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Kushal Das: Breaking out of algorithm
Many of you already know about my love of photography. I am taking photos for many years, mostly people photos. Portraits in conferences like PyCon or Fedora events. I regularly post photos to wikipedia too, specially for the people/accounts which does not have good quality profile photos. I stopped doing photography as we moved to Sweden, digital camera was old and becoming stable in a new country (details in a different future blog) takes time. But, last year Anwesha bought me a new camera, actually two different cameras. And I started taking photos again.
I started regular photos of the weekly climate protests / demonstrations of Fridays for Future Stockholm group. And then more different street protests and some dance/music events too. I don't have a Facebook account and most people asked me to share over Instagram, so I did that. But, as I covered more & more various protests as a photographer, I noticed my Instagram postos are showing up less in people's feeds. Very less. Was wondering different ways of breaking out of the algorithmic restriction.
Pixelfed is a decentralized, federated ActivityPub based system to share photos. I am going to share photos more on this platform, and hoping people will slowly see more. I started my account yesterday.
You can follow me from any standard ActivityPub system, say your mastodon account itself. Search for @kushal@pixel.kushaldas.photography or https://pixel.kushaldas.photography/kushal in your system and you can then follow it like any other account. If you like the photos, then please share the account (or this blog post) more to your followers and help me to break out of the algorithmic restrictions.
In the technology side, the server runs Debian and containers. On my Fedora system I am super happy to add a few scripts for Gnome Files, they help me to resize the selected images before upload (I will write a blog post tomorrow on this).
The Drop Times: All Aboard the White Horse to Vienna
Dear Readers,
DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 closed its doors this past week, but the conversations and ideas sparked by the event are just beginning to take root. For four days, the Drupal community gathered to share, celebrate, and look ahead to what’s next for the platform. DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 has wrapped up, and now the wait for DrupalCon Vienna 2025 begins!
Reflecting on the progress of Drupal, Dries Buytaert proudly remarked,
“I’m so proud of how far we have come and how fast. This transformation is an incredible collective effort involving everyone from core committers, Drupal Association staff, volunteers, and agency partners; together, we focused on iterating rapidly and focused more on user experience than ever before. We had some brave out-of-the-box thinking…”
Giannis Kyriazopoulos of E-Sepia reported for The DropTimes on all three days of the conference, offering comprehensive coverage of the event.
The event started with contribution workshops and the opening ceremony, where the Women in Drupal Awards took center stage. Esmeralda Braad-Tijhoff was celebrated for her innovative leadership, earning the Define award, while Pamela Barone took home the Build award for her role in advancing key Drupal solutions. Alla Petrovska received the Scale award for her work in growing businesses using Drupal, demonstrating the platform's transformative impact.
One of the most anticipated moments was the Driesnote, where Dries Buytaert delivered his 40th State of Drupal address. He shared several key updates, as reported by The DropTimes, including the announcement that Drupal CMS 1.0 is set to launch on January 15, 2025. The Experience Builder (XB), built using React, is also set to revolutionize how users interact with Drupal, though it will be completed after the release of Drupal CMS. Dries emphasized Drupal's commitment to AI with the introduction of a Responsible AI Policy and demonstrated AI’s potential for automating tasks such as content creation and migration. He also announced the introduction of Drupal Recipes, which are bundles of reusable solutions aimed at streamlining common processes. Additionally, a partnership with Drupalize.me was unveiled to overhaul Drupal's documentation through the “Adopt a Document” initiative, inviting organizations to sponsor specific sections of the new tutorials.
The second day of the conference featured a moving story shared by Theódór Ragnar Gíslason, who recounted how an accident led him to extensive computer use and, eventually, hacking. He founded the organization "Defend Iceland" to address digital threats by introducing bounty programs accessible to both the public and private sectors. Gíslason also highlighted Drupal's security robustness, noting that after testing nearly 32,000 modules, very few vulnerabilities were found, solidifying Drupal's reputation for security.
In governance news, the Drupal Association Board election results were announced. Alejandro Moreno was elected to the At-Large seat, joining Sachiko Muto, Chairperson of OpenForum Europe, and Stella Power, CEO of Annertech, on the Board of Directors.
