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Allow me a trip into fantasy land. I'd like to play with an idea for a
lecture of broad appeal suitable for the 11th, where we addresses a
wider audience of non-Python users. What do you think?<font
color="#000099"><br>
<br>
<b>Ten lines of code - Python's power</b><br>
<b>Lecture by</b> </font><font color="#000099">???, </font><font
color="#000099">Michael Grazebrook, and ???<br>
<b>Date & Time</b>: 11th April 2007<br>
<b>Networking and refreshments</b> 17:30 - 18:30.<br>
<b>Lecture: </b>18:30 - 20:00<br>
<b>Networking and Wine reception </b>20:00 - 22:00<br>
<b>Cost: </b>Free<br>
<b>Venue:</b> The IET, Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL<br>
</font><font color="#000099"><br>
Python is a superb language for the casual user. Yet it's also robust
enough to run business on. This talk is aimed at people who've never
used Python before, to show how to do simple but powerful things with
it. It's also about protecting the fish in Dad's pond.</font>
<p><font color="#000099">This talk presents five small programs, each
in less than ten lines of code, which you could easily adapt:</font></p>
<ul>
<li><font color="#000099">A program to grab (?the event calendar from
the IET web-site? - some web page) and put it into Excel</font></li>
<li><font color="#000099">Driving some hardware from a simple
USB-driven bread-board<br>
</font></li>
<li><font color="#000099">A simple web server</font></li>
<li><font color="#000099">A simple Windows user interface using WMI<br>
</font></li>
<li><font color="#000099">Putting it together - a remote application
with hardware to protect dad's fish<br>
</font></li>
</ul>
<p><font color="#000099">Bring a lap-top if you want. After the
lecture, we'll retire to the IET bar. We'll have experienced Python
users on hand to help you try out the demos and get up to speed. You
may also get to meet some of the authors of Python text books and
packages, who are proposing to put on some talks on more advanced
topics later in the year.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font color="#000099">Python is also a powerful language robust
enough that organisations from banks to internet companies run major
systems with it. But that's a topic for another day.</font></p>
<p>Now I'm a Python beginner, only a few months professional
experience. I know some of what I propose is possible. And I've written
some of these components. I've never used WMI and never used the Excel
interface (though I want to). I'm wondering if one or two of you could
share the duty of being the speaker. 3 speakers with 15 minutes each
plus questions seems less daunting than doing the whole talk on my own.
<br>
</p>
<p>I'm also thinking we might use it as a networking event to see what
the interest is like and put together more meaty proposals for more
specialised themes. Would you lot turn up even though the content isn't
advanced?</p>
<p>I think I should also explain the bit about "protecting the fish in
dad's pond". It relates to my present to my father. He has a pond with
a boat and some fish in it. He likes his fish and he doesn't like the
heron which eats them. So we thought it would be fun to set up a
steerable web-cam which you could operate from anywhere. Then do
something to scare the heron if we see it (make a noise? fire a water
pistol? we haven't built it yet). So my present was a copy of Python, a
couple of servos and a USB interface board from Maplin. I'm off home
tomorrow (Sunday) to see if we can make it happen ...<br>
</p>
<p>My fear is that this rather trivial stuff would not attract you lot
- and if we're to make this regular, we need to prove that enough
people want it to get in good audiences. After the lecture, I want to
do some "market research" on what people want. This would be an
excellent forum for us to thrash out in more detail what we want to do
with a full monthly time slot. Note that we won't get the main lecture
theatre most of the time, as we will on the 11th. The plan is to run in
parallel with other events, because the building will be already
staffed and the nibbles laid out.<br>
</p>
<p>Anyone is welcome to call me on 020 73761337 or 07713 02580 (please
call out of business hours).</p>
<p>What do you think? </p>
<br>
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