Welcome to Level1 Devember!

[asbjorn]

That sounds amazing!
You should put up a thread dedicated to the project. I’d love to follow along on updates.

[BoKKeR]

I posted the project thread at the end of the last post.

[asbjorn]

Hahaha I guess I skim too fast

[jdfthetech]

Here is my devember project. It’s an installer for blind users to get arch up and running without spending days trying to figure out how to enable speech services and the like.

[Devember 2020] BlindArch Updates for More DEs and Bash Scripted Glory

A little over a year ago a blind user reached out to me to help him fix the talking arch distro. At the time, the version wasn’t compatible with the latest archiso build system and so we built a version that worked. I’ve been working on this project for over a year and this month began building in some scripted features for blind users to complete installs without having to tab back and forth between the installer and the wiki. Also, the scripts make some changes to the default installs to turn on accessible features that normally would prevent a blind user from finishing the install on their own. Currently I have the system built with the talking version of espeak as the default selection and I have also written a systemd service to change the fonts on both the talking and silent version to sun12x22 which helps folks with low vision get around in the terminal. (In order to run scripts in the new archiso build system, developers must add them to a systemd service now.) I have built out the install for i3 and have it running fully accessible from the get go. I have numerous other DEs to add such as Cinnamon, Gnome, XFCE and KDE to name a few. Some of these are less or more accessible out of the box, KDE being one that I know has serious issues due to it’s reliance on QT. The basic idea here is to have an arch install that can be built in about 20 minutes or so with the most basic options, the user can get into their main system and then customize afterwards. I just want it to get the install done, have orca running and the speech-dispatcher cooking. Things I’m working on over the course of the next month or so: add more customization to packages, currently there is a broad list of packages installed, so giving more options seems wise build out accessible installs for Gnome, Mate and Cinnamon similar to how I have i3 running add more readme data and create a sub directory to house them add a list package option for each grouping of packages add a more detai…

[FokkFeis]

Here is the link for my Devember project.
The plan is to create a gift exchange platform (think secret santa) whilst learning Go and Vue

Gift exchange system #Devember2020

FokkFeis does Devember 2020 The idea. Gift exchange platform Technology stack I want to learn Vue JS frontend Go backend Bonus stuff Automatic deployment Automatic testing Docker Features that we want to implement User signup – Users signup with a username/Name and email so they can take part in the gift exchange Exchange groups – isolated groups that can be created by the user. – invitation code to join the exchange group – Group owner can set a date for the “draw” of users to exchange gift – Group owner can set the maximum gift value. Day of the exchange – Guessing who gave you the gift. – opt in displaying the result Minimum viable product Backend Pool of emails tagged with a name. Giving each entry a name to give a gift to Sending each entry an email with information about who to give the gift Frontend Displaying the list of emails in the pool Displaying who was assigned to who Blogging section Day -13 Hello everyone. As this is my first Devember I thought it would be fitting to scope this way out of proportions. Since I have almost no experience in creating Go code or Vue code this will mostly be a learning exercise. I expect that I’ll be able to create the MVP in Go by the end of the month but adding the desired features would be a fun achievement. The plan is to only create the workflow for the project until 1st December. Then the actual coding will start. I hope that I’ll be able to do daily updates during December but until then i will try to do periodic updates. I will of course deploy this on Linode as I just got the $100 credit. Until next time. – FF

[moofree]

My Devember goal is to implement a Puyo Puyo style game using Rust with the embedded-graphics crate on a development board running a GD32 RISC-V microcontroller with a tiny little ~1 inch 160x80 LCD screen (the Sipeed Longan Nano.)

I’ve got a post over on Community Blogs, but can’t link here.

Don’t expect my code to be especially “idiomatic” Rust, I’m not a software engineer- just a guy trying to get something to work without the standard library or an allocator. My current code is more like two different prototypes that I need to get working together- so no github link yet (if I could post links. :D)

[FragileClick]

For Devember 2020, I created a supercut of “protips” from the Level 1 News!

