We’d love it if you could stop by our booth (either #23 or #22 depending on the diagram you’re looking at) and say “hi”.  We have plenty of candy and pens to give away, and would be happy to discuss how our software development and IT consulting services could benefit your small business!

The morning begins with Guido’s keynote, answering questions posted via Twitter: #python.

More to come…

Importing Addresses

I started this project with an Excel spreadsheet someone had sent me, and of course immediately saved it to CSV so I could read in from Python.  I’ve changed the names and addresses below to protect the innocent, indemnify the guilty, and remove any traces linking me to the incident.  Instead, I’ll just list my favorite places to find sweet tea along with delicious chicken and biscuits.

name,address,city,state,zip,phone,county
Apex - Williams Street,1581 East Williams Street,Apex,NC,27539,919-362-6796,Wake
Apex - Laura Village Drive,1209 Laura Village Drive,Apex,NC,27502,919-362-1416,Wake
Durham - Garrett Road,4600 Garrett Road,Durham,NC,27701,919-489-5942,Durham
Durham - Guess Road,2801 Guess Road,Durham,NC,27705,919-477-2362,Durham
Durham - Hillsboro Road,3558 Hillsboro Road,Durham,NC,27705,919-383-6797,Durham
Durham - Miami Boulevard,1712 Miami Boulevard,Durham,NC,27703,919-596-4330,Durham
Durham - South Miami Boulevard,5425 South Miami Boulevard,Durham,NC,27703,919-941-5620,Durham
Durham - Roxboro Road,4521 Roxboro Road,Durham,NC,27702,919-471-0581,
Fuquay Varina,1400 N. Main Street,Fuquay Varina,NC,27526,919-557-0749,Wake
Garner - Jones Sausage Road,3920 Jones Sausage Road,Garner,NC,27529,919-662-1621,Wake
Garner - NC 42 East,5497 NC 42 East,Garner,NC,27529,919-773-9116,Wake
...

Using the csv module in the Python standard library, it’s a piece of fried chicken cake to read in the CSV and return a dictionary for each row.  In my situation, I had a spreadsheet with some missing values, so I filtered the rows to only include the ones with complete addresses.

import csv

def read_addresses(filename):
    """Retrieve addresses from the given CSV filename."""
    required_fields = set(['name', 'address', 'city', 'zip'])
    reader = csv.DictReader(file(filename, 'rU'))
    for row in reader:
        if not all(row.get(f, '').strip() for f in required_fields):
            continue
        yield row

And then a little code to just use the first argument to the script as the filename.

import sys

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for address in read_addresses(sys.argv[1]):
        print address

Geocoding

Now, we need to use the Google Maps API to geocode our addresses and return the latitude and longitude in CSV format.

import urllib
import urlparse

def geocode(address):
    """Geocode the given address, updating the standardized address, latitude,
    and longitude."""
    qs = dict(q=address['address_string'], key=GMAPS_API_KEY, sensor='true',
              output='csv')
    qs = urllib.urlencode(qs)
    url = urlparse.urlunsplit(('http', 'maps.google.com', '/maps/geo', qs, ''))
    f = urllib.urlopen(url)
    result = list(csv.DictReader(f, ('status', 'accurary', 'latitude', 'longitude')))[0]
    if int(result['status']) != 200:
        raise RuntimeError, 'could not geocode address %s (%s)' % \
                            (address, result['status'])
    address['latitude'] = result['latitude']
    address['longitude'] = result['longitude']

To iterate over the addresses and format them for geocoding, we use the following code:

for address in read_addresses(sys.argv[1]):
    address['address_string'] = \
            '%(address)s, %(city)s, %(state)s %(zip)s' % address
    geocode(address)

Geocoding to Make Google Happy

The geocoding works, well almost.  It seems to start out fine, then ends up returning quite a few errors as it goes along.  When we look at the status code returned, it’s a 620 – G_GEO_TOO_MANY_QUERIES.  So we just add a sleep to the geocode function and it makes it through all the addresses, albeit a little more slowly now.

import time

def geocode(address):
    ...
    time.sleep(1.0)

Generating KML

Now than we have addresses with their corresponding coordinates, we can start to create a KML document with our placemarks.

import xml.dom.minidom

def create_document(title, description=''):
    """Create the overall KML document."""
    doc = xml.dom.minidom.Document()
    kml = doc.createElement('kml')
    kml.setAttribute('xmlns', 'http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2')
    doc.appendChild(kml)
    document = doc.createElement('Document')
    kml.appendChild(document)
    docName = doc.createElement('name')
    document.appendChild(docName)
    docName_text = doc.createTextNode(title)
    docName.appendChild(docName_text)
    docDesc = doc.createElement('description')
    document.appendChild(docDesc)
    docDesc_text = doc.createTextNode(description)
    docDesc.appendChild(docDesc_text)
    return doc