Esmeralda Tijhoff reported on the BoF session, ‘Getting started with la_eu: local association site,’ led by Bjorn Brala. The session brought together associations, builders, and potential users to discuss the roadmap of the Drupal La_eu project. Participants agreed on monthly check-ins via Slack, focusing on new features and automated updates for local sites. The session also highlighted the need for creating user stories and a roadmap for further development, with discussions about potentially involving an agency to accelerate progress.
Finally, the location of next year's event was revealed—DrupalCon Europe 2025 will take place in Vienna from October 14-17. The event will feature a new mascot, the White Horse, symbolizing the next chapter of Drupal's journey. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold in the coming months.
On other news, in an article for The DropTimes, Sinduri Guntupalli explores how Lupus Decoupled Drupal merges the power of Drupal's backend with modern frontend frameworks like Vue.js and Nuxt. The platform offers a flexible, API-driven architecture with custom elements, caching optimizations, and diverse deployment options, providing an efficient solution for both developers and content editors working on complex web projects.
Drupal CMS is set to receive significant enhancements to its advanced search functionality as 1xINTERNET announces a community-driven plan based on insights from nearly 100 experienced users. The comprehensive survey revealed an overwhelming preference for the Search API module as the standard search solution, with 87% of participants endorsing it over the Core Search module. Related technologies also received strong support, including Facets (88%), Search API Autocomplete (87%), and Search API Decoupled (78%).
We have also covered Provus Edu from Promet Source and Blökkli Starterkit from Liip. A story on Government Website Usability and another on the exclusion of direct module installs in Drupal 10.4 are a bonus.
Last but not least, The DropTimes would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who helped us cover DrupalCon Barcelona 2024.
We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.
To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You can also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.
Thank you,
Sincerely
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.
Bits from Debian: New Debian Developers and Maintainers (July and August 2024)
The following contributors got their Debian Developer accounts in the last two months:
- Carlos Henrique Lima Melara (charles)
- Joenio Marques da Costa (joenio)
- Blair Noctis (ncts)
The following contributors were added as Debian Maintainers in the last two months:
- Taihsiang Ho
Congratulations!
FSF Events: Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, October 4, starting at 12:00 EDT (16:00 UTC)
Real Python: Python 3.13: Cool New Features for You to Try
Python 3.13 will be published on October 1, 2024. This new version is a major step forward for the language, although several of the biggest changes are happening under the hood and won’t be immediately visible to you.
In a sense, Python 3.13 is laying the groundwork for some future improvements, especially to the language’s performance. As you read on, you’ll learn more about the background for this and dive into some new features that are fully available now.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn about some of the improvements in the new version, including:
- Improvements made to the interactive interpreter (REPL)
- Clearer error messages that can help you fix common mistakes
- Advancements done in removing the global interpreter lock (GIL) and making Python free-threaded
- The implementation of an experimental Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler
- A host of minor upgrades to Python’s static type system
If you want to try any of the examples in this tutorial, then you’ll need to use Python 3.13. The tutorials Python 3 Installation & Setup Guide and How Can You Install a Pre-Release Version of Python? walk you through several options for adding a new version of Python to your system.
In addition to learning more about the new features coming to the language, you’ll also get some advice about what to consider before upgrading to the new version. Click the link below to download code examples demonstrating the new capabilities of Python 3.13:
Get Your Code: Click here to download the free sample code that shows you how to use the new features in Python 3.13.
Take the Quiz: Test your knowledge with our interactive “Python 3.13: Cool New Features for You to Try” quiz. You’ll receive a score upon completion to help you track your learning progress:
Interactive Quiz
Python 3.13: Cool New Features for You to TryIn this quiz, you'll test your understanding of the new features introduced in Python 3.13. By working through this quiz, you'll review the key updates and improvements in this version of Python.
An Improved Interactive Interpreter (REPL)If you run Python without specifying any script or code, you’ll find yourself inside Python’s interactive interpreter. This interpreter is informally called the REPL because it’s based on a read-evaluate-print loop. The REPL reads your input, evaluates it, and prints the result before looping back and doing the same thing again.
