Scheduled Talks
We are pleased to announce our talks lineup for the PyCascades 2018! Our gratitude and appreciation goes out to everyone who submitted a talk proposal — we received over 200 proposals and it was a challenging process to narrow down the list. In the end, we are proud to present a selection of talks representing a diverse spectrum of cultures and topics, while still staying true to the values of the Python Community.
A Web App in Four Frameworks
In this talk we take a tour of some Python web frameworks through the lens of an API for the same web application: a simple To Do list. We'll see how the same problems are handled across Django, Flask, Pyramid, and Tornado, and why you might choose one over the rest.
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Bad Accessibility Happens – That Doesn’t Have to Be The End
Avoidance is not the answer—bad accessibility will still be there, losing you users and creating bad will. We’ll go through examples of what not to do and how to fix problems. We’ll also talk about compromises that can be made to appease stakeholders and others.
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BDFL Python 3 retrospective
Various topics of retrospective on Python 3. What is working, what failed, what is still a work in progress as the language evolves?
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Can I Use that Code? Software Licences as a User
You found some code on the internet that solves the exact problem you’re having! Great! But can you use it? What licence does it have? I’ll discuss categories of software licences, a few representative software licences, and how they interact with each other and with proprietary code.
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Can you please pass the data? IoT communication with MicroPython
Come learn a bit about Micropython, a specialized version of Python for micro controllers, and how you can use it to pass messages among IoT devices. Using the concepts & code presented this talk will include a live demo of a connected temperature sensor (somewhat like the NEST). Beginner friendly!
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Character Encoding and You�
Why does your text output have all those black boxes in it? Why can't it handle Portuguese? The answer is most likely "character encoding". This talk will cover some of the common character encoding gotchas and cover some defensive programming practices to help your code handle multiple encodings.
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Don't Miss This Event!
Great web applications are backed by great data analysis, and structured, asynchronously recorded events are a valuable tool for supporting business analytics. This talk walks through the architecture of an event pipeline and discusses the task of setting up a robust producer library in Python.
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Gradual Typing of Production Applications
Thanks to Python's dynamism and brevity, it's easy to start a project. But how do you keep it maintainable and easy to understand as it grows? Come learn how annotating it with types makes your program better for human readers and more robust during execution. No Haskell experience required!
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It's a Kind of Magic
Ever since I started using Python, I've used tools such as SQLalchemy, Django's ORM, and Google App Engine's NDB . They all seem to use (or perhaps abuse) a strange bit of syntactical sugar that Python provides... it's a kind of magic (methods)!
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Navigating unconscious bias
Most people don’t want to be racist, sexist, or prejudiced in general. Yet many of us are unconsciously biased against fellow Pythonistas whom we consciously respect. I'll share evidence-based, positive tools for dealing with biased situations, whether you're the target, the speaker, or a bystander.
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Python & Spreadsheets: Canadian Edition
Spreadsheets are often used to share interesting & important data. I'll show you how to use OpenPyXL to work with that data in a way that's better than using .csv files. I'll also discuss common problems in working with spreadsheets via code. I first spoke on this in 2013, thus the title.
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Python for Feature Film
This talk will go over how Python has become an integral part of making movies around the world. I'll also go over what the steps of creating an animated movie are, and how Python is used by a few of those.
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Python is not Java or C++
Python was the first programming language I learned deeply, but I work with a lot of people who learned Java or C++ first instead. By knowing how these languages do things differently we can better support our colleagues who are learning Python as a secondary programming language.
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Racial Bias in Facial Recognition Software
This talk will cover the basics of facial recognition and the importance of having diverse datasets when building out a model. We’ll explore racial bias in datasets using real world examples and cover a use case for developing an OpenFace model for a celebrity look-a-like app.
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RaspberryPy to RustyPi: Porting a Python module to Rust
I will be sharing my experience with learning Rust. I ported a functionality in Python to Rust for the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT module, specifically writing out to the LED matrix. I hope to inspire other Pythonistas to try out Rust.
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Setting Expectations for Open Source Participation
Burn-out is common in open source due to a misunderstanding of what users, contributors, and maintainers should expect from each other. This talk will set out to help everyone set reasonable expectations of each other in order to make open source pleasant for everyone involved.
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Shipping secret messages through barcodes
Have you ever wondered what those seemingly arbitrary black and white lines on your package mean? Encoding information in plain sight is an art form and barcodes lend themselves to go about it completely unnoticed. Let's take a deep dive into printing barcodes and shipping labels using Python!
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Taming the Hydra: How we Learned to Love Testing a Giant Python Codebase
Two years ago, the largest python project at Zillow was a multi-headed hydra of testing complexity, with hundreds of test cases that took longer to maintain than the code itself. Now, we've done a complete 180. Come learn about the patterns we used on 1000 tests to make them a joy to maintain.
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The AST and Me
Get under the hood and learn about Python's beloved Abstract Syntax Tree. We'll discuss the AST's role in Python's compilation process, how it affects Bytecode, and how you can use it's optimizations to improve your code's speed at runtime. Write better code!
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Those Who Care, Teach!
Nothing's better than helping someone learn a concept: regex, build tools, or running their first script ever! Unfortunately, teaching is hard! For many, going beyond show-and-tell is just too intimidating. I'll teach you tips, tricks, & tools I've learned teaching Python to thousands of people.
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