Archive for the ‘Python’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/17
Yesterday, an important question appeared at almost the same time on Tweakers.net and Security.nl. It is about 2D barcodes on some packages delivered by PostNL. Some of these – I call them Data Matrix, as that is what they are – seem to include the e-mail address of the recipient.
The posts caused some uproar, and in order for myself to understand what is going on and what questions should be asked to PostNL, I wrote this blog post.
In any case: always remove parcel labels before disposing of the parcels, then destroy the labels. This has always been good privacy practice and will stay that way forever.
Regrettably, Tweakers.net blocks both the Wayback Machine and Archive Today, which makes their information ephemeral. Therefore I archived some of the Tweakers.net information in the gist [Wayback/Archive] “E-mailadres van ontvanger kan in PostNL barcode staan” archived from https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/2327530/0 · GitHub
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Posted in base64, Development, Encoding, Font, KIX Font PostNL, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/16
The easiest way to get rid of DRM from PDF files is to use the Calibre plugin DeDRM with the instructions at [Wayback/Archive] Exactly how to remove DRM · apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools Wiki
The reason that I promote this tool is that the user experience of is that the user experience of Adobe Digital Editions is mediocre at best: keyboard navigation usually does not work, viewing 2 pages next to each other is impossible and almost none of the Acrobat Reader functionality is available.
[Wayback/Archive] How to view 2 pages, side-by-side in PDF within Ad… – Adobe Support Community – 10666132
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Posted in Development, PDF, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/13
The summary of [Wayback/Archive] Is Fortran better than Python for teaching the basics of numerical linear algebra? – Dr. Jean-Christophe Loiseau is:
- 1-based indexing prevents off-by-1 errors
- structure is key, especially these foundations:
- clear begin/end constructs instead of visual clues
- strong typing
- verbose programming languages are easier to learn than non-verbose ones
Modern Fortran helps a lot here and shows that after the initial 13 year gaps between FORTRAN 77 and Fortran 90, and between Fortran 90 and Fortran 2003 (the ANSI Standard Fortran and Fortran 95 in between versions were just minor updates), Modern Fortran has come a very long way and now as a thriving community and an extensive list of Fortran software and tools.
Other typed languages and tool sets like C# and Delphi come to mind here as well though you need libraries with 1-based data structures to solve the first point.
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Posted in Development, Fortran, Learning/Teaching, LifeHacker, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/01
Posted in Development, ffmpeg, Media, Media Streaming, Power User, Python, Scripting, SocialMedia, Software Development, Spotify, YouTube, youtube-dl | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/31
From 12ft – Wikipedia:
On July 17, 2025, the News Media Alliance reported that it had taken down the website.
It’s impossible to enjoy the content of online media by paying (for instance because payment systems are not compatible, but also because those media often have region blocks), so this is to longer ladders (and understanding how ladders work):
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Posted in archive.is / archive.today, Cloud, Containers, Development, Docker, HTML, HTML5, Infrastructure, Internet, InternetArchive, JavaScript/ECMAScript, LifeHacker, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, WayBack machine, Web Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/11
A cool LED display that is programmable through Python (see [Wayback/Archive] Action led paneel – Boekenwuurm’s blog) made me realise how big Action has grown:
About EUR 20 or CHF 24 in the order of the below query:
There is also a square one, but that one does not remember it’s content during a power off/on cycle.
The above blog mentions this library which sees regular updates: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – lucagoc/pypixelcolor: A Python library to control iPixel Color devices.
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Posted in Development, Hardware Interfacing, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/04
On my list to experiment with is [Wayback/Archive] camerahacks/rpilocator-rss-feed:
This is the official rpilocator.com and hwlocator.com RSS feed reader and push notification scripts and Node-RED flows. The RSS feed is checked every minute and the script/flow sends a push notification when a product comes in stock.
Send ntfy, Pushbullet, Pushover or Gotify notifications to your device.
I only knew one of the above services, so here I have listed links to all of them:
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Posted in Development, Python, RSS, Scripting, SocialMedia, Software Development, Web Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/21
This is so cool: graphical [Wayback/Archive] Introduction to the A* Algorithm
It is still being updated, which is even cooler:
Created 26 May 2014, updated Aug 2014, Feb 2016, Jun 2016, Jun 2020, Jul 2023
These are for general graph traversal. That Wikipedia article only mentions depth-first search and breadth-first search, but forgets the A* search algorithm which is an extension of the also not mentioned Dijkstra’s algorithm which in turn is based on breadth-first search.
The visualisations cover the breadth-first algorithms.
The example code is Python based, but easy to translate into other languages.
The visualisation code is in JavaScript, using these files (they Archive.is versions are more accurate than the Wayback Machine ones):
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Posted in Algorithms, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Event, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
This was a nice idea, but apparently not reaching the target audience:
From a while ago, but this 2023 PDF magazine about building GUI applications with Python using guizero is still very fun to read:
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 