The Python Podcast.init

By Tobias MaceyTechnology Education

The Python Podcast.init episodes

June 07, 2015David Baumgold on Flask-Dance, WebhookDB and Open EdX
You can find out more about us and view previous episodes at podcastinit.com.
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – 2015-06-02
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Follow us on – iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn
Give us feedback on iTunes, Twitter, email or Disqus
Interview with David Baumgold
Introduction
How did you get introduced to Python?
What problem does Flask-Dance solve that wasn’t covered by other libraries?
What were some of the technical issues that you encountered while building Flask-Dance?
What are some of the design considerations that you had when building Flask-Dance?
You also built webhookdb for replicating GitHub’s information to be queryable. What are some use cases for which you would want to do that?
What is Open EdX and what is its intended audience?
What are some of the challenges implementing a system like Open EdX, and what can Python developers learn from the implementation of the project?
Picks
Tobias
Evil mode
Forgotify
Wolf of Wall Street
pipreqs

Chris
Dark Horse Brewing – “Smells Like a Safety Meeting”
Medium
Modern Gnu Emacs

David
Homebrewhttps://open.edx.org/ for OSX
Homebrew Cask
Arrow
Moment.js
The Imitation Game

Keep in touch
Twitter: @singingwolfboy
GitHub
Website
Email
33 min
June 03, 2015 Mark Baggett on Python for InfoSec
Episode 8 - Mark Baggett on Python for InfoSec
1 hr 15 min
June 03, 2015Mark Baggett on Python for InfoSec
Read all of our show notes and find more information about us at Beautiful Soup
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – May 28th, 2015
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Overview – Interview with Mark Bagett
Follow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn
Give us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments)
You can donate (if you want)!
Interview with Mark Bagett
Introductions
How were you first introduced to Python? – Chris
Started using it for automating tasks while working as a sysadmin
Found code that launched an attack on FTP server – in Python

What are some of the tasks in your job that you use Python for? -Tobias
Trusted command & control backdoor for Windows
Mostly not used by malware authors – thus far (at least Mark hasn’t seen it used that way)
Flame virus – 5MB payload – incredibly advanced
Lua interpreter bundled along with the scripts

Vale framework – Python framework that takes payloads out of penetration testing executables

What is it about Python that makes it useful for penetration testing and other information security tasks?
Same thing that makes it useful for anything else
mpacket from core security

What are some of the more useful Python penetration testing tools?
OFFENSE
Beautiful Soup
scapy
Volatility

DEFENSE
Counter dictionary from collections
Pandas
iPython
matplotlib

We’ve noticed that a lot of the literature around information security and penetration testing focuses on targeting Windows. Can you enlighten us as to why that is?
Windows event tracing
logman
event trace providers – implement packet sniffing (Can turn every browser into a key logger)

Primary attack surface – Where most attacks are targeted

Fewer purely Linux systems
Very few ports open – maybe 80, 22
Very likely no user just sitting there waiting to run an executable you send

More freedom on Linux – less formalized patching process, more variable tools = more exploits

Will write code to only use built in modules for Python that will run in customer target environments

What are some of the legal considerations that you have to deal with on a regular basis as a penetration tester?

There have recently been a number of attacks based on hijacking the TCP/IP stack. Is Python being used for any of these exploits or tools to defend against them?
Data analytics
Detect repeated sequence numbers – Man in the Middle Attack
As simple as 5 lines of Python code
import scapy, start sniffing packets, pull together all packets – make list of associated packets
Can pull together all packets inside of stream
Time spefic source communicates with specific destination
Bro – intrusion detection suite
Built into Security Onion – Doug Berks
FLOSS Weekly episode 296 with Bro developers

What are some activities that you do on a regular basis for which you would turn to another language or toolchain, rather than using Python?
Powershell – The Python of windows
Whitelisted and ubiquitous

Password cracking – compiled language like C or assembly

For anyone who is interested in getting involved in the security industry, and penetration testing in particular, what resources or tools would you recommend?
Developers make the best InfoSec professionals
Lots of jobs and opportunities

Developer -> Systems Administration -> Information Security

Security conferences – BSides, Defcon, Black Hat

Online capture the flag challenges (google it) – good practice for critical thinking and using code for security exercises

Get involved in the industry – Meetups, etc.

