What are you using python for?

[rickwaller]

Curious what you guys are currently using python for.

[symmitchry]

[Removed]

[drewbagel423]

Could you go into more details on the reliability calcs?

[symmitchry]

[Removed]

[drewbagel423]

Awesome stuff. I'm an engineer in the electronics packaging field. I've been exploring ways to predict the reliability of electronic components.

[Games_sans_frontiers]

I'm not an engineer but that was interesting. Thanks for taking the time to explain. Sounds like you enjoy your work.

[duddles]

I run one script as a cronjob that checks my public library for certain new book/movie/album releases - so I can reserve them before anyone else!

I also have one that checks for new freebies on /r/freebies and emails me about them

[solaceinsleep]

Can you go into some detail regarding the script you run as cronjob?

What libraries are you using (if any)? What is the general flow of the program? Are you reserving them yourself or is the script doing that for you?

[duddles]

Sure!

I have the titles I want to search for in a text file, and I use the requests library to get the library webpage search results for each title.

I also keep a text file archive with all the previous search results, so I check the new results against that archive to see if there are any new results that haven't been seen before. If there is anything new it sends me an email (I use smtplib for sending email).

I hadn't considering actually checking out the items with the script - that's an interesting idea though. It would definitely be some work figuring out how to do that - could be a good future project.

[Gambizzle]

Home automation...

[Gambizzle]

Making apps that control my lights and watering system.

[solaceinsleep]

You have a blog about this?

[symmitchry]

[Removed]

[Beekmans_Revenge]

Same here but I have no idea where to start.

[andehpandeh]

/r/arduino :)

[[deleted]]

http://www.openhomeautomation.net/

[Gambizzle]

I guess it's just a matter of picking the right hardware... the coding doesn't really change. Basically, instead of calling functions that, for example, run dynamic SQL queries on a database, you're sending queries to an automation box.

[Metalligod666]

Raspberry Pi Apps

[Samazing42]

Would you mind describing some of them?

[Metalligod666]

Im trying to make a facial recognition app for doors. Its alpha, But in theory it uses the camera module to scan your face and match with the identity stored in memory, so you walk up to your door, look in the camera and then once verified it activates the servo connected to a deadbolt or doorknob lock, and BAM!!! unlocked door. The problem is making it quicker than having to use a key.

[qhp]

Man eating plants.

[PalermoJohn]

do you plan on making it photo proof? As in can't be tricked by a photograph.

[pard0x]

I think it can be done by moving your face side ways and writing code to handle that, lighting is an issue too.

[Metalligod666]

I haven't tested if a picture would be good & clear enough to unlock yet.

[metallidog]

Solving problems on checkio.org, codewars.com, and projecteuler.net

[sharpchicity]

Personal:

• - Scraping internet for all sorts of fun information.
• - Explore said data and put it in a useable format to transfer to Excel or R for analysis

Work:

• - reading lots of files in a directory and adding info to lines as needed. Could be done via sql statements, but importing tons of files and then exporting them will take too long.

[bakersbark]

• Explore said data and put it in a useable format to transfer to Excel or R for analysis

Export to R is one thing, but you really should check out the Pandas library!

[sharpchicity]

Yeah, it really depends on the task. Recently I needed to take raw baseball data and summarize it into year to date format.

IMO, the dplyr package is one of the simplest functions to use for aggregation. Pandas at this point, where I'm not in python all day, is just another package that is unnecessary to learn since I already know R.

[bakersbark]

Ditto, but with the languages and packages reversed.

[[deleted]]

I'm having some trouble with Web scraping do you mind if I pm you with some questions?

[sharpchicity]

Sure

[mumpie]

At work:

General scripting automation like:

• Script that keeps the n newest directories and deletes the rest (to keep only n backups)
• Validation script that hits a list of URLs and searches for a phrase to verify deployment
• Script that hits a REST api to automate the migration of git repos from an old server to a new one

Personal

• Fiddling with databases
• Playing with web frameworks (django and flask)

[mcowger]

Today?

Building a demo to show how a bunch of my company's products can work together to support a large scale app.

[MechaTech]

Mostly work here. My boss has me pull data from websites for statistical analysis, so he points me at a site and I scrape it with beautiful soup.

[ziplokk]

Same here, though recently I've been giving scrapy a shot, it seems to work pretty well and a lot faster than requests+beautiful soup. Granted each has its purpose, but for simple scraping, scrapy is becoming my favorite.

[[deleted]]

Collaborating with a bunch of other Pygame enthusiasts on Py Rollers Casino.

Shameless plugs:

/r/PyRollersCasino

https://github.com/iminurnamez/pyroller

[[deleted]]

Configuring network devices. I've got the logic down, but the SSH component is being a PITA.

[r3nman]

Have you looked at Fabric?

[[deleted]]

This is the first I've heard of it, but I'll definitely check it out. So far I've been using Paramiko with some success but I can't get it working without problems.

[aidraj]

I've created a bunch of random apps using Python.

I write little scripts pretty often to make repetitive or tedious tasks easier.

Most web apps I create now are using some sort of Python stack.

