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This month, we have another core python developer Collin Winter presenting -

Abstract: A discussion about optimizing dynamic languages generally, optimizing Python specifically, and how Unladen Swallow is speeding up CPython.

Bio: Collin Winter is a software engineer on Google's compiler team, where he serves as tech lead for Unladen Swallow, a Google-sponsored open-source project to speed up CPython. He's a long-time core Python developer, having contributed to the development of Python 3000 and having co-authored the 2to3 tool with Guido van Rossum.

Agenda-
6:30p - 7:00p Check-in, Pizza and Networking
7:00p - 8:30p Main talk / Q&A

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order ;-) If you RSVP and cannot attend, please be kind and change your RSVP to allow other members on wait list to attend.

About Slide's office:
2.5 blocks from Cal Train
Easy parking along 2nd street and Brannan

Thanks and look forward to meeting you.

Grace

This month, we have some special guests from New York giving us a sneak preview of their presentation in Euro Python Conference.

Abstract

We will start by briefly discussing the trend towards the use of non-relational databases, including CouchDB, MongoDB, Big Table, SimpleDB, etc. We will mention the use cases that have caused these databases to be developed and briefly discuss the differences between them.

Next we will discus some real world use cases for non-relational databases, using MongoDB as a concrete example. This will include demonstrations and discussion of Python code using MongoDB.

Finally we'll open the floor to Q&A.

Main speaker:
Mike Dirolf is a software engineer working for 10gen in New York City. He has been programming in Python since 2003 and handles all Python support for MongoDB, 10gen's document-oriented database. Mike received a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.

Guest speaker:
Dwight Merriman co-founded DoubleClick in 1995 and served as its CTO for ten years. He was the architect of the DoubleClick ad serving infrastructure, DART, which serves tens of billions of ads per day. Dwight is also the co-founder, Chairman, and the original architect of Panther Express (now part of CDNetworks), a content distribution network (CDN) technology which serves hundreds of thousands of objects per second. He is also a
board member of the web photo/video sharing company Phanfare. Dwight received a B.S. in Systems Analysis/Computer Science from Miami University of Ohio.

Agenda-
6:30p - 7:00p Pizza and Networking
7:00p - 8:30p Main talk / Q&A

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order ;-)

About Slide's office:
2.5 blocks from Cal Train
Easy parking along 2nd street and Brannan

Thanks,

Grace Law

Can't make it to PyCon but want to hear the highlights of the talks?

Join us at April's meetup. Various conference attendees will recap what they have learned at different sessions. For a sneak preview, please see pycon's agenda at: http://us.pycon.org/2009/conference/talks/

Agenda-
6:30p - 7:00p Pizza and Networking
7:00p - 8:30p Main talk / Q&A

Current presenters include Wesley Chun (Author of Core Python programming), Adam Christian (Co-author of Windmill testing framework), Eric Florenzano (Organizer of sfDjango meetup), and more... Each will do 15-20 mins highlight of tech presentations from main conference talk to lightening talk, open space, etc.

If you were in pyCon and want to speak, let me know.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order ;-)

About Slide's office:
2.5 blocks from Cal Train
Easy parking along 2nd street and Brannan
Bicycle storage available at our office
Please pardon the constructions at our lobby - it's getting a face lift.

Thanks,

Grace Law
For more info on Slide: http://www.slide.com/static/about

This month we'll be doing a hack session, so bring a pet project of your choosing and come code with us. You can stick to the theme, or stray from it, but we'll have a couple folks from the App Engine platform development team around to give folks a head start. If you're interested in getting started with it, or if you're stuck on something, this is a great opportunity to get the skinny.

Please join us on November 5th, as we are fortunate to have Wesley Chun presenting an overview of the language and its features. Below is Wesley's bio, and a peek at what will be addressed in the presentation.

Agenda -
7-7:30p Refreshments / Pizza / Networking
7:30-8:30p Main Talk
8:30p-8:45p Q & A
8:45p-? More networking

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What is Python?

Python is an agile object-oriented programming language that is continuing to build momentum... popular with Win32 programmers because of its ease of creating COM clients plus IronPython for the .NET world, Jython for Java developers, and always popular with the LAMP and Linux/*BSD/Solaris/MacOS X crowd for applications and web development -- especically for Python's equivalents to Rails frameworks: Django (including Google App Engine), TurboGears, and Pylons, all to build RIAs with, not to mention Zope and Plone, plus Trac and Mailman, the wiki+issue-tracker and popular mailing list manager, respectively. You web developers also know about JSON format... did you know that it maps nearly identically to Python's dictionary/hash type? Of course Python can do XML/ReST/XSLT/RSS, multithreading, SQL/databases, GUIs, hardcore math/science, networking (including Twisted), QA/test, GIS/ESRI, automation frameworks, plus all of your system administration tasks too! Finally, Python can be found at the heart of the OLPC. Have you noticed the huge growth in the number of jobs on Monster and Dice that list Python as a desired skill?

Python can do everything Java, C/C++/C#, Ruby, PHP, and Perl can do, but it's much easier and more fun! You can code as fast as you think! Because of Python's simple yet robust syntax, it's a great tool to teach programming with as well as a solid (first) language to learn for non-programmers and other technical staff. Come find out why Google, Yahoo!, Disney, YouTube, BitTorrent, LucasFilm/ILM, NASA, Ubuntu, and Red Hat all use Python! This seminar is designed by Wesley Chun, software engineer, technical trainer, and author of Prentice-Hall's best-selling "Core Python Programming" (and co-author of the forthcoming "Python Web Development with Django"), for those wanting to find out what Python is all about!

We have had great success and feedback giving this seminar in the past, such as at other conferences as well as to academia:
http://cc07.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Sessions.aspx?OnlyOne=true&id=162
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2006/view/e_sess/9468
http://cs.sfsu.edu/news/pernet/05/10-12-05.html
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/view/e_sess/4539
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/15/bof.html#tuesday
http://csociety.ecn.purdue.edu/pipermail/plug/2000-August/002739.html

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Wesley Chun

WESLEY J. CHUN, MSCS, is the author of Prentice Hall's bestseller, "Core Python Programming" (http://corepython.com), its video training course, "Python Fundamentals" (LiveLessons DVD), co-author of "Python Web Development with Django" (http://withdjango.com), and has also written various technical articles for Linux Journal and cNet. He is currently a senior engineer at NearbyNow (http://nearbynow.com) and also runs CyberWeb (http://cyberwebconsulting.com), a consulting business specializing in Python software engineering and technical training. He has over 25 years of programming, teaching, and writing experience, including more than a decade of Python. While at Yahoo!, he helped create Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! People Search using Python. He holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Music from the University of California.