Ken Ingle

Python and MySQL

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:55:00 -0400

I ran into a problem today I hadn’t experienced in a long time. I was trying to get mysql-python installed when running the .dmg for MySQL and it kept giving the following error:

EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

After a bit of refreshing my memory I remembered that it was actually pretty simple to fix. The mac is a little different in where it stores the mysql_config file. Just run the following command from and all is good:

$ export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin/:$PATH

You will then need to add a symlink to the libmysqlclient in /usr/lib:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

Then you can run pip install mysql-python.

Nice morning in uptown Charlotte. (at CPCC Central Campus)

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:49:30 -0500

Nice morning in uptown Charlotte. (at CPCC Central Campus)

Wordpress 3.5 and Broken Eclipse Theme

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:44:00 -0500

There are a couple of wordpress sites that I maintain. The nice thing about wordpress is that most of the time it is pretty easy to maintain and manage upgrades. The key is “most” of the time. I purchased a custom theme for a website that I manage called Eclipse. Unfortunately it does not seem to be maintained any longer and when I upgraded the site to wordpress 3.5, it broke. Word for the wise, backup your wordpress database before a seemingly minor upgrade. Yes, I know I should have done a backup. The Eclipse theme breaks when trying to use the Attachments plugin. Even if you upgrade the plugin, the theme is still broken. I did find a quick way to fix the problem. Just wrap the call for the attachments plugin in page.php and single.php with the following function:

This will then check for the plugin before trying to run the code. This is not a perfect fix, but has bought me a bit of time until I troubleshoot the root problem. I thought it may be a useful bit of information for someone like me, a non-php guy (python guy) who happens to manage a couple of small sites with wordpress.

Nice day in Tampa and Educause. #serc12 (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:13:57 -0400

Nice day in Tampa and Educause. #serc12 (Taken with instagram)

I just returned from a two week trip to Israel. What an amazing...

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:32:53 -0400

I just returned from a two week trip to Israel. What an amazing trip and great place to visit and take pictures.

Google Drive Does Exist!

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:32:37 -0400

After a long time waiting and hoping, Google has finally announced the arrival of Google Drive. This is something I have been hoping for, for a LONG time. Can’t wait to start using it and see how it is.

Google Drive - Google’s Official Blog

Attending the keynote of #pearsoncite (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:47:42 -0400

Attending the keynote of #pearsoncite (Taken with instagram)

Speaking at CiTE conference about OpenClass for Pearson in...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:00:02 -0400

Speaking at CiTE conference about OpenClass for Pearson in Orlando, FL. After meetings all day, decided to visit the Mouse.

Google Apps Regional Meeting

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:59:04 -0400

Google Apps Regional Meeting:

Are you a Google Apps User for Business/Education user? Is your organization in the Southeast of the US? If so, we are having our next Google Apps Southeast Regional meeting at the Google Atlanta office this June. Sign-up today, it is free and space is limited.

Recently took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a great...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:46:48 -0400

Recently took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a great trip. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Meet the Web Platform

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:37:10 -0400

Meet the Web Platform:

Nice quick description and example of some great features coming to the “web platform”.

Just returned from playing golf in Scotland with my Dad. What...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:11:00 -0400

Just returned from playing golf in Scotland with my Dad. What an amazing trip and a lot of fun playing The Old Course. If you are a golfer, you will totally understand the significance of the trip. If not, trust me, it is really cool.

Moving Back to Tumblr from Google+

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:49:00 -0400

Well the grand experiment has ended. I have decided to move my personal website back to Tumblr from Google+. Don’t misunderstand, I will still have my Google+ profile and will post there regularly, but I have decided to move back.

Why? Well there are a few reasons:

Google+ does not allow vanity URL’s, so it required a re-direct to get my domain to point to Google+, which was less than ideal.
When trying to view a post from a mobile device, you must be logged into a Google account. Not cool.
You can’t really embed multiple pictures into an article.
Finding the link to a specific post is a pain, especially when trying to share.
Not a lot of people on Google+, except for Googlers and the tech media. Don’t get me wrong, I like Google+, just not a lot of people…yet.

I have found that for the most part my Twitter and Google+ feeds are almost identical. I will miss the nice commenting features on Google+, but Disqus is not a bad alternative.

Maybe over some time I will go back to it, but I find that for a personal website / blog, Tumblr is just currently a better option.

Open Class -- Online Education Game Changer?

