Nik Kantar

Hi, I’m Nik. 👋 I live in Los Angeles, California ☀️ with my wife ❤️ and our cats and dogs 🐾.

I’m a software engineer working primarily with Python 🐍, and am the PyBeach (npub1yxf…f8pc) founder 🏛️ and a SoCal Python (npub13un…ppsz) organizer 🎤.

I do indoor rowing 🚣‍♂️, ride bicycles 🚴‍♂️, pretend to read 📖, pretend to write 🖋️, listen to too many podcasts 🎙️, and still wear a mask 😷 because COVID isn’t over 🦠.

I often put bonus content in media alt text 🖼️.

He/him/his. ♂

Website/blog: https://nkantar.com
Newsletter: https://buttondown.com/nkantar
GitHub: https://github.com/nkantar
Pile of tools: https://pileof.tools

Public Key

npub1cpk4geu25wjgvp5rvxraf5cz50qjfw8j4dn3au66rwh8yfh5qxpsl3n9s8

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvqm25v7928fyxq6pkrp756vp28sfyhre2kec77ddphtnjym6qrqcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvyw4gz9

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1cpk4geu25wjgvp5rvxraf5cz50qjfw8j4dn3au66rwh8yfh5qxpsl3n9s8

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-25 18:10:06 UTC

Something I really appreciate about #nbpy is that throughout the weekend speakers begin to reference prior talks, and even other aspects of the conference. With memes like North Bay Fortran in the early years (born out of multiple talks featuring Fortran) and ExcavaCon last year (inspired by an excavator parked at the venue), there’s an element of IYKYK to it all.
What I’m saying is that you should attend. As @npub1rxq…388y says, “most people are not at this conference”, but you totes should be.

2025-09-29 04:13:33 UTC

:til: Django has built-in syndication support: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/ref/contrib/syndication/ 🤯

2025-09-18 00:21:12 UTC

- reply

OK, I feel like I’m starting to pester, so my apologies for that. However, I see the YouTube video has been up for a bit, but the podcast feed doesn’t have the new episode just yet… :shifty_eyes:

2025-09-17 17:04:55 UTC

- reply

Shrewd move on his part. 🧠
That said, on-air talent could easily veer into visual modality by, for example, showing more code than can be reasonably explained with speech, so he’s not entirely off the hook! 😂
(I’m not *actually* concerned y’all are gonna turn it into a video-only thing, but it *has* happened on occasion with some other podcasts I listen to. :shifty_eyes:)

2025-09-17 01:18:04 UTC

- reply

:yay:
Just please continue to make the podcast accessible to the audio-only audience. 😅 :thank_you:

2025-08-18 20:10:57 UTC

- reply

# draw the rest of the owl

2025-05-31 17:22:11 UTC

When using just and uv on a project, which wraps around which? Should I be running `uv run just serve` or should `just serve` run the serving command inside uv?
I’ve done it both ways, and can’t really tell which is better.
I suppose I lean toward the former, so that the justfile would remain useful in a virtual environment created without uv.

2024-11-11 16:51:57 UTC

- reply

It also makes me wonder whether requiring masking for PyBeach 2025 could make the whole thing a non-starter. That’s been my plan, but I’ve partly relied on the fact that at least some other Python conferences—and perhaps particularly the flagship one—did the same to justify it. Now I’m not so sure.

2024-11-11 16:48:58 UTC

While I fully expected it, and intellectually even understand it, it still stings to see PyCon US drop masking requirements entirely for 2025. Encouraging masking feels like a sad nod to those of us now effectively left behind.

2024-10-20 01:14:58 UTC

I went to the hardware store and resisted buying a power tool I don’t need just because it’s on sale.
Where’s my medal?

2024-09-15 19:29:00 UTC

That the default place for selling random crap is Facebook Marketplace—the most walled of gardens—really sucks.

2024-09-09 17:49:59 UTC

- reply

OK, Craig Federighi looks like at least somewhat human.

2024-09-09 17:48:33 UTC

Watching the Apple thing and cannot unsee how uncomfortable and stiff literally everyone looks.
Someone please take a step, or even just a breath!
Blink twice if you’re being held against your will, presenters!

2024-08-30 16:03:27 UTC

- reply

I was today years old when, after checking .org a time or two in the past for whatever reason, I finally realized it’s fedidevs.com. :facepalm:

2024-08-29 03:51:08 UTC

Capitalism has broken me: I took the day off because I wasn’t feeling well, and now I feel bad for not being productive.

2024-08-27 03:59:18 UTC

A font, but it’s just your platform default with letters all jumbled up.

2024-08-09 03:59:33 UTC

- reply

I guess I’ll have to learn not to touch the file name directly? 😁
https://cdn.masto.host/nkantarsocial/media_attachments/files/112/930/060/168/924/160/original/9d1aed55e4597aff.mp4

2024-08-09 03:53:50 UTC

- reply

I might need a plugin to auto-slugify the file name based on the heading, since it’s always driven me nuts that I can’t use forward slashes, backslashes, or colons. I hope that’s a thing.

2024-08-09 03:48:06 UTC

Once again I am trying Obsidian, this time as a draft blog post editor.

2024-08-08 16:40:31 UTC

I really like the concept of prefixes, leader keys, etc., and wish more software used them. Global shortcuts are such a limited namespace, full of collisions!
And as a bonus, command palettes are fantastic, too. Spotlight and Sublime Text introduced them to me, and now they’re generally my main way of interacting with any application that supports them.
Keyboard based muscle memory is such a wonderful thing.

2024-08-05 00:14:28 UTC

Possibly my favorite olympic moment so far: Noah Lyles winning gold after correctly stating that NBA champions aren’t world champions since the NBA is a North American only league. The fans went berserk at him and hate watched him become an actual world champion. Just fantastic. 10/10 no notes :omega_lul:

2024-08-04 17:55:50 UTC

- reply

It’s the only one that didn’t work out of ten. I recall this issue before, but since I don’t currently use it, I never followed up. Turns out time alone didn’t resolve this, so I did as I was told and sent an email. 🤞
Funniest part: my domains are registered through Porkbun and I just wanted to migrate DNS from DNSimple to it. I guess they seem to use Cloudflare underneath? 🤷‍♂️

2024-08-04 17:48:18 UTC

Trying to change nameservers for one of my domains… 😳
https://cdn.masto.host/nkantarsocial/media_attachments/files/112/905/007/519/256/181/original/3f11a799eb67a7db.png