And to use this method to create a basic document, we call it with our title and description parameters. The second line gets the Document element of the overall KML doc; this is the element to which we’ll append other child elements.

    kml_doc = create_document('RDU Bojangle\'s',
                              'Sweet Tea, Chicken and Biscuits')
    document = kml_doc.documentElement.getElementsByTagName('Document')[0]

Now we need a way to create a placemark using the address information we’ve obtained from geocoding. We put the phone number in the description, if there is one available.

def create_placemark(address):
    """Generate the KML Placemark for a given address."""
    doc = xml.dom.minidom.Document()
    pm = doc.createElement("Placemark")
    doc.appendChild(pm)
    name = doc.createElement("name")
    pm.appendChild(name)
    name_text = doc.createTextNode('%(name)s' % address)
    name.appendChild(name_text)
    desc = doc.createElement("description")
    pm.appendChild(desc)
    desc_text = doc.createTextNode(address.get('phone', ''))
    desc.appendChild(desc_text)
    pt = doc.createElement("Point")
    pm.appendChild(pt)
    coords = doc.createElement("coordinates")
    pt.appendChild(coords)
    coords_text = doc.createTextNode('%(longitude)s,%(latitude)s,0' % address)
    coords.appendChild(coords_text)
    return doc

To use this method to build our KML document from the list of addresses, we add the following code:

        placemark = create_placemark(address)
        document.appendChild(placemark.documentElement)

And finally, we need a way to print the whole document to stdout:

print kml_doc.toprettyxml(indent="  ", encoding='UTF-8')

Generating KML to Make Google Happy

If we upload this file to a web server, and point to its URL from Google Maps, we have a problem. It doesn’t work. Apparently Google doesn’t like the default pretty formatting of our KML, in particular the nodes containing only text, because of the extra newlines inserted before and after the text. We can either turn off pretty printing, which I’d rather not do since it makes the output hard to read, or apply this little monkey patch to fix the problem:

class Element(xml.dom.minidom.Element):

    def writexml(self, writer, indent="", addindent="", newl=""):
        # indent = current indentation
        # addindent = indentation to add to higher levels
        # newl = newline string
        writer.write(indent+"<" + self.tagName)

        attrs = self._get_attributes()
        a_names = attrs.keys()
        a_names.sort()

        for a_name in a_names:
            writer.write(" %s=\"" % a_name)
            xml.dom.minidom._write_data(writer, attrs[a_name].value)
            writer.write("\"")
        if self.childNodes:
            newl2 = newl
            if len(self.childNodes) == 1 and \
                self.childNodes[0].nodeType == xml.dom.minidom.Node.TEXT_NODE:
                indent, addindent, newl = "", "", ""
            writer.write(">%s"%(newl))
            for node in self.childNodes:
                node.writexml(writer,indent+addindent,addindent,newl)
            writer.write("%s%s" % (indent,self.tagName,newl2))
        else:
            writer.write("/>%s"%(newl))

# Monkey patch Element class to use our subclass instead.
xml.dom.minidom.Element = Element

Changing Placemark Styles

KML files also support the notion of styles, which allow you to customize the appearance of your placemarks.  For this example, I’ll just use different colored icons provided by Google to correspond to the county in which the address is located (based on the “county” column in my CSV file). The code below is used to generate the style elements for the KML document:

def create_style(style_id, icon_href):
    """Create a new style for different placemark icons."""
    doc = xml.dom.minidom.Document()
    style = doc.createElement('Style')
    style.setAttribute('id', style_id)
    doc.appendChild(style)
    icon_style = doc.createElement('IconStyle')
    style.appendChild(icon_style)
    icon = doc.createElement('Icon')
    icon_style.appendChild(icon)
    href = doc.createElement('href')
    icon.appendChild(href)
    href_text = doc.createTextNode(icon_href)
    href.appendChild(href_text)
    return doc

In our main function, we use this code to create three different styles:

    style_doc = create_style('Wake', \
        'http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/paddle/red-blank.png')
    document.appendChild(style_doc.documentElement)
    style_doc = create_style('Durham', \
        'http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/paddle/blu-blank.png')
    document.appendChild(style_doc.documentElement)
    style_doc = create_style('Orange', \
        'http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/paddle/wht-blank.png')
    document.appendChild(style_doc.documentElement)

Now, we add this code to our create_placemark method in order to associate the placemark with a style based on the “county” field:

    if address.get('county', ''):
        style_url = doc.createElement("styleUrl")
        pm.appendChild(style_url)
        style_url_text = doc.createTextNode('#%(county)s' % address)
        style_url.appendChild(style_url_text)

And now there is a different colored icon associated with the addresses, based on county.

