change apache/apache2 port

'ports.conf', if you're using ubuntu, is located @ '/etc/apache' (apache), '/etc/apache2' (apache2)

$ sudo gedit etc/apache2/ports.conf

netwrokking

http://blog.ksplice.com/2010/07/learning-by-doing-writing-your-own-traceroute-in-8-easy-steps/

to mount a disk in linux

all devices are listed as files in /dev

e.g. $ ls -l /dev
for a list of all devices in /dev

to filter it down to devices containing the string 'sda'
$ ls -l /dev | grep -i sda

which for example returns

ptysd
sda
sda1
sda2
sda5
sdb
... and more

then
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

fdisk in this case yields partition information for the device
fdisk --help for usage

also
$ cat /var/log/messages

mod_wsgi

mod_wsgi is now the effective supercedent of mod_python

http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/

ubuntu package = libapache2-mod-wsgi

ERROR
apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
FIX - courtesy of Mohamed Aslam

http://mohamedaslam.com/how-to-fix-apache-could-not-reliably-determine-the-servers-fully-qualified-domain-name-using-127011-for-servername-error-on-ubuntu/

What is mod_python ?

mod_python
1. o'Reilly article by Gregory Trubetskoy
2. WikiPedia

but, most importantly, it appears that
MOD_PYTHON IS DEAD !


LONG LIVE MOD_WSGI !
WSGI Project Page @ Google Code

modpython-project-is-now-officially-dead
modpython-project-soon-to-be-officially-dead
from django
Blog Piece
StackOverflow Thread

to run a pythonscript from ubuntu command line

to run a pythonscript from ubuntu command line

to execute script 'hw.py'
from the command line
in the director of 'hw.py' [i.e. if you entered 'ls' you would see hw.py in the listing)

first, make script executable by granting rights
$ sudo chmod +x hw.py

add the following line to the beginning of the script
#!/usr/bin/python

this instructs the shell to hand the script over to the the python runtime binary,
which is located /usr/bin/python

mssql-08 sample databases

available from CodePlex:

official ms sample databases
community samples

DocPy - Python Source Doc Gen

# docpy.py - david.barkhuizn@gmail.com

# 1.    module methods - signature, followed by docstring
# 2.    module fields ?
# 3.    module classes
#           class name, parent class, __init__ method parameters & docstring
#           instance fields (get from self.? refs in __init__ method)

# ---------------------------------------------------------------

# ISSUES
# need to strip out classes before extracting method info
# can't handle multi-line method signatures

# ---------------------------------------------------------------

import sys

# ---------------------------------------------------------------

single_marker = '\'\'\''
double_marker = '\"\"\"'    

# ---------------------------------------------------------------        

class MethodInfo:
    
    def __init__(self, method_name, params, docstrings):
        '''
        method_name - string
        params - list of param name strings        
        '''
        self.method_name = method_name
        self.params = params
        self.docstrings = docstrings      

# ---------------------------------------------------------------

def load_text_file(file_path):
    '''
    return list of lines in text file @ 'file_path'
    '''

    try:
        text_file = open(file_path, 'r')
        text_block = text_file.read()
        lines = text_block.split('\n')
        text_file.close()
        return lines
        
    except Exception, err:   
        print('error during reading of text file %s' % file_path)
        print(err)
        return []

def src_file_path_from_cmdargs():

    valid_args = []    

    for arg in sys.argv:
        if arg.lower() not in ['docpy.py', 'python']:        
            valid_args.append(arg.lower())
   
    return 'docpy.py'
   
    if len(valid_args) != 1:
        return ''
    else:
        return valid_args[0]
        
def get_sig_line_idxs(lines):
    '''
    lines = list of lines in python source file (in sequence)
    '''    
    token = 'def '   
    
    indices = []
    
    for i in range(len(lines)):
        if lines[i].strip()[:4] == token:
            indices.append(i)

    return indices

def parse_method_sig(sig):    

