Over the past 6 years, I've built a lot of things with Django. It has treated me very well, and I have very much enjoyed seeing it progress. I got into Django when I helped the company I was working for transition away from a homegrown PHP framework toward something more reliable and flexible. It was very exciting to learn more about Django at a time when the ecosystem was very young.

When I started with Django, there weren't a lot of pluggable apps to fill the void for things like blogs, event calendars, and other useful utilities for the kinds of sites I was building. That has changed quite a bit since then. The ecosystem has evolved and progressed like mad, and it's wonderful. We have so many choices for simple things to very complex things. It's amazing!

Unfortunately, during this whole time period, my development efforts have shifted from creating my own open source projects to share with the world toward more proprietary solutions for my employers. If it's not obvious to you from my blog activity in recent years, I've become very busy with family life and work. I have very little time to give my open source projects the attention they deserve.

For at least 4 years, I've been telling myself that I'd have/make time to revamp all of my projects. To make them usable with what Django is today instead of what it was when I built the projects. Yeah, this time has never showed up. Take a look at the last time I wrote a blog article!

I have decided to disown pretty much all of my open source Django projects. I've basically done this with one or two of the more popular projects already--let someone else take the reigns while I lurk in the background and occasionally comment on an issue here or there. I truly appreciate those who have taken the initiative here. But there are still plenty of projects that people may find useful that need some attention. I'm putting it up to the community to take these projects over if you find them useful so they can get the love and attention they need.

Here is a list of Django projects that anyone is free to assume responsibility for. Most of them are silly and mostly useless now. Some are unpleasant to look at and could use an entire rewrite.

• django-articles - Blogging engine, which I wrote for my own site many years ago. This one could probably use a full rewrite. [already maintained by John Leith].
• django-tracking - Visitor tracking to see what page a user is on and their general location based on IP. Update 2015-07-28: Adopted by bashu.
• django-axes - Track failed login attempts and ban users. This one is already pretty much owned by aclark4life
• django-reploc - Designed to show representative/retailer locations. I only used it on one site, but it was designed to be generic.
• django-smileys - To easily replace things like :) and B-) with emoticons or whatever. Pretty lame. Update 2015-07-28: Adopted by bashu.
• django-pendulum - A very basic time-tracking app. I believe this has already been forked and used for some more interesting commercial projects.
• django-bibliophile - A way to let your visitors know what you're reading.
• django-watermark - Some utilities to add watermarks to images. Update 2015-07-28: Adopted by bashu.
• Any other Django-related project you see at https://github.com/codekoala?tab=repositories or https://bitbucket.org/codekoala/

The fact that I'm giving up these projects does not mean I'm giving up on Django. On the contrary, I'm still using it quite heavily. I'm just doing it in such a way that I can't necessarily post my work for everyone to use. I honestly don't expect much of this disowning effort, since the projects are mostly stale and incompatible with recent versions of Django. But please let me know if you do want to take over one of my projects and care for it.

Earlier this month, I completed yet another journey around the biggest star in our galaxy. Some of my beloved family members thought this would be a good occasion to send me some cash, and I also got a gift card for being plain awesome at work. Even though we really do need a bigger car and whatnot, my wife insisted that I only spend this money on myself and whatever I wanted.

Little did she know the can of worms she just opened up.

I took pretty much all of the money and blew it on stuff for my electronics projects. Up to this point, my projects have all been pretty boring simply because nothing ever moved--it was mostly just lights turning on and off or changing colors. Sure, that's fun, but things really start to get interesting when you actually interact with the physical world. With the birthday money, I was finally able to buy a bunch of servos to begin living out my childhood dream of building robots.

My first project since getting all of my new toys was a motorized webcam mount. My parents bought me a Logitech C910 for my birthday because they were tired of trying to see their grandchildren with the crappy webcam that is built into my laptop. It was a perfect opportunity to use SparkFun's tutorial for some facial tracking (thanks to OpenCV) using their Pan/Tilt Servo Bracket.

It took a little while to get everything setup properly, but SparkFun's tutorial explains perfectly how you can get everything setup if you want to repeat this project.