Putting It All Together

I’ve attached the final script combining all of the snippets above (minus my Google Maps API key).

makemaps.py

(updated 2011/01/12: added a version with a BSD license) makemaps20110112.py

To view the custom placemarks in your browser, you need to make the KML file available on the web, and enter its URL into the search field in Google Maps.  You can also generate a URL with a query string such as the following:

http://maps.google.com/?q=<kml-url>

Or view the results of my sample data:

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.ninemoreminutes.com/bojomap.kml

And Then?

It would be relatively simple to include this code in a web app to read addresses from a database and generate a KML file on the fly. For use in any Python web framework you choose.

And Then?

No more “and then”.

He’s been helping me out on occasion since May with some IT work, and he’s been diving into some WordPress customizations and even a little Python code recently.

As you can see, I’d found him wandering around on a riverbank, trying to catch fish by hand, and to my surprise he’s much better suited for sitting in front of a computer writing PHP code.

Now with that in mind, here’s how my days usually go, or at least here’s how I’d like them to go, barring any major distractions or interruptions.

I usually wake up somewhere between 10 am and noon. I rarely set an alarm, because I know I’ll just turn it off and sleep even longer if I do. About half the time, I’m usually woken up by a phone call or text message that finally kicks me out of dreamland.

I usually reply to emails, return phone calls and catch up on some tech news first thing. If I have lunch plans, I’ll head out for that “speculative meeting” as the essay describes it. Sometimes I’ll even attempt to do something resembling physical activity, in hopes of getting into a shape slightly more defined than my current shape.

I spend a few more hours in the afternoon on both personal and work errands — responding to additional emails, IMs, phone calls, and other busy work. I even find it to be a good time to buy groceries, go to the bank, even do some yard work or housework. I tend to avoid getting myself sucked into coding until everyone else is finished with their work day.

And then, somewhere around 4-5 pm, the fun begins. I can finally dig in for a 5-6 hour stretch of work with relatively few interruptions. I’ll break for dinner and even a short nap around 9-10 pm, and I’m usually back at it by 11. I’ll put in another shift until 4-6 am, or until my eyes can’t stay open any longer.

Sure, this kind of schedule may kill my social life, but since it doesn’t bother me to go a few days without much human interaction, it may not be so much of a problem. And if any of you who know me find me avoiding you in the evenings, now you know why. The end of the day for you is when I’m just getting started. If I lose that focus and motivation early on, it tends to throw me off for the rest of the night.

And now back to the grind. I have at least 3 more hours left to go.

So this update script is on an embedded Linux device and can be completely wiped away if the user does a factory reset or firmware update from the manufacturer.  If they do that, my enhancements to the device and my upgrade script are gone, making the device useless for the particular application.  Fortunately, the manufacturer gives me a way to store a one-line setting in an area of flash that doesn’t get erased.  And even better, the default firmware will read and evaluate this one line setting in the shell on startup.  AHA!

The aforementioned Python script also takes the install script, packs it into one line, escapes everything again, and creates a bootstrap script, whose sole purpose is to write the one setting that gets read on startup, that runs the install script, which creates the update script, which periodically checks for updates to the whole thing.

And now my head hurts.  But it works!

I think Boxee will be one company to keep an eye on in next couple of months, as their user base increases and they transition from an alpha version of the software into a full version of the product. Adding Windows support, as well as finding a business model to support the ongoing development, will be key.

As this NY Times article mentions today, Boxee is currently developed by a small team, and is building a passionate group of fans already. The open source and social networking aspects of the product will help it to grow from the bottom up, as well as continue to support new streaming content and hardware devices as they become available. While the Apple TV seems to be the most common platform to hack and install Boxee, the Sony PS3 or even Roku’s Netflix box would also be good candidates.

In trying it on my MacBook Pro, I’ve found the interface to be very slick, and mostly intuitive to use with the 6-button Apple remote. It lacks the minimal, clean look of Apple’s Front Row, but the flexibility and available content make up for it in an instant. I do wish they had support for PowerPC-based Macs, so I could leave it running on my trusty dual G5 and take advantage of it on my 23″ Cinema Display in my home office.

