Today we have Anton Novosyolov (@ForeverYoung_ru) joining us as our PyDev of the Week! Anton is from Russia and has been using Python for a number of years. You can see some what he’s been up to via his github account. Let’s spend a few moments getting to know Anton better!
Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc.):
I was born in a tiny town in Russia, Myshkin (Mouse-city 😉 ). I got Computer Science education at the Yaroslavl State University. I tried several jobs and used primarily C++ before I moved to Python. For some time, I tried myself in telecommunications. Now I work remotely as a Python programmer and live in my hometown.
My hobby is home automation. I’m working on a heater thermostat and lighting automation. Besides geeky stuff, I like cycling.
Why did you start using Python?
I heard about Python from one excellent IT podcast Radio-T (http://radio-t.com, it’s in Russian). I gave it a try, and I loved it! It’s so much easier just to write useful and beautiful code, without thinking about low-level details. It was when I worked as a telecom engineer, so I decided to change my specialty to Python and web development.
What other programming languages do you know and which is your favorite?
I started my acquaintance with computers in 90’s on ZX Spectrum with Basic,later it was x86 with C, C++, and Asm (with an attempt to write my own OS 🙂 ). Now I want to try my hand at Ruby and Go, and I want to get general knowledge about Erlang and Haskell. Also, I want to learn Java as applied to Android development.
As a web developer, I have some knowledge of JavaScript, and I want to improve it. My favorite one is C, since I actually use it to write firmware for my home automation devices. With small processors like AVR, C gives me full power and (in comparison with Asm) hides too low-level details and also improves portability.
What projects are you working on now?
At work, right now I’m the sole programmer at automobile spare parts search engine project, written with Django (http://www.partarium.ru). Besides paid projects, I have some useful pet projects:
- SiliconValleyVoice MP3 (http://svv.f-y.name) – MP3 feed for some particular YouTube channel.
- Youtube RSS proxy (http://youtube-rss.f-y.name) – sometimes YouTube doesn’t give this feed without authorization.
- Podcast proxy (WIP) – I’m making a service, where a user can add podcast feed, set up some filters (for example to normalize volume, or to increase a speed) and get a processed feed to add it to a podcast client.
Which Python libraries are your favorite (core or 3rd party)?
Django and ReportLab (library that helps creating beautiful PDF documents). Also I use very convenient blog engine – Blohg (http://blohg.org)
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I wish there were 48 hours in a day. There are so many things to do and to learn!
Thank you for your time!