06 Mar 2009
Creating a website with Django is great fun, but eventually you’ll need to write a tool to clean up you data,
expire old users or one of the myriad of other administration tasks that are involved with running a website.
You’ll be very used to using manage.py to create your database and to run your webserver. It make sense to use
the same script for your own admin tools. Not only to get the benefit of sharing lots of you code but also
Django will take care of parsing command line arguments and importing your settings for you.
Unfortunately the Django documentation is
quite lacking on how to add your own command, but it’s really quite easy.
If your app is in project/app then create the directories project/app/management/commands. Create an empty
file called __init__.py in both the management and commands directories. Once you’ve done that every
other python file in the commands directory can be executed via manage.py. If you create the file
project/app/management/commands/x.py then it can be run as manage.py x.
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26 Feb 2009
Technology is finally catching up with the principle of a digital photo
frame and this Sony DPF-D70
is really good example. The screen is fantastic, really clear and bright
which shows off your photos well. Getting your photos on is a snap.
Simply plug in your camera’s card and click “Add to Album”. It features
256MB which can hold a lot photos at the frame’s one megapixel resolution.
The frame comes with a range of options. You can change how long the photos
stay on the screen for, how they appear. You can display single photos, three
photos at a time or clock or calendar view. It also features a handy timer
function so you don’t need to worry about it using power all night.
On the downside the frame must be plugged into the mains as there is no
battery option. Also Sony have skimped on the packing as despite having a
mini USB connector no cable is included in the pack. Come on Sony, can’t
you stretch to a simple cable?
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19 Feb 2009
Darkslide is an excellent iPhone app which makes it easy to use
Flickr on the move. The iPhone is a perfect partner for Flickr. Constant internet
access, GPS and serviceable camera mean that you can snap away and have your photos on the internet and geotagged
in seconds.
Flickr does have a mobile site and provides it user with an email address where you can
email photos. On an out of the box iPhone it’s possible to get a decent Flickr experience. Emailing your photos has several
disadvantages: the quality is reduced, and the photo is stripped of geotag information.
Darkslide lets you easily take and upload photos at full resolution. You can also tag, comment and browse through both your
photos and others. You can also access the Flickr’s interesting feed if you’re in need of inspiration. It’s available both
with and without ads, but apart from that the two versions are identical.
It’s simple, slick and just works. If you’re a Flickr user with a iPhone then it’s a must have.
Download Darkslide free.
Download Darkslide Premium ($3.99).
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12 Feb 2009
Google released an excellent new tool for automatically syncing your iPhone’s contacts and calendars and
GMail and Google Calendar.
Although, as is usually the case with Google, the service is marketed as being in Beta it seems to be working
very well. Add or edit a contact either on in GMail or on your iPhone and within seconds it’s been synced across.
Even contact photos are synchronized. The same is true of calendar entries.
Rather than implement a new syncing application for the iPhone Google have just linked your contacts and calendars to a
Microsoft Exchange server. Apple implemented push services from Exchange services in the 2.2 firmware to help market the
phone as business capable. Now though, anyone who uses GMail can benefit from this technology.
Push services are useful because rather than your phone checking at a predetermined interval, probably to find that
there has been no change, changes are ‘pushed’ to you. This means that not only are changes that do happen reflected
much more quickly on your phone, and you don’t waste battery life or network traffic checking unnecessarily. Unfortunately
it doesn’t support email syncing, but surely that’s only a matter of time?
Visit http://m.google.com/sync to get your iPhone set up.
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11 Feb 2009
Today is Flickr’s fifth birthday.
I’ve had a Flickr account for several years, and I use the site all the time. For sharing photos,
finding photos to use on a website, or just to browse around it’s really unmatched.
Happy Birthday Flickr!
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