The Python REPL has been around for decades, and it supports an explorative workflow that makes Python a beginner-friendly language. Unfortunately, the interpreter has been missing several features you may have come to expect, including multiline editing and efficient pasting of code.
Note: Experienced Python developers often install a third-party interactive interpreter instead of relying on the built-in REPL. You can learn more about the alternatives in these tutorials:
- Unlock IPython’s Magical Toolbox for Your Coding Journey
- Discover bpython: A Python REPL With IDE-Like Features
- Boost Your Coding Productivity With Ptpython
You can also read more about alternative REPLs in the guide to the standard REPL.
Begin by starting the REPL. You can do this by typing python in your terminal. Depending on your setup, you may have to write py, python3, or even python3.13 instead. One way to recognize that you’re using the new interpreter shipping with Python 3.13 is that the prompt consisting of three chevrons (>>>) is subtly colored:
One improvement is that you can now use REPL-specific commands without calling them with parentheses as if they are Python functions. Here are some of the commands and keyboard shortcuts you can use:
- exit or quit: Exit the interpreter
- clear: Clear the screen
- help or F1: Access the help system
- F2: Open the history browser
- F3: Enter paste mode
You can learn more about these options in Python 3.13 Preview: A Modern REPL.
Recalling code you’ve written earlier has been cumbersome in the REPL before Python 3.13, especially if you’re working with a block of code spanning several lines. Traditionally, you’ve had to bring back each line one by one by repeatedly pressing Up. Now in 3.13, you can bring back the whole block of code with a single Up keystroke.
To try this for yourself, enter the following code in your REPL:
Python >>> numbers = range(3, 13) >>> [ ... (number - 3)**3 for number in numbers ... if number % 2 == 1 ... ] [0, 8, 64, 216, 512] Copied!You’re creating a somewhat complex list comprehension that calculates an offset cube of a range of numbers, but only if the numbers are odd. The important part is that for readability, you split the list comprehension over several lines. Now try hitting that Up key! The interpreter recalls all four lines at once, and you can continue to use your arrow keys to move around inside of the expression.
You can make changes to your code and run it again. To execute the updated code, you need to move your cursor to the end of the last line in the code block. If you press Enter inside the expression, you’ll create a new empty line instead:
The ability to recall and edit multiline statements is a huge time-saver and will make you more efficient when working with the REPL.
Another convenience coming in Python 3.13 is proper support for pasting code. In Python 3.12 and earlier, you’d need to make sure that your code doesn’t contain any blank lines before you could copy and paste it. In the new version, pasted code is treated as a unit and executes just as it would inside a script.
Read the full article at https://realpython.com/python313-new-features/ »[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
PyCharm: What’s the Big Deal About Endpoints for Python Web Development?
Python has almost 30 years of history doing Python web development. Can you believe it? But 3-tier web projects have gotten really complicated and stressful. You’re busy, everything is all over the place – it’s hard!
But PyCharm is here to help: bring your work together with the Endpoints tool window. I just made a video explainer:
Try the Endpoints tool window!Here are 3 things from the video that I really like about endpoints. Plus a bonus point at the end.
First…where is everything?Python web projects can get really big, really fast. If you’re like me, it can be overwhelming – and exhausting. I really need a “helper brain” – one that deeply understands each web framework – to stitch everything together.
PyCharm has long provided icons to navigate from a view to a template, and vice versa. Endpoints adds icons to jump from a view to the route definition, to the parent context, and generate a request to this API.
I like to use my keyboard instead of the mouse. Good news – endpoints is wired into searchable actions.
Want a birds-eye view of all your endpoints? The Endpoints tool window shows all your APIs, with filtering by subapp, type, and framework.
It’s more than a list. Each entry lets you jump to the endpoint and perform operations.
These operations have framework-specific smarts, such as knowing the “parent context” for Django vs. Flask vs. FastAPI.
I like having this tool window when I’m thinking about the whole application. But I like even more how endpoints brings these operations into the editor, to my cursor, helping me focus.
Bring IDE smarts, into APIsOur IDE has deep insight to connect the dots in Python development. What if we applied that to Python web frameworks?
I can’t remember all my API names. Endpoints gives me autocomplete in the HTTP client and even in JavaScript fetch.
