Jordy Blog

Peter Schiff is Confirmed for Tonight

With over 250 RSVPs in 24 hours, the Peter Schiff event tonight is on! If you want to really understand what’s going on with our economy, how we got here, and what we can do about, come hear from one of the few people who PREDICTED it would happen. RSVP and details for this FREE event are at http://tinyurl.com/schiff-rsvp

Peter Schiff in Lehi this Saturday

BACKGROUND
Peter Schiff is a well-known Austrian-school economist, best-selling author, radio-show host, investment broker, and financial commentator. Peter is a recent senatorial candidate, and he also served as an economic adviser to Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. Peter Schiff is perhaps most famous for his detailed, accurate predictions of the housing bubble, the resulting subprime mortgage crisis, the automotive industry crisis, and the crisis in the banking and financial markets. These predictions are documented in his famous YouTube video called “Peter Schiff was right”, as well in his books and many other publications and recordings. Please join Campaign for Liberty and other liberty-minded groups at this FREE event, as Peter explains how we got here, where we’re going, and perhaps how you can protect yourself and your assets from other financial crises that still loom ahead! RSVP below!

IMPORTANT NOTE
Obviously this is pretty short notice. To respect Peter’s time, we will only be holding this event if we can get at least 50-100 solid RSVPs. (And ideally we would get much more than that!) What that means is that, in order for this event to happen, you’ll need to call, email, and text your friends. And don’t forget to share this link (http://tinyurl.com/schiff-rsvp) on Facebook and Twitter! We’ll email a final confirmation to everyone who signs up, regardless of the outcome.

Also note that Peter will also be speaking (along with lots of other great speakers) at the 2011 Grassroots Economic Summit hosted by iCaucus on the same day. There is a $25 charge to attend that event, but it may be worth it for those who have the time and money to attend an all-day event. There are more details on that event on the iCaucus site.

RSVP HERE!

Python’s 20th Birthday Extravaganza Lunch Party!

Hoping to see some of my nerdy friends at the Python Birthday Bash we’re throwing!

What: Python’s 20th Birthday (well, public release birthday) Extravaganza Lunch Party!

When: Monday at 12:15

Where: Izeni. We’re located at the Novell TCN, also known as the building formerly known as OSTC, also known as (but not really numbered as) building A. (Campus Map: http://bit.ly/Pythons_BDay_Party)

Who: Python Users worldwide*, plus a special invitation to Guido van Rossum: We’ll pick up the plane tickets and hotel if you want to join us :)

Queridos Pythonistas,

As any faithful subject of Guido (the Benevolent Dictator for Life) must already know, this Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of Python’s first *public* release[1]. (I know, such a tender age…) Since we all know that attending a birthday party for the awesomest computer programming language of all time is on the top on everybody’s bucket list, Izeni would like facilitate the fulfillment of your wildest geek dreams by throwing perhaps the best programming-language-themed birthday celebration ever known to mankind.

We’ll be gathering Monday to have pizza, giant subs, spam with eggs**, and a specially commissioned Python-themed cake by Joseph Hall of 3D TuxCake fame[2]. We’re working on getting a snake charmer too! (Know anybody?)
Come join us, mingle with other Python users, and enjoy some great food! And spread the word!

Please try to RSVP by either by tweeting me @izeni or emailing me offlist so we can get a (rough) food estimate.

Thanks, Gabe

* While everyone is welcome to join us for cake, there are certain restrictions for free pizza/subs/spam-and-eggs. Specifically, you must meet at *least* one of the following qualifications:

0) You have commit privileges for Python.
1) You have read and given *serious* thought and consideration to ‘The Zen of Python’.
2) Your license plate says PEP-0008.
3) You use Python professionally or as a hobby.
4) You have an untrimmed beard that’s longer than 1 inch (or are at least trying).
5) You have a Monty Python tatoo.
6) And lastly, you enjoy playing the game “snake” or just like the name Guido.

Due to what we expect to be an overwhelming response, we *will* be checking for non-pythonista freeloaders by verifying *basic* knowledge of the Python language. We also reserve the right to inspect your keyboard for disproportional wear on your “{” and “}” keys and may additionally do random spot-checks on your webservers for the ‘X-Powered-By’ headers for any traces of PHP.

