I converted all the monster/weapon/item/map data from CircleMUD (an old piece of MUD server software) to XML from it’s native, hard-to-parse text format. More info and download links on the blog post on my Invent with Python blog.

I wrote a couple blog posts on my Invent with Python site about programming:

“How much math do I need to know to program?” Not That Much, Actually.

Nobody Wants to Learn How to Program

I’ve completed my next book, which focuses on the Pygame library and making graphical games in Python. It assumes you have a little bit of Python programming knowledge. The book is free to read online from http://inventwithpython.com/pygame and can also be bought on Amazon.com for $25.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this book over the last year and a half.

I was tired of copying an address, then opening a new tab and then going to http://maps.google.com and then pasting the address, and hitting return.

So I’ve written a program that will automatically open a new browser window pointed to Google Maps at whatever text is in the clipboard. Now I just copy the address, hit Win+R to bring up the Windows “Run” dialog, and then type “mapit”. Instant map.

You can also type “mapit <type address here>” to run it from the command line.

Download the Windows Executable (6.2 MB, big since it’s a compiled Python script)

Download the Python script (2 KB)

The Python script should work with Python 2 and 3, and on Windows, Mac, Linux (but I haven’t tested it on Mac & Linux yet).

Here’s the code on github: https://github.com/asweigart/mapitpy

I’ve created a web version of the Caesar Cipher wheel using JQuery and CSS sprites.

JavaScript Cipher Wheel

I also have a Pygame version and Windows executable of this.