From kveroneau at gmail.com  Mon May 20 13:31:53 2013
From: kveroneau at gmail.com (Kevin Veroneau)
Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 12:31:53 -0500
Subject: [Python Wpg] No activity for a very long time
In-Reply-To: <CAK=AUw9hsL2+1WHD_OXRm2YhOTh4kPCXuqx=s_ruY56-pg9ARA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAK=AUw9hsL2+1WHD_OXRm2YhOTh4kPCXuqx=s_ruY56-pg9ARA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAK=AUw_huCNjr6U0a99WTQoTL5jjxNey7QVD2t8F8OVhaxhucw@mail.gmail.com>

Hello everyone,

  Summers finally among us and I would love to make some suggestions.  I am
not sure how many users are still part of the mailing list or overall
Python group for that matter, and there hasn't been any meeting
announcements either.

  I'd love to organize a meeting where we can all brainstorm and discuss
various Python projects we might be able to provide our fair city.  Over
the years, other local user groups have been doing charitable work in the
community and providing services which would normal cost a non-profit
organization money they cannot normally afford.

  Python has many purposes outside general computing, such as embedded
devices.  There is now a large assortment of cheap quality open source
embedded devices which can use Python easily.  Such devices as the
Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, and the BeagleBone to name a few.  These devices
can easily connect online and have external displays connected to them.
Such applications include a custom kiosk, a programmable controller for a
larger device, and much more.  These devices are also very economic and
environmentally safe unlike Intel's platform.

   This project will spread the word about both Python and our group and
inspire others to do such deeds for our community.  It will also allow us
to better get to know one another, and see each other's strengths and
weakness'.  We can all learn from something another will bring to the
project.

  If you are interested or have any proposals, do let me know.

Kevin Veroneau
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From stuart at swilliams.ca  Thu May 23 08:19:24 2013
From: stuart at swilliams.ca (Stuart Williams)
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 07:19:24 -0500
Subject: [Python Wpg] No activity for a very long time
In-Reply-To: <CAK=AUw_huCNjr6U0a99WTQoTL5jjxNey7QVD2t8F8OVhaxhucw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAK=AUw9hsL2+1WHD_OXRm2YhOTh4kPCXuqx=s_ruY56-pg9ARA@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAK=AUw_huCNjr6U0a99WTQoTL5jjxNey7QVD2t8F8OVhaxhucw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAO3p=83DGpND=2vwL5hbp_nu1pc3HRx5wGNFgayvB3uuXhG0+Q@mail.gmail.com>

Glad to hear you want to stir things up!

The list has 60 members.  It started as a mailing list for the users group,
but I think now it's become a list of 60 people in Winnipeg (mostly) that
are interested in Python.  If a group meets in person, most of them will
want to know, and some of them will attend.

I'm interested in getting together.  A couple of ideas I've been kicking
around related to Python:

1. Run something like  http://bostonpythonworkshop.com/ in Winnipeg, maybe
focused on women like it, or maybe focused on some other group.

2. Teach kids programming with Python on the Raspberry Pi, similar to the
workshop at PyCon this year -
http://pycon.blogspot.ca/2013/03/how-kids-stole-show-young-coders.html

I mentioned this at the AssentWorks Raspberry Pi night a few weeks ago and
have a couple of contacts interested, too.

Stuart.



On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Kevin Veroneau <kveroneau at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
>   Summers finally among us and I would love to make some suggestions.  I
> am not sure how many users are still part of the mailing list or overall
> Python group for that matter, and there hasn't been any meeting
> announcements either.
>
>   I'd love to organize a meeting where we can all brainstorm and discuss
> various Python projects we might be able to provide our fair city.  Over
> the years, other local user groups have been doing charitable work in the
> community and providing services which would normal cost a non-profit
> organization money they cannot normally afford.
>
>   Python has many purposes outside general computing, such as embedded
> devices.  There is now a large assortment of cheap quality open source
> embedded devices which can use Python easily.  Such devices as the
> Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, and the BeagleBone to name a few.  These devices
> can easily connect online and have external displays connected to them.
> Such applications include a custom kiosk, a programmable controller for a
> larger device, and much more.  These devices are also very economic and
> environmentally safe unlike Intel's platform.
>
>    This project will spread the word about both Python and our group and
> inspire others to do such deeds for our community.  It will also allow us
> to better get to know one another, and see each other's strengths and
> weakness'.  We can all learn from something another will bring to the
> project.
>
>   If you are interested or have any proposals, do let me know.
>
> Kevin Veroneau
>
> _______________________________________________
> Winnipeg Python Users Group mailing list
> http://WinniPUG.ca
> Winnipeg at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/winnipeg
>
>
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From kveroneau at gmail.com  Thu May 23 10:49:07 2013
From: kveroneau at gmail.com (Kevin Veroneau)
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 09:49:07 -0500
Subject: [Python Wpg] No activity for a very long time
In-Reply-To: <CAO3p=83DGpND=2vwL5hbp_nu1pc3HRx5wGNFgayvB3uuXhG0+Q@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAK=AUw9hsL2+1WHD_OXRm2YhOTh4kPCXuqx=s_ruY56-pg9ARA@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAK=AUw_huCNjr6U0a99WTQoTL5jjxNey7QVD2t8F8OVhaxhucw@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAO3p=83DGpND=2vwL5hbp_nu1pc3HRx5wGNFgayvB3uuXhG0+Q@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <201305230949.07938.kveroneau@gmail.com>

