Thursday, January 17, 2013

PYPTUG meeting - January 28th

PYthon Piedmont Triad User Group meeting


Come join PYPTUG at out next meeting (January 28th 2013) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the perfect language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also the perfect tool that no expert would do without.


What

Meeting room will be open at 5:00pm, giving some time to settle down, meet and greet and to talk Python.

We will officially start the meeting at 5:30pm.

After PYPTUG introductions and related news, we will have various presentations. The main talk this month will be of interest for all those who are ASP.NET or C# programmers looking to expand their tool set, and all those who use Windows for Python development or deployment:



CPython with Visual Studio


Will Sams will talk about Python development under Windows, using Python Tools for Visual Studio.



Lightning talks!


Some time is allocated for lightning talks. Already committed for the 28th:


  • Python(X,Y) - to be confirmed
  • There and back again: Remote Processes via Paramiko - Ryan Twombly
  • Real world connections - Don Jennings
  • Brython: Python Utopia? - Francois Dion

If you want to give one (you can choose a 5 or 10 minutes lightning talk), do let us know as soon as possible on the PYPTUG mailing list (we ask PYPTUG members to also join this list):

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

Some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration.

We'll then wrap up the meeting.

When

Monday, January 28th 2013
Auditorium open at 5pm, meet and greet
Meeting starts 5:30PM until 7:30PM at the latest

Where

Note the change of venue this month, the Kernersville location was not available. It is still close to High Point and Greensboro, near I-40 / US-52:

Winston Salem Southside Library
Auditorium

Map this

It is close to the I-40 and Peters Creek (and US-52 too). If you take
the Silas Creek exit on I-40, turn left on Buchanan and go up until
you get to the library on the left. If you are on Peters Creek Pkwy, turn
on Brewer (on the side where Parkland High School is) and veer left on
Buchanan. Library is on the right.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Mailing list reminder

Membership

Just a reminder that the mailing list for PYPTUG is at groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/pyptug.

There is no complicated forms to fill nor fees to be part of PYPTUG. But, we do ask that you join the mailing list.

RSVP


Sometimes, for special events, we ask for members to RSVP. When that is the case, we will provide detailed instructions through the list and on this site.

For example, for this saturday's PyHack Workshop (#03), we kindly ask that you take the time to RSVP through Meetup.com event 98256872.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

PyHack Workshop #03: Python ICU

PyHack Workshop

A monthly workshop using the wonderful Python programming language to do cool hacks, bridging the virtual and the physical. Presented by PYPTUG, in collaboration with Fablocker. We invite anyone who is interested in learning Python to attend.



Last month, Workshop #2 featured the Raspberry Pi, and the RPi.GPIO library.

We connected some motors (DC and steppers) to the Raspberry Pi, and controlled them from Python. We explored modules that help with hardware hacking, and we wrapped it up with some interesting demo involving a toy and some of Bresenham's algorithms.

For those that didn't attend, we know you are dying to get the details. Well, you'll have to wait until next week for more information due to another Raspberry Pi event going on the 9th.

Workshop #3

This month (January), we continue to feature the Raspberry Pi.

The theme will be Python ICU (not the medical kind: I see you), and of course this will involve some webcams (and we will talk about the upcoming camera module from the Raspberry Pi foundation), the Raspberry Pi, and Python.


Along with the Pi and the webcam, we will be using Python and pygame. That's the main portion of the workshop, but we'll also use a phone, a web server and a web framework on top of that. And OpenCV if there is some time left. To do what? You'll have to be there...

There will be a Pi configured for anybody to log on to it and test their program on it. Or you can bring your own setup. Having said that, any laptop and, optionally a USB webcam, should do the trick, since no GPIOs will be harmed in the making of this Workshop!

Prerequisite

All experience levels are welcome. You might have just done a Hello, World program in Python (or not even that), or at the other end of the spectrum, written your own package. All will learn something new.

It is recommended to create an account on BitBucket if you plan to follow along with your laptop and Raspberry Pi. If not, don't worry about it. The bitbucket repository will be posted on the PYPTUG mailing list before the event, and on this site after the event.

You might want to give your Raspberry Pi a unique name, and follow these instructions, to set up zeroconf on your Pi: bonjour-zeroconf-avahi.html

When

Saturday January 12 2013
At 3pm-6pm EST

PYPTUG GROUP Calendar

Where


1020 Brookstown Ave #17
Winston-Salem, NC 27101 


The door is on the side of the building. See also the fablocker.org website for more detail on the location.

Meetup RSVP

If you have a meetup account (it only takes a brief moment to create one if you don't), please RSVP for PyHack, on saturday January 12 2013:

http://www.meetup.com/Fablocker/events/

That way we have an idea of how many people will be at the workshop.

We also encourage you to join our mailing list if you plan to attend, as we communicate pre and post workshop links to bitbucket and things like that.

The PYPTUG mailing list is at:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en