The problem I had with the SparkFun tutorial, though, is that it basically only gives you a standalone program that does the facial tracking and displays your webcam feed. What good is that? I actually wanted to use this rig to chat with people!! That's when I set out to figure out how to do this.

While the Processing sketch ran absolutely perfect on Windows, it didn't want to work on my Arch Linux system due to some missing dependencies that I didn't know how/care to satisfy. As such, I opted to rewrite the sketch using Python so I could do the facial tracking in Linux.

This is still a work in progress, but here's the current facial tracking program which tells the Arduino where the webcam should be pointing, along with the Arduino sketch.

Now that I could track a face and move my webcam in Linux, I still faced the same problem as before: how can I use my face-tracking, webcam-moving program during a chat with my mom? I had no idea how to accomplish this. I figured I would have to either intercept the webcam feed as it was going to Skype or the Google Talk Plugin, or I'd have to somehow consume the webcam feed and proxy it back out as a V4L2 device that the Google Talk Plugin could then use.

Trying to come up with a way of doing that seemed rather impossible (at least in straight Python), but I eventually stumbled upon a couple little gems.

• A GStreamer webcam tutorial
• v4l2loopback

So the GStreamer tutorial walks you step-by-step through different ways of using a gst-launch utility, and I found this information very useful. I learned that you can use tee to split a webcam feed and do two different things with it. I wondered if it would be possible to split one webcam feed and send it to two other V4L2 devices.

Enter v4l2loopback.

I was able to install this module from Arch's AUR, and using it was super easy (you should be root for this):

modprobe v4l2loopback devices=2

This created two new /dev/video* devices on my system, which happened to be /dev/video4 and /dev/video5 (yeah... been playing with a lot of webcams and whatnot). One device, video4, is for consumption by my face-tracking program. The other, video5, is for VLC, Skype, Google+ Hangouts, etc. After creating those devices, I simply ran the following command as a regular user:

gst-launch-0.10 v4l2src device=/dev/video1 ! \
    'video/x-raw-yuv,width=640,height=480,framerate=30/1' ! \
    tee name=t_vid ! queue ! \
    v4l2sink sync=false device=/dev/video4 t_vid. ! \
    queue ! videorate ! 'video/x-raw-yuv,framerate=30/1' ! \
    v4l2sink device=/dev/video5

There's a whole lot of stuff going on in that command that I honestly do not understand. All I know is that it made it so both my face-tracking Python program AND VLC can consume the same video feed via two different V4L2 devices! A co-worker of mine agreed to have a quick Google+ Hangout with me to test this setup under "real" circumstances (thx man). It worked :D Objective reached!

I had really hoped to find a way to handle this stuff inside Python, but I have to admit that this is a pretty slick setup. A lot of things are still hardcoded, but I do plan on making things a little more generic soon enough.

So here's my little rig (why yes, I did mount it on top of an old Kool-Aid powder thingy lid):

And a video of it in action. Please excuse the subject of the webcam video, I'm not sure where that guy came from or why he's playing with my webcam.

There has been quite a bit of recent activity in my 2ze.us project since I first released it nearly a year ago. My intent was not to become a competitor with bit.ly, is.gd, or anyone else in the URL-shortening arena. I created the site as a way for me to learn more about Google's AppEngine. It didn't take very long to get it up and running, and it seemed to work fairly well.

I learned something new today about Python 2.5 and newer. I thought it was so nifty that I decided to write a blog article about it. Hopefully someone out there finds it as interestingly useful as I do.

One of the things I find myself doing quite often in my code (be it Python, PHP, Java, or what have you) is a simple conditional assignment like so:

if foo:
    bar = 'baz'
else:
    bar = 'qux'

In a lot of languages these days, you can use a ternary operator as follows to turn these four lines into a one-liner:

<?php
$bar = $foo ? 'baz' : 'qux';
?>

However, this ternary operator does not exist in Python. I have used various means in the past to accomplish the same task without using code like we saw in the first code block above, but they were all very hackish. Today I was happy to learn that there is an official way to do it in Python:

bar = ('baz' if foo else 'qux')

I'm not sure which one is more confusing to newbies: Python's conditional expressions or other languages' ternary operator. Personally, I prefer constructs like these to make my code more concise. I my mind, they also make the code more readable. I have heard some folks argue that ternary operators and the like obfuscate the code more than necessary, so they discourage the use of such tactics and recommend using the classic approach featured in the first example.