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:46:02 -0400

This week brought the announcement of a project I have been involved with for a number of months, Pearson Open Class. If not careful you might look at this new software and see yet another LMS, but you would be mistaken.

I have felt for a long time that education needs to embrace the social and collaborative web. Google Apps provides the best collaborative suite available but has not provided a “classroom” experience or LMS.

Traditional LMS systems continue to try and emulate the classroom experience by building walls around a section or instance of a course. The problem with this approach is that there are no walls online and information often must be re-built or lost from semester to semester. Traditional systems try to force students to use their tool, stay in their system and be part of their walled garden. Why?

When I was approached about CPCC joining the Open Class development project what caught my attention was the desire to break down the walls of education and provide a open, collaborative experience for both professors and students.

Open Class is providing social learning tools, Google Apps integration, content import from the open web (e.g. YouTube, other LMS system, websites and more), and is trying to transform the classroom from a walled garden to a open/collaborative forrest between students, institutions and disciplines.

I feel strongly that we can increase student engagement by going to where they are, utilizing the tools they use every day outside of school and transforming education from somewhere they go to something that is integrated into their everyday life. I feel Open Class is trying to accomplish these same goals.

It has been an exciting project. One of our instructors, Gary Ritter, was actually the first to pilot the system and has successfully been using it in his classes. The Pearson team has been amazingly organized, supportive and open to suggestions. There have been challenges throughout the process, but every challenge has been met by a great support team from Pearson.

I saw a quote today from a competitor that indicated Open Class would not “integrate” with the host College’s easily. I don’t know what project they have used, but we have been able to quite successfully integrate Open Class into our environment with the help of the Google Marketplace and the Pearson development team.

One of the best parts of this application, it is FREE!

I am excited about the future of the project, my teams involvement and the involvement of CPCC. If you want to learn more about Open Class visit the new website: http://www.joinopenclass.com/

Feel free to ask any questions about the project and our involvement.

Drove to Raleigh, NC today for a meeting about Technology in...

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:55:21 -0400

Drove to Raleigh, NC today for a meeting about Technology in Education, Identity Management and other fun stuff. Captured this on the highway. Definitely a nice sunrise.

Took this after practice today. Not a bad view to end with.

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:15:13 -0400

Took this after practice today. Not a bad view to end with.

My Development Stack

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:25:00 -0400

A friend asked me a few days ago what I was using to develop a project I have been working on in my spare time. This then lead to the question of what tools I used on my Mac to handle the development. So after a little thinking, here was my answer.

At our office we primarily use Django, which I love. For my personal/outside of work projects I have been using Flask. Flask is a bit lighter weight and quite portable. This is important because I have been using AppEngine for a couple of recent projects and Flask plays quite nicely on AppEngine (here is a blog post explaining the basics of how to make it work, I have modified slightly to used the packages in zip files instead of uncompressed). Overall this is the basic stack:

Backend = Python (using Flask), WTForms and Google AppEngine
Frontend = jQuery, jQueryUI, Less, and have been playing with Twitter Bootstrap

On my Mac I use a number of software packages to make life easier:

iTerm2 - Replaces the absolutely CRAPPY terminal that comes with Mac.
Coda - just recently started using this for code/text editing. I still find myself using TextMate and even vim for some things, but overall I like Coda.
LESS.app - Just makes running/managing Less that much easier.
AppEngine SDK - Again, makes life easy when dealing with AppEngine.
CyberDuck - I know that Coda has FTP built in, just haven’t started using it yet.
Homebrew - how anyone could live without this package manager is beyond me.
Chrome, Firefox, Firebug - Browsing, testing, debugging things.
AquaData Studio - for those times I am not using AppEngine.
Remember the Milk - helps with my tasks.
Mercurial / BitBucket - This is where I keep all of my code, I HIGHLY recommend mercurial for version control (git is also quite nice, as well as github).

So there you go, my basic stack. There is more software for sure, but this is the majority of my day to day use. Recommendations are always welcome.

Thought I would take a few photos of the walk into the office...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:21:33 -0400

Thought I would take a few photos of the walk into the office this morning. Charlotte really is a beautiful city.

If I had a dollar for every time I have told a client that a...

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:38:23 -0400

If I had a dollar for every time I have told a client that a micro-site is a bad idea. I will definitely be forwarding this video to others. Just wish I had seen it earlier.

Another day of meetings at Pearson, then flying home. (Taken...

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:18:10 -0400

Another day of meetings at Pearson, then flying home. (Taken with Instagram at Pearson eCollege)