Thanks to endpoints, these routes become symbols. I’m a symbol-first coder, using autocomplete, warnings, and navigation to the max. Now I can apply that with the web framework syntax for APIs.
Discover more powerful web development features Stay in one toolI’ve always liked the “I” in IDE: integrating my important workflows into a single, consistent experience. Web development can mean bouncing around between lots of windows. What if we could bring that workflow into PyCharm?
We already brought best-in-class frontend development from WebStorm and database development from DataGrip.
Using our HTTP Client, you have a productive, mature workflow for issuing HTTP requests. No need to go to the browser or purchase another tool. With endpoints, HTTP Client gets easier and smarter. For example, issue an HTTP request, directly from the API listing.
As shown above, writing these HTTP requests is easier thanks to autocomplete, as endpoints knows your web framework and its route definitions.
You can also browse the OpenAPI documentation of your endpoint without going to a browser.
The “I” in IDE means it is one team that is bringing these features across web frameworks. When I learn a way of working once, I can use it when I shift to a project with another supported web framework. Same features, same UI.
Innovation in Python web developmentPython web development needs fresh new ideas and with it, new thinking in tooling. Endpoints says: “You are going to use multiple frameworks on lots of big projects. Let’s step back, focus on the problem, re-imagine the workflow, and throw a bunch of powerful IDE machinery at it.”
Just this one tool window has so much value in it: a listing of your API, with info about HTTP method, and right-click available for each. Then, tabs for the common operations, keeping you in the IDE and in the flow.
So that’s endpoints, a vision from PyCharm to make API development joyful and productive. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Try the Endpoints tool window!Russell Coker: Links September 2024
CNA Insider has an insightful documentary series about Chinese illegal immigrants to the US [1]. They should migrate to Australia, easier to get in and a better place to live.
Linus tech tips has an informative video about using Windows on Snapdragon ARM64 laptops. [2]. Maybe I should get one for running Linux. They are quite expensive on ebay now which is presumably a good sign about their quality.
A web site for comparing monospace fonts so you can find the one that best suits yuor coding [3]. Roboto works well for me.
Insightful lecture by Grace Hopper (then Captain) about the future of computers [5]. The second part is linked from the first part. Published by the NSA.
Tony Hoare gave an insightful lecture titled “The Billion Dollar Mistake” about his work on designing the Algol language in 1965 [6]. The lecture was recorded in about 2005. But it still has a lot of relevance to computer science.
Cory Doctorow wrote an insightful article on the Marshmallow test and long term thinking [8]. The rich fail this test badly.
Cory Doctorow wrote an informative article about Google’s practices of deleting Gmail accounts for no apparent reason and denying people access to their data [10]. We need more laws like the Digital Markets Act in the EU and we need them to apply to eBay/PayPal and AWS/Amazon.
- [1] https://tinyurl.com/22x27vdt
- [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFMTJm3vmh0
- [3] https://www.codingfont.com/
- [4] https://www.noemamag.com/nationhood-revisited/
- [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si9iqF5uTFk
- [6] https://tinyurl.com/y27atm9a
- [7] https://tinyurl.com/2ys4ul3f
- [8] https://tinyurl.com/24zng3pr
- [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUvdPHw4Nd0
- [10] https://locusmag.com/2024/07/cory-doctorow-unpersoned/
Related posts:
- Links September 2020 MD5 cracker, find plain text that matches MD5 hash [1]....
- Links August 2024 Bruce Schneier and Kim Córdova wrote an insightful article about...
- Links March 2024 Bruce Schneier wrote an interesting blog post about his workshop...
CodeLift: From budget-friendly to full redesign: 6 migration paths for Drupal 7 end-of-life
Droptica: Curious about Drupal 7 to 11 migration costs? Collect all the info for estimation in 5 minutes
Migrating from Drupal 7 to the latest version, like Drupal 11, might seem like a big challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. One of the most common obstacles is figuring out how much it will cost. You want to know the price, but you don’t want to give full access to your site just to get an estimate. The good news? You can collect all the necessary information for an accurate project estimate in just 5 minutes.