For those who are interested, I learned about it and a few other neat things in Python 2.5 and newer at http://www.python.org/doc/2.5/whatsnew/pep-308.html.

I've decided that if I ever want to really understand Linux, I'll have to give as many distributions as possible a chance. In the past, I've tried to use OpenSUSE on my HP Pavilion dv8000 laptop, but it never seemed quite as robust or useful as many other distributions that I've tried on the same machine.

With the recent release of OpenSUSE 11.1, I downloaded the final 32-bit DVD ISO as I normally do for newly released distributions (even if I don't plan on using them--it's an addiction). I proceeded to install the GNOME version of it in a virtual machine to see what all the hubbub was about. Evaluating an operating system within a virtual machine is not the most effective way to do things, but everything seemed fairly solid. As such, and since I have always had difficulties keeping any RPM-based distro around for any length of time, I plan on using OpenSUSE 11.1 through March 2008 (perhaps longer if it grows on me). If it hoses my system, I will go back to something better. If it works, I will learn to use and appreciate it better.

/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
modprobe b43

wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/\
linux/ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run

zypper in kernel-source gcc make patch

sh ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run

rm /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so && ln -s /usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so \
/usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.orig
aticonfig --initial -f

sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx

display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon Xpress Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.8304 Release

I just had to come up with a blog post about these newly released bits of awesomeness!!

• Slackware 12.2 was announced this morning
• Google has launched two new Labs features for Gmail: a simple task list and the ability to send SMS messages within Gmail itself. w00t

I wish I had more time to report other important releases, but I must study!!!

So the other day I wrote up an article that sarcastically compared PHP and Python syntax a little. While I am completely serious when I say that I prefer Python's syntax a heck of a lot more than that of PHP, I thought it might be a good thing for me to demonstrate that the code I posted before could have been more appealing had it been thought out a little more. After a solid year of not really dealing with anything besides Python, I will share a feeble attempt at cleaning up/optimizing the PHP code.

Let's start with this snippet:

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<?php
$this->result=(isset($tmp["UMstatus"])?$tmp["UMstatus"]:"Error");
$this->resultcode=(isset($tmp["UMresult"])?$tmp["UMresult"]:"E");
$this->authcode=(isset($tmp["UMauthCode"])?$tmp["UMauthCode"]:"");
$this->refnum=(isset($tmp["UMrefNum"])?$tmp["UMrefNum"]:"");
$this->batch=(isset($tmp["UMbatch"])?$tmp["UMbatch"]:"");
$this->avs_result=(isset($tmp["UMavsResult"])?$tmp["UMavsResult"]:"");
$this->avs_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMavsResultCode"])?$tmp["UMavsResultCode"]:"");
$this->cvv2_result=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2Result"])?$tmp["UMcvv2Result"]:"");
$this->cvv2_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2ResultCode"])?$tmp["UMcvv2ResultCode"]:"");
$this->vpas_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMvpasResultCode"])?$tmp["UMvpasResultCode"]:"");
$this->convertedamount=(isset($tmp["UMconvertedAmount"])?$tmp["UMconvertedAmount"]:"");
$this->convertedamountcurrency=(isset($tmp["UMconvertedAmountCurrency"])?$tmp["UMconvertedAmountCurrency"]:"");
$this->conversionrate=(isset($tmp["UMconversionRate"])?$tmp["UMconversionRate"]:"");
$this->error=(isset($tmp["UMerror"])?$tmp["UMerror"]:"");
$this->errorcode=(isset($tmp["UMerrorcode"])?$tmp["UMerrorcode"]:"10132");
$this->custnum=(isset($tmp["UMcustnum"])?$tmp["UMcustnum"]:"");

$this->avs=(isset($tmp["UMavsResult"])?$tmp["UMavsResult"]:"");
$this->cvv2=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2Result"])?$tmp["UMcvv2Result"]:"");
?>

We see a lot of duplicate code in this chunk of code. The only thing that really changes much are the variable names and associative array keys. If we had defined a function that looked something like this...

