AWS First-In-First-Out Queues

Recently, I needed to put together system that would take new DynamoDB table items, queue up JSON messages in first-in-first-out order, and trickle them out to a 3rd party API over time.

I love not having to maintain things later so I decided to throw together a solution on top of managed AWS services. Here’s a high-level diagram of what I came up with:

Full Queue Diagram

Let’s take a look at how it all works.

Beer City Code 2019

What a great few days at Beer City Code! My first time in Michigan was a blast and I’m thrilled I was invited to teach Python this year.

For anyone who wasn’t able to come out to the conference, I try to make my curriculum available publicly so you can learn Python on your own schedule - here.

Issues with the typing Library in Python 3.7 and AWS Lambda

I recently upgraded an AWS Lambda API for Upfront Jobs to Python 3.7. This upgrade required me to use a library that relies on the typing module as one if its dependencies. However, when I deployed I noticed conflicts between the Python standard library typing and the typing module that was being installed. Here’s how I resolved the issues for my work and how others could do the same. If you’d like the simple solution and no explanation, scroll down to the Solution section.

Getting Started with a PocketBeagle

Recently, an awesome donor gave Redmond Python a bunch of PocketBeagle Beagle Boards. So as I started playing around with them to help folks learn about how to get started with them. This guide should get you programming your PocketBeagle within an hour with no additional hardware beyond a few cables and a MicroSD card. From there you can add hardware and explore to your heart’s content.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with PocketBeagles, they are “ultra-tiny-yet-complete open-source USB-key-fob computer[s].” and are a great board to get started learning hardware. You can read all about them on the BeagleBoard website but for now let’s try getting started with them ourselves!