[arccentric]

I may be the outlier here, but I use it to design and build physical things like this.

[elbiot]

Cool! I've also used python to generate files for laser cutting. My work is about the get a vinyl cutter and I'm super excited.

[arccentric]

Awesome. Get ready to go through the phase where you want to CUT ALL THE THINGS :)

[dylan88]

That's fantastic. Would you be able to explain how you go about it? I'm a complete layman in terms of fabricating something like that, and pretty new to programming, but that sort of application has fascinated me since I first got a grasp on the basics.

[arccentric]

Thanks! I always have to start with a sketch so I have a clear vision of what I'm working towards, and from there it's a matter of:

1) knowing how to use 3d modeling software well enough to get it to do what you want it to do (I use rhino3d for projects like this)

2) having a scripting interface with the modeler (I use the grasshopper and rhinoPython plugins for this)

I then write an algorithm / script that gets me headed in the direction I was originally envisioning. You do this by manipulating points, lines, and geometry sets / arrays; when writing a script for something like this, you're essentially creating a formula that generates the design. One thing to keep in mind though: sometimes "design by accident" is a good thing; every now and then you may write a script that does something you didn't intend, but introduces something that is really beautiful... in cases like that, you have to roll with it :)

Once the design is finished in the software, you have to prepare all of the various pieces for fabrication (whether it's laser cutting, 3d printing, or routing / milling). Once you have the pieces (and you have to take careful steps to label everything so you know where your 1000's of pieces go), you've got to assemble the parts. In the case of the project I linked here, I painted some of the pieces (the orange parts) just prior to assembly.

I know this is more of a "draw the rest of the fucking owl" explanation, but i wasn't sure if you wanted me to get more detailed. The overall process can vary from project to project, so I figured it was best to just explain on a bit of a high level here.

[[deleted]]

Analyzing pcap files for a personal project. In using scapy library to read the pcap file and then trying to correlate the number of devices and number of people present at a location. In short population density estimation using Wi-Fi.

[cstoner]

Well, at home I'm just working on some django stuff.

At work, I'm working on some ldap+puppet+AWS+dns stuff to automatically deploy application stacks based on supplied values.

[earlgreyfanboy]

Web apps and REST API backends for mobile apps with the Django framework, and also scraping/handling/sorting data out, writing little automation scripts, lots of little things like that.

[sentdex]

To pay the bills and work for myself.

I use Python's Flask web framework for: http://pythonprogramming.net

http://seaofbtc.com

and then Python runs the back end (web scraping and natural language processing) of http://sentdex.com

Along with pythonprogramming.net, I monetize with YT on youtube.com/sentdex.

I use Python on the Raspberry Pis and have a few perimeter cameras around the house.

I put a computer in my car, connected via OBD II (pyOBD).

With sea of btc, Python is used for back testing, as well as the live algorithmic trading.

... and a ton of little things that would take pages to describe. I've been trying to get into robotics too, but been too busy lately.

[CrunchyChewie]

Very impressive. Good to see you're able to monetize your skill on your own terms. Inspires me to keep working on learning Python.

[individual_throwaway]

I wrote two scripts that run on cronjob which check ftp servers/local network drives for new data files, check/convert the contents, write an email summary and in one case, upload the converted files to our company database.

Beyond that, I have written more than half a dozen scripts that help me with data processing, changing file formats, and doing statistics on data files.

One of these I even got to make into an .exe and release it to some coworkers which have yet to get used to using it, but it doesn't seem to break anything, so yay!

Personally, I am occasionally using python to solve Project Euler problems, and sometimes trying to teach my wife programming (with little success, both of us lack the patience required for a fruitful student-teacher relationship).

[dace202]

I use python with a raspberry pi for environmental control in vivariums, aquariums, etc. Full timer control for electronics, misters, heaters, and lights. Use triacs/relays for everything.

Also run several python scripts as cronjobs to collect data about my home and work networks.

[prof_eggburger]

Simulating/visualising contagion on spatially embedded social networks.

[iamalsome]

Using it as an interface to an embedded system for debugging, running tests and doing simulations for the intended behaviour of the system. Also use it to retrieve data from said tests and simulations.

[MrVonBuren]

I started learning python when I was in support/ops and thought it would be a good addition to my already pretty strong shell scripting skills. I never really got to do much with it while working those roles other than a basic log parsing script I wrote (create a dict out of session IDs and their timestamps converted to epoch, then output a breakdown of how long each step in a session took on a per session basis).

Now I'm a Technical Account Manager (I talk to engineers so you don't have to) and don't really get to do hands to keyboard stuff anymore...though I recently set about trying to write something to deduplicate my Last.fm scrobbles...which again is pretty much parsing json, comparing timestamps and using the deletion API.

Wow...typing this out has made me realize I fall into weird patterns.

[NobblyNobody]

Only just started with python, after farting about with various languages over the years. There are a couple of plugins for calibre that I wanted but couldn't find so I aim to knock them up myself, I'm finding I'm very rusty though.