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<?php
function assign($member, $arr, $key, $default='') {
    $this->$member = isset($arr[$key]) ? $arr[$key] : $default;
}
?>

...things might just look a bit better. Let's see what the snippet might look like with this function defined in the same class:

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<?php
$this->assign("result", $tmp, "UMstatus", "Error");
$this->assign("resultcode", $tmp, "UMresult", "E");
$this->assign("authcode", $tmp, "UMauthCode");
$this->assign("refnum", $tmp, "UMrefNum");
$this->assign("batch", $tmp, "UMbatch");
$this->assign("avs_result", $tmp, "UMavsResult");
$this->assign("avs_result_code", $tmp, "UMavsResultCode");
$this->assign("cvv2_result", $tmp, "UMcvv2Result");
$this->assign("cvv2_result_code", $tmp, "UMcvv2ResultCode");
$this->assign("vpas_result_code", $tmp, "UMvpasResultCode");
$this->assign("convertedamount", $tmp, "UMconvertedAmount");
$this->assign("convertedamountcurrency", $tmp, "UMconvertedAmountCurrency");
$this->assign("conversionrate", $tmp, "UMconversionRate");
$this->assign("error", $tmp, "UMerror");
$this->assign("errorcode", $tmp, "UMerrorcode", "10132");
$this->assign("custnum", $tmp, "UMcustnum");

$this->assign("avs", $tmp, "UMavsResult");
$this->assign("cvv2", $tmp, "UMcvv2Result");
?>

In my opinion, this still isn't as appealing as the Python solution, but I'd take it over the original code. It's a lot easier to read. This may or may not be the best solution on any level of scrutiny--feel free to comment with any suggestions for ways to further improve things.

The second snippet from my original post could use a lot more help than the first one. I don't know who these guys are who wrote the PHP USA ePay module, but I think they could use a little assistance. No offense if you're reading this article--just some friendly constructive criticism. I would expect no less from anyone else who was examining my code and found ways to improve its efficiency.

Here's the original:

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<?php
switch(substr($ccnum,0,1))
{
    case 2: //enRoute - First four digits must be 2014 or 2149. Only valid length is 15 digits
        if((substr($ccnum,0,4) == "2014" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "2149") && strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 20;
        break;
    case 3: //JCB - Um yuck, read the if statement below, and oh by the way 300 through 309 overlaps with diners club.  bummer.
        if((substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3088" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3096" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3112" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3158" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3337" ||
            (substr($ccnum,0,8) >= "35280000" ||substr($ccnum,0,8) <= "358999999")) && strlen($ccnum)==16)
        {
            return 28;
        } else {
            switch(substr($ccnum,1,1))
            {
                case 4:
                case 7: // American Express - First digit must be 3 and second digit 4 or 7. Only Valid length is 15
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 3;
                    break;
                    case 0:
                case 6:
                case 8: //Diners Club/Carte Blanche - First digit must be 3 and second digit 0, 6 or 8. Only valid length is 14
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 14) return 4;
                    break;
            }
        }
        break;
    case 4: // Visa - First digit must be a 4 and length must be either 13 or 16 digits.
        if(strlen($ccnum) == 13 || strlen($ccnum) == 16)
        {
            return 2;
        }
        break;

    case 5: // Mastercard - First digit must be a 5 and second digit must be int the range 1 to 5 inclusive. Only valid length is 16
        if((substr($ccnum,1,1) >=1 && substr($ccnum,1,1) <=5) && strlen($ccnum) == 16)
        {
            return 1;
        }
        break;
case 6: // Discover - First four digits must be 6011. Only valid length is 16 digits.
        if(substr($ccnum,0,4) == "6011" && strlen($ccnum) == 16) return 10;
}
?>

The first, and most obvious, improvement I would make to this code is to cram the substr($ccnum,0,4) junk into its own variable. It's used 8 different times up there. While substring operations might not be the most costly of functions out there, there's no need to repeatedly call the same function to get the same value that many times in the same block of code.

