Comments on: Washington Post Update

By: You bought a web page factory, not a webmaster android | Content Here

You bought a web page factory, not a webmaster android | Content Here — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:02:46 +0000

[...] are designed to be more like frameworks) and custom code for their experimental sites (for example, The Washington Post and Django). But no matter what, if you want to innovate beyond the options and the text areas that were not [...]

By: Washington Post | malaprop.org

Washington Post | malaprop.org — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:30:01 +0000

[...] Washington Post Update (if you only read one) [...]

By: Done at the Post - Push cx

Done at the Post - Push cx — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:33:17 +0000

[...] was my last day at the Washington Post. I don’t have a lot to add to my update 6 weeks ago; aside from some updates to the database of Guantanamo Detainees all of what I’ve done has [...]

By: Giving Notice - Push cx

Giving Notice - Push cx — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:30:12 +0000

[...] wasn’t exaggerating when I called the Post my best job. The work is rewarding and my coworkers are excellent. There’s interesting [...]

By: r

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:02:45 +0000

Peter: I like to keep an eye on the job market here. There are only a few shops in the area using Django.

By: Rules of Database App Aging - Push cx

Rules of Database App Aging - Push cx — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:26:02 +0000

[...] mentioned I’ve learned some rules of how database apps change over time, now that I’ve done a few [...]

By: Peter Harkins

Peter Harkins — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:38:54 +0000

Sure thing. I’m curious why you wanted to know if we were giving up on Django — I don’t get a whole lot of pseudonymous commenters. The answer didn’t change because you are, I’m just puzzled.

By: r

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:27:57 +0000

Hey Peter, thanks for your response. That’s interesting.

By: Peter Harkins

Peter Harkins — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:35:14 +0000

We were starting to plan a migration to Rails when it had been 14 months since the last Django release and there were no concrete plans for a next version. Since the 1.0 the project has been better-organized and looks to be on track for regular, worthwhile releases, so we have no plans to leave.

By: r

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:09:43 +0000

To Peter and the other Django guys lurking about:

Is WPNI moving away from Django now that some of its proponents have left?

The new job ads seem to be leaning more toward PHP and especially customization of Drupal (ick–that sort of coding isn’t for me). Technologies with smaller user bases can pose hiring problems for employers.

By: Peter Harkins

Peter Harkins — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:18:58 +0000

John: My primary involvement with the Bush Legacy graph was to build a database to store events in, that was a few small Django models (all of these are Django-powered, in fact) and helping the graphic designer (Noel Smart, in this case) write the Flash code to show the little gray event bullets, and show and hide the event display (which dynamically loads its images and videos). I don’t really know anything about Flash, but I know enough about programming to help someone who does muddle through.

Adrian: Thanks. I just started an app to live at / today, was thinking about it after I started this post. And I figured it might be nice to cut down on the number of people who keep emailing you questions about the older apps… :)

Actually, John, I’ll try to make sure we include some more technical detail in the showcase app I’m building. We’ll see how quick I can build it; the inauguration is keeping us busy.

By: Adrian Holovaty

Adrian Holovaty — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:46:53 +0000

Oh, one more thing. You should consider setting up an index page of all of these projects (maybe at the projects.washingtonpost.com root) so that people can find them all in one place. The LA Times did this at http://projects.latimes.com/ — nice idea.

By: Adrian Holovaty

Adrian Holovaty — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:41:38 +0000

Wow, thanks for sharing this list! I’ve been wondering what stuff you’ve been working on, aside from the bigger projects I knew about. Nice work!

By: John Matthew

John Matthew — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:18:04 +0000

So how do we see how you did some of this cool stuff? Like the bush legacy graph, wow.

I assume the dog park thing was just a link somehow to Google maps?

I don’t have a need right now for any of it, but kinda cool to see.

By: Derek Willis

Derek Willis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:12:11 +0000

Busy fella, there.

And just so nobody gets the wrong idea, the codebase Peter inherited was about 99.44% the product of Adrian’s work; I did the rest and tried not to spoil the good stuff.