The Drop Times: Non-Code Contributions Shine at DrupalCon Barcelona 2024
Python Bytes: #403 A machine learning algorithm walks into a bar…
eGenix.com: Python Meeting Düsseldorf - 2024-10-02
The following text is in German, since we're announcing a regional user group meeting in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Das nächste Python Meeting Düsseldorf findet an folgendem Termin statt:
02.10.2024, 18:00 Uhr
Raum 1, 2.OG im Bürgerhaus Stadtteilzentrum Bilk
Düsseldorfer Arcaden, Bachstr. 145, 40217 Düsseldorf
- Detlef Lannert:
pyinfra als Alternative zu Ansible - Marc-André Lemburg:
Rapid web app development with Panel - Detlef Lannert:
Low-cost-Objekte als Alternativen zu Dictionaries? - Charlie Clark:
Editieren von ZIP Dateien mit Python
Wir treffen uns um 18:00 Uhr im Bürgerhaus in den Düsseldorfer Arcaden.
Das Bürgerhaus teilt sich den Eingang mit dem Schwimmbad und befindet
sich an der Seite der Tiefgarageneinfahrt der Düsseldorfer Arcaden.
Über dem Eingang steht ein großes "Schwimm’ in Bilk" Logo. Hinter der Tür
direkt links zu den zwei Aufzügen, dann in den 2. Stock hochfahren. Der
Eingang zum Raum 1 liegt direkt links, wenn man aus dem Aufzug kommt.
>>> Eingang in Google Street View
Das Python Meeting Düsseldorf ist eine regelmäßige Veranstaltung in Düsseldorf, die sich an Python Begeisterte aus der Region wendet.
Einen guten Überblick über die Vorträge bietet unser PyDDF YouTube-Kanal, auf dem wir Videos der Vorträge nach den Meetings veröffentlichen.Veranstaltet wird das Meeting von der eGenix.com GmbH, Langenfeld, in Zusammenarbeit mit Clark Consulting & Research, Düsseldorf:
Das Python Meeting Düsseldorf nutzt eine Mischung aus (Lightning) Talks und offener Diskussion.
Vorträge können vorher angemeldet werden, oder auch spontan während des Treffens eingebracht werden. Ein Beamer mit HDMI und FullHD Auflösung steht zur Verfügung.(Lightning) Talk Anmeldung bitte formlos per EMail an info@pyddf.de
KostenbeteiligungDas Python Meeting Düsseldorf wird von Python Nutzern für Python Nutzer veranstaltet.
Da Tagungsraum, Beamer, Internet und Getränke Kosten produzieren, bitten wir die Teilnehmer um einen Beitrag in Höhe von EUR 10,00 inkl. 19% Mwst. Schüler und Studenten zahlen EUR 5,00 inkl. 19% Mwst.
Wir möchten alle Teilnehmer bitten, den Betrag in bar mitzubringen.
AnmeldungDa wir nur 25 Personen in dem angemieteten Raum empfangen können, möchten wir bitten, sich vorher anzumelden.
Meeting Anmeldung bitte per Meetup
Weitere Informationen finden Sie auf der Webseite des Meetings:
https://pyddf.de/
Viel Spaß !
Marc-Andre Lemburg, eGenix.com
Zato Blog: Enterprise Python: Integrating with Salesforce
Salesforce connections are one of the newest additions to Zato 3.2, allowing you to look up and manage Salesforce records and other business data. To showcase it, the article will create a sample Salesforce marketing campaign in a way that does not require the usage of anything else except for basic REST APIs combined with plain Python objects, such as dicts.
If you have not done it already, you can download Zato here.
Basic workflowThe scope of our works will be:
- Creating Salesforce credentials for our integration project
- Defining a Salesforce connection in Zato
- Authoring a service that will map input data to the format that Salesforce expects
- Creating a Zato REST channel that will be invoked through curl during tests
- Testing the integration
To be able to create as connection to Salesforce in the next step, we need a few credentials. There is a full article about how to prepare them and this section is the gist of it.
In runtime, based on this information, Zato will obtain the necessary authentication and authorization tokens itself, which means that you will only focus on the business side of the integrations, not on the low-level aspects of it.
The process of obtaining the credentials needs to be coordinated with an administrator of your organization. To assist in that, the screenshots below explain where to find them.
