Python Web Application Diary

/www/lib - added to PYTHONPATH (in your .profile or .cshrc)

%qp -h
Usage: qp [options] [start|stop|restart] [site]*

Control the servers for the sites in your qp installation.
No options is the same as "--status".
"stop" is the same as "--stop".
"start" is the same as "--start".
"restart" is the same as "--stop --start".

If "--stop" and "--start" are both present and the durus server
is already running, only the web server is restarted.

The script searches for sites in the qp.sites package, which
in turn searches through the following list, by default.
    ${QP_SITES}
    ~/qp_sites
    ~/.qp_sites
    /var/qp_sites
    /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/qp/sites

Options:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  -u, --start          Start the durus and web servers.
  -d, --stop           Stop the durus and web servers.
  -q, --quickrestart   Quick restart of the web server(s) of the named sites.
  -v, --status         Show the current status of the durus and web servers.
  -c, --configuration  Show the site configuration.
  -l, --log            tail -f the log for the last named site.
  -i, --interact       Open an interactive session with the last named site.

/www/qp_sites

cd /var
ln -s /www/qp_sites qp_sites

~/qp_sites

/www/docs - a collection of documentation that I refer to
/www/python - symlink to /usr/local/lib/python2.5/

/www/lib/Parlez         - including CHANGES, LICENSE, README
/www/lib/Parlez/bin     - related scripts
/www/lib/Parlez/doc     - documentation
/www/lib/Parlez/lib     - the Parlez package itself
/www/lib/Parlez/site    - a demo application

@ln -s /www/lib/Parlez/lib parlez@

qp proto start

qp -u proto

%qp

proto  durus[61859]:localhost:7002 web[61860] http::8002 as_https:localhost:9002 https:localhost:10002
sr     durus:down web:down
recipe durus[60590]:localhost:7005 web[60591] http::8005
contact web[54418] http::8080
test   web:down
hello  web:down

Guess who?

Try and guess which political ideology the speaker of the following words belongs to:

It makes no sense to push ahead and spend all of this money on a port that makes the communities adjacent to it little more than doormats on which passing freight wipes its feet and leaves nothing but misery and disruption behind. [When] our concern today is so rightly focused on reducing pollution, alleviating traffic congestion, protecting the environment and other quality-of-life concerns, we shouldn’t be spending money on massive projects that ignore these concerns.

Totally agree with these words. Who said it?

Surprise: Delta-Richmond East Conservative MP John Cummings.

Its too bad that the only Conservative MP’s who are willing to talk common sense are those who are clearly out of favour with Stephen Harper and his political hit men.

The vast majority of Conservative MP’s toe the party line, whether it makes any sense or not. The vast majority of party members seem to believe that is a sensible thing to do. Wrong headed in the extreme. Policy is being driven by a very few in the PMO, not by the membership and certainly not by the average Canadian voter.

Gateway is one idea that makes no sense whatsoever. Gateway, David Emerson’s pet project, only serves to prove that the Conservative party has no intention of actually addressing greenhouse gas emission reduction and climate change.

I’m glad to see Cummings continue to speak out. I won’t always agree with him, but I want to hear what MPs really think, not what they were ordered to think and say by Harper.

Emergency Preparedness Week - May 6-12

Its EP Week, don’t ya know. What’s that? Its an annual reminder that we all should be personally prepared – at home, at work, and in-between, to survive a significant regional disaster on our own without the help of emergency services for at least a week.

It takes very little planning and forethought to make sure you have enough water and food on hand, and other basic essentials, to survive a week without power or additional groceries or running tap water. Yet despite how easy it is to prepare, few are prepared.

Think back to the residents of New Orleans two summers ago and then consider what Vancouver would be like after a 7.0 or 8+ magnitude earthquake, and you would more or less correctly envision the situation here in Vancouver – access to the city cut off, supplies limited and scarce within hours.

A big quake (or an industrial spill or power outage or…) Could happen 10 minutes from now. So start preparing.

Live in Vancouver? Attend one of these free emergency preparedness “how-to” sessions (to register, call the community centre):

• Tuesday, May 8 at 7 pm, West End Community Centre (604) 257–8333
• Wednesday, May 9 at 7 pm, Renfrew Community Centre (604) 257–8388
• Saturday May 12 at 10 am, Trout Lake Community Centre (604) 257–6955
• Saturday May 19 at 2 pm, West End Community Centre (604) 257–8333
• Wednesday May 16 at 7 pm, Dunbar Community Center (604) 222–6060
• Wednesday June 6 at 7 pm, Kits Community Centre (604) 257–6976

Resources:

• West End Residents Association, Emergency Preparedness information
• Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program, information on other course dates.
• Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services offers a home emergency kit checklist
• Families for School Seismic Safety, May 7th update for EP Week, includes a reference to the VSB BIG ONE earthquake drill Tuesday May 10th at 2pm
• EPWeek.ca, a national site with links to programs in jurisdictions across Canada.

QP goes 2.0

QP, a close-cousin to the Quixote web framework, is now at 2.0 release:

The MEMS Exchange released updates of QP and Qpy today. We also released updates of the Durus, Dulcinea, and Sancho packages. More detail about all of these updates can be found at http://www.mems-exchange.org/software/ (via QP mailing list)

Misdirection 101

When trying to pull off a trick its often helpful to distract the audience and lead their eye away from where the action is really happening.

Harper ‘fanning flames’ of controversy, says May

May has been in the headlines for comments she made on the weekend that compared the government’s approach to climate change to former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis.

Speaking on CBC Newsworld, May said the comparison was not her own, but came from British journalist and author George Monbiot.

May said she included it in her address in order to illustrate international opinion of Canada.

“In citing that, what I was saying was, ‘Look how far Canada’s reputation has fallen, look at how the world is now looking at us for violating our international commitments on Kyoto,’” she said.

May said she left out a portion of Monbiot’s article, in which he says U.S. President George W. Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Harper will be remembered as the new “axis of evil” for failing to meet the environmental challenges of the day.

I don’t disagree with Monbiot at all there, but Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, and Brian Mulroney ought not to be left out of the reckoning. Each has had their own hand in shaping Canadian policy on climate change since the late 1980’s, and each has failed to measure up. Mulroney allowed his environment minister Lucien Bouchard to renege on earlier promises to seek reductions. Bouchard of course went on to form a separatist party whose goal is to break up Canada. Chretien signed treaties and promised lots but never empowered any of his environment and industry ministers, nor allowed parliament, to make the necessary policy changes. Martin diddled on every file.

Stephen Harper, now boxed in by the current climate of awareness, is trying to appear to be doing all that he can without actually trying to do all that is required. Its a sales strategy more than a campaign to save the planet. And all these “leaders” have continued to plug globalism (one of the root causes of the acceleration of greenhouse gas production) as they only way to conduct the business of the world, as if there is no other alternative.

Harper isn’t the only environmental obstructionist, he’s just the latest to hold power. Add to him the former Canadian Alliance and Reform party leaders Stockwell Day and Preston Manning and you have a triumvirate of Alberta-centric leaders who have consistently demonstrated in Parliament and out that their only interest over two decades has been to obstruct any move to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.