    # e.g.'    def parse_methodsig(sig):#comment    '
    
    sig = sig.strip()
    # e.g.'def parse_methodsig(sig):#comment'
    
    sig = sig[4:len(sig)]
    # e.g.'parse_methodsig(sig):#comment'
    
    i = sig.find('#')
    if i != -1:
        sig = sig[:i-1]
    # e.g.'parse_methodsig(sig):
    
    left = sig.find('(')
    right = sig.rfind(')')
    
    meth_name = sig[:left]
    
    params = []
    
    if right - left != 1:
    
        params = sig[left+1:right]
        
        params = params.replace(',', ' ')
        
        got_double = True
        while got_double == True:    
            got_double = (params.find('  ') != -1)
            if got_double:
                params = params.replace('  ', ' ')
        
        params = params.split(' ')
    
    return MethodInfo(meth_name, params, [])   
    
def extract_single_line_docstring(docstring):
    '''example of single line method docstring'''
    
    lsingle = docstring.find(single_marker)
    ldouble = docstring.find(double_marker)
    
    marker = ''
    left = -1
    if lsingle != -1:
        marker = single_marker
        left = lsingle
    elif ldouble != -1:
        marker = double_marker
        left = ldouble
    else:
        return ''
        
    right = docstring.rfind(marker)
    
    if (right != -1) and (right != left):
        return docstring[left+3:right]
    else:
        return ''
  
def strip_leading_triplequotes(line):
    
    left = line.find(single_marker)
    if left == -1:
        left = line.find(double_marker)
        if left == -1:
            return ''
        
    return line[left + 3:]

def strip_trailing_triplequotes(line):
    
    right = line.rfind(double_marker)
    if right == -1:
        right = line.rfind(double_marker)
        if right == -1:
            return ''
        
    return line[:right]
    
def extract_docstrings(lines, meth_sig_idx, next_meth_sig_idx):

    # determine line indices of starting and ending triple quotes
    
    start = -1
    end = -1
    
    for i in range(meth_sig_idx + 1, next_meth_sig_idx):
        
        line = lines[i]
        
        sidx = line.find(single_marker)
        
        if sidx == -1:
            sidx = line.find(double_marker)        
        
        if sidx != -1:
            if start == -1:
                start = i
            else:
                end = i
                break

    if start == -1:
        return []
    elif end == -1:
        single_line = extract_single_line_docstring(lines[start])
        if single_line != '':
            return [ single_line ]
        else:
            return []
    else:
        docstrings = []
        
        for i in range(start, end + 1):
            no_whitespace = lines[i].strip()
            if i == start:
                stripped = strip_leading_triplequotes(no_whitespace)
                if stripped != '':
                    docstrings.append(stripped)
            elif i == end:
                stripped = strip_trailing_triplequotes(no_whitespace)
                if stripped != '':
                    docstrings.append(stripped)
            else:
                docstrings.append(no_whitespace)
        
        return docstrings

def get_method_info(lines, meth_sig_idx, next_meth_sig_idx):
    
    method_info = parse_method_sig(lines[meth_sig_idx])
    method_info.docstrings = extract_docstrings(lines, meth_sig_idx, next_meth_sig_idx)
    
    return method_info
        
def mock_method(one, two, three, four):
    print('vokol')

def display_module_method_info(meth_info):

    print(meth_info.method_name)
    for p in meth_info.params:
        print('  ' + p)
    for docstring in meth_info.docstrings:
        print(docstring)    
    
def main():

    text_file_path = src_file_path_from_cmdargs()
    lines = load_text_file(text_file_path)
    sig_line_idxs = get_sig_line_idxs(lines)
    
    module_methods_info = []    
    
    for i in range(len(sig_line_idxs)):
       
        idx = sig_line_idxs[i]
        
        if i < len(sig_line_idxs) - 1:
            next_idx = sig_line_idxs[i + 1]
        else:
            next_idx = len(sig_line_idxs)
        
        module_methods_info.append( get_method_info(lines, idx, next_idx) )

    for meth_info in module_methods_info:
        display_module_method_info(meth_info)
       
        
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Untangling Object Dependencies in MS-SQL-08

useful TechRepublic Blog

1. get a list of all system objects from sys.objects
name,object_id,parent_object_id,type

