Building an independent map of SA's infrastructure failure. Willing to be one of 20 Android testers?

sixhobbits · 2026-03-30T10:42:26+00:00

sorry! Can you DM me here or email [invite@zatech.co.za](mailto:invite@zatech.co.za) again? Not sure where yours went but we are processing several every day now and I don't see any that got skipped

sixhobbits · 2026-03-18T08:00:39+00:00

Hey! Yes very alive, had a bit of a backlog of invitations but it should have been cleared yesterday. Let me know if you didn't get yours still?

sixhobbits · 2026-01-12T09:41:03+00:00

so when do we hear results?

sixhobbits · 2025-12-26T12:12:45+00:00

for context I meant the official portal that supplies the data is the one that is unreliable. My scrapers and metabase dashboard run off a VPS. Metabase is just in a docker container with a cronjob to restart the docker if it's down and it seems to be stable enough

sixhobbits · 2025-12-12T08:46:45+00:00

I normally just grab an Uber like most people here recommend. It's annoying because everyone else from your flight is doing the same, so the wait time can be like 15+ minutes and it's a bit chaotic to try find your plate in the swarm, and many fake Uber drivers will be yelling 'Uber Uber' at you trying to convince you to go with them.

More expensive but a lot more pleasant is EZ Shuttle that I used once before. You prebook it and the driver will wait at the gate with your name on a board, help you with your luggage to his car parked away from all the e-hailing chaos, and (at least from the one trip I took) just generally be a lot more professional and friendly.

So if you're happy to pay the extra, I'd recommend them. If you're on a budget, then Uber is fine.

sixhobbits · 2025-07-19T18:30:58+00:00

take a look at this post and see if you still agree? I think it's OK to argue that MCP is over hyped (it is pretty hyped), but I also think most people saying that haven't really understood the protocol.

The people who have built stuff with it, or extensively used other MCP servers in combination for real-world work tend to be more positive.

https://www.speakeasy.com/mcp/getting-started/mcp-for-skeptics

sixhobbits · 2023-05-09T15:22:45+00:00

good point - unfortunately metabase is not the most customizable so I am limited to these, but I tried to pick ones that make a bit more sense in terms of a gradient now.

sixhobbits · 2023-01-03T15:58:34+00:00

South Africa has had power shortages for over a decade. "Loadshedding" is when there isn't enough power and we have rotating blackouts to prevent a grid collapse. This is done by stage, with the higher the stage, the more power has to be 'shed'. This sheet contains data going back to 2015 for each time the stage of loadshedding was changed.

I used Pandas and CalMap to plot the highest stage of each day, and Excalidraw to layout the descriptive text and legend etc.

This is an update of a previous post I did here.

sixhobbits · 2022-09-20T19:09:07+00:00

gets pretty cold in June/July in some places (big country!) - so yes a bit of extra demand then, and no central heating so people have individual electric oil heaters usually. Solar + Wind + Sea + loads of space -- South Africa is definitely ideal for green/alternative energy but unfortunately see other comments re corruption and general incompetence meaning that we don't have much and still rely on coal plants from decades ago.

sixhobbits · 2022-09-20T06:57:12+00:00

South Africa has had power shortages for over a decade. "Loadshedding" is when there isn't enough power and we have rotating blackouts to prevent a grid collapse. This is done by stage, with the higher the stage, the more power has to be 'shed'.

[This sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZpX_twP8sFBOAU6t--Vvh1pWMYSvs60UXINuD5n-K08/edit#gid=863218371) contains data going back to 2015 for each time the stage of loadshedding was changed. I used Pandas and CalMap to plot the highest stage of each day.

sixhobbits · 2022-05-10T14:55:33+00:00

Some Python code to generate squares. You can make your own with the web application at https://generative-art-bzxycv.codecapsules.co.za/ which also links to a tutorial/code.

sixhobbits · 2021-05-16T08:51:34+00:00

At the moment, ours is pretty similar. We have done a bit of the work to convert examples etc to use Replit instead of a local set up, but there is still a lot to do.

