Tag Archives: software

Crowd-Sourced List of Python Resources Related to Halloween

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An AI-generated image. bats fly overhead, with a full moon visible. On the left is a laptop showing some computer code. In the middle is a pumpkin with the Python logo carved in it. There is also a black cat with green glowing eyes. If you look at this blog, you’ll quickly see that many of my projects relate to Halloween. I don’t know if this is a good, bad, or dumb idea, but as I was thinking about my use of Python for controlling Halloween props, I had the thought that it might be nice to have and share a crowdsourced list of python-related resources relating to Halloween, such as useful libraries (e.g., pyAudio, various libraries for using the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi), complete software packages (e.g., my own ChatterPi), or even Halloween-themed games written with Python. So, with some help from ChatGPT, I’ve put together a Google sheet, Python Resources for Halloween,  with some pre-populated content that anyone can view, along with a Google Form, Submit Python Resource for Halloween, where anyone can submit additional resources for inclusion.

The submissions are moderated, so they won’t show up immediately in the resource sheet. If you have anything to propose adding, please do so using the Google Form. If you have any other feedback, I welcome it as a comment on this post.

The 2019 Advent of Code has started.

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For software geeks, whatever your language(s) or level of ability, the annual Advent of Code puzzle challenge is a fun set of coding challenges (some challenges are quite hard, but there’s plenty for us non-experts to work on). Here’s how the “about” write-up summarizes it:

"Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for 
a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any 
programming language you like. People use them as a speed contest, 
interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice 
problems, or to challenge each other.

You don't need a computer science background to participate - just a 
little programming knowledge and some problem solving skills will get 
you pretty far. Nor do you need a fancy computer; every problem has a 
solution that completes in at most 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware."