Per my recent post to the edu-sig archive, part of the Python.org mailman empire, I'm enjoying the company of Holden Web this week, a UK based company, the principal of which is part of Python's "deep government" (not that it has one, more in a Monty Python sense). Actually Steve isn't self branding as Holden Web these days, but was when we met. On his resume at least.
Back in the day, Steve helped get Pycon off the ground, now trademarked and a global currency. The Python Software Foundation had the benefit of his input, and chairmanship, for some years. These days he's emeritus, and still a huge fan of the language.
Apropos of Steve's "weightiness" as Quakers might say, he'll be the guest on my closed circuit Python TV show this evening, produced out of California with studios in Portland. He's got a hardware device to show off, a Python API to variable speed propellers. With some luck, we'll get a camera on his apparatus for the group tonight.
Earlier this week (yesterday), I took an OLPC XO to a fifth grade classroom and gave students an opportunity to try connecting it to the school's Wifi. The GUI is way graphical, and dubbed Sugar, coded in Python atop Linux is my understanding.
I was not directly involved with Sugar Labs, however I do continue the Turtle Graphics tradition, as shown in one of my blog-embedded Codester applications (fingers crossed those servers stay in business). I received both XOs from Juliet and Jerome and featured them prominently in my Photostream. Here's a link to one of my favorites (I still give money to this organization).
Steve and I led a Python for Teachers workshop in Chicago one year. I came at my subject from a background in philosophy, not straight computer science, and put a somewhat different spin on things as you might learn from the Youtubes.
My other guest hail from St. Louis and have hosted me during two year-apart trips to the Missouri, Illinois, Indiana heartland. I sometimes share pictures of their two greyhound dogs on Facebook. I'll leave it as a "crossword puzzle" to obtain identities, if not already in the know.