Similar to how I wrote the Python version, I would also throw the things that are repeatedly compared to the substr($ccnum,0,4) into an array and use the in_array function to increase readability. Oh, and consistent indentation (and not just because I like Python--it's good style to align things).

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<?php
$four = substr($ccnum, 0, 4);
switch (substr($ccnum, 0, 1)) {
    case 2:
        /* enRoute - First four digits must be 2014 or 2149. Only valid
           length is 15 digits */
        if (in_array($four, array("2014", "2149")) && strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 20;
        break;
    case 3:
        /* JCB - Um yuck, read the if statement below, and oh by the way
           300 through 309 overlaps with diners club.  bummer. */
        if (in_array($four, array("3088", "3096", "3112", "3158", "3337")) ||
            in_array(substr($ccnum, 0, 8), array("35280000", "358999999")) &&
            strlen($ccnum) == 16) {
            return 28;
        } else {
            switch (substr($ccnum, 1, 1)) {
                case 4:
                case 7:
                    /* American Express - First digit must be 3 and second
                       digit 4 or 7. Only Valid length is 15 */
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 3;
                    break;
                case 0:
                case 6:
                case 8:
                    /* Diners Club/Carte Blanche - First digit must be 3
                       and second digit 0, 6 or 8. Only valid length is 14 */
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 14) return 4;
                    break;
            }
        }
        break;
    case 4:
        /* Visa - First digit must be a 4 and length must be either 13 or
           16 digits. */
        if (strlen($ccnum) == 13 || strlen($ccnum) == 16) {
            return 2;
        }
        break;
    case 5:
        /* Mastercard - First digit must be a 5 and second digit must be
           int the range 1 to 5 inclusive. Only valid length is 16 */
        if ($ccnum[1] >= 1 && $ccnum[1] <= 5 && strlen($ccnum) == 16) {
            return 1;
        }
        break;
    case 6:
        /* Discover - First four digits must be 6011. Only valid length
           is 16 digits. */
        if ($four == "6011" && strlen($ccnum) == 16) return 10;
}
?>

That just feels better to me. It should work exactly the same as the original snippet (though I admit I haven't tested it--don't even have PHP installed these days), but it just looks a heck of a lot better to me. Again, it might not be the most efficient way of accomplishing the desired task, but I consider these minor changes to make all the difference when you're required to maintain the code you wrote :)

You might notice that my version of the PHP is 10 lines longer than the original. That's mostly due to the fact that I try to respect the 80-character margin by wrapping lines before reaching that point. I believe this also adds to the pleasing appearance, but I realize that's more of a subjective thing these days.

Flame away folks!

Today I was working on a USA ePay payment module for Satchmo. I had access to some work done by another chap, but I wanted to get a better feel for what needed to be happening in the payment module, so I examined some of the stuff that other people had done as well. I studied the "official" PHP version of the payment module for a little while. Things seemed pretty self-explanatory, so I decided I might as well translate the PHP library into Python.

Most of the translation process was quite mundane... removing dollar signs here and there, getting rid of the dirty -> junk, etc. However, toward the end of the translation process, I started to actually enjoy myself. That's because I wasn't just defining variables left and right--I actually started doing some stuff for processing. Here's some of the PHP code:

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<?php
$this->result=(isset($tmp["UMstatus"])?$tmp["UMstatus"]:"Error");
$this->resultcode=(isset($tmp["UMresult"])?$tmp["UMresult"]:"E");
$this->authcode=(isset($tmp["UMauthCode"])?$tmp["UMauthCode"]:"");
$this->refnum=(isset($tmp["UMrefNum"])?$tmp["UMrefNum"]:"");
$this->batch=(isset($tmp["UMbatch"])?$tmp["UMbatch"]:"");
$this->avs_result=(isset($tmp["UMavsResult"])?$tmp["UMavsResult"]:"");
$this->avs_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMavsResultCode"])?$tmp["UMavsResultCode"]:"");
$this->cvv2_result=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2Result"])?$tmp["UMcvv2Result"]:"");
$this->cvv2_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2ResultCode"])?$tmp["UMcvv2ResultCode"]:"");
$this->vpas_result_code=(isset($tmp["UMvpasResultCode"])?$tmp["UMvpasResultCode"]:"");
$this->convertedamount=(isset($tmp["UMconvertedAmount"])?$tmp["UMconvertedAmount"]:"");
$this->convertedamountcurrency=(isset($tmp["UMconvertedAmountCurrency"])?$tmp["UMconvertedAmountCurrency"]:"");
$this->conversionrate=(isset($tmp["UMconversionRate"])?$tmp["UMconversionRate"]:"");
$this->error=(isset($tmp["UMerror"])?$tmp["UMerror"]:"");
$this->errorcode=(isset($tmp["UMerrorcode"])?$tmp["UMerrorcode"]:"10132");
$this->custnum=(isset($tmp["UMcustnum"])?$tmp["UMcustnum"]:"");