The credentials are:
- Username and password
- Consumer key
- Consumer secret
The username and password are simply the same credentials that can be used to log in to Salesforce:
Consumer key and secret are properties of a connected app - this is a term that Salesforce uses for API clients that invoke its services. If you are already an experienced Salesforce REST API user, you may know the key and secret under their aliases of "client_id" and "client_secret" - these are the same objects.
Note that when a connected app already exists and you would like to retrieve the key and secret, they will be available under the "View" menu option for the app, not under "Edit" or "Manage".
Defining a Salesforce connection in ZatoWith all the credentials in place, we can create a new Salesforce connection in Zato Dashboard, as below.
Authoring an integration service in PythonAbove, we created a connection definition that lets Zato obtain session tokens and establish connections to Salesforce. Now, we can create an API service that will make use of such connections.
In the example below, we are using the POST REST method to invoke an endpoint that creates new Salesforce campaigns. In your own integrations, you can invoke any other Salesforce endpoint, using any REST method as needed, by following the same pattern, which is, create a model with input fields, build a Python dict for the request to Salesforce, invoke it and map all the required from the response from Salesforce to that which your own service returns to its own callers.
Note that we use a datamodel-based SimpleIO definition for the service. Among other things, although we are not going to do it here, this would let us offer definitions for this and other services.
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- # stdlib from dataclasses import dataclass # Zato from zato.server.service import Model, Service # ########################################################################### if 0: from zato.server.connection.salesforce import SalesforceClient # ########################################################################### @dataclass(init=False) class CreateCampaignRequest(Model): name: str segment: str # ########################################################################### @dataclass(init=False) class CreateCampaignResponse(Model): campaign_id: str # ########################################################################### class CreateCampaign(Service): class SimpleIO: input = CreateCampaignRequest output = CreateCampaignResponse def handle(self): # This is our input data input = self.request.input # type: CreateCampaignRequest # Salesforce REST API endpoint to invoke - note that Zato # will add a prefix to it containing the API version. path = '/sobjects/Campaign/' # Build the request to Salesforce based on what we received request = { 'Name': input.name, 'Segment__c': input.segment, } # .. create a reference to our connection definition .. salesforce = self.cloud.salesforce['My Salesforce Connection'] # .. obtain a client to Salesforce .. with salesforce.conn.client() as client: # type: SalesforceClient # .. create the campaign now .. sf_response = client.post(path, request) # .. build our response object .. response = CreateCampaignResponse() response.campaign_id = sf_response['id'] # .. and return its ID to our caller. self.response.payload = response # ########################################################################### Creating a REST channelNote that we assign HTTP Basic Auth credentials to the channel. In this manner, it is possible for clients of this REST channel to authenticate using a method that they are already familiar which simplifies everyone's work - it is Zato that deals with how to authenticate against Salesforce whereas your API clients use the ubiquitous HTTP Basic Auth method.
Testing
The last step is to invoke the newly created channel:
$ curl http://api:password@localhost:17010/api/campaign/create -d '{"name":"Hello", "segment":"123"}' {"campaign_id":"8901Z3VHXDTebEJWs"} $That is everything - you have just integrated with Salesforce and exposed a REST channel for external applications to integrate with!
More resources➤ Python API integration tutorial
➤ What is an integration platform?
➤ Python Integration platform as a Service (iPaaS)
➤ What is an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)? What is SOA?
Quansight Labs Blog: Numpy QuadDType: Quadruple Precision for Everyone
Quansight Labs Blog: Polars Plugins: let's make them easier to use
Python⇒Speed: Beyond multi-core parallelism: faster Mandelbrot with SIMD
What do you do when computation is too expensive?
Recently I’ve had a brilliant business idea: Mandelbrot-as-a-Service! Instead of companies calculating their own fractals, I will do it for them, freshly calculated in the cloud, with no work on their part. And by using cloud computing, I will be able to scale to the no-doubt vast number of customers who will be paying for my ingenious new service.
I have two goals:
- Speeding up results: The faster I can return fractals, the happier my customers will be.
- Reducing costs: If I can pay my cloud provider less for computing, my profits will go up!
Unfortunately, since I will only be selling freshly calculated and warm-from-the-CPU Mandelbrots, I can’t rely on caching.