** We really will be serving spam and eggs.

[1] http://python-history.blogspot.com/2009/01/brief-timeline-of-python.html

[2] http://blog.josephhall.com/tutorials/tuxcake/

BTW, if you’re looking for a gig writing clean code in Python, we’re always looking for sharp Utah Python hackers. Let us know!

Utah Django User Group – First Meeting TONIGHT

The Utah Django User Group is having its first monthly meeting tonight at 7:00 at Novell’s OSTC (Building A) [MAP].

Gregory Doermann will be presenting on “Migrating Django Databases with South“. Pizza will be provided by my company (Izeni), so please try to RSVP to me directly for a basic head count.

Also, if you want to stay informed about future Utah Django meetings, please sign up for the Google group and the Utah Tech Event Calendar.

I hope to see you there!

UPDATE: My brother and business partner Gabe volunteered to do a mini-presentation on some of the non-standard ways we’ve used Django for some of our clients (like to output config files for VoIP applications). It’s titled “Unconventional Uses of Django” or “When All You Have is a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail”.

Custom Communication Apps

My brother and business partner Gabe will be helping to lead a discussion on FreeSWITCH and Asterisk at the the Utah Open Source Conference tomorrow.

Gabe is the CTO of our small startup company (Izeni), and our team has built, and continues to build, some pretty cool projects based on these (and other) open source telephony technologies.

Some of the recent FreeSWITCH customization projects we’ve built for our clients include a custom call center that can handle up to 100 concurrent agents on commodity hardware, and a distributed SIP load tester that’s capable of pushing thousands of concurrent SIP calls (suitable for stress testing extremely large telephony infrastructures).

But those are just 2 examples of the many ways a company can customize a free software phone switch to enhance their current products or services with open source telephony. Whether you need a hosted IVR (Interactive Voice Response) solution, or just some method to bridge phone calls, record calls, make outbound calls, etc; FreeSWITCH and Asterisk are up to the task.

Anyway, if you’re in Utah and are interested in learning more about Open Source telephony, you should come by tomorrow to check out the discussion. You can also can review the (expansive) FreeSWITCH and Asterisk feature sets. And if you need some phone-related development done for your company, that kind of work is highly specialized, easy to outsource, and right up our alley. We’d love to help!

Along those same lines is something that’s been on my mind lately: I’d be interested in starting a Utah FreeSWITCH Users Group, originally meeting in only in Utah Valley, but hopefully spreading as the FreeSWITCH project comes into more common usage. If you’re local and would be interesting in participating (or leading), please let me know.

And if you think of some way you’d like to have your product interact with phones, text messages, even IM –that’s just what we do. We’d love to help you work through it –even if it’s just to help you see what’s possible.

Transparency in Education Forum

I got this email from Parents for Choice in Education last night.

Transparency in Education Forum, Jan. 14th

On Wednesday January 14th, the Sutherland Institute is hosting a forum called Transparency in Education, featuring John Fund of the Wall Street Journal.  The forum will include a sneak peak at Utah’s new transparency website.

We encourage you to attend the forum, both because of the importance of transparency and because John Fund is a great speaker (He’s spoken at PCE events in the past).

From our perspective, financial transparency in education is crucial to empowering citizens and increasing accountability, especially in an education system with limited choice. Increasing transparency is one of the main reasons we created the website www.UtahEducationFacts.com.

As we mentioned in our latest email bulletin, transparency will be a key issue in the 2009 legislative session.  Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring government agencies at the state level to post financial data online for public scrutiny.  Senator Niederhauser of Sandy is sponsoring a bill for 2009 that will extend the transparency requirements to local government, including school districts and charter schools.

The event costs $25 per person and is on Wednesday, January 14th from 2 to 4 pm in downtown Salt Lake City.  To reserve a seat, call (801) 355-1272 or visit www.sutherlandinstitute.org.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
For more info about the event, see this flyer.

To learn more about financial transparency in education, go here.

