Dave Naffziger’s Blog

The Django community just released the 1.0 version of Django.

I’ve been incredibly impressed by the tireless efforts of the core contributors. I’m also thrilled to get to a stable platform (No more checking BackwardsIncompatibleChanges!). I even have a few ‘very’ small contributions in the release - in fact, half the code was contributed by someone other than a core developer (although it seems many of these contributions are relatively simple - the challenging work is still largely done by the core devs).

Jeff, Rahul and I ran the Park City Marathon on Saturday. This was another Saturday marathon, which cemented my view that Saturday marathons >> Sunday marathons because you can enjoy the trip far more when you get the hard part done up front. Plus I hate going to the airport hours after completing the marathon.

The marathon elevation was between 6400 and 7200 feet, which definitely impacted our times (4:12:46). There was apparently a 2% grade the first 18 miles, but we hardly noticed it.

The course was gorgeous - rolling hills and mountains surrounded us and a gorgeous altitude sunrise started the run. Nearly all of the running was on trails and paved bike paths and the organizers did an excellent job supporting the course. Aid stations were appropriately placed and every station after mile 10 had some nourishment in addition to the drinks.

After the race we had the ‘Chubby’ (pictured below) at the Copper Creek Pub & Grub. The Chubby is a 1/2 pound burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches and 100% pure genius.

The Newpark hotel was literally 50 yds from the start and finish line.

Non-competes have long been unenforceable in CA, but all doubts have been wiped away in a recent ruling by the State Supreme Court.

The unanimous ruling states that:

An employer cannot by contract restrain a former employee from engaging in his or her profession, trade or business

Good coverage at SFGate & Slashdot.

I’d obviously like to see other states follow suit, but I’m not aware of any progress being made towards that end.

Gmail recently introduced a feature that allows you to force the browser to use https every time you connect to gmail. I used to use the Better Gmail plugin to accomplish this, but frankly the account level mechanism is far superior.

Email has rapidly become the master account for tons of services. I’d argue that a compromised inbox is worse than a compromised mailbox.

The security weaknesses in wireless connections are well established as are those in simple wireline connections. If you use gmail as anything other than a trash account, you should absolutely make this change.

Of course, this feature isn’t available on second-class Google-Apps accounts.

I’ve been on the east coast for just under a week and of course have been using gmail and google calendar regularly. I’m pretty attentive to geolocation cues and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this question appear in my calendar:

This is the type of thing that we envisioned people would do with IP geolocation data years ago when we launched Quova. Of course data accuracy and business imperatives got in the way for a while. It does make for a great product refinement though.

Ever wonder what its like to run 100 miles? Jeff completed the Vermont 100 in just under 24 hours. He posted an awesome writeup about his journey.

It costs a mere $1600 to be listed on the WA primary ballot for Governor or US Senator and receive a full-page in the voter pamphlet mailed to everyone of the 4.3 Million registered voters. For those calculating, that $0.37 CPM is still 5x as expensive as advertising on Facebook, but that is nothing in comparison to newspaper rates.

Alternatively, you can collect 1600 signatures. I think I’d prefer solely requiring the signatures.

Here are a few of the highlights from this year’s pamphlet:

“Goodspaceguy wants Orbital Space Colonization to be one of the great tasks for our new 21st Century. Through NASA, we have already paid the necessary money for the start of an Earth orbiting space colony, but our leaders have not been educated in orbital space colonization, and, therefore, they have wasted and are wasting much money.” - Goodspaceguy Nelson, Candidate for US Representative

“I rise to defend the moon and stars, the air we breathe, the oceans and the rivers, the plants, and all living things upon this our Mother Earth… and you… and your children… and your sacred poem… before the salmon die, before the birds stop singing; before the bees forget how to fly.” - Mark Goldman, Candidate for US Representative

“Coercive Income tax on wage is a blatant injustice. The IRS has no code to require a wage-earner pay tax on his wages. Income tax is voluntary and stated so in its manuals. There is no IRS law saying wages are income”…”Ask your Senator to introduce a Bill to review 9/11 Press for Truth documentary. I propose these actions to correct injustices. With your help our proposals flower. Combined, with God’s help, our union can become tranquil again.” - Al Schaefer, Candidate for US Representative

“Our governor must convene a Climate Emergency session of the legislature now to enact emergency World War II-type laws: - Divert Boeing to manufacture of solar and wind power equipment” - Duff Badgley, Candidate for Governor

Finally I would like to sound the alarm, that AIPAC and other Jewish Zionist Lobbies who represent less than 2% of American People are using the United States through their mighty power in the News Media, Financial Institutions, Hollywood and Entertainment Industry, Both Political Parties, Congress and the White House as Proxy to wage war against any country perceived to be threat to Israel, like in Iraq.

I’m all for an open democracy, but the bar might be a little too low…

All three major PPC companies (Google, Yahoo & MSN) distribute promotional codes for new accounts. Of course, these codes can’t be found on coupon sites - their distribution is tightly controlled.

However, it is easy to find the promotional codes. There seem to be two primary sources:

• Outsourced SEMs. Google gives its AdWords professionals coupons that they can distribute to new accounts. I think these typically are around $50. I think you need to give account access to the SEM provider for this to be valid.
• Hosting Companies. I still maintain a 1and1 hosting account and they provide $100 worth of coupons ($50 MSN, $25 each Yahoo and Google). I have the 1and1 Home package which costs $5 /month. I’ve seen forum posts that GoDaddy provides coupons as I expect do most other major hosting companies.

I’m pretty sure that you need to have a new (<14 day) account to qualify for the various coupons.

Where else have you found the promotional codes?