Note to self: Real world journo-coding lessons

May 3rd, 2010

Notice how your Google reader got a bit emptier than usual?  Didn't think so.  But it recently occured to me that I haven't posted in eons.  Why is that? Part of it has been the chaos of moving, spending time exploring LA.  The other part is that I'm finally walking the walk every day.  I stepped out of the Medill bubble, valiantly tried  to explain to my friends and family what I'm doing out in California Read More...

Women with coding skills are no Passover miracle

April 5th, 2010

Today, at sunset, the Jewish people mark the end of Passover. I know the High Holy Days are the most, well, holy, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Passover. The English major in me likes that everything has symbolism (salt water, matzo, lamb bone, etc.), the journalist in me loves a good story and roots for the underdog and the Jewish part of me likes the cooking and the eating and the communing and the eating Read More...

Self-teaching data and programming skills

March 25th, 2010

So, you think data journalism and programming are some valuable skills you'd like to learn.  Unfortunately, your school doesn't offer this as a track, or maybe you're not even in school anymore.  You know people will help you, and you think it all seems cool, but it can be difficult knowing just where to start Read More...

“Demos, not memos”: My first Django app

February 22nd, 2010

UPDATE:  GitHub repo with code for the app can be found here: http://github.com/michelleminkoff/oscars Thanks to Dave Stanton for a marvelous tutorial linked in the comments. "Demos, not memos."  It's my new mantra.  A phrase well known in the CAR community, especially after this blog post from Matt Waite, I subscribe to the idea for two reasons Read More...