2. determine individual dependencies from sys.sql_dependencies
object_id, referenced_major_id

3. use a topological sort to untangle the list of dependencies to a simple dependency tree.

setting up iburst driver for ubuntu 8-10 intrepid ibex

http://blog.hostinghabitat.com/2009/02/iburst-usb-modem-installation-tutorial.html

ibdriver (iburst driver) for ubuntu 10.04

Driver for 2.6.28 kernel

Patch from 2.6.28 to 2.6.31:
option 1
option 2

yapyfin.py Python Yahoo Finance Client

Yahoo Finance exposes a large amount of historical US equity data via their html api. The python code below downloads the open-high-low-close-adjclose-volume data for British Petroleum (BP) = stock ticker symbol BP, between 1900/01/01 and 2010/07/18, to text file BP.csv

import httplib
httplib.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1
import urllib

def enc_quote(ticker, fromY, fromM, fromD, toY, toM, toD):

    quote = dict()

    quote['s'] = ticker
    quote['a'] = fromM
    quote['b'] = fromD
    quote['c'] = fromY
    quote['d'] = toD
    quote['e'] = toM
    quote['f'] = toY
    quote['g'] = "d" 

    return urllib.urlencode(quote)
    
url_stem = 'http://ichart.yahoo.com/table.csv?'
quote_tokens = enc_quote('BP', '1900', '01', '01', '2010', '07', '18')
url = url_stem + "&ignore=.csv" + quote_tokens

f = urllib.urlopen(url)
body = f.read()
f.close()

try:
    f = open('BP.csv', 'w')
    f.write(body)
    f.close()
except Exception, err:
    print('ERROR: %s\n' % str(err))

PyMSSql - import _mssql - ImportError: DLL load failed: The specific module could not be found

under windows xp pro,
When attempting to import pymssql.py,
I experienced the following error:


"
import _mssql
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specific module could not be found
"

So this is all a bit cryptic, but after googling, which suggested using a windows diagnostic tool [ProcessMonitor] to locate the failing process, it turns out that what is missing is an (accessible) copy of 'mscvr71.dll', which can be downloaded off the net, and should be copied to 'c:\windows\system32\', or 'c:\windows\system\' if running 64bit windows.

you then need to run 'regsvr32 msvcr71.dll' from the command line, in the directory that you copied the dll to.

cant find entrypoint

if you get a 'cant find entrypoint' type error message, its actually still all ok, pymssql should run just fine by that point.

Matching File Extension to Applications

http://filext.com/

Python Client Consumes WCF Web Service

End-Point = ABC
- Address
- Binding
- Contract

WSDL Components

definition
    types
    message
    portType = interface implementation
        operation
            input
            output
    binding = abstract interface
        operation
            documentation
            input
            output
    service
        wsdl:port (name, binding)
            x:address (location)

 
Example Publicly Accessible / iNet WSDL

GlobalWeather.com
- http://www.webservicex.com/globalweather.asmx?wsdl

wsf.cdyne.com
- http://wsf.cdyne.com/WeatherWS/Weather.asmx?WSDL

thomas-bayer.com
- http://www.thomas-bayer.com/axis2/services/BLZService?wsdl
 
External Links

- Make a SOAP client with Python
- StackOverFlow - How can I consume a WSDL (SOAP) web service in Python?
- SourceForge - Python Web Services Project

RSA ID Number Check-Sum Algorithm

infomation sourced from this site.

13 digit South African Identity Numbers have the following format

{YYMMDD}{G}{SSS}{A}{Z}

YYMMDD  Date of birth
G       Gender:  0-4 = Female, 5-9 = Male
SSS     Sequence No. for DOB/G combination.
C       Citizenship: 0 = SA, 1 = other
A       generally, but not strictly = 8, 9
Z       CheckSum Digit

Calculation of Checksum Digit = Z

A = sum of digits in odd position (excluding last checksum digit)
B = sum of all the digits of the product of 2 and the number formed from the original be removing all the odd digits
C = A + B
Z = 10 - (second digit of C)