I use youtube-dl to download the auto-generated captions and a python script to search for the phrase “protip” and download/trip the episodes to the correct timestamps. Hope you all enjoy!

Level 1 "Protips" supercut with youtube-dl

For #devember2020 I took a stab at creating a supercut of all the “protips” from the Level 1 News. I used youtube-dl to download the auto-generated captions from every episode of the news. Then I wrote a python script to search the captions for the phrase “protip” and download/trim the episodes to the correct timestamps with youtube-dl and ffmpeg. This process involves downloading every episode with a protip. I’ve hardcoded the limit to download the videos at <=1080p resolution, which speeds things up but it still takes hours. If you want to try this and your internet is slow (like mine) consider running on a Linode VPC with gigabit internet! The scripts work - I mean, they certainly find protips, but I can’t be sure they find every last one. I don’t know if you can really be sure of the true count without re-watching the entire news. However, it does work well enough to make a fun supercut! Here are the scripts I wrote and readme explaining how to use them: Here’s a supercut with all the “protips” I found in a single video: [Level 1 Techs, Protip Supercut] Happy #devember2020!

[blaklite]

As with a lot of these tutorial type things, the biggest problem I have is finding a problem to solve. If anyone could suggest some topics that I could use to kickstart my voyage into this new cloud based thingy. Without the crazy problems thrown at you in a commercial space, coming up with yet another “bubblesort” is just a real pain. Again any help would be appreciated.

[robotjohn]

Hi!
My Devember project is to improve my webdev skils and increase my free time by creating a Union member management tool for my union.

Thanks for holding this awesome event!

[QuarkyPhysicist]

Even though I’m a reasonably experienced programmer, my FOSS contributions are pretty weak. I have been attempting to be a more active contributor for a long time now. So my #devember2020 project is to fix one bug a week in a FOSS project I use.

Contribute to FOSS projects

Hello! I’m a somewhat experienced programmer (mostly Python), so not sure if its as much of a challenge to code regularly. It however has been a challenge to code on things I like, e.g. contributing to open source projects I use regularly. So I want to take up the challenge of fixing one bug in an open source project every week. I want to pick bugs that have been outstanding for a while. Even though I’m aiming for one bug-fix a week, a more realistic goal might be one bug-fix every two weeks. I started this in July, but so far have been able to fix only one! I started working on another only recently. Below I’ll list my progress, and keep updating the list as I finish each one. Pandas: Indexing of Sparse dataframes: https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/34908 Pandas: Crash when replacing NaNs in a dataframe: https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/31687 WIP I also have a few other side projects, not sure I’ll get around to them. I’ll list them here anyway; maybe it’ll shame me into making progress Build a data validation library in Python that can also be applied on contiguous arrays like NumPy arrays or Pandas dataframes without losing performance. Finish building my RPi NAS with the RADXA SATA HAT, I mostly have the parts (with some variations). Build an RPi HQ camera.

[SgtAwesomesauce]

This is genuinely great.

I’ve been trying to contribute more to open source projects. It’s been p4oving harder than it seems. I’ve got an open feature PR that’s been going on since June! (Though I might just be a shit programmer)

[QuarkyPhysicist]

Ya, even if you ignore the social and psychological factors, contributing to FOSS projects can be a bit daunting. My biggest challenge has been to gain familiarity with the codebase. There is so much history behind every decision, it can be quite overwhelming.

I think my recent progress has been thanks to good debuggers I put in some effort to learn a bit more of the commands, and options, and thanks to effective UIs like VScode and pudb.

BTW, good luck with your PR

[SgtAwesomesauce]

@QuarkyPhysicist

My biggest challenge has been to gain familiarity with the codebase.

Yep, I’ve started by finding abandoned prs that needed work and tried to follow recommendations to get up to snuff so I can familiarize myself with the codebase

[QuarkyPhysicist]

Picking up abandoned PRs is a great way to get into this , but maybe slightly daunting (for me). So far, my approach has been:

• writing docs: gives me a working knowledge about what is the expectation for a certain module
• writing tests: forces me to understand the codebase, but in somewhat self-contained pieces

And now I’m trying to step-up to bug fixes

[PippaFraser]

Awesome!!