$this->avs=(isset($tmp["UMavsResult"])?$tmp["UMavsResult"]:"");
$this->cvv2=(isset($tmp["UMcvv2Result"])?$tmp["UMcvv2Result"]:"");
?>

Seems fairly self-explanatory, right? Heh. Now let's look at the Python version of this:

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self.result = res.get('UMstatus', 'Error')
self.resultcode = res.get('UMresult', 'E')
self.authcode = res.get('UMauthCode', '')
self.refnum = res.get('UMrefNum', '')
self.batch = res.get('UMbatch', '')
self.avs_result = res.get('UMavsResult', '')
self.avs_result_code = res.get('UMavsResultCode', '')
self.cvv2_result = res.get('UMcvv2Result', '')
self.cvv2_result_code = res.get('UMcvv2ResultCode', '')
self.vpas_result_code = res.get('UMvpasResultCode', '')
self.convertedamount = res.get('UMconvertedAmount', '')
self.convertedamountcurrency = res.get('UMconvertedAmountCurrency', '')
self.conversionrate = res.get('UMconversionRate', '')
self.error = res.get('UMerror', '')
self.errorcode = res.get('UMerrorcode', '10132')
self.custnum = res.get('UMcustnum', '')

self.avs = res.get('UMavsResult', '')
self.cvv2 = res.get('UMcvv2Result', '')

<sarcasm>Wow, yeah... PHP really does rock! It must be the coolness factor behind the ternary operator they use! The Python code is just horrible compared to the PHP code.

How about the part where you check to see if a credit card number fits the profile of a known credit card? The PHP:

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<?php
switch(substr($ccnum,0,1))
{
    case 2: //enRoute - First four digits must be 2014 or 2149. Only valid length is 15 digits
        if((substr($ccnum,0,4) == "2014" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "2149") && strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 20;
        break;
    case 3: //JCB - Um yuck, read the if statement below, and oh by the way 300 through 309 overlaps with diners club.  bummer.
        if((substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3088" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3096" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3112" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3158" || substr($ccnum,0,4) == "3337" ||
            (substr($ccnum,0,8) >= "35280000" ||substr($ccnum,0,8) <= "358999999")) && strlen($ccnum)==16)
        {
            return 28;
        } else {
            switch(substr($ccnum,1,1))
            {
                case 4:
                case 7: // American Express - First digit must be 3 and second digit 4 or 7. Only Valid length is 15
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 15) return 3;
                    break;
                    case 0:
                case 6:
                case 8: //Diners Club/Carte Blanche - First digit must be 3 and second digit 0, 6 or 8. Only valid length is 14
                    if(strlen($ccnum) == 14) return 4;
                    break;
            }
        }
        break;
    case 4: // Visa - First digit must be a 4 and length must be either 13 or 16 digits.
        if(strlen($ccnum) == 13 || strlen($ccnum) == 16)
        {
             return 2;
        }
        break;

    case 5: // Mastercard - First digit must be a 5 and second digit must be int the range 1 to 5 inclusive. Only valid length is 16
        if((substr($ccnum,1,1) >=1 && substr($ccnum,1,1) <=5) && strlen($ccnum) == 16)
        {
            return 1;
        }
        break;
case 6: // Discover - First four digits must be 6011. Only valid length is 16 digits.
        if(substr($ccnum,0,4) == "6011" && strlen($ccnum) == 16) return 10;
}
?>