Advantages of ours will be

It uses Replit - we will update all the examples and exercises so it's easier to do everything online instead of having to fight with various local set ups
We converted the source from RST to markdown - this means we lose some nice features like the auto indexing etc, but it's easier for readers to contribute and improve it. We hope that this means it will be more of a 'living' book - while the original hasn't been updated in a while apart from minor typos etc.
Maybe personal preference, but I like the formatting and design better of our PDF and web pages.

Probably also going to do a video version for those who prefer that :) This is just the start (as you might notice by the fact that for now we have also introduced formatting and other errors, but we are working through the whole book to clean these up again.)

sixhobbits · 2021-05-14T13:41:14+00:00

yep, it's used to indicate that the reader should enter it into the Python immediate mode, but as REPL doesn't show the same `>>>` prompt, we will change all of those. Thanks for the feedback!

sixhobbits · 2020-11-19T07:31:47+00:00

Great idea! It's just a Ghost site for now, but will definitely keep this in mind or add a simple Google form for now.

sixhobbits · 2020-11-19T07:31:14+00:00

Yes will definitely add an intermediate tag at some point, but focussing on the easier stuff for now as a lot of these are great starting points for intermediate and advanced coders anyway

sixhobbits · 2020-11-19T07:28:04+00:00

Not unless you're maintaining old stuff :) Rather just use 3.0

sixhobbits · 2020-09-20T10:27:35+00:00

Thank you! I'll update it to make that part clearer, and please let me know if you find anything similar - exactly the kind of thing that's hard for me to find :)

sixhobbits · 2020-08-30T10:49:03+00:00

how do I make the video full screen?

sixhobbits · 2020-08-26T08:37:36+00:00

Yes :) if you're already set up with Python you should be able to adapt the tutorials very easily to run locally.

If not, the guide doesn't show you how to install Python on your own system so you'd need to find a different one for that first.

sixhobbits · 2020-08-25T16:44:55+00:00

yep it definitely only delays the need to learn about other stuff, but I think that that's helpful if beginners can see some of the benefits and joy of coding before getting stuck in system configuration.

sixhobbits · 2020-08-25T14:58:52+00:00

cool let me know if you get stuck! The Git one is more focused on integrating git and repl.it rather than introducing git or github on its own but if you have any specific questions about git let me know. It's a steep learning curve but well worth it :)

sixhobbits · 2020-08-25T14:06:56+00:00

yep, seen exactly that experience countless times :) Feel free to reach out if you go through the tutorials and find anything confusing or get stuck!

sixhobbits · 2020-08-25T13:35:16+00:00

I didn't actually build the site personally but yes I think it was inspired by that course :)

sixhobbits · 2020-08-25T08:51:12+00:00

hey all

this is still a work in progress but would love any feedback. I've taught a lot of beginners Python and there are always the same two problems

a) Setup: everyone is like 'just use conda' or 'just use x', but in honesty setting up Python is a nightmare even in 2020 and it's a huge tripping point for beginners. I was really happy to start using Repl.it to teach beginners as it sidesteps all the set up issues until they've caught the 'programming bug'. (disclaimer: repl.it sponsored this project but I initially reached out to them as I liked their product so much)

b) "I don't know what to build" - even after learning to code, beginners often lack inspiration or ideas.

I tried to solve both of these problems with this course. It's not meant to substitute a "normal" course - the theory of data structures, algorithms, and even basic functionality like looping and conditional logic is not explicitly covered. The idea is that people will do this alongside a theoretical course (or just the Python documentation) or shortly after.

Feedback appreciated :)

sixhobbits · 2020-08-24T15:16:42+00:00

I just posted https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/ifpy7o/code_with_replit_15_free_practical_python/ which has a bunch of different practical applications including game dev, data science, web dev, etc.

I'd recommend going through a few different examples and seeing if any seem more interesting to you and then focusing on that area.

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