Please consider becoming a member of Parents for Choice in Education if you haven’t yet. It’s free, and it’s a darn good way to stay abreast of movements in education reform (which I think we need now more than ever).

By the way, I’m putting events like this on a colaborative Utah Liberty Events Calendar. You should subscribe if you’re into that kind of stuff (and let me know if you’d like to contribute).

Places to Go, People to Meet

I’m pleased with how much opportunity for personal development and professional networking there is in Utah. Yes, I do want to see it grow even more, but it’s nice have more good options than I could possibly attend.

Tonight for example, the Utah Tech Events and Utah Business Events calendars show four events in which I have genuine interested, all occurring at the same time.  At 7:30 tonight I would be perfectly content to be at any of these four events:

1. Twelve Horses: Brand Evolution
2. Ignite Salt Lake
3. BYU Web Startup Group
4. Utah Python Users Group

Incidentally, I’d also enjoy being at home with my family, but this abundance of events centered around professional networking and personal development shows that Utah really does have a great (albeit budding) tech and business ecosystem. These mostly non-profit knowledge-sharing groups constitute, I believe, some crucial intangibles that are important underpinnings to a vibrant economy. I’m glad to see them, and I’d love to see them grow.

Anyway, there’s no excuse to not be developing your personal and professional skills at some of these events. Just don’t try to substitute them for hard and diligent work. :)

If you’d like to be a contributor to out local tech and business calendars, please ping me or any of the other calendar admins. Especially if you’ve got a utah-based business or tech group and would like a channel to attract more people, we’d love to hear from you.

BYU Web Startup Group

I just added the BYU Web Startup Group to my comprehensive list of Utah Tech Groups.

From their website:

The Web Startup group was founded to bring together people interested in creating new sites and services online. Group members include web developers (programmers and designers), marketing and business-minded individuals, creative idea people, and others with technology related skills. The group meets regularly to discuss and make Web Startups come to life. If you are interested in making a difference online then join us!

Their next meeting will be this Thursday and will cover Android and “Jump Starting your Website”.

I also added one of the founders, Adam Chavez, to Utah’s Business Blog Aggregator and invited him to contribute his events to the Utah Tech Events Calendar. If you or anyone you know should be added to these Utah business community sites, please contact me.

BTW, there’s also a Utah Business Events Calendar which hasn’t caught on nearly as much. Let me know if you’d like to contribute. Maybe I’ll merge the two calendars in the future; we’ll see.

Anyway, checkout the Web Startup Group. I think they could end up being a really valuable resource to the Utah business and technology communities.

Utah Mobile Developers First Meeting is Tonight

Don’t forget about the inaugural meeting of Utah Mobile Developers Group tonight.  They’ll be discussing both iPhone and Android development and handing out some O’Reilly iPhone books.

I have a feeling that this group is going to be awesome. At least it will be for me; it’s right up the alley of what my new business will be doing. Here’s UMDG’s mission statement:

The mission of the UMDG is provide development-level education and networking around mobile applications. This includes device-specific apps, client-server apps and web-only apps formatted for use on mobile devices. We will cover all mobile devices for which there is interest, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, J2ME and more.

By the way, they’re looking for sponsors. I pledge to be one once we’re actually profitable.

Utah Mobile Developers Group

I’m way excited about the Utah Mobile Developers user group that is forming. Their first activity is on the schedule for Wednesday, October 29 and will discuss both iPhone and Android development. Here’s the agenda and RVSP:

6:00pm Doors open, pizza, networking
6:30 Opening, recognize sponsors, review agenda, review door prizes
6:40 Presentation 1 – iPhone Development
7:40 Presentation 2 – Android (Google Phone) Development
8:40 Door prizes
9:00 Meeting over
Afterward – trip to someplace local for pie, drinks, fries, whatever

Please rsvp by sending an email to glen@glenlewis.com.

I’ve already added it to the Utah Tech Events Calendar. If you’re a nerdy Utahn who loves mobile phones you should come. This is going to be an area of explosive growth and opportunity.

For those who didn’t know, I’m working on a tech business that’s very mobile-phone related, so I’m very excited to see this group forming in Utah.