaded me to not do it unless I had to). Instead I've gone for generating single-use authentication tokens, which suits me fine and should hopefully - along with an obscure incoming address - stop spammers from doing nasty things.
  • The site now supports pingbacks, though at the moment it can only receive them until I iron out some issues with the pingback sending code.

There are a lot more things that I've fixed, added, tweaked and polished, but none that are particularly interesting.

So here, finally, are the vital statistics of the new site:

  • Server: Bytemark virtual server running Ubuntu 8.04.
  • Django 0.97-pre (to be upgraded to 1.0 stable when it comes out in September).
  • PostgreSQL 8.3 (the migration to which fixed so many problems it's unreal).
  • Apache with mod_python for serving the Django stuff.
  • Lighttpd for serving the static files.

Things change

Posted at 18:00:59 on Mon, August 20th 2007 by graham
in: bullet points django new site

In amongst all the programming (for money), programming (for free), writing a second novel (still not convinced that I'm actually doing that yet but it's a nice journal so I better flaming had be), amateur photography, sleeping, eating and having a life that I seem to be doing at the moment, I'm in the mood for some changes to the site.

So to that end I've got a list of things that I want to change:

  1. Style - the templates are dull and boring, even if I did used to think they were quietly understated. They aren't, end of story.
  2. More Stuff, dammit! (As in more than just a blog, at least).
  3. Integration of external stuff - Flickr, Twitter et. al. - so that you good people don't have to ferret around for it.
  4. Possibly - though I'm not sure yet - putting the source up for download so that all you schmuck who want to use the same code that I use can do. Of course, you could also take the opportunity to point out where I went wrong and improve on it, which is also welcome (though don't expect me to always be cheerfully happy about it).
If you've got any ideas that you want to add just drop a comment here.

In passing

Posted at 00:26:27 on Fri, August 17th 2007 by graham
in: bullet points django new site posts that started out differently religion

I have much that I want to blog about but I've had less than eight hours sleep in the last two days and it's making things a bit blurry about now. I will get round to the bit about religion and how it can cause problems in conversation. And now I think I'll shut my eyes and ponder whether or not to integrate Flickr and Twitter and all the other e?rs with the main posts feed on the blog.

Which is probably too much for this time in the morning, but whilst I'm alive I can but think, can't I.

Or I might think about fairy tales. Yes, that seems more likely. 

About

Graham Binns is a writer, photographer, musician and software developer from Lancaster, England, with far too much hair, a penchant for odd t-shirts and a magnificent hat. He has been making things up for as long as he can remember and has been making code work for long enough to make a living from it.

He has written one novel, which is in the process of composting, and is working remembering how to write before embarking on a second. In the meantime, he photographs things, since it's easier not to have to make the world up in his head all of the time.

From the gallery

Raaaar. Etc. Now with two added lights Wanting for a three-light setup Michelle at La Mola Michelle at La Mola