All that being said, I’m a huge fan. I’ll be following Boxee closely to see where they go, recommending it to all my friends, and wishing the company the best as they aim to shake up the industry just a little. It’s time that my media belonged to me, or at least put me in more control of when and where and how I can watch it.

In spite of my general disdain towards PHP, I realized that WordPress was exactly what I was looking for, and it would save me from having to write much code. Of course, it would also give me an excuse to write some posts and keep the site updated on a regular basis. But first, I needed to make a theme using my existing 9MM logo and colors.

I started by reading various articles on the topic, most of them describing the files required in the theme directory and how to build a theme from scratch. This one is a really good guide, if you’re into that sort of thing. Taking the even lazier simpler route, I just copied the default theme folder and renamed it to 9mm, and started hacking away there…

The Code

Of course just copying the theme to a new directory isn’t enough. Not that I expected it to be, but worth a shot. For the files in the default (Kubrick) theme, I’ve listed the changes that were required to make them into the 9mm theme.

• functions.php – PHP wasn’t happy to have functions in both the default and 9mm themes with the same names. I renamed all of the kubrick* functions to ninemore* instead. I didn’t notice this same problem with other themes I’ve customized since, so it may have been related to my version of PHP or WordPress at the time.
• header.php – Since my header graphic would contain the blog title and caption, I didn’t need to display this text dynamically. I instead made the entire header div into a link to the blog homepage. I also modified the #page style to remove the kubrick prefix from the image file names.
• screenshot.png – I recreated this file from a screenshot of my new theme.
• style.css – I first modified the content block at the beginning of the file to reflect my new theme name and additional information.  Then I changed the colors and images for my new theme.  I also removed the extra margin around the body tag and #page div, and updated the #headerimg div height to match my own header image file dimensions.
• images/audio.jpg – I removed this file from my theme.
• images/header-img.php – Since I had no need to make a dynamically-configurable header background image, I removed this file from my theme.
• images/kubrickbg-ltr.jpg – This file would be replaced with bg-ltr.png.
• images/kubrickbg-rtl.jpg - This file would be replaced with bg-rtl.png.
• images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg - This file would be replaced with bgcolor.png.
• images/kubrickbgwide.jpg - This file would be replaced with bgwide.png.
• images/kubrickfooter.jpg - This file would be replaced with footer.png.
• images/kubrickheader.jpg - This file would be replaced with header.png.

The following files required no changes:

• 404.php
• archive.php
• archives.php
• comments-popup.php
• comments.php
• footer.php
• image.php
• index.php
• links.php
• page.php
• rtl.css
• search.php
• searchform.php
• sidebar.php
• single.php

The Design

Now it was time to fire up Photoshop and mock up the layout of the site, basically starting from the business card design I’d done back in April. I really liked the logo, font, colors and background image on that one, so why change it?

I created the mockup image below to match the dimensions of the default theme, but instead using my own logo, font, colors and background. It’s all saved with layers, using various blending options for the borders, glow and shadows, making it pretty simple to tweak if needed.

As you can also see, I sliced the mockup image into six slices, and named them to match the images files expected by the theme.  By doing it this way, I could simply do a “Save for Web” (using PNG format) into my theme folder, and have Photoshop save my six image files with the right names.  From top to bottom, the six layers are named as follows:

1. header
2. bgwide
3. bg-ltr
4. bg-rtl
5. footer
6. bgcolor

The Conclusion

And that’s all it took to make this custom WordPress theme.  Since the original Kubrick theme is licensed under the GPL, I also have to release my theme under the same license.  Since I’m not actually redistributing it or selling it, and you’re only viewing the output of it in your browser, I don’t have to make it available.  But I will anyways (minus my original Photoshop file), since it would already be possible to grab the images and style sheet from this server.  Enjoy!

9mm WordPress Theme (9mm.zip)

No, it’s not that time of year when I teach my cat new computer tricks. In this one, from over a year ago, she’s learning how to update Internet Explorer on a new install of Windows XP, running in a VM, of course. She’s since lost interest in operating systems, and moved on to more exciting hobbies, like destroying my Christmas tree.

It’s actually that time of year when my nocturnal productivity is at its best. The extra darkness and coldness just make me want to stay inside, and I end up on the computer most of the night. Instead of becoming lazy and turning into a couch potato, I’ve decided to work on some of my side and personal projects.

So here it is, the first post on the new ninemoreminutes.com! I’ve customized the default WordPress theme and turned this site into a blog and a few other pages of information about my little one-man company. This blog will be a place to write some technical articles related to the kinds of work I’m doing. Stay tuned!