Those are some great ideas.  How would we go about advertising such an event?  
What types of material would be need for either event?

I haven't programming on the Pi yet(and really want to soon), does it use it's 
own framebuffer interface for displaying text and graphics, or can it use 
something like pygame?

Another idea for "teaching kids programming with Python", is to use the Python 
toolkit, Kivy.  It's sort of an alternative to pygame in a sense, but also 
works on Android devices.  Since our world is very "mobile centric", I believe 
that the kids may relate better to creating apps and games for a mobile 
device, and Kivy is a great option for that.  Check out their "pong tutorial":

http://kivy.org/docs/tutorials/pong.html

The best part would be, that if the kids are interesting in continuing 
afterwords, Kivy works on all Desktop OSes(like Python does) and is pretty 
easy to install for them.  If their family has an Android tablet then they can 
show off their creations with their family and friends really easily.  Multi-
touch is also supported on the Android port.

If you choose a "mobile centric" title for the event, it may have a larger 
appeal.  Kids may not know what a Raspberry Pi is, they may only attend to 
fulfill that curiosity.  However, if it was worded like they can learn to 
create their own games on their smartphone or tablet, I'm sure a large number 
of kids will immediately ask their parents if they could attend.

I'm completely open to discussing this and other ideas people on the list may 
have.  The more ideas the better.

Kevin

On May 23, 2013 7:19:24 am Stuart Williams wrote:
> Glad to hear you want to stir things up!
> 
> The list has 60 members.  It started as a mailing list for the users group,
> but I think now it's become a list of 60 people in Winnipeg (mostly) that
> are interested in Python.  If a group meets in person, most of them will
> want to know, and some of them will attend.
> 
> I'm interested in getting together.  A couple of ideas I've been kicking
> around related to Python:
> 
> 1. Run something like  http://bostonpythonworkshop.com/ in Winnipeg, maybe
> focused on women like it, or maybe focused on some other group.
> 
> 2. Teach kids programming with Python on the Raspberry Pi, similar to the
> workshop at PyCon this year -
> http://pycon.blogspot.ca/2013/03/how-kids-stole-show-young-coders.html
> 
> I mentioned this at the AssentWorks Raspberry Pi night a few weeks ago and
> have a couple of contacts interested, too.
> 
> Stuart.
> 
> On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:31 PM, Kevin Veroneau <kveroneau at gmail.com>wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> >   Summers finally among us and I would love to make some suggestions.  I
> > 
> > am not sure how many users are still part of the mailing list or overall
> > Python group for that matter, and there hasn't been any meeting
> > announcements either.
> > 
> >   I'd love to organize a meeting where we can all brainstorm and discuss
> > 
> > various Python projects we might be able to provide our fair city.  Over
> > the years, other local user groups have been doing charitable work in the
> > community and providing services which would normal cost a non-profit
> > organization money they cannot normally afford.
> > 
> >   Python has many purposes outside general computing, such as embedded
> > 
> > devices.  There is now a large assortment of cheap quality open source
> > embedded devices which can use Python easily.  Such devices as the
> > Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, and the BeagleBone to name a few.  These
> > devices can easily connect online and have external displays connected
> > to them. Such applications include a custom kiosk, a programmable
> > controller for a larger device, and much more.  These devices are also
> > very economic and environmentally safe unlike Intel's platform.
> > 
> >    This project will spread the word about both Python and our group and
> > 
> > inspire others to do such deeds for our community.  It will also allow us
> > to better get to know one another, and see each other's strengths and
> > weakness'.  We can all learn from something another will bring to the
> > project.
> > 
> >   If you are interested or have any proposals, do let me know.
> > 
> > Kevin Veroneau
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Winnipeg Python Users Group mailing list
> > http://WinniPUG.ca
> > Winnipeg at python.org
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/winnipeg

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