Very eloquent. Let's see how bad the Python looks on this one:

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first = ccnum[0]
four = ccnum[0:4]
if first == '2' and len(ccnum) == 15 and four in ['2014', '2149']:
    # enRoute: first four digits must be 2014 or 2149. Only valid length
    # is 15 digits
    return 20
elif first == '3':
    # JCB
    if len(ccnum) == 16 and four in ['3088', '3096', '3112', '3158', '3337'] \
        or ccnum[0:8] in ['35280000', '35899999']:
        return 28
    else:
        if len(ccnum) == 15 and ccnum[1] in ['4', '7']:
            # American Express: first digit must be 3 and second must be
            # 4 or 7.  Only valid length is 15 digits
            return 3
        elif len(ccnum) == 14 and ccnum[1] in ['0', '6', '8']:
            # Diners Club/Carte Blanche: first digit must be 3 and second
            # digit must be 0, 6, or 8.  Only valid length is 14
            return 4
elif first == '4' and len(ccnum) in [13, 16]:
    # Visa: first digit must be 4 and length must be either 13 or 16
    return 2
elif first == '5' and len(ccnum) == 16:
    # Mastercard: first digit must be a 5 and second must be in the range
    # 1 to 5 inclusive.  Only valid length is 16
    if int(ccnum[1]) in range(1, 6):
        return 1
elif first == '6' and len(ccnum) == 16 and four == '6011':
    # Discover: first four digits must be 6011.  Only valid length is 16
    return 10

Eek gads!!! It's so obvious why PHP is the language of choice for so many people out there. Python doesn't even have a switch statement, for crying out loud! Inconceivable!</sarcasm>

I'm so glad I was able to escape the grips of PHP.

This morning I've been doing some research for work, and I stumbled upon an article that is very helpful for freelancers like me (relatively new to the freelance arena) and people looking for freelancers/design agencies.

Given the recent freelance opportunities that I have been involved with, I found this article to be particularly beneficial. There are many pieces of advice that, taken into consideration, really do distinguish the good freelancers/design agencies from the bad ones.

If the agency has any clue at all, your company will basically have to "interview for the job" in order to be accepted as a client. Agencies that know what they're doing work hard to take on only those projects and those clients that are a good fit for their skill set, even their personality. They'll want to get to know you a bit and they'll want to learn much about your project, its scope, and your specific expectations before they agree to work with you. If you find that they immediately suggest you work with them and start talking about sending you a contract, you're probably talking to the wrong agency. Hang up the phone.

I know that I am guilty of such behavior. In the past, I have quickly jumped at any opportunity to make some extra cash as a freelancer. It usually doesn't take a long time before I begin regretting my hasty acceptance of a job. This is extremely sound advice.

If anyone other than the designer who did the work presents the designs to you, something's amiss and there is likely more yet to go astray. It is an unfortunate habit among some agencies to ever get between the client and the designer. This is a terrible mistake and a clear sign that the agency, large or small, is not well run. As a result, the work produced by the agency is likely to be flawed for the voids in understanding and effectiveness that result. In short, if your project's design phase does not begin and end with direct contact between yourself and the designer, you're getting short shrift. Find another agency.

I'd like to twist this one around a little. I completely agree with what Andy has said here, but I have also been on the receiving end of this particular type of situation. On one recent project, I was receiving instructions from a person who apparently didn't have the same goals as the "real" client. The end result was a product the "real" client didn't really want. Working directly with the client/agency is critical to a successful project.

There are several other important points in Andy's article, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you read it if you find yourself in such a situation. It will only help. In conclusion, I just want to share another quote from Andy's article:

And if you do notice too many of these telltale signs of incompetence in your current agency — don't walk; run.

So, for those of you who aren't in my immediate vicinity or who aren't on Google Talk all the time, this might well be your first exposure to my latest project. I'm calling it PyScriptures. Py because I wrote it all in Python. Scriptures because it is a program that provides the entire LDS standard works (as far as the actual scriptures are concerned, anyway).