What would you do in this situation?
One obvious approach is parallelism: threading or multiprocessing. This will speed up results, so it’s definitely worth doing, but it won’t reduce my costs. If we use 10 cores instead of 1 core, the service will return results ten times faster, but we’ll have to pay approximately 10× as much, since we’ll be using 10× larger instances.
However, if we can figure out how to speed up calculations on a single core, this will contribute to both our goals. We’ll both get faster results, compounded by any multi-core processing, and reduce compute costs.
In this article we will:
- Quickly go over a standard Mandelbrot implementation, written in Rust.
- Discuss why it can be tricky to optimize the Mandelbrot algorithm on a single CPU core.
- Demonstrate how you can in fact do so, by using masked SIMD operations.
- Trivially add on multi-core parallelism, using Rust’s Rayon library.
- PROFIT!
Liip: DrupalCon Barcelona Recap
DrupalCon Barcelona Group picture by Bram Driesen (source)
Hola de nou barcelonaBarcelona for me has a long history of Drupal. For Drupal Dev Days 2012 I organized a mapping sprint, we cycled to DrupalCon Barcelona 2015 as part of the #tourdedrupal report , pictures and it was nice to visit a more local event - Drupal Summer - in 2016 (report, pictures).
Coding beyond functionality. Altering technologies through artistic research by Mónica Rikić Drupal CMS: una nova experiència immediata per a DrupalThis year, the focus was on Drupal CMS (previously known by its internal development name Starshot) which is all about bringing Drupal to the next level by creating an out-of-the-box experience including a new way to create layouts (Experience Builder), integrating AI features and many more features. If you like to dive deeper into Drupal CMS, check out the meta issue listing all work tracks as well as the landing page on Drupal.org.
Driesnote by Dries BuytaertA similar, prepackaged version of Drupal already exists, handcrafted by many individuals and agencies. Recipes have recently been introduced to Drupal core. They allow to package configuration and content to pre-configure Drupal for common use cases like Search, SEO-optimization or an Event calendar feature.
Check out our blökkli starterkit that provides you will a fully-preconfigured setup that we use at Liip.
DrupalCon Crowd Drupal al governWe saw Drupal's wide adoption for Government at DrupalCon Barcelona.
Implementing AI solutions for the French government - in this session it was demonstrated how public services were improved. AI technology would support the public servants by pregenerating responses that would be validated and modified by the public servant. The use of AI technology cut down response times from an average of 19 days to 3 days and a plus of 11% found the received answers helpful.
Running a fleet of web sites with ease via LocalGov Drupal Microsites Platform showed a feature that we are also planning to roll out to one of our customers soon. You can easily manage multiple microsites in Drupal and configure on a per-site-basis the needed styling options in order to customize it to each site needs. By leveraging one CMS basis, the time-to-market and total cost of ownership for each microsite can be heavily reduced.
Jonathan Noack & Thom Nagy presenting about bs.chLarge-scale content creation with Drupal — Delights, Pitfalls and support structures to help editors - in this session our customer Thom Nagy & our product owner Jonathan Noack presented their case study on relaunching bs.ch. I liked to see how a trustful collaboration with strong communication and stakeholder management combined with agile delivery and innovation led to an outcome all participants are proud about.
The website is our flagship showcase for blökkli, the interactive pagebuilder that has delighted many of our customers already and is available for the community under the open-source license.
Even though the canton is embedded in a typically restrictive government environment, they even launched the first AI-based assistant "Alva" that answers any questions the public might have about the canton in their own language using GPT-based technology.
SostenibilitatConferences that bring together folks from all over the world have a hard time being sustainable. I appreciate the efforts to promote sustainable transport for example when amongst the attendees traveling by train, a winner was selected.
The organizing team also worked with the sponsors to make sure they were taking sustainability into account for how they set up their booths and limit the swag they would give out to participants.
DrupalCon Barcelona Mascot watching the crowdThe next DrupalCon Europe has been announced to happen in Vienna October 14-17 2025. I am particularly excited for this location as I grew up in Vienna and have been part of the Drupal Austria community as an organizing member before moving to Switzerland.