[crystal_pepsi]

I really want to get involved but I just don’t know where to begin! I need some inspiration!
I’m a PhD student working on computational genomics, I wonder if there is anything I can do on linode which would be useful in bioinformatics

[QuarkyPhysicist]

I don’t know how far you are in your PhD, if you are just starting, there are many open datasets for genomics that you can play with to get acquainted. There’s the, by now pretty old, 1000 Genomes Project. The Genome browser has gene expression data, and then there’s the Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) project. Although I’m not sure how much of GIAB is open (because of patient privacy), you might need to sign a few ethics forms to get access.

As for what you could do, you could practice some dataset preprocessing on Linode (attempt stuff that requires more compute or memory). Or maybe keep it simple, and just use your local machine to do some data exploration. The sooner you start this kind of experimentation, the faster you can move on to more interesting research questions

On the other hand, if you are already quite a bit into your PhD, you can share some of your research problems in a thread, I would be happy to participate and share my thoughts from the computational perspective (scientific software is my thing ). Hope that gives you some ideas

[Owen_Degen]

My Devember project is to learn how to and practice writing software/firmware to control stepper motors, so that I’ll be able to upgrade my 3D printer and build mesh morphing robots.

Wish me luck!

[RBE]

My Devember project is to learn enough OpenCV that I can use it to calibrate an Epson SCARA robot I have floating around:

@RBE

Background

I work as a technician in the mechanical engineering department of a local university where I am responsible for the robotics and control laboratory. I am currently developing a new piece of lab equipment: namely, a bespoke letterpress greeting card line.

The Problem

The robot I will be using to perform the composition and imposition of type is an Epson SCARA robot. Due to an error on my part, calibration information for this robot was lost. As a result, the robot has sat idle for several years - something I now wish to change.

[asbjorn]

@blaklite

the biggest problem I have is finding a problem to solve. If anyone could suggest some topics that I could use to kickstart my voyage into this new cloud based thingy.

I have the opposite problem, hah! I’ll try to dump some of my ideas here.

My big fascination these days is decentralization. There are a lot of burgeoning new platforms and technologies with fast-growing ecosystems, that are just waiting for your applications. I often get application ideas while thinking about what problems a particular technology could solve.

• Fediverse: an open standard for interoperable social media. There still isn’t a fediverse tinder Fediverse Snapchat might also be a good idea, or maybe a short-form-media platform (like vine / tik-tok / instagram stories / facebook stories). Also it’s quick and easy to build bots for e.g. Mastodon. I especially like bots that post generative art occasionally.

• Matrix: This is my jam. It’s a federated protocol for chat (or real-time-communication in general). It’s super extensible and interoperable with other chat media. It would be awesome to see more bridges for different media. Discord and Slack already work fine, but maybe Matrix needs a discourse bridge? What about a tinder bridge? A CUPS bridge? Maybe control your home IoT stuff using a Matrix bot…

• IPFS: Hot-shit global content-addressible p2p network with sexy stuff like DNS-type linking, pubsub, browser compatibility, etc. I’ve been wanting to build a music streaming service on IPFS for a while. Maybe it should be a Mopidy backend, for maximum compatibility?

• Snapcast: Solution for synchronized multi-room audio streaming. Currently it only streams to unix hosts (it depends on named pipes for some stuff), which is a shame. I want to make it sync to embedded devices (like an esp?) and mobile devices (like android?) as well… A lightweight snapclient library / implementation is kind of missing.

Other technologies that are just waiting for applications include:

• GnuNet
• Webtorrent
• Wasm (see for instance this)
• Guix / Nix
• ZeroMQ

Also, if you’re familiar with python, you should check out Player1’s Brawl.AI project! It’s a tonne of fun.