SANS institute course, Python for Penetration Testers, SEC573 by Mark Baggett – sans.org

Lots of free online resources

Violent Python

PicoCTF

Counter Hack Challenges

Picks
Tobias
Authy
OpenWRT
TP-Link Archer C7
Schemas For The Real World by Carina C. Zona
The Soul of Software by Avdi Grimm
China Mieville

Chris
Rapscallion Munich Dark
Write
Marginal Way
Frankie and Johnny’s
pyenv

Mark Bagett
Corelabs impacket
Google Labs – Rekall
Adams peanut butter cup fudge ripple cheesecake
BSides security conference

Keep in Touch
Twitter: @markbaggett
In Depth Defense
The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
1 hr 15 min
May 26, 2015 Jacob Kaplan-Moss on Addressing Cultural Issues in Tech
Episode 7 - Jacob Kaplan-Moss on Addressing Cultural Issues in Tech
0 min
May 26, 2015Jacob Kaplan-Moss on Addressing Cultural Issues in Tech
Read all of our show notes and find more information about us at podcastinit.com
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – May 18th, 2015
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Follow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn
Give us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments)
Overview – Interview with Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Interview with Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Introductions
How were you first introduced to Python?
So, we wanted to invite you on the show to discuss the keynote that you gave at this years PyCon. Can you tell us what you mean when you say that you’re a mediocre programmer and why that is such an important admission to make?
What are some ways that we can change the tone of the conversation around programming skill?
What do we gain by admitting to ourselves and others that we are not all phenomenal engineers?
Where does the myth of exceptional vs terrible programmers come from? Can you provide some examples of times that you came in contact with this narrative?
How do you think hiring tactics in technology companies contribute to this misconception and how can they be more accepting of average programmers?
What are some ways that we can work toward eradicating the myth of the 10x programmer?
Thinking about our industry’s problems retaining women and other undervalued groups, do you think the way many managers do performance reviews play a role? If so, how can we do better?
What Works For Women At Work

Can you tell us about some other ongoing narratives in the technology industry that you find equally as damaging as our misconceptions around skills and knowledge? – Tobias
indie.vc

Picks
Tobias
True Ability
Manjaro Linux
Vultr VPS
Mage Wars

Chris
K is for Kriek
Trello
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Hello Web App
What Works For Women At Work
Why Women Leave Tech: What the Research Says
Library Extension for Chrome and Firefox

Keep In Touch
@jacobian
50 min
May 19, 2015 Jonathan Slenders Talks About Prompt Toolkit
Episode 6 - Jonathan Slenders Talks About Prompt Toolkit
0 min
May 19, 2015Jonathan Slenders Talks About Prompt Toolkit
Visit our site at podcastinit.com for more show notes and news.
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – May 17th, 2015
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Follow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn
Give us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments)
Overview – Interview with Jonathan Slenders
Interview with Jonathan Slenders
Introductions
How were you first introduced to Python? -Chris
What inspired you to create the python-prompt-toolkit?
What are some design considerations that you made when building prompt-toolkit?
Make minimal use of inheritance
Overly strong coupling
Better clarity for the API of your library
Completely event driven / asynchronous
No global state

ptpython completion benefits from asynchrony – The jedi completion library is too slow – completion happens in its own thread

You have built a number of projects that use the prompt-toolkit as a core component, did you have them in mind from the beginning, or are they experiments to test the capabilities of the toolkit?
tmux rewrite in Python, abandoned, original motivation for prompt-toolkit
ptpython
pgcli
ptpdb
pyvim

Do you intend to bring PyVim to feature parity with Vim, or is it just intended for experimentation?
Short answer: Don’t know – but will probably never be in full parity with Vim

What inspired you to create ptpython and why did you choose to make it a stand-along project rather than extending iPython?

How difficult was it to integrate with IPython and what were the benefits?
IPython has its own event loop – this presented difficulties as prompt-toolkit has its own as well

What are some of the most interesting uses that you have seen of the prompt-toolkit?
PyVim – really challenged the design
pgcli
Picks

Tobias
vimsert
Johnny Cash Project
Interstellar

Chris
Grimm Telekinesis
pandoc
vimpager
Homebrew Cask

Jonathan Slenders
Belgian Beer
Rochefort

Western European Folk Dancing
Keep in touch

Twitter – @jonathan_s

GitHub – jonathanslenders
41 min
May 12, 2015Ned Batchelder
Visit podcastinit.com for information about the show and links to our iTunes and Stitcher feeds.
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – May 4th, 2015
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Overview – Interview with Ned Batchelder
Follow us on iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn
Give us feedback! (iTunes, Twitter, email, Disqus comments)
You can donate (if you want)!
Interview with Ned Batchelder
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
Zope
… Implemented in Python

How did you get started as the organizer for Boston Python Meetup?
History is long and varied (Why is this switching to numbers?
Started – 6 people sitting around a coffee table
5 or 6 years
Co-organizer Jessica McKeller
Built structures to help keep the community goingr

Weekend Python Workshop
People ‘adjacent’ to the male members – wives, mothers, etc.

