So there was a little news around here lately. PolitiFact won a Pulitzer Prize. To say I'm still in shock is an understatement. A week later, it doesn't seem real.

All week long, we've been talking about how PolitiFact started, how it all came together. It's been fun remembering how it started out with Bill Adair having an idea and me having an idea on how we could pull it off. The crude mock-ups, the development environment on a box that was headed for the trash. I still can't believe we did it. But out ...

I ran into a problem in Django that I'd never encountered before this morning: I had a really huge number to store. Tens of billions huge. Postgres and MySQL's integer fields won't store a number that big. They have a field type of bigint, but if you're writing Django models, there's no corresponding bigint field type. There's just an integer.

Turns out, it's really simple to make your own bigint field type. I found out how buried deep in a Trac entry on this. I post it here to help anyone else out ...

* Note: This post came from a version of this blog that got lost in a server failure. It's been restored from old RSS feeds, Google caches and other sources. As such, the comments, links and associated media have been lost.

I've been meaning to post my notes from DjangoCon since I got back but haven't had time. Now with the posting of the DjangoCon sessions on YouTube , I'm fresh out of excuses. Now it's an annoated guide to the sessions I attended and took notes on.

Reusable Apps: James Bennett

Pound for pound, this was ...

* Note: This post came from a version of this blog that got lost in a server failure. It's been restored from old RSS feeds, Google caches and other sources. As such, the comments, links and associated media have been lost.

I've launched a new app at work: Neighborhood Watch. We've got lots of plans for it, but at launch it focuses on home sales in over 200 neighborhoods in Pinellas and Pasco counties in the Tampa Bay area.

The seed for this app actually started in 2004, when I wrote this. At the time, we did 30 ...

* Note: This post came from a version of this blog that got lost in a server failure. It's been restored from old RSS feeds, Google caches and other sources. As such, the comments, links and associated media have been lost.

The program for the very first DjangoCon is up and my name is on it. And it's not a typo. I'm speaking at the very first DjangoCon.

My three reactions, in rough order:

1. I am so excited I can't even tell you.

2. I am so honored it's ridiculous.

3. I am so scared ...

* Note: This post came from a version of this blog that got lost in a server failure. It's been restored from old RSS feeds, Google caches and other sources. As such, the comments, links and associated media have been lost.

It’s been quiet around here for a while. There’s a good reason. It’s called PolitiFact and it marks a major shift in my career.

What is PolitiFact?

The site is a simple, old newspaper concept that’s been fundamentally redesigned for the web. We’ve taken the political “truth squad” story, where a reporter takes a ...