Last year, I was approached by Packt Publishing to produce a video series about Apache Solr. I'm happy to say that this series is now available for download. Getting Started with Apache Solr Search Server covers the basics of getting data into and information out of Apache Solr. It also includes a Solr tutorial project written in Python.

I watch a lot of food shows (or at least have in the past), and for a lot of chefs, getting a show on Food Network is one of those idle daydreams that few may achieve, even if it's just for a season. This was a lot like being on The Next Food Network Star for me. Teaching in a video format is a totally different set of skills than you actually do every day, so there was a lot of learning there. I think I managed to do a fair job, for not really having the software version of Alton Brown around to coach me.

I'm looking for a way to fit the time I ran into Tom Pizzica at Toronado into this blog post now, but it's not really working, so I'll just leave it here. Interesting story, right?