“What comes next” from weekend workshops – became Project Night

How much of your time ends up being dedicated to the Python community?
Also maitainer of coverage.py
Active on Freenode IRC #python
20 hours a week

What are your goals for the Boston Python community?
Continue to grow
More events, different events?
chipy – Chicago UG very active – 1 on 1 mentoring program
Smaller events – 5 person events – study groups
All levels not just beginners
Computational Biologists – study genomics
Three user groups
Pyladies Boston
DJango Boston
Boston Python Meetup

What do you find to be the most important thing(s) for building a healthy community (particularly in reference to programming)?
Consistency – good to know what to expect
Pick a cadence – don’t burn out

Speakers aren’t superheroes, they’re just people. ‘Everyone has at least one talk in them’.

Value in having a blog, twitter stream – people talk back to you and by correcting your mistakes everyone benefits.

How do you keep people engaged outside of the monthly meetings?
Meetup.com – requires moderation
python.org mailing lists – unmoderated – low traffic
Need to do more in that regard

What do you like the most/least about the Python community?
Communities can improve – IRC has gotten better
Turmoil on PSF mailing list over election for directors

How do you strike a balance between sponsors and the rest of the community? Do you have policies around sponsored presentations / talks?
Tend not to do sponsored talks
Microsoft NERD – great benefit to Boston Python
Provides monthly space for the group
1 minute slots for sponsors
No sales pitches

What are the steps I can take to start my own tech community?
How can you get the word out?
Meetup.com is useful
People like free food and beer
Be predictable. Pick something sustainable

What is the State of Python, from your perspective?
No signs of slowing down
Ruby people are moving to other environments
Python people are still using Python
Python 2 to 3 conflict is unfortunate – transition could have been handled more smoothly
Python 3 ecosystem is getting much better
Next big drama – type hinting proposal
Appears to be contrary to one of the basics tenets of the language at first blush

Do you feel that Boston will ever have its own regional Python conference?
Toyed with bid to bring Pycon to Boston
Would require someone stepping up to do it
Not sure how a regional conference ‘feels’ as a local event
Try to have Boston Python be like a year long conference all year long
Huge undertaking

Picks
Tobias
Scribd
Konch
DupeGuru

Chris
The River Cafe
Pythonista
Rototo – IOS Game
Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard

Ned
Tox
Pythonz
Spell Tower
Richard Feynman’s Cornell Lectures

Keep in Touch
Twitter: @nedbat and @bostonpython
IRC: nedbat
nedbatchelder.com
bostonpython.com
1 hr 16 min
May 04, 2015 Travis Oliphant
Episode 4 - Travis Oliphant
53 min
May 04, 2015Travis Oliphant
For show notes and other content, visit our site at http://www.pythonpodcast.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Brief Introduction
Date of recording – Apr 28th 2015
Hosts – Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
Overview – Interview with Travis Oliphant
Interview with Travis Oliphant
Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
I’m curious what inspired you to create NumPy and SciPy?
Why did you choose Python for those libraries?
Numeric, Jim Hugunin
Morphology library in NumArray

For those of us who aren’t in the know, can you provide a brief definition of what data science is and how you got involved in it?
Term coined by DJ Patil
Answer: Anybody who takes data and tries to derive insights from it
Nobody really knows what this means

Can you tell us the story of how Continuum Analytics came to be?

What are some interesting projects that you have worked on with Continuum Analytics?
Bokeh
Wakari
Anaconda
Numba
Blaze

Can you explain a bit about what NumFocus is and how it got started?

How can our audience get involved with NumFocus?

For someone just starting out in the data science and data analytics space, what advice would you give?
Download Anaconda, learn as much Python as you can
Google search “Data Analysis in Python”
iPython Notebooks in data analysis
R community
Meetups
Online classes
R Community can be helpful

Of your myriad achievements, what are you most proud of?

Picks
Tobias
Used bookstores
The Book Barn

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Kickin’ it Old School

Chris
Kids In The Hall
MFA Boston Art in Bloom
CodeNewbies
Apple 27″ Retina iMac 5K

Travis Oliphant
Data Carpentry
Tracy Teal (@tracykteal)
Patterned on Software Carpentry

Brain Science Podcast – Ginger Campbell, MD

Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles

Travis Contacts
Twitter:
Travis – @teoliphant
NumFocus – @numfocus
Continuum Analytics – @ContinuumIO

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA
53 min