Scraping the Flood (or another reason to code)

The River Thames has spilled into the flood plain (which is what flood plains are for) and the local footpaths now look like this:

Being generally inquisitive, and also wondering when I’ll be next able to walk into Wallingford, it would be useful to know whether the river is rising or falling. Is there an easier way that walking down to the river every couple of hours with a depth gauge?

To code with Python in 3 steps

There’s loads of resources on the net for learning to code with Python. These three are my recommendations.

1. Codecademy Python track: sign up (free) with Codecademy and learn Python piece-by-piece.
2. Learn Python The Hard Way: using the online HTML book (or spend $$ for extras).
3. Project Euler: set yourself some of the challenges from Project Euler.

[Update: 06 Jan 2013]

Here’s #4: http://www.pythonforbeginners.com/