jamesabel/balsa

object-oriented python logging

James Abel

Engineer (hardware, software) | Technical Team Manager
Redwood City, California, United States

Email | LinkedIn | Website

Summary

Engineer experienced in software and hardware architecture and development. Skilled in cloud architectures, computer architectures, digital signal processing, machine learning, application analysis, performance analysis and optimization, design automation, and simulation. Experienced in managing technical teams (10-20 engineers). Currently developing in Python and C/C++, with experience in many other languages.

Co-organizer of local Python meetup (SF Python) and regional conference (PyBay). Creator and contributor to several Python open-source projects.

Experience

Aclarion (formerly Nocimed)

VP of Engineering
May 2018 - Present

• Implemented Signal Processing and Machine Learning algorithms using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) data to aid in the treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP).
• Architected and developed the Nociscan-LS cloud-based product for the medical industry using AWS.
• Interfaced into cloud medical imaging systems (Ambra).
• Worked closely with Regulatory Affairs to ensure product compliance with US, EU, and UK regulations.
• Generated IP and Patents for applying Machine Learning to Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) data.
• Developed primarily in Python and C/C++.
• Both individual contributor and manager of a small technical team.
• Drove engineering planning, execution, and delivery. Presented and obtained buy-in to C-Suite and Board of Directors.
• Responsible for entire production stack.

Computer Engineering Consultant
July 2016 - May 2018

Intel Corporation

Principal Engineer
February 1988 - June 2016 | Santa Clara, CA

• Led hardware and software architecture projects, design automation, simulation, modeling, tracing, and optimization.
• Developed and analyzed software workload tracers for CPU and platform simulators.
• Managed a technical team of ~20 engineers, establishing engineering quality standards.

Principal Engineer
2012 - 2016 | Santa Clara, CA

• Chief Tracing Architect, responsible for software workload tracers.
• Utilized machine learning for workload analysis and improvements.
• Led cross-Intel initiatives on tracing and simulation.

Principal Engineer
2011 - 2012 | Austin, Texas

• Focused on performance and power improvements for future Atom cores.
• Analyzed industry-standard benchmarks and ISV applications.
• Developed new tools and analysis techniques.

Principal Engineer
February 2002 - 2011 | Chandler, AZ

• Delivered performance optimizations for key software applications.
• Drove new instruction definition and performance improvements into Intel products.

Sr. Software Engineer
January 1997 - January 2002

• Optimized multimedia and signal processing applications.
• Implemented a Dolby Digital decoder using MMX™ Technology.

Sr. Design Engineer
January 1991 - January 1994

• Designed a single-chip communications product targeting wireless communications.

CAD Engineer
January 1988 - January 1991

• Developed behavioral models of embedded cores and automated test software.

GenRad Corporation

Hardware Design Engineer
January 1985 - January 1987

• Designed automated test systems for micro-processor based adapter boards, systems, and SCSI disks.

Dynacomp

Hardware Design Engineer
January 1983 - January 1984

• Designed single-board microcomputer systems based on the 68000 processor.

Education

Arizona State University
Master’s Degree, CS · (1991)

Bradley University
BSEE · (1983)

Top Skills

• Hardware Architecture
• Computer Architecture
• Debugging

Certifications

• Machine Learning with Python

Publications

• MMX-enabled Dolby Digital decoder

Patents

• Machine Learning for biomarkers using spectral analysis
• Image processing using unaligned memory load instructions
• Sequencer address management
• Reducing peak spectral error in inverse Fast Fourier Transform using MMX™ technology
• SIMD integer multiply high with round and shift
• Function coprocessor

balsa's Issues

optionally provide traceback

Do a traceback.format_exc() on error or above, with an option to turn this off.
In GUI mode, display a 2nd dialog box with the traceback.

tolerate not having tkinter

The embedded Python interpreter (which is currently only available for Windows) does not include tkinter and there is currently no straight-forward way to install it (there is no "ensuretkinter" like there is "ensurepip"). So, we can't rely on tkinter being present. As a workaround, in order to at least not raise a "module not found error", add this code:

• put a try/except around the "import tkinter"
• in the GUI code, do not use tkinter if the "import tkinter" failed
  Of course, with this workaround we'll lose the ability to pop up error dialog boxes. But it's better than not being able to run at all. Hopefully services like Sentry will be sufficient for us to view the error messages.
  In the longer term, try to lobby Microsoft to add tkinter in embedded Python.

add a 'turn off sentry I'm doing development right now' env var

It's tempting to turn off Sentry during development and then forget to turn it back on. Need a simple way of turning it off during development. Clearing the DSN is a pain, since you then have to set it back to the correct (somewhat long) value string. Probably do something like use an env var:

set BALSA_DEV=TRUE

and use

balsa_dev = bool(distutils.util.strtobool(os.getenv('BALSA_DEV', 'FALSE')))

then:

use_sentry=not balsa_dev

use twine for PyPI

use twine ( https://pypi.org/project/twine ) instead of what's now in pypi.bat

write test case(s) to ensure all the log messages are delivered properly

Test if the log files are correct.
Test if logs to stdout are correct.
Test if log to dialog box are correct.

Make balsa tkinter threadsafe

In python 3 the tkinter module is technically threadsafe, but there are caveats.

So it is worthwhile to make Balsa account for this, by using the mttkinter library, which replaces tkinter in memory and modifies the Tk class to uses a Queue.Queue object for events.

From the mttkinter library issues page...

Tk is not thread-safe, unless it is built with the thread-safe flag. However, the Tcl-interpreter must also be built with the thread-safe flag to ensure thread-safety for Tkinter.

It would be nice to include the celery addin for sentry.

Sentry needs to be told specifically to include celery for task monitoring.
PR incoming ;-)