As Vienna is at the heart of Europe, I encourage you to think about sustainable ways to get to the conference.
If you travel via Hamburg, Bregenz/Feldkirch, Roma/Blorence/Bologna or Amsterdam, you should even be able to sleep on one of the new generation nightrains that offers better comfort, single-cabins and wheelchair-accessible sleepers. You typically can book your train 6 months ahead. As they introduced dynamic pricing recently, it is recommended to book your tickets early.
The beach alongside DrupalCon BarcelonaI leave you with some pictures from this year in Barcelona.
Would you like to learn more about Drupal? Find an event near you. See you 2025 at one of my favorites Drupal Mountain Camp in Davos or at DrupalCon Vienna.
Web Wash: How to Organize Content Entity Forms in Drupal
Drupal provides a robust framework for creating and managing content. However, managing form fields in complex content entities can be challenging. The Field Group, Inline Entity Form, and Conditional Fields modules offer practical tools for improving the user experience and streamlining the content creation process.
In the above live stream, we’ll use all three modules to organize and clean up fields on an “Event” content type.
Below are the show notes for the live stream.
#! code: Drupal 11: Using The Batch API To Process CSV Files
This is the fourth article in a series of articles about the Batch API in Drupal. The Batch API is a system in Drupal that allows data to be processed in small chunks in order to prevent timeout errors or memory problems.
So far in this series we have looked at creating a batch process using a form, followed by creating a batch class so that batches can be run through Drush and then using the finished state to control batch processing. All of these articles go together to form a basis of batch processing in Drupal.
In this article we will look at bringing these concepts together to perform a task that is quite common on websites, processing Comma Separated Value or CSV files, which we will do using the Drupal Batch API.
Processing CSV data is very common on the web. Whilst it is quite common to integrate with an API it is sometimes simpler to just generate a CSV file of the data you need from one system and upload it into a form on a website. Most systems will allow you to export data as a CSV file of some kind, but it's also very easy to export a CSV from commonly used programs like Excel and Google Sheets.
Processing a CSV file in PHP is quite simple, but once you reach one hundred records you will find that PHP will start to throw errors due to timeouts or memory issues. The solution is to employ the Batch API to spread the load of that processing over a number of different requests.
Open Source Conferences in September
After having participated to both Qt Contributor Summit and Akademy, I ended up going to a few more conferences in September.
Nextcloud ConferenceI went to Nextcloud Conference just after going back from Akademy. Unfortunately I was quite tired from Akademy and Qt Contributor Summit and I only stayed Saturday morning. Still it was great to meet some old colleagues there.
Group photo of the Nextcloud conference
Matrix ConferenceThe Matrix Conference happened the weekend after the Nextcloud conference. This was the first Matrix Conference and a gathering of all types of actors involved in Matrix. From the grassroots community to companies deploying Matrix based solutions to their customers. The NeoChat team was there and we were super productive into bringing back the Android version, thanks to the help of Volker Krause. This resulted in many patches in NeoChat itself but also one patch in Kirigami.
Special mention to the food and coffee offered at the conference, which was always excellent and either vegan or vegetarian. Outside of the venue, food was also execellent with a lot of middle eastern food choice.
Here some photos of the event and the food:
Donuts Hacking at the conference venue Hacking at C-Base Food outside of the venue Linux Days DornbirnIt was my second time going to the Linux Days in Dornbirn and while the weather wasn’t as welcoming as last time, the local Linux community was again super welcoming!
During the event, I did a talk in German about Plasma 6. This was my first time doing a talk in German and I hope I did okay. I also hosted a KDE stand with Simon Österle, who offered his help with the stand. His help has been invaluable to me, so huge thanks to him.
Like last year, after the conference, all helpers, presenters and stand holders went to a local restaurent to enjoy Käsespätzle. It was again delicious.
Here some photos of the event and the food:
Banner at the entrance of the Linux Days Steam Deck and Plasma Mobile The new KDE Banner Linux Days dinner menu Käsespätzle Apfelstrudel Bodensee on the way to Austria Bodensee from the train on the way back A script element has been removed to ensure Planet works properly. Please find it in the original post. A script element has been removed to ensure Planet works properly. Please find it in the original post.