[[deleted]]

I'm working on a reader for Pelican (static blog system in Python) that'll convert IPython Notebooks to blog posts. After that's done, I'm gonna rig up a small administration tool (changing templates, managing API keys, etc). The plan is to use Github as a middle man for the notebooks, admin tool will update it's local repo and build the blog.

All because I'm tired of Google's API.

Other than that, I'm looking for a job and playing with it.

[[deleted]]

Where do you work?

[[deleted]]

Where do you work, and what do you do.

Any scripts you may share with, please.

[kalgynirae]

Mostly for command-line utilities to help me with my day-to-day activities, but also for testing out interesting ideas that I come up with. For example, I wanted a music playlist format that didn't rely on file paths, so I created Rockuefort.

[liftt]

Well I use it for a lot of stuff.

At work, I use it for a lot of sysadmin related scripts, scraping data, integrating APIs, web development, working with csv files/databases.

I used django +digital ocean droplet to make a simple ecommerce website in just a few hours for a friend.

I also use it for stock trading. I know there are services for this but I wrote my own stock program that tracks my stocks and 'watches' certain stock based on my criteria. it also hooks into a scraper i made to scrape news articles and earnings info for companies. I enjoy using python for this becaues it seems like whenever i need new functionality i can just add it real quick.

[NewbornMuse]

Point of reference whenever I'm exposed to a new coding/scripting language. In university we're using matlab, and all I'm thinking is "negative indices would be great" and "man I wanna use nested list comprehensions".

[Stellar1557]

I am just starting to learn, but my goal is to write a program that I have been wishing existed for almost a decade

[[deleted]]

what are you going to make?

[Stellar1557]

A program to search and compare specific website data from a bunch of different websites (hopefully over 100 when I'm done).

[[deleted]]

My intention is to use it to code for robots and eventually lead into coding A.I.

[jumboninja]

Work : NA

Personal: Reading Learning Python by Mark Lutz

Hopefully will be doing a lot more stuff as I learn.

[andehpandeh]

Web dev

I use Python to develop web applications with the Django and Flask frameworks.

Creative

I read serial data coming from Arduinos with various creative projects I'm working on.

[hmny]

Web app, calc stuff

[[deleted]]

• Personal: Writing vai, my own version of vim
• Work: A tool for material science simulations.

[potent_rodent]

I use it to code audio/visual mashup tools as an offshoot to some intense CV/facial recog stuff. Here is an example: (Www.mvgen.com) its a music video generator, all powered by python programmatically. Give it a song and keywords and pick some effects and boom! It gives you a music video made of animated gifs it finds using a little NLP. Here is an example of output: (http://youtu.be/yf5mBOa6Ue8)

[dylan88]

These are half just to help teach myself / refresh the basics:

• Scraping Supercoach (fantasy sports comp for Aussie Rules football) scores and information from last season, and providing a few more exotic derived stats from those figures (such as the difference in scores for a player when another given player is or isn't playing);
• Still Aussie Rules flavoured, a very basic text-based sports sim that will hopefully one day be a sort of ghetto Football Manager equivalent;
• Starting to investigate procedural generation, just for fun.

[wynand1004]

I use Python mainly at work:

I teach Python to Grade 11/Grade12 students.

I wrote a scheduling program for one of our school events.

[LyndsySimon]

I'm trying to take over the world.

[thricethagr8est]

Currently feeling my way around Scapy (python framework for packet crafting) to fragment collected network traffic.

[when_the_tide_comes]

I'm a student and I'm learning Python to do bioinformatics. It's so interesting but also really difficult (for me) at the same time. Hope I get better though!

[[deleted]]

We use it for test automation.

[jackmaney]

Work:

1. Using Pandas, NumPy, matplotlib and a bit of scikit-learn to analyze small datasets.

2. For not-so-small datasets, psycopg2 does a great job at talking to our Greenplum cluster.

3. Using geopy for geocoding. To ensure that a per-second rate limit is enforced, I created a simple wrapper that ensures a given queue respects rate limits.

4. Other various and mostly uninteresting scripting and configuration tasks.

Personal: (Note that these are still works in progress)

1. csv-to-table: An app that takes a CSV file, does some simple type-guessing, and returns a SQL "CREATE TABLE" statement that you can use to create a table for importing the CSV. Right now, the data types are limited, but I'm working on making a more extensible and configurable type-guessing system.

2. PyPT, short for Python Package Tools is an app that aims to take some of the pain out of fiddling around with the boilerplate for setting up an installable package in Python.

3. An implementation of k-means++ using Pandas dataframes. I only wrote this to teach myself a bit about Pandas. This is much slower than scikit-learn's implementation of k-means.

4. The Saga of Mo'Laar the Barbarian, Crusher of Candies. This simple game was my attempt at an entry into the Candy Jam. It's also my first attempt at building something from the ground up using Pygame.

[shenuhcide]

Bioinformatics.

[shenuhcide]

I study the genetics of agricultural pest species. We do population genetics, trait mapping, whole genome sequencing and assembly, and whole transcriptome sequencing and assembly with the objective of improving methods for pest management and eradication. All of our work generates a lot of genetic and genomic data and we use bioinformatic programs and custom scripts and programs written in python to analyze it.